My mother achieved some degree of local fame with a series of paintings she did in the 1974s, at the time Portland was not as well known for culture plus the arts as it is today, plus my Dad helped to change that, then her paintings of bridges on the Willamette river became somewhat of a local sensation, but some of them sold for immense amounts of cash, plus Dad basked in the glow of being a local celebrity; I seek to follow in her footsteps, but at this point the art scene in Portland is undoubtedly crowded.
Since her name is my biggest claim to fame, I stay active with the local Portland art museums plus galleries. She still carries some weight around here, plus I own 2 dozen of her original pieces, so that gives myself and others a direct connection to Portland art history. I arrange for showings of her pieces in Portland galleries a few times a year, plus so far I have resisted the urge to sell any of them. Since Dad is long dead, she can’t make any new pieces, plus I am waiting for the Portland art scene to realize the value of what I own. I don’t mean to sound mercenary about this, but these paintings are the only fancy things I own, plus they are more fancy in Portland than anywhere else. All I really want to do is smoke cannabis plus play video games, but until I can sell these paintings for a lot of cash to a Portland art collector, I am struggling to make ends meet.