I mentioned this within my first two weeks of entries on here. It was about First Thursday, the monthly artistic goings on here in Portland, in reference to the fact that I thought the artists on the street selling their work were better than the stuff in the galleries. I've been talking with my coworker Amy about this stuff. See, I guess this year they suddenly don't allow just anyone to come down and set up their shit and sell it. The story is that the uppity ass Pearl District Neighborhood Association as well as the galleries in the area didn't want just anyone selling their stuff out there. The way we've come to understand it is that the street artists were providing pretty good competition for the gallery work because the art was reasonably priced and, like I said, better than the gallery stuff. So now instead of just going down and setting up your shit, you have to pay a submission fee, submit your work, and they jury it and decide who gets to show down there. The official type of story is that they want diversity in what is showing down there, and don't want it to turn into a bead necklace flea market or something. Yeah. Mine and Amy's feeling on this is that they want to make sure the good stuff is in the galleries and not on the streets, or at least that the street stuff is worse than the gallery stuff. Amy entered and didn't get accepted. Tim, our other coworker, entered and did get accepted. So tomorrow Jenn and I will be heading down to check out the scene. Tim will be set up in the "street gallery," and Amy will be taking the "fuck you" approach, which I admire. She's renting a U-Haul, draping her art all over the damn thing, and parking close to the action. She says she's got it all planned out. It'll be a gallery on wheels. I told her I'd try to get down there and check out the scene before she got arrested or shut down or something. Who knows what will happen. Her theory is that she's not on the street at a table or anything, she's in a big old truck, and that she's not going to actually sell anything, but will give out business cards and postcards and stuff and if anyone wants to buy her art they can contact her and she'll deliver direct to them. I dig the hell out of this approach, and who knows, if it goes well for her maybe next time I'll split the cost of the U-Haul with her and join in on the fun.

It's great working with a couple of artists who are trying to make something of their art. It's inspiring to see real people, real Domino's chumps that I know, trying the same things that I want to try. It lets me see that people actually do this stuff, and by that respect I can too. It's good to not feel alone in my weird little art world up here.