Aesthetics unbounded by aesthete snobbery

An unanticipated perque of Portland is the abundance of casual conversations to be had with visual artists and crafts practitioners. At 7:30 this morning I bought a handbuilt and handsome yellow painted bookcase and less than 10 hours later got to be party to the musings of a young anatomy illustrator who had enjoyed her first taste of graphic novel composition.

The lack of posturing and openness to interactions based wholly on shared visual enjoyment and proximity of participants to both each other and the object of gaze is my version of aesthetic heaven. The environment itself provides so many extraordinary canvasses: sunrise glowing on red brick, skies that seem to sport only true blues, frosted whites, or warm greys, all the shades and tints leaves can assume with the passing seasons.

There’s ugly to be had, of course: the occasional vinyl siding that mocks clapboard rather than echoing it; the weirdly sterile–and happily isolated–protrubences of brutalist architecture. The contrast serves to heighten the majority of sightings, however, rather than overwhelm or negate their fine lines, palettes, and whimsy.

That I didn’t anticipate all this visual richness only makes it more delightful. My eyes haven’t had a bad day in state yet.

Astronomica!

Sometimes my own post modernism disgusts me. And sometimes it jsut positions me to be newly wondered by ancient nature.

Earlier this week, before Patricia’s spawn landed, an hour before dawn in these last days of the silliness of Daylight Savings Time, I rediscovered the glory of a starry sky! Without light pollution or a clinging fog mass, the sky’s deepest blue was magically studded with diamonds, including the presence of Jupiter.

And this morning, after the storms, the stars are back. Twinkle.

Cross continental storm

When Hurricane Patricia spun out upon hitting the mountains when she hit the Pacific coast of Mexico over the past weekend, she spawned storms that have blown their way across the North American continental. Pretty cool event if you have shelter.

Last evening, the Wednesday after Patricia’s deceleration on Friday night, her offspring arrived here. At five, the skies were just grey and damp, by six, the wind had begun, and by seven the rain. And, going on 11 hours later, it hasn’t once paused.

The acoustic aspects of this storm seem more dramatic than the ordinary rainstorm, in part because of the sheer length of time the wind has managed to howl and slam heavy rain to the pavement. I am in window luck this time as the prevailing direction of that wind is not aimed to the south and so I am not getting any sash leaks and I get as clear a view as possible from the living room.

Darn good day to have lots of indoor work plans! And a not so casual reminder that winter is coming and those who haven’t got an indoors need attention.