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Saturday, April 27, not the first time I've seen this van. I took these photos in Northeast Portland. The van has evolved quite a bit since I first saw it in July, 2007, when I was set up to try to sell some of my arts and crafts at Last Thursday up on NE Alberta. A man in clown face drove it and had a chimpanzee puppet sitting up front with him, looking out the driver's window. You can see versions of the van from 2009 in some photos at the bottom of this post. The owner has rearranged some of the accoutrement.
Here's a closer view for you. No clown face for the driver on this particular ride--I looked closely at the photo in its original size, just to check it out so I could let y'all know.
Pay close attention to the position of the hand on the back window.
Pay close attention to the position of the hand on the back window.
Pay close attention to the position of the hand on the back window. Yep, it's waving bye-bye!
Here's what I found online, by Googling Portland art car van clown, posted August 31. 2011, at Neighborhood Notes Dot Com:
- The Never Never Van Driven by Extremo the Clown (a.k.a. Scott Campbell)
- For many years, Extremo the Clown drove the most noticeable art car in the city of Portland. Extremo—the professional artist Scott Campbell—is known for wearing distinctive clown makeup, driving with performing puppets, singing karaoke, and laughing manically.
“Scott has a little bit of a compulsion,” Emily Hall says, “and the compulsion is clown face.”
Besides his work as Extremo the Clown, Campbell is a successful and prolific graphic artist. His primary form of artistic expression, and income, is painting advertisements in the windows of local businesses.
“Anywhere you go in Portland, you’re going to see these goofy window paintings,” Hall says. “And he makes a really great, straight living off that.”
Extremo the Clown maintains an active presence on YouTube, which hosts videos of his local television appearances, and has shown all types of unique art around town.
Extremo’s well-known car, the MSV, no longer runs. The Never Never Van, his current work in progress, is based on the story of Peter Pan.
These next photos were taken downtown Portland, April 25, 2009. The van had not completely become what you see in the photos above. Still interesting, though. Looks like the ladders he uses to paint ads in store windows are up on top of the van, inside that red metal rack.
The van is heading west on SW Morrison. The MAX Blue Line is heading west to Hillsboro, Oregon, a suburb of Portland.
Two more photos, taken the same day.
There's the Never Never. See in the photos that I took last Saturday, the Never Never is gone from the bumper.
One last one from April 25, 2009. I wonder if the change in adornment facing vehicles driving behind the van came about because this seems so high as to be a detriment in traffic. Maybe I'll run into him sometime and get to ask.
Never mind that I took this photo last February, it perfectly portrays our current weather. Through the rainy Portland Streetcar window, the PICA building looks cool to me. PICA equals Portland Institute for Contemporary Art--it's located at 415 SW 10th Avenue in downtown Portland.
After I had rode the MAX Yellow Line light rail train to the Kaiser Interstate clinic and got my flu shot, I walked outside, crossed the street carefully to the Overlook Park MAX station to wait for a ride back into downtown. I needed to catch the 15 bus on SW Salmon and SW 5th so that I could make it over the Willamette to the Architectural Heritage Center for some volunteer work. When I got off the train, I saw myself in these windows, so I took this photo.
I turned and started to walk north towards SW Salmon. When I looked up while I waited for the traffic signal to change, I couldn't believe that I saw more jet trails. Already I'd seen some from the sidewalk before I left home, from the MAX on the way to the clinic, and now from the sidewalk in downtown. All on a Saturday, too.
Never been here to eat, but I cannot resist a rotating sign! By the way, pay close attention to the walk/don't walk traffic signal image.
Next I walked to the south end of the building to look in the first window there, after I walked around the corner onto SW Stark. I like the perspective of this view which shows those light fixtures and the counter as seen through part of the brass metalwork along the bottom of the arched window. The juxtaposition of the light fixtures with each other intrigued me. 
Curious and still not satisfied that I'd seen all I could see, I moved a step or two and took one more photo through the metalwork on the window--this one. I believe I saved the best for last. Look at that curved counter! The metal supports of the light fixtures! Well, it looks like metal to me. And you can tell that someone's been in there and left a chair and a piece of equipment. Left the lights on, too, thanks be to the architecture-lovin'-gods!
A vintage photo of the building--on the back it says "View looking Northeast at the corner of 6th Avenue and Stark Street showing Old Bank of California Building." and "Bank of California Building (Old), 330 SW Sixth Avenue, Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon, 3 of 8, Curtis Finch photo 1977. West and south elevations. Fletcher, Finch, Farr & Associates, 920 SW Thirteenth Avenue, Portland, OR 97205." From the National Register of Historic Places application for the Bank of California--I could not find the photos online anywhere except in the PDF, so I took photos of the photos with my camera because the thought of not being able to share them with you saddens me immensely. Please do not copy and paste this photo. Thank you. Oh, by the way, notice that curved-topped structure at the right corner of the building--that's what all of the mass transit stops used to look like downtown, on the Transit Mall. I miss them and their shape immensely.
I go this way Monday through Friday after work, but I never get off the bus here--there's no reason--I've only been on it a . At least there wasn't until the day before I got off and took these photos. As we passed by, my back to this side of the street, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that there were lights on inside the building which has not been in use since I moved to Portland in June, 2006, that I know of anyway. Astonished, I swiveled my head from right to left to make certain that I had really seen lights on in the Bank of California. 
