Staff Picks:

Public Murals and Installations in Portland

Our staff love where they live, and we want to share all our insider tips, tricks, and hot spots that make our city so livable. The sun is starting to come out (you can tell by all the squinting going on around you), and one of our favorite ways to get outside and enjoy the city is by celebrating the gorgeous murals and art installations along buildings across the city. Check out some of our faves! Before you go on your art-filled walkabout, make sure you...

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Ian M. Loves Hippo Hardware's Hippos

From their website, Hippo Hardware is "an eclectic building salvage store specializing in hardware, lighting, architecture and plumbing from 1860-1960. We offer assorted collectibles, trinkets, whatnots, and whoziwhatsits depending on what we get in. The spirit of Hippo Hardware is to rejoice in the individual, the unique, and the original." The murals in question, including the columns with plenty of toga-wearing hippos like the one pictured here, also offer a hippo riding over a rainbow on the garage door. It's just down the street from the hotel, so stop by any time and let these hippo murals put a smile on your face.

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Eden P. Loves "Attitude of Gratitude"

From the SolTerra website: "The image of a woman in a pose of gratitude, with more than 1,000 plants for hair, is a towering advertisement for SolTerra. It’s not just that the firm will shift production of the living wall planters, which are like felt pockets, into the new building. It’s also that the five-story windowless wall on which the painted image sits is one of the green features of the design. The building at Southeast Ninth Avenue and Division, where the road bends away from the Ford Building and goes north now has a 70-foot-tall image painted by London-based muralist Fin DAC." Eden says to stop by, admire the mural, then pop into the delicious cocktail bar Palomar for a sip!

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Josh L. Loves the Portlandia Statue

Portlandia is a sculpture by Raymond Kaskey in 1985, located above the entrance of the Portland Building in downtown Portland, Oregon. It is the second-largest copper repoussé statue in the United States, after the Statue of Liberty. The statue is based on the design of the Portland city seal, depicting a female figure, Lady Commerce, dressed in classical clothes, holding a trident in her right hand and reaching down with her left. The statue is above street level and faces a relatively narrow, tree-lined street. Once, on a street tour, we learned that she was meant to welcome in ships from the Willamette, but she's facing away from the river instead. Oh, well. It's the thought that counts, right? She's badass AF any way!

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Aaron C. Loves "Never Look Away"

Never Look Away is a mural of eight LGBT activists installed at the intersection of Northwest Broadway and Couch Street near the North Park Blocks in northwest Portland's Pearl District. Depicted Oregonians include Rupert Kinnard, an openly gay African-American cartoonist who created the first African-American LGBT comic strip characters; David Martinez, a founding board member of the Q Center and a co-founder of Portland Latino Gay Pride (now called PDX Latinx Pride); and activist and musician Kathleen Saadat. Other national figures include gay liberation activist Marsha P. Johnson and transgender rights advocate Angelica Ross. It's the first public art project in the state dedicated to LGBTQ+ community achievements and progress, which makes it pretty special in our book!

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Katie W. Loves "Capax Infiniti"

Capax Infiniti, or Capax Infiniti (Holding the Infinite), is a 2014 mural by South African artist Faith47, painted on the side of the Carlyle Building, located at 1114 Southwest Washington Street, in downtown Portland, Oregon, in the United States. The mural depicts a slightly disheveled woman looking away from the viewer, and wringing her hands behind her back. The artist said of the work that "I want it to look like it’s been there for a long time. I enjoy working with things that are slightly ghostly. It’s like existing in two spaces at once." Katie likes it because it gives some bondage vibes and evokes an emotional response from her every time she sees it.

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MAKE A NIGHT OF IT

After you take an artistically themed walk around town, hang out on site at Hey Love or Doug Fir Lounge, where you can unwind in the center of it all! Spring at Jupiter Hotel is unparalleled. All we need is YOU.