Designing Women and a Fancy Auction (10-10-13)

All right, a Ladies' Happy Hour for Design Week PDX! Driving all the way from Raleigh Hills during rush hour isn't for the fainthearted, so I arrived at PNCA when drinking was well underway on the mezzanine and the mood was chatty.

I am not naturally outgoing, so rather than make small talk with strangers, I walked around the room looking at the PNCA alumni artwork hanging on the wall. One large a monochrome landscape in reds immediately caught my attention, and I regret not having noted the artist's name. Carl Annala's tree in a decaying forest also caught my attention.

After much socializing, we all moved en masse downstairs for the Designing Women Panel Discussion co-sponsored by the Museum of Contemporary Craft with Bitch Media.

This was a well-attended events, with mostly women present. I was curious about what insights we would gain from the panelists (Julie Beeler, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Sara Huston, and Carrie Strickland).

In the end, a lot of time was spent, so it seemed, with each women presenting herself as "so-very-normal-and-down-to-earth-for-Heaven's-Sake" type.. And, no matter what, the rebel in me considers that the person sitting on a stage, by the very focus of being on a panel, is NOT normal and average, and no assurance about growing up "poor" or "disadvantaged" convinces me otherwise. This went on for a while, and started to reach a level of slight absurdity that almost mimicked the "We Had it Tough" mood of the famous (Four Yorkshiremen) Monty Python skit where four well-to-do guys try to overdo each other in describing their hard early lives.

I drew a few of the women sitting in the crowd or on the stage while listening.

My scanner is on strike

And on and on the panel went on, and then it was over, with no revelation that would have somehow enlightened us all, or made us feel embraced in our shared commonalities.

While Q&A was underway, I got impatient and decided to walk a few blocks over to Good Mod where the Portland Design Auction was taking place, one of those Pearl warehouse-style set-ups, with trendy mid-century furniture stored in the back of the huge space.

Beautiful people, creative types, and money-types were present and busy bidding. I won't bother trying to describe anything Art or Design here because I don't understand contemporary stuff. Well, okay, an ottoman covered in what looked like flocked made me puzzle over the final destination for such a piece.

On a final note, good food was served: figs, capers, almonds, Swedish crackers, pâté, olives...