Portland is known for the amount of public art it has throughout the city. Art is important in this city – a city that seems to nurture the creative.  Today was a great example of that nurturing.

Twice a year, a crafters’ guild holds a huge craft sale. Don’t mistake these crafts as those horrible crafts you think of Grandma doing back 40+ years ago. No, these are jewelry makers, t-shirt creators, fashion designers, book binders, small scale candy makers, and artists.   Over 200 vendors were there.  Since the Christmas rule in my family this year is not to purchase things from big box places or large store chains.  Regifting is encouraged as is giving the business to small places. I think this show qualified. 

We had pretty good success today in finding gifts.  Only have my dad and my MIL left on the list. We supported several moms who clearly did this as they stayed at home with their kids.  We supported a couple of artists.  It was good talking to people.  And, as Garbanzo later commented, we saw some cool tattoos too.  There was definitely a demographic that was attracted to this show. 

The show was held at the Oregon Convention Center.  All over that place is art.  But you can’t miss this:

The artist is Ming Fay – and this is Ginkoberry Gwa “inspired by the ginkgo forests of prehistoric Oregon and the Native American mythological Gwakalekala tree.”  It is gorgeous and huge as you can see from this picture:

You can see the other half of the installation in the background.  The nut is part of the installation too. Until I looked up the artist, I had never realized it.  We thought it was a hazelnut or something related to Oregon.