The camera never blinks and apparently, neither does acrylic paint on black velvet.

Tucked away in Northwest Portland is a museum devoted to the adoration of black velvet paintings. Carl Baldwin and Caren Anderson have amassed the world’s largest collection and for only a five dollar admission, want to share their passion with you.

There are well over three hundred paintings on view at any time that have been grouped by theme. When we attended, there were nudes, celebrity, religious, unicorn, glow-in-the-dark, and Wild West. However, they do have specific shows. Most recently is one called “Black is Beautiful”.

The museum displays the art without any judgment towards the work or the artists. The proprietors trust their patrons to evaluate the pieces themselves. They have everything from the breathtaking to the flat out god-awful.

As an added bonus, if you can identify the celebrity in the painting hanging in the center of this picture, you can win a prize. We guessed Cesar Chavez. We were wrong.