Scoots, Shoots & Leaves

By TerriG

Urban Hydrology

Backblipping, as we've been without Internet for 24 hours. Amazing how many things I automatically go to the laptop for to check online. World order is now restored.

Sunday we were downtown after my singing gig - we had lunch near Portland State University and I realized we were right across from some public art that I've seen from the car a number of times and wanted to photograph, so this was my opportunity. After lunch we wandered over.

This is part of a series by Fernanda D'Agostino called Urban Hydrology and consists of "12 carved granite sculptures based on Scanning Electron Microscopy images of diatoms used to determine water quality in urban waterways. The sculptures are sited along a three block long bio filtration landscape strip in downtown Portland." We saw four of the sculptures; the other three are in this slideshow.

My original intent was to blip this piece called Conduit, by Emily Ginsburg, installed on the wall of one of the buildings; it uses "the act of traveling as a metaphor for the transmission and exchange of ideas and the perpetual space between thinking and communicating tied to learning, living and working." It's 90 × 377 inches (good thing I had the wide angle lens!), black anodized, laser cut and etched aluminum. The slideshow has photos of parts of the whole piece.

Portland and the mass transit system, Tri Met, have done a wonderful job of incorporating public art into transit stations, turning what could be some unsightly areas into something unique, interesting and eye appealing.

As we returned to the car, Laurie managed to save us $60 by sweet-talking the parking patrolman who was in the process of writing us a ticket for parking in a spot designated for electric cars. Sometimes I play the disabled placard and get away with some questionable parking. Almost didn't work this time, but our timing was impeccable and Laurie was irresistible!

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