whittlin’ away

Political dissident artist collective Just Seeds treats Portland to not 1 but 2 shows in November: both opening this Thursday (Nov 5)! SEA Change hosts Opposable Thumb, a show about the effects of the human hand, while Reading Frenzy presents Charting our Course, a show about education, literacy and books. Just Seeds runs this fantastic website, as well as producing individual and collective work about political issues and social movements. They also recently printed this Celebrate People’s History poster I helped design on The Dil Pickle Club.

Then, on Friday (Nov 6), Artichoke Music (3130 SE Hawthorne) hosts The Salmon Nation Artist Project, a tribute to our bio-region for the love of fish. The event features readings by several songsters and long-time fisher poets, including: Pat Dixon, Dave Densmore and the always formidable Moe Bowstern. Having been to The Fisher Poets Gathering for the last several years, I can safely say this is a fascinating and unique look into an amazing folk art/ working class subculture working at the grassroots level. You’d be sorry to miss it.

Inspired by AREA Chicago, I recently created a piece for “Grassroots Cartography,” an exhibition at SEA Change Gallery in Portland, OR. “Notes for a Peoples Atlas” is a multi-city, participatory mapping and design project that began in Chicago in 2005, and has since traveled to Zagreb, Croatia and Syracuse, NY. A sort of lo-fi, more political Platial, the project invites participants to fill in the blank outline of the political border of their city or region with individual and collective local knowledge, forgotten histories, ongoing debates and changing definitions of urban space. Not to show favoritism, but this one is extra special.

For more photos go to the photstream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36959900@N08/sets/72157619413018494/

Check out more highlights after the jump, or download and fill in your own.

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