After All

The ongoing art tour takes us back to Gateway Transit Center again; this time we're looking at After All, the trio of rounded stones outside the Oregon Clinic building. This was created in 2010 (when the clinic building went in) by artist Jonathan Bonner, who also has what might be the world's silliest Twitter account. Here's the RACC description of the sculpture:

Working with the confines of the triangular landscaped area, the artist created three identical granite ellipsoids that emanate from a single point underground. The forms suggest several things: flowers, seeds, or a sitting figure. It is not intended to be conclusive, but rather leaves the viewer to draw his or her own meaning from the piece.

As you can see here, at least one viewer saw it and drew the meaning "park bench". It's about bench height, in an area where people expect benches, so I bet this isn't rare. And no, I didn't try to shoo the guy away so I could get a better photo. That would be a fun conversation: "Hi, I run a weird little blog you probably haven't heard of, and I'm going to need you to move so I can take some photos of the art you're sitting on. Ow! Ow! Stop punching me!"

Feathers

At Portland's Gateway Transit Center, three giant blue feathers twist in the wind atop 20' poles. Feathers was added as part of the MAX Red Line project, and TriMet's Red Line art guide has this to say about it:

The Gateway "Feathers" by Frank Boyden consist of three 14-18' long painted aluminum feathers that track the wind atop 20' poles. The feathers, which are visible from the I-205 freeway, the bike path and the train, create a landmark for the transit center and signify the start of the airport line with a bright and colorful allusion to flight.

Boyden also co-created the Interactivators along the WES line.

The main problem with Feathers is that it only makes sense if you realize it arrived with the aviation-themed Red Line, and you'll only know that if you Google it. Gateway is really busy most of the day and the feathers are in a fenced-off area, and (typically for TriMet) there doesn't seem to be a sign for it. So it's just going to be a mystery for almost everyone who notices it. Although I often wonder whether anyone other than me bothers noticing this stuff. (I just might be, if Google results are any indication.) Still, transit art is something to look when if your bus is late, I guess, or when the train's out of order again.