What I Have Been Up To Lately

I have spent the last three years working as the Executive Director for Portland Open Studios while building out my art gallery and coffee bar Cambium. With that three year contract coming to an end in December I am finally able to look forward to what my life really looks like as a full time artist and art business owner. I mean it’s nerve wrecking to have to actually pay myself with my business but in all honesty my art practice has greatly suffered. While that was a choice I made and I stand by that choice it has been a relief to be on the home run stretch of returning to the table.

For those of you aren’t artists what this means in plain terms is that I haven’t had the brain energy to work on large full collections of work that require research, time, and consistency. It’s a ritual that requires showing up daily in order to find the real work that often lies underneath all the practice. What I have had the time to do is work nightly in my sketchbooks and sometimes in plein air with my group Bag Kids Plein Air. As my contract is coming to a close I am starting to really visualize what all these tiny pieces of work that I have been making mean together and most importantly where I want to go with it.

One of the things that I have been focused on and yet haven’t quite figured out how it plays into my work is finishing these series of personal collages focused around historical photos of myself and my family. These collages include ephemera from my life and my fathers life as well as marks and photos. In an age of the smart phone we have so many photos constantly at our finger tips. I mean I have over 28,000 on my phone alone. Yet these collages focus on a max of two images for each collage. It’s been a long project having been around for over two years. I know there is something in this journey about family that will come forth in a more extensive creative practice I am just unsure what yet.

Another focus for me has been Gelli Plate Printing, specifically image transfers. I have gone as far to start taking them out with me on my Plein Air adventures as a way of creating a more dynamic and abstract back ground for my sketches. I recently had the privilege of taking two of our Fire Elk Meadows Kickstarter supporters out on a private Plein Air Excursion specifically to see the Salmon moving up river to spawn. And like the wierdo I am I even brought along my gelli plate for some extra fun.

In all honesty it’s still a bit of a blur of excitement and unknowing up in my brain. How will these collages, this plein air practice, and these gelli plates come together in any semblance of order for completed works is still unknown. But I am interested to really hone in on the intersections of it all starting this January.

I have also started to work on the first painters pod for Fire Elk Meadows. It’s the studio I am going to work in and it feels important to be the one personally doing the work of building it. Its a sacred new beginning all around.