Are you a glass artist? I’m not.

I’m an artist. Period.

Is it just me being Ms. OversensitiveWordist, or is there something a tad demeaning in the term “glass artist?” I mean, when we talk about a sculptor, do we say he is a “bronze artist?” When we talk about a painter, is he an “oil artist?”

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Nature upside the head

There’s pictures of nature, there’s nature photography and then there’s the work of Michael Durham. Someday, if I keep practicing really hard and the angels finally set up shop behind my eyes instead of only stopping in for a visit every year or two, I’ll grow up to take pictures like this guy.

I’ve never been into all this tramping through the wilderness stuff–very few campsites have room service or high-speed Internet connections–but his stunning images make me want to get out there and see.

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Moth

Rushing off to work this morning, I saw a silhouette move across the back door. It was a moth, one of those floor-of-the-woods types with the furry wingtips and wings shading themselves against the light.

I grabbed the camera and got off a few quick shots, then, satisfied, I contemplated the moth. No fair to leave her in the house to be eaten by my cat, not when she’d posed so nicely.

I cupped my hand toward her and she fluttered into a panic, beating frantically against the glass, so I backed away. Then I quietly, slowly extended a finger to the glass beside her and held it there. After a minute or so she clambered onto my finger, and calmly sat while I fumbled the door and the screen open and walked outside.

I shook my finger slightly; she didn’t move. I shook it harder, and she sprang from my finger to my cheek. She lingered for just a moment, then flew above the eaves and out of sight.

Viva Vivaldi

Boy. Them folks sure swing a mean bow.

(Photo courtesy of Gigi the iPhone)

Just got back from the Portland Baroque Orchestra’s version of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons concertos. As promised, it was really well-done. But wanna know the best part? They had fun with it.

Really. They had fun.

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PDX Vivaldi

If you’re feeling charitable you’d call my musical tastes eclectic; my favorite iTunes playlist includes BB King, Rachmaninoff, Cheap Trick, Sapna Awasti, Uriah Heep, Debussy, the immortal Ella, FrouFrou and Mr. Chocolate Voice himself, Joao Gilberto.

But for just plain daggone gorgeously get-lost-in-it wonderful, I go for baroque (sorry, couldn’t resist). And one of the most beautiful pieces of baroque music in existence, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons violin concerto, will be performed by the Portland Baroque Orchestra next weekend. I talked about PBO awhile back, and the amazing concert they did with incredible contratenor Matthew White.

PBO is an odd mix: Good mastery of the baroque form, their use of period instrumentation is an education, and they make beautiful music. They’re also pure Portland, which is pretty eclectic itself, and so their concerts are held in a beautiful old church and refreshingly (or maybe disconcertingly) informal.

In concert they follow what I call “PDX Black Tie,” shorthand for “wear the GOOD jeans and put some socks on with those sandals.” There’s a lot more audience interaction than I’ve seen at most concerts, and the performers are liable to crack up at intermissions. Everybody seems to have showed up just to have a good time with music they love, which makes PBO concerts a lot of fun.

If you don’t know Four Seasons…well, you really do, parts of it, anyway. It’s excerpted all the time in commercials and movies when the director wants to set an atmosphere of wealth and culture (and snobbery). Head over to iTunes (or to the PBO site) and listen to a couple of fragments , and you’ll recognize it soon enough.

Or buy the PBO CD; they’re recording this concert and will be selling the CDs in March.

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