Portland: Everyday Public Art Walk Postcards
Every city in the world these days has an active public art program, often requiring public art be incorporated into any new project, from highways to high-rises. Portland has been incorporating public art into its urban landscape for decades and as a result there are hundreds of public artworks scattered around the city.
You can download a map or an app to create you own art walk if you wish, but I like to just encounter the art as I find it on my walks. Here are some of the pieces I found when we last in Portland in March 2020.
Link: Public Art In Portland
A Human Comedy, ten terra-cotta medallions by Lee Hunt with the accompanying Streetwise Words Underfoot by Bill Will and Katherine Dun was the public art highlight of our most recent visit to Portland. it would be easy to walk by an miss the medallions that are at the second story window of a building along ???? Look for the Tiffany & Co. entrance (818 SW 4th Ave)and next to the figure holding up the clock and you will find one on each side.
The Streetwise Words Underfoot are more accessible on the side of the building but still easy to miss. Once I found them I had to walk back and start view them all.
Lee Hunt’s “Human Comedy” shows human faces embodying various states of emotion. They include the Laughing Woman, the Perplexed Man, the Competition of the East and West Winds, the Idealized Woman, the Wry Woman, Marat Alive, The Idealized Man, Children Watching from the Window, the Skeptical Woman, and the Architectus Mundi.