The polls are closed! The total votes (including the hand-marked posters on site) are:
- 163 Twinkle
- 88 Love Letter
- 149 Foster Time
The winner ~ “TWINKLE”
Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote! We look forward to painting with you on Thurs, Jan 15th | 6:30PM ~ 10:30PM, @ Performance Works Northwest
This option explores a single continuous image, as if the celebration is happening within. In the back room, a lone cook is behind the scenes of the party. Is he preparing for tomorrows celebration? A desire to make the area feel illuminated and full of dancing people was the inspiration for the image. While the characters are silhouetted, there are hints of vintage clothing, alluding to a party long ago. A silhouetted couple brings to mind John and Lilla Leach, the inspirational couple most associated with the Phoenix Pharmacy while the shapes of two men coming together refers to Jackson Powell and Phillip Foster, for whom the streets that define our neighborhood are named. The colors are inspired by Van Gogh and Lautrec.
The corner entrance of the building will have panels that are painted a solid color that is harmonious with the chosen designs color palette. These areas will hold the address, building name, a historical note and a thank you to the project partners and volunteers.
It was a very close race, but here are the other contenders…
This option started with stripes of color. The simplified lines, inspired by Matisse prints, are grouped into vignettes: People engaged in a dancelike outdoor activity with a dog, an adult with a baby, dancers pass in front of a red curtain and give way to a dining room, an exterior scene of chopped wood and a woodstove flow into a simplified John and Lilla Leach as they nurture the growing city. On the 67th Avenue side, a park-like atmosphere leads us to a fruit stand and a row of shops. A streetcar or bus passes in front. In the final vignette, a crowd is gathered for a show. The words “Dear Neighbors” has been translated into 5 languages common to our neighborhood, Spanish, Russian, Korean, Chinese Traditional and Chinese Simplified. Thought bubbles containing this translated and English sentiment are sprinkled throughout the vignettes making this image a visual love letter to the community.
This option began as a vision of the future of our beloved Foster Rd. with nods to nostalgia for the good old days-a time line, but not literally in line. Cut out shapes create dual images, now and then, colors are inspired by Thomas Hart Benton and Diego Rivera paintings. From left of the Foster side to the right of the 67th side, we retreat loosely in time, bouncing between future, present and past people enjoying the street. The Phoenix Building (with its rising phoenix spirit) bridges the eras and sends us back further. Colors become more muted as we look down Old Foster Rd to a streetcar. The final panel locks in to the style of the 1950’s. John Leach (center, pouring a solution) and his team of pharmacists are hard at work in this image based on a photo from the early 1950’s.
This is the original post so can see some of the suggestions…
What would you like to see here?
Comment to this post or the repost on our neighborhood facebook page, or send ideas and/or drawings to 62ndgarden@gmail.com. Submit ideas until Monday, December 1st, 2014. 3 designs will be presented here, on the Foster Powell neighborhood Facebook page, on the building and at the next neighborhood meeting (Monday, December 8th, 6:30pm at Bar Carlo). On Thursday, January 15th 2015 there will be an evening work party at Performance Works NW (the green building you can almost see in the picture above). Very special thanks to our neighbors at PWNW for letting us use the space! Be sure to get on the email list if you’d like to participate throughout the process. To learn more about this building, please see the Foster the Phoenix Facebook Page
The ideas are already coming in and we’ll post them as we are able:
- How about an image of Mr. Powell and Mr. Foster and a drawing of how the streets looked when the gentlemen were in their prime?
- Bright, engaging, catching. Also, any treatments that would make graffiti clean up easier.
- Old-fashioned pharmacy, historic look showing past scenes.
- Let’s make the building dance.
- Cooking, making, building, etc.
- Evolution of transportation on Foster
- a very cool textile piece, scrolls of colored paper, recycled fabric?
- old theatre set-tonight, tonight music video from the smashing pumpkins meets wes craven?
- something to do with “Heart of Foster”
- If human forms are included, please have some non-demonited fat bodies (as well as non-tokenizing diversity across various intersections)
- Maybe creating versions of international art pieces that resemble the world history
- An illustrated timeline that wraps around the corner.
- Foster is purrfect (drawing of cats and people)
- Ocean scene with octopus (drawing)
- Mural of windows with activity happening behind them
- Gym/cycle studio
- Health food store
- Restaurant with a bar upstairs for waiting for a table
- How about artwork from Fopo residents? That would get the neighborhood involved and would be fun to submit artwork for review to be put up in the windows.
- How about restoring the building first folks and I’m in favor of a german restaurant like the glockenspiel out in Mt Angel because we have enough bar’s in the neighborhood.
- a pinball arcade
- rotating artwork by fo-po artists
- above are the ideas and comments as of 11/12/14
- figures of dancers
- cultural identity of the area
- cultural identity of the area (different person, same idea)
- rows of images that reflect how the windows behind will or did look
- hugging people
- Stripes
- I envision something that embraces the cultural diversity and historical importance of the Area
- I would suggest a shout out to John and Lila Leach and the Pharmacy in the hey day,but I’m up for whatever that helps detour graffiti and help Foster prosper. An old stove would be cool.
- Really cool landscape work!
- Vintage Lace
The Foster Window Project 
Perhaps a rendering of what the inside would look like if inhabited: an office scene, art gallery, restaurant. In other words, replicate what we’d like to see through the windows if they weren’t boarded up. Perhaps it’ll spark the interest of someone who could then make that happen with the right investment.
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Brightly colored buildings and trees, silhouettes of people doing activities in the neighborhood i.e gardening, reading under a tree, jump rope, painting mural. Use actual community members to create outlines for silhouettes.
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What about making Industrial installations to mesh with the look of the building. almost an industrial style art studio/living space.
All the material could be recycled and it could be a display for what you could do with recycled materials.
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I would also like to see a mural that represents the diversity of the area but also embraces the Historical significance of Foster Road and its native American foot path origins to the Farm to Market road.
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I like the idea of incorporating historic images of people on the street merging into present day as you wrap around the building. They could be “holding” up the building in various ways to reflect the image of community support from the ground up over time.
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Dang, this is tough, so many good ideas – I like bright colors, maybe a street scene with olde time food carts with brightly colored vegetables, fruits, bright canopies…Vendors in white aprons,ladies with shopping bags, gentlemen with packages and/or walking stick if they are dapper, children playing and being towed by their mothers, dogs chasing bicycles and maybe a horse drawn carriage or taxi..and a modest antique car. Just painting a picture – what ever works….
Yogi
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Foster Time represents the feel of the neighborhood so I voted for that one.
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