22 Hours in Portland

This weekend I took a trip to Portland to see the exhibit Native Fashion Now at the Portland Art Museum. For various reasons I decided to keep it short. I took the 6pm train from Seattle, and the 7pm out of Portland the next day.

It was a perfect little trip, except for an issue with my Business Class seat which I HAD PAID EXTRA FOR and I narrowly escaped going into full-on, Ross Geller, First World Problem meltdown mode.

But it got sorted out and I ended up having a lovely train ride and an even lovelier evening in my hotel room. Is there any feeling in the world quite like walking into a nice hotel room which you have all to yourself? It is fantastic. You dump your stuff on the floor, make a throne out of the sixteen pillows they gave you, and see if Say Yes to the Dress is on TLC. 

The next day, I was off to the Portland Art Museum.  

Native Fashion Now was originally created for the Peabody Essex Museum and is now on tour. Despite the name, it is actually more like 60+ years of Native Fashion, because it starts with some 1950s designs by Lloyd Kiva New.

FAB

The main point of the show was to show the diversity and the skill of many different kinds of Native fashion designers. Some are reinterpreting traditional designs and techniques, some are experimental and avant-garde, and some are just making awesome, wearable clothes. 

I lusted after this skirt:

Virgil Ortiz collaboration with Donna Karan

Loved this outfit but knew that I could never pull it off:

Jamie Okuma

This was another favorite:

Dorothy Grant "She-Wolf Tuxedo"

Overall the mannequins and the presentation was top-notch. 

The only thing that seemed weird to me was how most of the jewelry was shown on full torsos. It just felt like too big of a display mount for relatively small objects. 

and the mannequin boobs are keeping it from hanging flat! 

Actually one more thing. While it is always nice to see something fuller-figured in a fashion exhibit, it highlights yet another pitfall of mannequins with heads. If you fill out the body, the head starts to seem...small. 

Sorry mannequin, I'm not trying to body shame you! It is just that, with more minimalist forms, the body can be whatever shape it needs to be, without limbs and heads calling attention to a "standard" size.

After that I wandered around the rest of the museum and saw more cool stuff. I loved this painting where baby Jesus shows us that his textile game is on point: 

Thou shalt put a bird on it

And this trompe l'oeil painting that recreates the experience of finding something old in a museum collection and realizing no one ever properly cleaned it. 

WTF there are PEANUTS back there?!?!

There was also a gallery of contemporary Native art with some serious social messages. This rug was titled Resist White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchal Colonization.

#RealTalkThroughWeaving

I also came across this sculpture and at first I was like Awww cuuuute but then I saw it was maybe crushing a bird with its body?

And then the title of the piece is Seal + Penguin 4 Ever and now I'm even more delighted and confused. 

Next I headed over to the Oregon Historical Society. On the stairs up to their main Oregon history exhibit they had this fun display of artifacts:

This is a great idea, because often you have quirky stuff in the collection that doesn't fit in the main narrative of your core historical exhibit.

I also liked this case which was a great way to get a bunch of your random hats and shoes out on display, and visually say "Oregon is made up of many different kinds of people!"

But I didn't end up taking tons of pictures of this exhibit. There weren't even that many mannequins to make fun of. 

I did find these guys, which I guess are worth a chuckle 

But then I found this amazing wall decal and got a selfie:

Potential rival to the Kansas cow selfie

Pictorial Recap Of My Trip To Montana

"Hey Clara, got any plans for the 4th of July weekend?"

"Yeah, I'm taking a trip to Montana!"

"Weren't you just there?"

"No, that was Kansas. It is a different place."

"Oh."

Yes, Montana. Where all my pictures end up looking like default desktop backgrounds. When I wasn't snapping perfect scenery shots I was filling up my camera with amazing mannequins at the local history museum in Glasgow.

YAAS

WORK IT

Zombie Cheerleader?

Maybe the scariest photo I have ever taken

Hey, weren't you wearing glasses last time? 

Lucille Ball?

But there were things at the museum other than mannequins. I found these drawings in the bathroom and have so many questions:

"Pictures drawn by Judge Jim Shea. He often 'doodled' while sitting on the bench"

Um ok, sure. But like, what year are we talking here? These ladies are in circa 1900 clothing and hats. Was he doodling around the turn of the century? So, like, he was just drawing pictures of attractive ladies in the courtroom (or attractive ladies in his mind???) while he was supposed to be listening to a case? Or alternately, he was doodling some decades later and was just thinking about women in old-timey clothes? Which, I mean, women in old-timey clothes takes up a lot of my brain space too but somehow this seems less ok? Or great? Like maybe he was a judge who actually really wanted to be a hat designer? I really need some answers Judge Shea.

Next up was a day at the family farm. The reason for this visit was that the farming community where my mom grew up was celebrating its centennial. My great-grandparents homesteaded in 1916 and my uncle still farms and lives on the site of the original homestead. 

(I think the bouncy castle is new)

To provide an authentic historic farm experience (and to keep 100+ family members from traipsing through my aunt and uncle's house) we had these delightful farm bathrooms for the day:

At one point we loaded onto a school bus for a tour of various historic homestead sites, which basically meant we were off-roading in a vehicle that most definitely wasn't built for the purpose. Our reward though was fresh peas straight from the field.

(possibly the only vegetables I ate all weekend)

And more opportunities for beautiful photos:

After farm day was the official centennial celebration at the high school. It rained the night before so the parking lot was full of cars that looked like this:

For lunch we had food that looked like this:

Is coleslaw a vegetable?

One thing I learned this summer is that apparently styrofoam is still a thing. When you arrive in Kansas or Montana, they basically just hand you a styrofoam container and are like "Here hippie, throw this away." 

My mom (second from left in the row of perfect hair flips) was a senior in high school when they celebrated the 50th. She gave a speech for that celebration and so they asked her back for the centennial. 

Of course she rocked it

All in all, it was a pretty great trip. 

You just keep doing you, Montana. 

Pictorial Recap Of My Trip To Kansas

Recently, I took a trip to Kansas to visit my cool cousin Laura who is a Mennonite pastor.

There were also cats there! I love cats. This cat was pretty into me:

Less into me: This turtle 

LESLIE KNOPE WAS RIGHT

We went to lots of museums! Our first stop was the Mennonite Heritage and Agricultural Museum in Goessel. There was lots of stuff to see there, including some interesting garments:

That piece turned out to have a grim but intriguing label:

Death Shroud

Made by Mrs. Elizabeth Schmidt for her husband Jacob, as was required by the Russian government for anyone boarding a ship

"Oh yeah! Immigrating to America is totally fun and easy! Hey though, we do have a strict BYO death shroud policy. You know, just in case. Enjoy the trip!"

-- The Russian Government 

There were also lots of things made out of wheat, like this:

And this:

"Cool! I mean, why NOT make a bell out of wheat?"

"Because it doesn't ring."

"To be fair though, the actual Liberty Bell doesn't ring either."

"That was a sick burn on the Liberty Bell."

I also saw one of the most effective "do not touch" signs I've ever seen, which was on a scary-looking piece of farming equipment:

If you really want people not to touch, add a splash of fake blood

We also went to the Eisenhower Presidential Museum, and had a pants-busting good time:

(I nominate this for the Museum Mannequin Fail Hall of Fame)

There was also cake?

THERE SHOULD NOT BE CAKE

Some Mamie Eisenhower fabulousness:

Also, I hope that their social media campaign encourages people to IKE US ON FACEBOOK because if not that is a missed opportunity. 

In between museum visits I enjoyed some delightful local food. I can verify that there ARE hipsters in Kansas and that--along with proper protocol of burgers with bacon jam and water in mason jars--they have come up with a new innovation of checks arriving in old timey library books: 

I also had a simple diner waffle that would make Leslie Knope feel right at home:

I introduced Laura to Miss Fisher and we watched it outside:

STILL SO GOOD

We went to a bookstore where I found out the new euphemism for Christian romance novels (historical and/or Amish) is "Gentle Reads"

And in a proud moment, I managed to take a selfie with some cows:

THE FULL KANSAS EXPERIENCE