The Story:

Once upon a time a terrible sickness spread across the land and the people called it Pandemic and they hid away in their homes for 15 months. Finally Science rode in on a white steed and tamed the beast they had named Covid, and the people rejoiced because they were safe to leave their homes and see other people again. The curious thing is what happened to all the people during the 15 months they cocooned alone in their homes.

Some people learned to make pasta from scratch. Some people watched screens too much, some walked everyday, and some wrote and wrote. Others took up painting or pottery or built things from wood. Some people ate too much, and some didn't get enough to eat. Everybody had their own story about what happened to them during the Pandemic.

There was a lady who had to work from home. She suddenly had too much Time because she lost her commute and couldn't go anywhere anyway because everything was closed. So she looked at that Time, and she decided not to kill it. She decided to use it instead. So she bought a lot of clay and expanded her tiny workspace. She worked very hard to become a better ceramic artist. Pretty soon she ran out of room for all those things she made with the clay. So she decided that once Science had tamed Covid, she would invite people over to see her pottery studio and if they liked her ceramic art, she would sell it to them.

During those 15 months a family moved in across the street. One day they put up a sign that said, "Art Sale," so the lady crossed the street to check it out. She learned the father was an oil painter and muralist. She suggested he join her on July 11th and host a summer studio tour & art sale the same day. He said yes.

Pretty soon the lady had the idea that there might be other artists on her street, so in May she went door to door and found six more artists. Then she bought the domain name "Artists On Amherst" and built a website, which you are looking at right now. She invited two nearby ceramic artist friends to show their pottery at her house on July 11th too, and encouraged all the artists to send her their photos and info for this website.

The rest of the story goes something like this...

All of the artist neighbors displayed their beautiful artwork on tables and chairs in front of their houses on North Amherst Street on July 11th, and the lady and her neighbor across the street opened their studios for art-curious people to see what a real pottery studio and a real oil painting studio look like. Some of the neighbors held yard sales to celebrate the day too.

The people were so excited to leave their homes and go somewhere, that they came in droves from all over metro Portland to the 6600 block of N. Amherst Street on July 11th. Some of them were so happy to meet artists and see beautiful handmade art that they wanted to bring some home. So they bought the artwork to support local artists. The artists were so happy that they decided they should host "Artists On Amherst" every year. They scheduled July 10, 2022 right away, the second Sunday in July, and they set a goal to host "Artists On Amherst" every second Sunday in July.

Everybody lived happily every after, and this is a true story.

THE END