First one seems really derivative of andy goldsworthy. (i highly recommend "rivers and tides" -- terrific documentary of that artist.)

My favorite statue in Portland is the ghostly commedia del arte drapery over by Lloyd Center on the corner of the tall state building on NE Oregon and 7th. I really do like it.

However, Portland is the turd on the mall art champion of the region.

This is uglier:
http://www.king5.com/news/Israeli-War-Crimes-signs-to-go-on-Metro-buses-112108154.html

God, this town loves phalluses.

I dunno, Jack. Are these decorations or works of art? Are they holding down manhole covers? The whole reduction to the shapes and medium thing is so early 20th century and copy categorical and unoriginal. You have people working part time for Hallmark at $10.00/hr. who doodle this crap all the time and then go home and have a Bud. I know quite a few folks who call themselves artists because they "make stuff" in different media. But nary a one seems to have a philosophy, weltanschauung or even a favorite TV Food Network chef. None seems to know what has gone before. I mean art doesn't have to say anything special. It can be documentary or simply pretty. But it doesn't have to be symbolic. It does not have to stem from the mind of a deeply perceptive someone who translates these perceptions into symbols for us to decipher. Yet to my little phenomenological pea brain, it does if it's going to be meaningful art. Crusts of bread and pigeons are called for here.

"Public art was a key component in revitalizing the Portland Mall"

Why is the sentence using the past tense? Is the mall "revitalized" now?

But it's a cairn! It's so, so, Old World, so ....Euro! Why, if you just close your eyes you can almost sense the spirit of wise and ancient pagan peoples!

Ha ha, either way it is butt ugly.

should read:

"Public art was a key component in revitalizing creatives wallets".

Given what was said in this O interview/article:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/visualarts/2009/02/interview_jennifer_yocom_city.html

. . . one can wonder how much input came from Yocom's office.

I especially liked this revelation (from the above article)

Like some of Adams' staff, Yocom's background doesn't dovetail with what she's been hired to do. Her resume is clearly of a politico, not an arts expert. Still, that doesn't make Yocom hesitate. The $65,000-a-year arts-policy job, she says, is tailored to her organizational strengths: She understands how City Hall works and will bring political clout to the arts.

and this:

Q: You were the mayor's campaign manager. Was this your reward?

A: That's a cynical point of view. But I expect to be judged against the bar we set in the 100 Day Plan. The work we do in the next 100 days is critical. It's not about me. It's about the community.

Leaderless cronyism at it's finest.

The last two items could be combined Jack- the homeless Twit-lets would fit in with the other art installations.

Kielbasa. The one looks like kielbasa to me.

Kielbasa?

Well, you can put slices of it on crackers and while everyone might agree that it looks pretty but no one will be willing to take the first bite!

Our family is still scratching our heads over the "art" at NE 102 & Halsey. It looks like it ought to be a historical site, complete with a cable barrier so no one can walk on what appears to be a stone walkway. But the real puzzle is the double row of red slightly flexible poles. I've read that they're supposed to represent trees which can sway in the wind, but we can't figure out why they just didn't use real trees? It would be much more "green," not to mention beautiful.

ugh - I wasn't sure if I was going to throw up (the whole thing looks out of focus and about to fall down) or get aroused.

It is not Portland art unless you put a bird on it...right?

Can't we just agree to christen it the PNW dada nouveau pomo art movement? Just sayin'

I'd just call it Trart.

TriMet: Creating jobs for starving artists so they won't need to wait for the bus (that comes less often, because we're using transit operations dollars to fund the art projects.)

The Artist has other pieces that include birds without stones and she does wear glasses....two thirds ain't bad. Looking back at what the Boomers called Art in the 70's really paved the way for such city funded garbage. More parks and less art please.

"Public art was a key component"

Be nice, but Portland is getting to look like my grandmother's attic between the neon, public toilets and some of this stuff.

While some public art is commissioned and actually created for the place it will be placed, I've always secretly believed that it's a clearing house for large ugly pieces that artists couldn't sell and which had been cluttering up their studios.

Does anybody remember the bright idea (I think from the 80s) to insert public art in the median of I-5?

There's a sculpture someone downtown that has always reminded me of a cubic creature vomiting into a box. Anybody else remember that one?

None of it looks particularly contemplative. Looks like the stuff of local artists with limited formal training. Not top notch, by any means. Typical mediocre Portland.

I know art, but I don't know what I like.