Alberta street (NE Portland) has a art festival on the last Thursday of each month – which was last night. It was the first time I was able to attend, and I must say it was quite a spectacle. One guy turned his whole lawn into a mini-circus noir in which performers did fire dances, rode around on bikes, hoola-hoops, a free Joust arcade game which you could play, and just gobs of people in goofy costumes, goofy art displays, etc. Think of a mini-burning man.

There were no less than 10 blocks of people on the streets selling all manner of art stuff (paintings, photos, gobs of jewelry, etc) The galleries were open as well. The most cool part was the people. Wow, this is not your first-Thursday downtown crowd. Lots of hippie people, young folks in funky clothes, street musicians/artists/etc. For the most part, the art was pretty disappointing.  Lots of people seem to just slap things together to make a quick buck; but there was some really good stuff. One photographer did some great photos and then had them done with giclee prints. A potter had the most interesting molded glass sculptures. The highlight for me, however, was the people watching.

If you get a chance, I’d highly recommend it as a fun alternative to the first-Thursday art stuffiness. It was really interesting to watch all the dynamics going on with the people. I’m still processing all the stuff I saw. It really spoke to me of that real human longing that we all have to find meaning and value to what we do. I saw a lot of people looking for that meaning in the faces I saw. But I’ll reflect more on that in another entry…