The End and After Art Exhibit at the Bullseye Art Gallery

Bullseye Gallery is a testament to Portland's hippie DYI mentality. In 1974 three hippie glassblowers teaching stained glass courses were challenged to developed a palette of colored glasses specifically designed for fusing in a kiln, something large companies in Europe were unable to do at the time. By the early 1980s they were successful and opened the world to a whole new level of glass artwork.

I have been known to say Portland is a large town, at best, and a prime example of this is the lack of world class galleries and the monetary support needed for artist to survive here. However, Bullseye is the exception to this rule. Housed in an old fish smoking factory in the Pearl District, even the building evoke a sense of its unique history and sense of accomplishment. I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Artist Reception for Michael Endo and Stacey Lynn Smith's "The End and After" Exhibit currently showing at the gallery - "Two Northwest artists look through an apocalyptic lens, meditating on the end of things and what may or may not come after." The show is great, with a mix of Stacey's interactive pieces, such as the reverberating broken glass micro-phoned to give the gallery owners and staff heart attacks; the sound of breaking glass must be horrifying and to have an exhibit where people are encourage to not only allow glass pieces to break, but to magnify the sound throughout the beautiful space was so much fun to participate in. As well as her unnerving draw on glass panel piece.

It was such a fun exhibit that on a sunny Saturday we made a special trip down to the Gallery just to experience the space in the soft sunlight and see Michael Endo's incredible glass paintings up close and personal. If you are in the Pearl District and just finished up a filled cupcake from Cupcake Jones or did a little shopping in Cargo, we would highly encourage you to stroll on down to Bullseye Gallery and catch the exhibit while it lasts. March 6 - April 27, 2013, it truly is a worthwhile exhibit in a world class gallery.

Bullseye Gallery
300 NW 13th Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97209
503.227.0222

OMSI After Dark

OMSI After Dark is "...where science nerds unite for childfree, brain-building science fun".  We're not science geeks, but when we were offered tickets to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry's After Dark Burgers and Brew event we were more than happy to spend an evening exercising our brains in the name of two of our favorite things!

The event truly was an adult-themed night with DJs and a mini-beer festival with 17 local breweries handing out samples via tokens. Along with the traditional exhibits, special demonstrations and exhibits were set up with the burgers and beer theme. There was ultrasonic beer geysers, beer pong physics, flash freezing beer and OMSI's version of beer goggles. Burger themed science demonstrations included learning the chemistry behind BBQ, learning to smell and taste your beef and delicious elk sliders by Nicky USA.

We attempted to play their mind games and wasn't very successful.




There were snacks, but only if you knew what each cookie represented on the periodic table.



We preferred to play old fashion games like Connect Four with a slightly robotic Science twist. It was a fun night.