Greetings from Pump House Studios.
These last few weeks have been a rowdy blizzard of parties, art events, music and just good old fashioned hard work.

So I will offer up the highlights for your reading pleasure.
I have seen the Portland Art Museum’s “China Design Now” a fine showing of China’s government propaganda and design that was created for the Olympic games of 2008.
On view from Aug. 22 – Nov. 29, 2009.

Raphael’s “Women With the Veil” a beautiful painting is on view from Oct. 24. 2009 – Jan. 3, 2010. I also enjoyed “Word and Image/ Word as Image”. A clever exhibition of the relationships between words and images. In the showing are works from Ed Ruscha (he’s one of my favorites) Warhol, Albrecht Durer, Kathe Kollwitz, Robert Rauschenberg and so many others all from the permanent collection. This show is on view from Aug. 22 – Nov. 29 .

No visit to the Portland Art Museum is complete without a look at John De Andrea’s “Dying Gaul” from 1984. On Sunday, Nov. 8 . I had the good luck to see Philip Glass’s “Orphee” at the Portland Opera at the Keller Auditorium. This was a triumph and a nice feather for the Portland Opera to add to its cap. I was pleased to see a contemporary set and costume. I loved the way the issue of the mirrors was handled with the use of body doubles.

The film I recently enjoyed which had a lot to say about how we live our lives is “ The Gleaners and I “ by Agnes Varda. This documentary is about scavengers, recyclers, the passage of time, love and great art. You can get this film on NetFlix. I give it a thumbs up.

Wishing you all the best in life.
Your Artist in Residence,
Jason Berlin.