I went with a friend to the Portland Art Museum on Tuesday to see the Mark Rothko retrospective.  It was a wonderful timeline of his early figurative work to the later, sublime abstracts that one associates with the name Rothko. 

 self portrait 1936

Most of the 45 paintings in the exhibition are on loan from the National Gallery of Art and the Rothko family. 

But THEN we left Rothko and walked upstairs and into an exhibition of the work of California sculptor John Frame. His Three Fragments of a Lost Tale installation completely and totally blew us away. I would say, left us breathless actually...

This incredible experience began with footage from the stop motion animated film project, The Tale of the Crippled Boy, he has been working on for the past 6 years. All the characters are fully sculpted and meticulously detailed by the artist with tiny jointed fingers and emotion behind their eyes. I felt an instant connection to the work, in part, I'm sure, due to the tiny attention to detail, but you can't help but feel a human connection of sorts, albeit from an alternate universe. The characters are on display, in a darkened room with spotlights, which feels like an extension of the film. 

You can see the entire twelve and a half minute film here: http://johnframesculpture.com/film

as well as more of John Frame's amazing body of work.

John Frame spoke to a sold out audience at the museum on March 18th. I missed it but caught it here.

Portland peeps, don't miss it. 

Paired with the Rothko retrospective through May 27th, you may just walk away feeling like it was the best $15 you've ever spent...