Walls around Inner Southeast Portland can be decorated either simply or expressively. A sampling of unique outdoor murals around here presents a variety of styles and images. Not all of them involve paint! For example, a 38-foot long wall fronting 3934 S.E. 31st Avenue provides a colorful mosaic of pottery shards, geode slices, spare tools, and water faucets. Even a cow's jaw is included in the miscellaneous array.
An unusual "glass bottle wall" at 4328 S.E. 25th Avenue displays a collection of colored glass bottles strung along vertical wires that serve as lawn edging. Meanwhile at 3315 S.E. 11th Avenue, a wall (actually a border fence) is made from a collection of old iron piano plates, castoffs from nearby Classic Pianos, at the "gateway to Brooklyn", Powell Boulevard. And, a brick wall at S.E. 6th and Tenino in Sellwood is embellished with green metal leaves and red berries.
A wall on the south side of Creston School is painted with murals by A. Marino Heidel to promote reading, both imaginative and educational. Meanwhile, a Sellwood wall mural painted by Gary Hirsch entitled "What's Your Happy?" provides an array of cheerful robots overlooking the adjacent lunch cart pod at the corner of S.E. 13th Avenue and Lexington Street. These "bots" encourage folks to explore what makes them happy, in these troubling times.
Mosaic walls of different types have been created from concrete or cob, inlaid with pottery shards, such as a public bench at 4339 S.E. 25th Avenue – or others embellished with ceramic pieces, colored glass items, and rock collections. A Sellwood wall at 715 S.E. Spokane Street is highlighted with vertically-stacked wooden "face" images.
All these walls please passers-by, and provide a window into the interests of Southeast neighbors.
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