PORTLAND OPEN STUDIOS

This year marks the ninth anniversary for Portland Open Studios.  Created by nine artists and organizers, Portland Open Studios is a self-directed tour of ninety-eight artists’ studios from one end of the city to the other. For the past two weekends Portland artists opened their doors to the public for a chance to share their love of art, conversation, and more often than not, a plate of cookies. This past Saturday I jumped on my bike and journeyed from my house in the southeast downtown and up north, stone stepping between printmakers, sculptors and painters as far as my legs could take me.

My first stop was Bite studio at SE 7th Ave, headed by Chris Gaslin and George Strider. a printmaking studio where I met artist Shawn Demarest. The studio is home to fifteen printmakers working in etching, relief, and screen print.  The studio is going to celebrate its third anniversary next month. While I wasn’t able to meet Chris or George, I was able to see their work that was hung amidst the other artwork made in the studio on the newly painted walls surrounding their presses, inking tables and drying racks. A few pieces really stuck out to me. Jaqueline Bos’ work, two in particular, titled,  “Armadillo vs. Gazelle” and Folklore Spirits” and a series of collaborative prints Shawn Demarest created with Chris Haberman, Jennifer Mercede, to name two collaborators.

From there I rode north to the studio of Carole Murphy on SE Stark, where her name was being painted on the wall outside as I walked in. Carole, a silver-haired sculptress, has been teaching herself how to work with cement for the past four years.  After working with bronze and glass she started looking for a material where she could have her hands on the end product, autoclaved aerated cement was the solution. She uses forms seen out of the corner of her eye, as well as images from dreams and her surroundings for inspiration. Holding this vision in her mind, an image of something not yet discerned, she begins working the block of cement until it has transformed into oddly familiar organic forms.  She hosts classes in how to sculpt with cement where students explore the possibilities of this material, through experimentation, oftentimes her students teach her as much as she teaches them.  You can learn more at www.carolemurphy.com

Back on my bike, I jumped on the MAX and went north to Chris Haberman’s live-in studio on Interstate Ave, where he’s been since July of last year.  Greeted by his dog and the smell of his girlfriend sautéing onions for that evenings’ main course, meatballs, it was more like a memory I have of coming home from school than a visit to an artists’ studio.  Don’t be fooled by that description though, Chris is an artist in almost every sense. A writer, painter, musician, poet and journalist, not to mention is work as curator, he has a finger in almost every proverbial pie in town. The space was filled to the brim with paintings, all of which were made in the last three months or so. He told me for one of his next projects, he plans to work with a photographer to make portraits together. One paints, the other shoots. I noticed the print he made with Shawn Demarest at Bite studio on the wall. The spirit of collaboration has a strong hold on Portland. While it could be argued that collaboration can muffle and individual voice, sharing good ideas can only bring more good in my eyes. Chris has work up now at The Nest on Alberta St. and will have Christmas ornaments for sale through Gardino on last Thursday in November.

Just down the road is Atelier Meridian, A fine art print shop on N Tillamook, where I met Jane Pagliarulo working on a monotype.  A co-op born one and a half years ago with several full time members all helping to keep it running, one of whom admitted that although he isn’t paying the going rate he “will work for ink”. Atelier Meridian is founded on the idea of collaboration.  Everyone there is working to keep the shop going and donating their presses, equipment and time in order for everyone to continue to make fine art prints. Another way they keep things going and continue to collaborate is through workshops. Workshops are offered in etching, monotype, collagraph, solarplate etching, and more to anyone interested.  This is a great opportunity to try your hand at something new or rekindle your love for print.  You can find out more at  www.ateliermeridian.com

On the MAX I continued north to visit a few artists working out of their homes.  These studios, masquerading, as just another house, would easily go unnoticed if it weren’t for Portland Open Studio’s small yellow sign in the yard. Exhausted from my travels but excited by what I had seen and the great people I’d met, I got on the bus and rested my legs all the way home.  Chances are there’s an artist working in your neighborhood that you’d never know about if it weren’t for Portland Open Studios.

 I saw a tiny fraction of the studios open for this event. I saw only a handful of artists to that interested me but I’m sure that it was just the tip of the iceberg. It can be a daunting, and sometimes disappointing task to weed through everything out there to find what resonates with you, but there is only one way to do it: Get out there and take a look.