trees are the bees knees

This past week has been filled with the shadow of every tree, from one side of the planet to the other. On Thursday, my friend Sara and I rode the MAX to the World Forestry Center for a beer/wine tasting event and then attended the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Chinatown on Saturday. Informative and stunningly beautiful and un-documented because I forgot to charge my camera battery. So, you'll have to settle for links this time around.

If I am ever lucky enough to have my own backyard, I hope that it exhibits the same type of frondescence, a fancy word for vegetation that I like to say because I just learned it, that is the delicate growth of Asian landscape. I have always been so drawn to Asian design, craft, art and foliage. It's delicate and purposeful and I so admire the quality of patience, ability and intention in every step of the design. Even the cobblestone floral design, fettered with moss, was striking and fluent with the harmony of the entire garden. After reading a little bit about it, it is evidently the "most authentic Chinese garden outside of China." I am looking forward to spring because the blooms that some of these plants and trees must offer are no doubt nothing less than amazing.

To round out the tree tour, we went to the current book arts exhibit at 23 Sandy Gallery. What better way to follow the path of the tree than to one possible and final resting place, the book. There were some impressive pieces, one that encompassed the entire length of Hamlet with what appeared to only offer Ophelia's part as it was also titled by the character. It cut and paste only segments dedicated to Ophehlia on it's thick, blood-red pages, reconstructing the shape of the character as normally understood in the full context. That was my read, but the artist could have been making a far different statement. My other favorite was titled "In the Gutter" which is best outlined in the artist's statement which can be found on the gallery's website as well and is quoted here:

The artist''s book, In the Gutter, begins with a page spread that is unreadable. As the reader moves through the book, the text in the gutter slowly becomes pinker. On reaching the final page, the illuminated text is readable, revealing a series of explicit sexual terms.

In other news, I have also been mulling over one of my many new, I won't say resolutions because in my world those things are unresolved, unrealistic and usually unattainable, so I will use the word perspectives. One of my new perspectives this year is to be brave. The other, available. And so, I signed up for two meet-up groups in Portland to get out and make new friends. One is a dachshund play group and the other a microbrew tasting group. I hope to find some like-minded people here. More groups are waiting to be joined, but at least I have a place to start.

Wish me luck.