The Art Counselor Blog

Aesthetic Bridges: Art and Connecting with Home

Posted on 07.14.08 5:27PM under Art Collecting

“Evening at Bagdad” by Kay Buckner

Portland offers a matrix of cultural amenities that make living here special. As the bridges crossing the Willamette River connect the east and west sides of town, the art and culture of our city connect us with the reasons we find for choosing to live here.

The natural physical beauty of the area abounds with views of mountains, rivers, and tree covered hills. In Portland we are fortunate to have an attractively laid out city with a good mix of contemporary and vintage architecture. Inviting neighborhoods with tree-lined streets and an eclectic mix of houses from all periods adds another distinctive signature to the feel of the city. The dozens of parks of all sizes that dot the city give residents ample opportunities for affordable family recreation.

The beauty of the city’s physical setting makes a perfect canvas for the many arts organizations that have been painted into the community over more than 150 years of growth. The Portland Art Museum, the Pacific Northwest College of Arts, the Museum of Contemporary Craft, and the Oregon College of Arts and Craft are all a part of this long and colorful history.

The legion of artists who choose to live here and create their art gave us a rich visual narrative of the bountiful natural beauty that blesses our region. Many of these artists also created a record of how the ever growing population changed the landscape that to this day continues to draw more people to the area.

The art of our region teaches us about who we are in the context of the place we choose to live, and helps us understand our affection for the place we call home. This process is fundamental to how we communicate and express ourselves as human beings. The creation of visual chronicles can be traced back 50,000 years to Las Caux cave paintings in France.

As we see the impact regional art has on local communities, we can understand how this art has the same affect on the individual. My interest in collecting art got a huge boost from one particular piece that I was lucky enough to see before anyone else could consider the purchase.

Back in 1990, I had only a handful of original art works in the house we had bought in 1984 just off 34^th avenue between Hawthorne and Division streets. I had only been doing the monthly First Thursday gallery walks in for Pearl District for less than a year, but I was already building a list of favorite artists and galleries.

Near the top of that list was the Chetwynd Stapylton Gallery in the North Park blocks owned by the artist Bill Papas and his wife Tesa. One of their best selling artists at the time was Kay Buckner, who had been producing some great paintings of cityscapes and buildings. I was lucky to be one of the first arrivals at an opening of one of Kay’s shows that included a series of works featuring images of the old art nouveau style movie theaters in town like the Hollywood, the Paramount, the Broadway, and the Bagdad. All the paintings were based on photographs her mother had taken of these theaters in 1940.

I loved all the paintings because I knew all of the theaters from years of being an avid fan of cinema. I also loved her painting style because her favorite painter, Edward Hopper, had recently become one of my favorites. I wanted one immediately, and the choice became obvious in an instant. The painting of the Bagdad; a perfect rendering of one of my favorite architectural local land marks hit me square in the face and screamed “buy me”.

The painting was the smallest of the theater pieces but still a good size, the perfect size for my living room. Since it was smaller than the others, it was the most affordable; $450 which was a large chunk of cash to me then, but still accessible. The detail that sealed the deal… it was the closest movie theater to my house and the most iconic building on my neighborhood. Hawthorne Boulevard would be much less distinct without that elegant structure.

So, this gorgeous painting hangs handsomely framed in my living room as a constant reminder of some of the favorite moments of my life and why I feel so attached to the place I call home.