Photo Chris Freeman

North Park Blocks, Portland, OR video by Chris Freeman

Photo by Chris Freeman

For OCGOPF Lunch Series Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, PA

Performance imprinting body onto American Flag in the mud. Photo by Chris Freeman South Park Blocks, Portland, OR

Photos by Chris Freeman North Park Blocks, Portland, OR

Get your lovely face drawn by a professional amateur portrait artist. Grinning, pouting, emotionless: you choose the face pose you want to be captured on paper. No money required. Just donate a piece of interesting trash in exchange for a portrait. Each portrait only costs 1 trash, so bring multiple trashes and get multiple portraits! North Park Blocks, Portland, OR

Using the vernacular of nature park signage, my plan is to create garden plaques, brochures and an informational kiosk to inform the public about pollinator-friendly native plants and their importance to the local ecosystem and community. This project takes inspiration from the Los Angeles Urban Rangers collective and current projects like the Seattle Pollinator Pathway and Portland’s City Repair. They serve their communities by encouraging city-dwellers to look at their urban landscape as part of the larger ecosystem. I’m also informed by the work of the Olmstead Brothers, whose involvement in the development of the Portland Parks system at the turn of the 20th century influenced the feel of the city that we still enjoy today. The Park Blocks already existed at that time, but the Olmsteads made recommendations that the city reunite the North and South blocks, as well as create green promenades connecting all their proposed nature parks together. They strongly believed that a connection to nature was essential to the health of any city. North Park Block, Portland, OR