building the fort

Well, if you think long and hard enough about something, it often materializes before your very eyes....

Looks like BOYS' FORT ....the retail installation....will be coming to Portland for the holiday shopping season, 2011.  Jake and I put our heads together and voila!...a pop-up shop at the fabulous Galleria in the center of downtown.

An embarrassment of riches....the artists and craftspeople who are helping us to make this a reality....we will be featuring each of them and their talent in future posts.

GET READY PORTLAND!  You've not seen  anything like this before....a "manthropology"
for the deserving boys and men of Portland....
a respite from a world full of ruffles and frills.

building the fort

I remember my first "boys fort"...
While I seem to have forgotten major portions of my life, I remember with great fondness that special place and time.

There were many "boys forts" in Virginia where I found myself as a 10 year old.
Totally dialed-in Treeforts and clubhouses could be seen on afternoon installments of Mickey Mouse Club.  I noticeably remember never being late for an episode of my personal favorite "The Adventures of Spin and Marty". 

Lately, I had found myself wanting to withdraw, wanting to hide, wanting a place to escape to.

...a place to get away from my daily world 
...a place to feel safe and secretive
...a place to hang out and read the Hardy Boys (okay, mostly Nancy Drew, but peppered with the occasional boy detectives for a certain butch factor that even I understood at age ten).

Norfolk, Virginia, summer of 1960

...hot and sticky
...really really hot and sticky.  Sometimes when you got up in the morning you spent the rest of the day looking for the next place to just lie down and cool off.  A 100 year old pecan tree at the back of our yard....a huge thicket of overgrown bushes and undergrowth entwined with wild honeysuckle wrapping around the huge trunk and then traveling for many yards until ensnarling the next old tree in its grasp.  The humid air thick with the scent of  honeysuckle.

Nooks and crannies in the wild shrubs became my private warren.  Leaning up against the trunk of the pecan, which was now a defining "wall" in the architecture of my fort, trying to be completely still except for breathing, I would survey all that my hands and sweat had wrought.

A hidden box of boy treasures, long forgotten except for memories of opening it for display of the valuable and precious things in my small life.
An old rug stolen from mom's laundry...most likely chenille from the bathroom.
A mason jar with holes punched in the top for catching fireflies at dusk to light up my personal night.
A small stack of books having been read or waiting to dive into.
Nothing for the outside world to detect of the master in his domain.

Portland, Oregon, summer of 2010

warm afternoons with light breezes.
I spend my days looking for any reason to be out back in my grown-up "boys fort".
I prefer it to a day at the beach.
Constructed of cast-off doors, windows and window shutters, it sports a garage door from a friend and a 7 foot tall door from a distant barn of questionable pedigree.  A monster chandelier hangs over the space...electrically dis-emboweled long ago, daydreaming of it's finer days.

...a place to get away from my daily world
...a place to feel safe and secretive
...a place to hang out and read mostly design magazines peppered with the occasional Vanity Fair.

I now have a life, a house, and a heart, all filled with my treasures.


Rolfe

Historic Portland #1 : The Hollywood Theater

One of the things I love about Portland is that there is a strong belief in historic preservation.  There was a period where many beautiful historic buildings gave way for more modern sleek architecture.  A good example of this is downtown along Broadway, where buildings like the Portland Hotel made room for Pioneer Courthouse Square and grand movie palaces came down and were replaced by the likes of Nordstroms and the Fox Tower...named for the theater it replaced. 



Hollywood Theater 1926

 One of my favorite parts of town is the cozy Spanish revival neighborhood of Hollywood and it's grand mascot the Hollywood Theater.  Built in 1926, the Hollywood was the last theater in Portland built for Vaudeville and the pictures.  It originally had 1500 seats, an eight piece orchestra and a large pipe organ.  It's grand Rococo facade could be seen from blocks away and gave the neighborhood a sense of grandeur. By the 1970's the theater had fallen into disrepair and was finding it harder to compete with larger newer movie-plexes.  Most of it's lavish interiors were painted over in dark paint and the balcony was divided into two separate auditoriums. 

 

Today the Hollywood is breathing new life with the help of a film preservation group and strong neighborhood support.  Film Action Oregon has made the Hollywood a not-for-profit organization who's goal is to educate through film and save a historic Portland landmark.  In 1983 the building was put on the National Register of Historic Places and in 1997 Film Action Oregon organized and began transforming the old Hollywood Theater into a thriving cinema hub for Northeast Portland.  In 2011 the organization dropped the name Film Action Oregon and now is known simply as the Hollywood Theater.

Jake

retail therapy

yesterday, Jake and I went to Portland's largest garage sale, held at the Expo Center.
WOW.  275 vendors all under one roof.
We didn't get there until around 2pm, a rather late start for something that started at 8am and went until 4pm.
It even smelled like a garage sale....a REALLY BIG one.
It doesn't seem to matter how down in the dumps you get, dropping some cash on some "stuff" just makes you feel a little better.

Got some great "guy-stuff" which we are labeling "BOY'S FORT"....(more on that later!)
A good time was had by all.

Do You Play Crochet?

One night last October I was walking in the East Village with my dear friend Mary.  We were out being young and fun and we came across a most impressive craft project.  It was dark and we were walking along deeply engrossed in conversation when I happened to look up, stopped in my tracks and exclaimed


"Oh my holy Grandma!"


There we were face to face with a big multi colored, but mostly pink & purple, camouflage yarn covered Volkswagen.  Now I have seen similar installations, for instance in Portland there is a hipster knitting "cozies" for the bike racks in front of certain north Portland libraries...but this was a major undertaking.




Kudos to You, you happy East Village knitter person!  You are a true artist!

Jake

possessions

In watching the coverage of the impending tsunami on the Oregon coast later this morning, I pondered momentarily on what I would grab from the house if I had a few hours to pack the car....thank God the husband is fanatical about keeping gas in the tank.

That's a hard one.  I would actually have to decide what was really important to me. 

This small house is filled with "stuff".  I am the "editor" in the relationship...oh, I've brought my share of things into our life over the 30 plus years of domestic bliss, but the husband has kept harvesting over the years, while I have really slowed down.  I mean, how much "stuff" can you have?

I always edit it down to what is important or treasured as "irreplaceable".  Sometimes that can include something as simple as a smooth stone that someone has painted tiny vines and flowers in gold to an exquisite (but tiny) ivory crucifix from 19th century India.  The objects that inhabit our lives are for the most part from travels and trips here and there.  Beautiful memories of beautiful places.

Others are more utilitarian...like my collection of old, used carpenters' rulers, folding or not.  To our eyes,  the more weathered the piece the greater the treasure.  My favorite objects show the repeated use of its former owner.  Was he a designer too?  A carpenter, an artist, a seamstress?

But time and fortunes change, and you see your collections become less important than they once did.
I would always hope that a good friend could look at something I've stumbled on and treasure and to hear them state "Oh, that is so Rolfe". 

Guess I'd get the dogs in the car and let the husband decide on the rest!  I'm sure if it's important to him, it's important to me.

...and I will be spared the decision.

R.

Books are awfully decorative...don't you think?

One of my favorite movie quotes comes from the 1958 film "Auntie Mame" starring the always brilliant Rosalind Russell.  In the film Patrick, Mame's beloved nephew, brings home Gloria Upson, his dim snobbish girl friend.  Needless to say she make less than favourable impression on Auntie Mame.  Walking in to Mame's fantastic 1930's Beekman Place,  New York apartment Gloria, played spot on by Joanna Barnes, drably remarks on Mame's "stunning apartment" followed by..."books are awfully decorative don't you think?".

Some of the collection

 
I couldn't agree with Gloria more!  I love books.  I love shopping for books.  I love reading books.  I love looking at books.  And they are quite decorative.  When my Mother moved to Hawaii a few years back I inherited her collection of antique books.  The books were handed down from an old maid relative, Cousin Fanny.  Fanny was a strict school teacher, a Christian Scientist who never married and who lived with her equally spinster sister in the same house until her death.

Stories of Aunt Fanny have always intrigued me.  Now her books intrigue me.  One of my favorites is an 1893 first American edition of Lewis Carrol's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland".  On the inside is written...
     
    "A Merrie Christmas for Lorenne from the two Aunties,    1899"

First American edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" 1893



The collection also contains several German-English study/text books including a beautiful little history of German geography dated 1867.  There is a two volume German collection of Shakespeare dated 1865 and several ladies reading books with evidence of being borrowed from and never returned to the "San Francisco Women's Lending Room".

One of the largest books is a very fragile 1835 edition of "Arabian Nights".  It's cover leather is dry and brittle but the gold "Arabian Nights" still gleams on it's spine. Inside contains some beautiful prints of the Genii, Aladdin, the thieves and pages and pages of harem girls.  I love that I have such a beautiful old  book in my collection.



the Genni & the Merchant



Jake of Kenton Collective

JAR HEAD

If there is one thing I have always loved it's old glass jars.  I am drawn to the versatility of  "the jar"...from canisters to picture frames, jars are a wonderful look and texture for even the most modern of spaces.

Wow!

On my last trip to New York City I stumbled into a store and found myself staring at an amazing lighting installation.  They had created an enormous chandelier using large scale clear glass jars.  I had seen similar jar lighting executions before...but never on such a large scale.  I was awestruck.

Love it!

  Jake of Kenton Collective

Junior Vermeer

My dog Junior.  The camera loves him.

religious right.....stop messing with me!

Okay, I believe in live and let live, but they've gone too far this time.

For years I would always put a roll of Brawny Paper Towels in my grocery cart.
Then, my green side showed itself as believing that paper towels were going to destroy the world as we know it, so I stopped buying that big absorbant roll.....opting to ruin all my dishtowels to clean up my messes (I can be very messy).

Well, after ten years, I finally said "enough!  I am going to have a roll on hand for "special clean-ups"....
"I won't abuse the priviledge of owning a roll."

Excitedly, I pulled the thick, absorbant, brighter than a snowstorm roll of my favorite Brawny off of the shelf at the store.  Much to my dismay, the super butch and decidely gay Brawny MAN has been made "straight" sometime within my period of abstinence.

What's next Religious Right.....disney animated characters like Tarzan or that hot animated Honda man ?

...and don't even get me started on Mr. Clean !

my Brawny Man

(...ok, he looks a little dense, but don't we want that in a paper towel?!)

"...have you talked with Jesus lately?"

views of winter

a wall in the "boys fort" in the back yard...reflecting the greys of winter

GIVE A HOOT!

Kenton Collective has the great fortune of residing in one of the most artistically diverse cities on the west coast.  Portland, Oregon.  Not only does it boast more "strip clubs" per ca pita than any other city in the Union, it also has a vast and unique art scene that calls Portland it's home.

"Mary's Club"...my favorite. A Portland institution for over 45 years.

From an amazing music scene to photography, screen printing to film, literature to pole dancing, Portland has a surprise for you every time you turn the corner.  For example, I was downtown and as I crossed the street I looked up and found myself face to face with a magnificent flock of white owls landing before a large Raven.  They are part of an art installation called "Raven and Owl", a collaborative project by artists Cystal Schenk & Shelby Davis.  It magically appears in a vacant window on SW Park & Morrison.  It is one of many art installations sponsored by the Regional Arts & Culture Council. 

I was mesmerized!  I have always had a passion for bird life and especially Owls.  It was as if I were in a magical story of whimsy and fable, right there on the street corner.

The artists used expandable foam insulation spray to create these amazing sculptures.  Each Owl is unique and the wings carefully created to simulate the magic of flight.

It truly is spectacular for a vacant downtown window.....

plus you can take the kids to see these hooters.

http://www.racc.org/

http://www.crystalschenk.com/

Reflections....

I am really not much of a magpie….shiny bits of things don’t really attract my attention.

But long ago, I fell in love with the amazing qualities of gold/silver leaf.  I did the obligatory “first” projects before moving on to larger territories.  Indeed, once, not being able to afford replacing the hideous 1970’s yellow Formica counters in my kitchen, I said “what the hell”, sanded, primed, painted red and then silver leafed them.  The result was a triumphant, if somewhat unusual solution to the dilemma of the counters.

My dearest friend Tad is a gilder-extraordinaire.  Seeing Tad working his craft is to realize that certain skills are actually god-given talents and nothing less.  Tad asked me one day what I intended for a small wall in a hallway in my house that I could not seem to decide what to do with.  I had thought about it for weeks (designers can seldom figure out what to do with their own homes!)  Knowing me well, Tad suggested I silver leaf the wall.  He had silver leafed a wall a few years earlier in a Street of Dreams condo that I was working on and the resulting wall was positively jaw dropingly beautiful.  I immediately stated “you mean, you think YOU should help me silver leaf the wall???”  The rest is history.  The entire process took an evening.  It will still require a protective “top-coat” and some darker, antiquing glazes to tone it down a bit, but oh, how it shines and gives such a sense of magic to the little place I call home.

laying the extraordinarily thin sheets of silver on the

already mostly dried sizing (or glue)

gently brushing away excess silver leaf

and VOILA!

And away we go...

Sporatic ruminations from the world of Kenton Collective.  A collection of some of our favorite and most inspiring people, places and things.  ....Served up with just the right amount of wit, style and insight.

Over and out-
Rolfe & Jake