My friend Carye Bye, the super woodcut/painting/letterpress talent behind the Red Bat Press line of cards and prints

two of my favorites from a couple of years ago

is going to be unveiling her newest project tomorrow night: Hidden Portland, an art show and accompanying hand-illustrated book about the museums of the city! Part travel guide, part art extravaganza, it’s a limited edition of 125 copies with a letter-pressed cover in full color, and costs $18. You can see some good peeks here.

From her site:

Portland is home to many amazing but relatively unknown collections of art and artifacts and Bye wants both townies and tourists to have a chance to discover these obscure treasures. Collections such as the Museum of Dental Anomalies at the OHSU Dental School, the Portland Police Museum at the Justice Center (featuring a rapping McGruff Crime Dog from the late 70s!) or the Kidd’s Toy Museum, tucked away in an unassuming gray office building off of SE Grand Avenue, which boasts a whopping collection of nearly 15,000 toys, are typically overlooked by conventional guidebooks. But even the bigger museums have their secrets too, such as an exhibit of preserved human fetuses in OMSI’s Life Science Hall, or the 19th century plaster cast replicas of classic Greek sculptures, including the Venus de Milo, in the Mark Building Lobby at the Portland Art Museum.

As a printmaker, photographer and zine publisher, Carye has never had occasion or inclination to part with her original artwork. This show marks a departure for the artist as she will be exhibiting and selling the original watercolor & ink illustrations painted at each museum, as well as dozens of other small original works which will be replenished throughout the month. A limited edition, special debut release of Hidden Portland: The Museums will be available exclusively at Reading Frenzy.

Carye adds:

The art show will show postcard-sized original illustrations from the museums, some of which will be also in the book. These originals will be for sale. There will also be $10 original illustrations of people and places from around Portland that you can buy immediately. I will be adding new little paintings all of the month of June, so remember to stop by often, and who knows, you might be in the show! I’m a sneaky illustrator.

And don’t forget, Reading Frenzy is the only shop carrying a full line of Carye’s work!

If you go:

Hidden Portland: The Museums
Art Show and Guide Book Release by artist/local museum expert Carye Bye
First Thursday June 4, 6 – 9 pm
Reading Frenzy, 921 SW Oak
If you can’t make the opening, check hiddenportland.com to follow this project…