Yes, you read that right…Velveteria … as in paintings on black velvet!  How kitsch!  There is actually a museum in SE Portland called The Velveteria and Portland Firefly has been there.  With a $5.00 admission ticket you are transported back to the artful medium of painting on velvet that started in the 30′s and continued on through the 80′s reaching a peak sometime around the early 70′s.  Yours truly actually has two velvet paintings, but they are on blue velvet and I painted them myself (which is why I still have them).  They are of a regal couple from India;  he has a draped turban and she is bejewled and exotic. They have been in a box for the last 20-some years and probably deserve to be on display somewhere, but they just don’t fit into my current homes decor.  

Which brings us back to the museum.  They have over 2,500 paintings which they rotate so that there are about 400 on display at any one time.  Caren & Carl say that they never stop collecting and have taken numerous trips just to add to their growing collection.  There are paintings of Elvis, beautiful South Sea Island girls, The Duke – John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, an entire wall dedicated to religious art, one that I thought that looked somewhat like Lauren Bacall, lots of unicorns, the infamous “Dogs playing poker”,  and many others too numerous to mention.  They even have a “black -light” room where those paintings are designed to be viewed under back-lights.  Even the rug in there is a black light rug!

The only draw back is that I wished they had more paintings on display because they were really fun to look at.  Check out the Velveteria at www.velveteria.com, and allow about 30-45 minutes for your visit.  Make sure any children are not offended by nudes because there are a lot of them in this museum — the subject matter just sort of goes with velvet painings and I didn’t find any of them offensive.