7th Annual Recycled Rain Show

Ford Gallery is proud to host the Recycled Rain Project’s 2018 Exhibition.

Opening Reception
June 2nd
6 PM – 9 PM

The Recycled Rain Project is a Pacific NW based invitational art show creating original works using rainwater to raise awareness of water issues. Since its founding in 2011, The Recycled Rain Project has been dedicated to its mission to increase awareness of local artists and to engage and educate the community on water issues.

A portion of the sale of all works from RR2018 will be donated to Columbia Riverkeeper. For 30 years, Columbia Riverkeeper’s mission is to protect and restore the water quality of the Columbia River and all life connected to it, from the headwaters to the Pacific Ocean.Our strategy for protecting the Columbia includes working in river communities and protecting the people, fish and wildlife that depend on the Columbia River.

Join us for food, drink & art works from a bevy of talented local artists, all created using recycled rain water!

Enjoy the RAINDROPS GALLERY painted by kids at Sellwood Community Center,
and make your own raindrop at our Recycled Rain Painting Station!

2018 Featured Artists

MaryAnn Puls
Marilyn Joyce
Kristy Kun
Kelly Nedig
Clare Carpenter

PLUS new works by our veteran Recycled Rain Artists!

Amy Ponteri, Candace Primack, Di Pinsonault, Jane Levy Campbell, Jennifer Feeny, Jesse Nearns, Jody Katopothis, Jon Wippich, Karen Wippich, Karl Kaiser, Kia Metzger, Kindra Crick, Kristen Hamilton, Laura Weigle, Nanette Wallis, Nate Ethington, Quin Sweetman, Rio Wrenn, Roberta Aylward, Sara Sjol, Shawn Demarest, Theresa Andreas-O’Leary, Zeratha Young

 

Visit the Recycled Rain Store online to view and purchase works from this year’s show!
http://www.therecycledrainproject.org/rr2018store/

 

On view at Ford Gallery
June 2nd – July 1st

www.therecycledrainproject.org
facebook.com/therecycledrainproject
instagram.com/therecycledrainproject

Renée Hartig & Kelli MacConnell

The landscape of our beloved Pacific Northwest is as striking and varied as the work of these two gifted artists.  Exploring everything from stunning coastal vistas to lush native flora in intricate detail, both artists celebrate our beautiful landscape through their own unique talents and techniques.

Opening

Saturday April 28th
6 – 9 PM

@

Ford Gallery
2505 SE 11th Ave
Portland, OR 97202

PLUS!
Live music by the Pagan Jug Band

 

Renée Hartig

Contemporary Landscape Paintings

The land is a steady element in nature that can change both
instantly and can take thousands of years to evolve. I strive for my work to capture the land and sky as they are – moving and changing ceaselessly.

I feel that movement in the land is often lost in works of art, which by nature are fairly static and representative of a snapshot in time. The challenge of capturing this movement is what attracts me to impressionist painting.

Although many impressionist painters set out to capture a single moment, they were also able to infuse their work with a movement that makes the painting feel alive – you can feel their hand working on the painting and see each distinct decision they made through every brush stroke or mark. My goal is to capture that kind of a timeless element and movement – not only in the subject matter but to the application of the paint as well.

By nature, the act of landscape painting itself forces movement. Whether it is hiking to a location, driving across continents, visiting places in the world, or experiencing the new ways the land is formed and pieced together, it all demands physical movement by the artist.

Formally, my paintings are contemporary-impressionistic works. All of my work is done with oil paint on canvas. First I apply my orange tint to the surface. I then proceed with my under-painting and my final layers. My paintings are ala-prima (one session), so I am always working with wet-on-wet paint giving me freedom to move and manipulate the medium. Painting this way allows me to work in one layer, which helps to keep a fresh quality to my work. I also refer to my style of painting as gestural painting because l apply quick, broad brush strokes that gives my work a lot of movement.

My inspirations stretch from impressionist artists like Degas, Toulouse Lautrec, Manet, Monet and Pissarro to painters like Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper. I’m also very interested in printmaking techniques like woodcut prints and screen printing – the use of minimal colors, layering colors and keeping colors separated are all elements I utilize in my work.

Local artist inspirations: Walter Rane, Leiv Fagereng, Fran Kievet, James Shay, Dawn Emerson

Artist Bio

Since graduating from Kendall College of Art and Design, Grand Rapids MI, in 2005 with a Bachelors Degree in Fine Art Painting and studying at SACI in Florence Italy, Renee has been busy pursuing her career as an independent fine artist. She is represented at several galleries in Michigan and in Oregon. She now lives in SE Portland and has been painting full time for almost twelve years.

www.studiohartig.com

Kelli MacConnell

People ask, “Why a print, why not a painting?” On one hand, I enjoy the act of using tools to shape something, but much of the joy rests within the surprise factor—the mystery that unfolds while printing each piece. The many unpredictable factors involved with this art, and its spontaneous process that demands energy, improvisation, gesture, expressiveness, and directness, all contribute to my enduring love for this medium. My current body of work focuses on the expansive, diverse environment of the Pacific Northwest landscape. With the simple use of contrast and minimal color, as well as line manipulation, I strive to create exhilarating compositions inspired by the natural world.

Artist Bio

Captivated by the wilderness since early childhood, artist Kelli MacConnell embraces a unique relationship with nature that continuously sparks her imaginative work. Exploring landscapes with careful observation, she translates her natural surroundings into richly detailed prints. For MacConnell, printmaking serves as a key vehicle in fostering a relationship between humans and the natural world. Through her creations, she strives to show how one person can both exist in civilization and remain connected to nature.

Exploring the outdoors is in MacConnell’s blood. Her childhood road trips to the Smoky Mountains and Lake Michigan beaches were the inspiration for her extensive backpacking excursions as a young adult. While hiking the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine, she tuned into wilderness exploration as both an integral part in understanding the world and an endless fuel source for creativity.

In 2006, after hiking the AT, sections of the Pacific Crest Trail, and traveling the country, she left her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio. Once in Portland, she immersed herself in the vibrant Northwest artist community and Oregon wilderness. Soon after, at Portland State University, she found a love for printmaking, discovering the passion to share nature-driven experiences through artistic pieces. Currently, MacConnell is dedicated to exploring the endless possibilities of printmaking and creating original, introspective art in the hopes that it will speak beyond the frame, fostering a healthier relationship between humans and nature.

www.kellimacconnell.com

On view through May 23rd

RSVP to our Facebook event:  https://www.facebook.com/events/336812363479090/

The Collective: Conversations with Nature

 
Conversations with Nature. Conversations with the creatures of Nature. These dialogues become important catalysts in the journey from Trauma to the new Process. An ongoing language which begins to form a story of a journey, quite possibly the most important of our lives. This is the story of the war we have won by carrying on, in our raw and new normal, discovering a new strength in service, remembrance and continuing. The Collective features work of two local artists and environmentalists and readings by two award winning authors. Each artist has a unique and dynamic history of working with and for nature while simultaneously serving their communities. The common thread is in their ongoing conversations with nature in their life paths of healing in the trauma process and helping others in this experience.
 

Join us for a celebration of the healing powers of nature through art & the written word.

Opening

Saturday March 31st
6 – 10 PM

@

Ford Gallery
2505 SE 11th Ave
Portland, OR 97202

On view through April 25th

 

ARTISTS

Sean Davis

Sean Davis is the author of The Wax Bullet War, a Purple heart Iraq War veteran, and winner of the Legionnaire of the Year Award from the American Legion in 2015 and the recipient of the Emily Gottfried Emerging Leader, Human Rights award for 2016. His stories, essays and articles have appeared in the Smoke, Human the Movie, and Ted Talk Books The Misfits Manifesto. Sean has fought in a revolution, a war, and helped save lives in New Orleans during Katrina. He’s a wild land firefighter during the summers. He has been a police officer, a bartender, an incident responder, a supernumerary in an opera, and currently teaches writing at Mt. Hood Community College and Clackamas Community College. Sean not only encourages communion with Nature, he dedicates life and limb to protect her. Each year you’ll find him bravely situated on the front lines of wildfires across the Pacific Northwest as one of Oregon’s most experienced and decorated firefighters. Sean’s love of Nature and of people is the lifeblood in his particular brand of philanthropy. Sean lives in rural Oregon with his talented wife Kelly Davis and their daughter.
 
Sean is an interdisciplinary artist and writer. Within the Collective Sean offers his series of paintings surrounding trauma, survival and the interconnectedness with Nature.

Blue Pond Series by Sean Davis

Lidia Yuknavitch by Sean Davis

Blue Pond Series by Sean Davis

Jennifer Porter

 Jennifer Porter is a native of Portland and an artist and conservationist. Her early work and focus surrounded spacial theory, the built environment and architecture. She developed and curated ‘Centrifuge’ at Art Institute of Portland. Centrifuge was a study of the interconnectedness between the disciplines of art, art theory and architecture. Centrifuge featured master artist and GBD Architecture founder Chuck Gordon, two of Portland’s leading architecture firms and several of Portland’s local artists. She curated a series of shows in a massive artist run pop up gallery collective, Deep Field Gallery. She served four years on the planning committee of Portland’s largest art auction, The Annual CAP Art Auction, overseeing the installation and multimedia program. Jennifer’s interest began to take a more personal tone in recent years with focus on nature and conservation issues and most recently the process of finding the new normal in trauma recovery. Working alongside her family as habitat restoration specialists, reconstructing damaged habitats, she found an inherent similarity to the power of nature in its rejuvenation and restoration, and the healing we do from traumatic instances in our own lives. She is currently dedicated to assisting high risk youth find their voice and path to their self-empowered new normal.
 
Jennifer brings her sculpture work and a series of photographs of her underwater choreograph work captured by talented underwater photographer and artist Micah Reese. The photography series are of movements illustrating the dynamic of the depth of interpersonal darkness, the bondage of forced narratives designed to keep us in depths of trauma patterns. Finally, releasing bonds and surfacing to the new way of life and a new narrative.

by Jennifer Porter & Micah Reese

by Jennifer Porter

by Jennifer Porter & Micah Reese

READING

Jude Brewer

Jude’s writing has appeared in Retreat West, New Millennium Writings, Fredericksburg Literary Review, Clackamas Literary Review, Scintilla Press, Typishly, and Cultured Vultures. His nonfiction short was a finalist in the 2017 Montana Book Festival, and he was the winner of the 2017 Retreat West Flash Fiction Prize. He also produces and hosts the literary “radio theatre” podcast Storytellers Telling Stories. New episodes available Tuesdays on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, any podcast app, and on sttspod.com

Jason Arias

Jason Arias lives in Portland, OR. You can find some of his previous work in past issues of Oregon Humanities Magazine, Lidia Yuknavitch’s book The Misfit’s Manifesto, Perceptions Magazine, and Storytellers Telling Stories Podcast as well as other publications.

Ford Gallery Presents:
Return of the Love Show!

After a 6 year break, the Ford Gallery dusts off The Love Show!
A show about love! Not just the sappy Hallmark kind of love, but love in all its many forms: The good, the bad and yes, even the ugly!

Join us on February 3rd 2018 from 6 pm to 11 pm for our opening reception, featuring live music & performances, bar & pot-luck, and clothing drive for Transition Projects (See most needed items here: http://www.tprojects.org/).

The Portland Love show seeks to shine some light on the complicated disco ball that is love, dark facets and all. With the Hallmark/florist/jewelry/chocolate conspiracy focusing so much attention (and cash) on romance and sex every February, we aim to create a visual dialogue about love in its many incarnations and interpretations, be it self-love, sorrow, lust, confusion, hope, bitterness, gentleness, deception, romance, imagination, jealousy, true love, young love, love lost, parental, filial, adversarial love, the surrounding abundance of love or love as the unknown….

We invited over 200 artists to make ONE ARTWORK each that looks a little deeper into the mysteries of Love, beautiful and terrible, and explore and expose a little bit more of what love means to them.

Show runs February 3rd-March 12th, 2018

Go to portlandloveshow.com for more details!

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Follow us at @portlandloveshow on Instagram for pics!

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Evan Armstrong
John alex Arnold
Kevan Atteberry
Debra Barcus
Stephen Barker
Shelly Barnett
Brad Barnhurst
Laura Barstow
Carla Bartow
Lisa Bauso
Hannah Bearden
Andrew Beckham
Nicki Beiderman
Zack Blei
Carly Bodnar
Alea Bone
Krystal Booth
Madison Boscole
Arthur Braud
Rachel Brodkey
Lesley Burke
Erin Cadena
Kit Carlton
Richard Cawley
Shelley Chamberlin
Samae Chlebowski
Heather Colibrí
Dayna Collins
New Colony
Robin Corbo
Bridgette Costa
Carey Cramer
Kindra Crick
Joshua Crowell
Sarah Cruse
Larry Cwik
Rocky Darensbourg
Kevin Darras
Heide Davis
Jason Edward Davis
Jeremy Davis
Nancy Davis
Kathryn Delany
Shawn Demarest
Kate DeMellier
Matt diLeo
Shelly Donohoe
Kenya DuBois
Christina B Dynamite
Danny Ebru
Austin Eddy
Kara Edge
Denise Emmerling-Baker
Jaclyn Evalds
Gavin Eveland
Leah Faure
Jenn Feeney
Felicity Fenton
Michael Fields
Samantha Fisher
Dianna Fontes
Julie Forbes
Timothy Furlow
Gigi Gable
Kaemon Ze Gable
Tommy Gaffney
Susan Gallacher-Turner
Stephanie Garber
Alison Gayne
Jennifer Gleach
Dave Gonzo
Carrie Goolsby
Cindy Gordon
Sara “Sepia” Greer
Jennifer Griffo
Judy Haas
Chris Haberman
Deb Hart
Marlena Hatchel
Kathy Hawthorne
Susanna Hayler
Terence Healy
Gail Heymann
Lori Hicke
Elizabeth Higgins
Shawn Patrick Higgins
April Hoff
Jason Hoffman
Alia Hoffman
Lenny Hoffman
Claudia Hollister
Sarah Hooper
Sheridan Horning
The Weak In Review
Faith Jennings
Shannon Carlson + John Fisher
Lucia Johnson
Ari Joseph
Janet Julian
Lea K. Tawd
Clint Kaster
Geo Kendall
Andrew Kern
Kyle Kinsey
Susan Kipp
Sean Kirkpatrick
Jamie Klein
Alena Rose Kness
Trevor Koch
Louise Krampien
Gesine Kratzner
Amy Kuttab
Daniel Landolt-Hoene

Chris Lang
Suzy LaRuffa
Lisa Laser
Aren Lawler
Loly LeBlanc
Sheryl LeBlanc
Anjali LeBoeuf
Jeanne Levasseur
Alexandria Levin
Nicole Linde
Doug Lloyd
Sarah Lopez
Jessica Luera
Emily Lux
Nate Marcel
Barbara Martin
Marybel Martin
Elodie Massa
Lorena (M3AT) Matteucci
Desiree McCormick
Bethany McCraw
Melissa Mcghie
Amy McLain
Ean McNamara
Jennifer Mercede
Todd Molinari
Aimee Moody
Sienna Morris
Angela Morrow
Justin Mortzheim
Thérèse Murdza
Julz Nally
Jonas Nash + Sean Hathaway
April O’Connor
Sarah Owen
Valerie Pace-donley
Ania Palinska
Clementine Palinska
Liz Parker
Kelly Pergande
Robin Phillips Occhipinti
Anthony Pidgeon
Amy Ponteri
Nina Posdamer
Jason Rambo
Anabel Ramirez
Remedios Rapoport
Julie Ratcliff
Jo marie Ray
Peggy Pfenninger Reed
Krystle Rhines
Matt Richard
Shannon Richardson
Sara Rieber
Julianna Roberts
Melody Rockwell
Chelsea Rose
Kalika Rounds
Heather Rounds
Erika Ryn
Sandy Sampson
Melinda Santora
Linda Dalal Sawaya
Alan Scally
Wilder Schmaltz
Alicia Schultz
Carrie Scott
Dale Seachord
Erika Sears
Lucas Servera
Azita Shahgaldi
Katie Shrall
Suzette Shrider
Jenny Siegel
Katie Simpson
Maciej Skrzynski
Raven Skye
Jennifer Smith
Te Smith
Scot Smith
Amy Stoner
Mona Superhero
Quin Sweetman
Max Sympathy
Mia T-Rex
Mrrranda L. Tarrow
Eryn Tehan
Emy Thomson
Anna Todaro
Consu Tolosa
Shelzey Tuffias
Robin Urton
Autumn VanEsso
Sarah Vivoda
Lucia Volker
Finn Von Ragan
Jeffrey Von Ragan
Laurel Von Ragan
Liz Walker
Martha Wallulis
SL Walston
Dona White
Kelly Williams
Valerie Winterholler
Elaine Woehlert
Rio Wrenn
Leslie Yates
Casi Yost
Zeratha Young
Jim Zaleski
Sarah Zecchini
Maria Zorn
Jackie Zweck

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Interested in being one of our fabulous Love Show Volunteers? It takes a LOT of hands to make this show happen, and we’d Love to have you on our team!

http://portlandloveshow.com/2018-volunteer-sign-up/

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Thank you so much to our Sponsors:

Ford Food & Drink
Phoenix Media
Grixsen Brewing Company
Gigantic Brewing Company

And special thanks also to our hosts The Ford Building & Intrinsic Venture!

The Love Show Returns!!!

Alas! The 2018 Love Show is all full, and we can no longer accept any more submissions.

BUT WE STILL NEED YOU!
Are you interested in being one of our fabulous Love Show Volunteers? It takes a LOT of hands to make this show happen, and we’d Love to have you on our team! It’s a great way to meet new people and to be a part of the show.

And, while the walls may be full, we are still accepting submissions for performance/time based artwork so get ready to show your stuff on opening night!

JOIN THE TEAM

 


 

Hello friends of Ford Gallery!

After a six-year break, the Ford Gallery revives “The Love Show,” Portland’s answer to all the pink-themed greeting cards, heart-shaped chocolate boxes and candy hearts that every February brings with it– a place for YOU to make work about Love, and not the couple-focused, heterosexist shiny Valentine’s Day that gets shoved down our collective throats.

The reality is, love is complicated and messy, full of longing and sadness, full of confusion and hope, truth, lies, fakery, glee. Love can break you. So let’s explore love together- make work about loving your pet, lukewarm coffee, those new shoes, your sister, your spouse’s best friend, about not knowing how to love, or loving too much…  it’s up to you, and all work is welcome. Your piece should respond to love, but how it relates needs to be clear only to you. So, make your piece as personal or abstract as you want to.

We are honored to invite the first 200 artists who sign up to make work about Love and to share it with all of us in darkest winter night, and be warmed.

 

With Love,
Sara, Ross, Ben Pink & All of us at Ford Gallery

Self Care: A Group Show On Living Beyond Depression

 
Self care in mental health is hard work that takes constant effort and a good deal of self love. The artists in this exhibit share their experience as neuro-atypical peers while illustrating the tools they use to cope with works inspired by their own personal self care regimen. Artists share their story of depression and discuss methods they have used to live with or overcome depressive symptoms.
 
Through this exhibit, we aim to provide those who are starting out with self care useful knowledge, helpful resources, shared experience, and to see that they are not alone.
 

Participating Artists:

Alexandria Levin
bugsea
Devin Bernard
Doug E. Smith
Elliott Wall
Elodie Massa
Hazel Glass
Jen G. Pywell
Julia Urow-Hamell
Kate Ampersand
M3AT
Melissa Kojima
Michael Espinoza
Mo Alcott
Patricia Kalidonis
Rachel Wallis
Sienna Morris
Wayne Twombly
White Oak
 

OPENING RECEPTION:

November 4th, 6pm-9pm
Ford Building, 2505 SE 11th Ave, Portland, OR 97202
 

SKILLSHARE BOARD
The specifics of depression and self care are different for everyone, and not any single technique can be said to work the same for everyone. On display for the duration of the show, this board is a place for attendees to share their own personal tools in self care with others. These can be common or off the wall. Whatever has worked for you, we hope you’ll share them with us!

Featuring Live Presentations on Self Care:

7:30 pm – Movement and Vitamin D on Depression and SADs by Sadiq Sheraze and Ryan Hansen

Ryan Hansen received his B.S. in Exercise Science from Western Oregon and a B.S. in Biology from the University of Western States. He is currently completing his Doctorate in Chiropractic Medicine and a Masters in Sports Medicine and Exercise Science. Ryan was born and raised in Dallas, Oregon. He is a seasoned athlete and has practiced almost all forms of sports ranging from soccer, baseball, football, dance, and gymnastics. Ryan has a strong passion for the way the human body moves and he inspires to teach people the benefits of movement.

Sadiq Sheraze graduated from Baylor University with a B.A. in psychology and a B.S. in Biology form the University of Western States. He is currently working towards a Doctorate in Chiropractic Medicine and a Masters in Nutrition and Functional Medicine, also from the University of Western States. Sadiq loves everything nutrition and believes health starts with mindset and that food is medicine. He takes a particular interest in Mind-Body Medicine and strives to educate individuals on the interconnectedness of our body systems.

Ryan Hansen and Sadiq Sheraze are currently Chiropractic interns at the University of Western States and the owners of Optimal Alignment, a future healthcare clinic centered around movement, mindset, and nutrition. They educate individuals on how to optimize both your internal and external environments to best serve your goals and your health.

8:00 pm – Mindfulness and Nature on Depression with Brittan Alperin and Sienna Morris

What do the brainwaves of a depressed person look like? How can they be changed?

Brittany Alperin, a behavioral neuroscience graduate student at OHSU, and Sienna Morris, an artist and science enthusiast, will talk about how mindfulness meditation and self-care can not only decrease depressive symptoms, but can also produce measurable change in your brain! Join us for a discussion of Sienna’s journey through mindfulness practice, take a look at how her depressive symptoms and brain waves changed over time, and see the art that this experience inspired.

Fifteen At Ford — Portland Open Studios Preview

 

2017 Portland Open Studios (POS) is upon us, and this month Ford Gallery is pleased to host fifteen Portland Open Studios artists from the surrounding neighborhoods. Catch a glimpse of their work before you visit each of these artists’ studios during POS in October.

Join the artists and gallery staff for an opening celebration, Sept 30, 6-8:30 pm at Ford Gallery, followed by “Last Saturday Salon” an informal, cabaret-style event featuring the show’s artists from 8:30-midnight just downstairs in the venue “Mechanical” (Suite B27).

Featured Artists:

Kirk Weller
Alexandria Levin
Serena Barton
Jill Torberson
Wayne Jiang
John Fisher
Shannon Carlson
Karl Kaiser
Kelli MacConnell
Thérèse Murdza
Diane Russell
Jeanne Fries
Jeanne Henry
Amy Ponteri
Annamieka Hopps Davidson

Show dates: Sept. 30 – Oct. 25.
Hours: Daily, 9 am – 6 pm

Facebook Event:  https://www.facebook.com/events/123868598273917

Event photo: “Formation,” 48×60 inch, mixed media. By Shannon Carlson

Call To Artists – Self Care: On Living Beyond Depression

Call To Artists

The Ford Gallery is currently accepting art submissions for “Self Care”: A Group Art Show showcasing the tools we use to manage depression. Self care in mental health is hard work that takes constant effort and a good deal of self love. The artists in this exhibit share their experience as neuro-atypical peers while illustrating the tools they use to cope. We are looking for work inspired from your own personal self care regimen. Accepted artists are encouraged to share their story of depression and to discuss methods they have used to live with or overcome depressive symptoms.

Through this exhibit, we aim to provide those who are starting out with self care useful knowledge, helpful resources, shared experience, and to see that they are not alone.

Each accepted artist will be allowed up to 3 pieces of 2D, 3D or textile artwork. Both new & pre-existing artwork fitting the “Self Care” theme will be considered. Please provide 3 examples of your work and a brief bio.

Submissions are due Friday, October 20th.

Subimission Form:
https://goo.gl/forms/X0tGnopyEHJYshMe2

‘Self Care’ opens November 4th.
Artwork drop-off November 1st & 2nd.

Please contact [email protected] or [email protected] with any questions.

Nathan Orosco: Wheel On Fire

Join us for a solo exhibition of installation & sculptural works by artist Nathan Orosco.

Opening Reception
August 26th
6-9 PM

This work is based on formal concepts of the wheel and its metaphorical representations of invention, dominance and economic industry.
Wheel On Fire is a way of stating organized chaos and predictable outcomes.

-Nathan Orosco

 

About the Artist

Nathan Orosco was born in Odessa, TX and received his B.A. in Studio Art at The University of Texas of the Permian Basin in 2000 and his M.F.A in Sculpture at Washington State University in 2002. He is currently an Instructor of Art at Mt. Hood Community College where he teaches sculpture and drawing. Nathan Orosco’s work has been exhibited nationally including exhibits at the Museum of Arts Culture in Spokane WA and the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, TX and is currently represented by Blackfish Gallery in Portland, OR. He lives and works in Gresham, OR.

Show on view through September 27th.

 

Prophet
bronze, copper, steel, stainless steel 14" x 16" x 67" 2017 $3700

Prophet
bronze, copper, steel, stainless steel 14" x 16" x 67" 2017 $3700

I Was Running
paper, glass, foam, plaster 2012 $6200

Moon Face Alchemist
bronze, copper, steel, stainless steel, paper, ink, yellow cedar 20" x 22" x 100" 2017 $4550

Moon Face Alchemist
bronze, copper, steel, stainless steel, paper, ink, yellow cedar 20" x 22" x 100" 2017 $4550

The Arrangement
bronze, steel, aluminum, piano 2012 $8500

Scales and Shells (photo series)
digital photo print 20"x30" 2017 $600

Timed
digital photo metallic print 20"x30" 2017 $675

Timed
digital photo metallic print 20"x30" 2017 $675

Miner with Light
bronze, aluminum, steel 2017 10” x 10” x 22” $4,800 (without pedestal)

*Works courtesy of Blackfish Gallery*

Mad Pursuit: Exploring Science through the Lens of Art

A Sci-Art group exhibition curated by Sara McCormick, featuring NW artists:

Kindra Crick
Julian Voss Andreae
Elise Wagner
Lawrence Morrell
Sienna Morris

Opening Reception
Saturday, July 29 from 6 PM – 9 PM

The search for understanding is not finite. It is ever changing.

As science has become more accessible and present in our lives, artists have found a rich universe of ideas and imagery to explore. The development of new and greater technology has provided both scientists and artists with the tools to delve deeper into the nature of our own universe, sometimes even outside the realm of human vision. We are bombarded with news of scientific discoveries, it seems, almost daily. This flood of information can be both exciting and daunting. As a layperson, and from a broader cultural perspective, how do we process all this new information?

These Portland-based painters and sculptures draw their inspiration from science, including the study of anatomy, neuroscience, quantum physics, astronomy and biomimicry of nature. Through their own research and artistic insight, each lends a unique perspective to their chosen subject. Transforming theoretical concepts and scientific data into works that are both intriguing and informative.

Not only does science provide a wealth of inspiration for artists, the two practices have more in common than most people realize; both are about process, discovery, and a quest for understanding. By bridging the disciplines of art and science, we hope to create an exhibit that is beautiful as well as enlightening. We hope to show our viewers the power of wonder and the surprising connections between visual art and science.

PLUS live performance by Shannon Entropy!

The gallery show will be accompanied by live music starting at 8 PM, while EEG brainwaves are recorded LIVE from listeners and displayed on screen!
 
How does brain activity change in response to music? What patterns can you see? Learn more at: EPSPs Entropy

ARTISTS

Kindra Crick

My work explores the intersection between the ‘two cultures’ of science and art which share a common wonder for the creative possibilities of the material and natural worlds. Trained both as a molecular biologist and as a painter, I’m fascinated by the human brain–our complex machine–which can fathom the beginning of time and the nature of its own thought. Even so, after centuries of study, neuroscientists are only now starting to chart the mysterious biological map of our cognition.

My goal is to visually express the mystery and process of scientific inquiry in my layered mixed-media objects through the incorporation of diagrams, data, maps, molecules and microscopic images which are then incised, written upon, erased or scraped back to previous layers. An artistic rendering of scientific information requires an acceptance of the inherent and often unpredictable nature of discovery: my art investigates how and where these worlds might intertwine and mingle.

Across my work, spherical constellations of connections cluster and collect like seeds or viruses. These forms spread across the surface, traveling beyond the confines of the figures that generate them. Although our memories are vulnerable, humans have transcended that fragility by binding ideas together and allowing them to live outside the confines of our mind by passing them on with language and art. Some memories and ideas are worth keeping. Do not erase.

In some pieces there is a figure of a phrenology head, a debunked theory and practice that mapped character and mental abilities to the bumps on a person’s head. This image is a reminder that science searches at the limits of its ability to observe. Neuroscience is a burgeoning field of study that no longer treats the brain like a black box. Still, we currently observe neural activity in the human mind indirectly and only look at functionality more directly in other animals. We learn more each day about activity and structures at a cellular level, but we still have a long way to go, building on the ideas that others have brought together, written down, and passed on.

My interests lie in the biological bases of what seem visceral and intangible — ideas, empathy, creativity, and memory. I follow cutting edge research with all its missteps and conjecture. My ideas for work stem from lectures I’ve attended or articles I’ve read which I allow to percolate until inspiration finally rises to the surface of my creative process. Artists and scientists share a curiosity for the world and a willingness to tread into uncharted territory all while observing what others miss. This is why I’m not only interested in replicating images from science, but my desire is to amplify the unknown and give shape to human curiosity and thought.

The Mad Pursuit

One of the greatest mysteries of the mind is our memory, the ability to time-travel and use recollections, whether conscious or not, to shape our future choices. At our core, when we think about who we are, we rely on a narrative we remember, the treasured memories we hold dear: grandparents, a summer adventure or the electricity of first romance. Depending on your age, you might have held onto these memories for just a few years or for several decades. Instinctively we know our memories are only a shadowy artifact of our original lived experience, and one which has been distorted over time. In some ways memories have a life of their own: their own trajectory, their own constant shape-shifting, their ebbing and flowing in time. Many have no narrative, but rather are more an influence over fears and feelings.

As Eric Kandel, a remarkable memory pioneer in brain science, has stated, “Has it ever struck you… that life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going? It’s really all memory…except for each passing moment.”

With books, photographs, and works of art, we create touchstones in our lives by committing a thought to paper or etching an image in time, creating a physical substrate that will lock in connections, fleeting thoughts or a visual representation of a person, place or encounter. But how our brain recalls and maintains the constellations of the interconnected details of our life decades after those connections were made is still a mystery. How do specific brain structures, such as the hippocampus and other parts of the medial temporal lobe, somehow bind together, consolidate, and enable recall of our declarative memories? What molecular mechanisms lock in our long-term memories, these neural echoes of our experience? Scientists believe that increases in the strength of synaptic connections are critical for memory formation. How flexible are they and how do they change over time and as we age? We also know that sleep plays a role in the consolidation of memory, which is essential for learning new information, but again the exact mechanisms are not entirely understood. Sleep can extract the emotional gist, the rules or the essence of declarative memory as well as enable us to better recall procedural memories such as the fingering of a song on the piano or the most effective way to launch a shot put.

I’ve always been curious about how our minds learn and remember. During the fall of 2015, I had a chance to work with Dr. John Harkness as part of a collaboration through NW Noggin, a Pacific Northwest neuroscience outreach group. Dr. Harkness is a postdoc fellow in the lab of Dr. Barbara Sorg at WSU, where he investigates the role of perineuronal nets in memory and cocaine-relapse behavior. These extracellular structures are thought to be important in maintaining neuroplasticity, the ability to form and reorganize synaptic connections, in response to learning and experience. Our collaboration inspired an immersive art installation, a forest of towering neurons, magnifying and reimagining the hidden molecular structures of the mind. This illuminated Cerebral Wilderness aimed to evoke the wonder of discovery and offer an imagined vision of the spectacular biological machinery which comprises the very core of our memories and our essential sense of self.

Developed in tandem to this installation, I started a series of mixed media paintings building up layers and imagery on a series of chalkboards. My goal was to call attention to the quest to unlock the mysteries of the human mind and the fragility of our memory. I started by building and erasing layers of written ideas and recollections, leaving a patina of dust or a gist of what was important. With a chalkboard, it’s so easy to edit the surface, leaving some parts while erasing others. The longing for permanence in this delicate matrix is explicitly stated in the chalked-on words ‘Do not erase.’ Memory, the scientific method, and the changeable surface of a chalkboard allow for iteration and change. There is value in rewriting and even in forgetting; this process enables us to learn and adapt to new experiences in our ever-changing world.

Lawrence Morrell

The elegance of the nearly invisible world of molecular biology defines Morrell’s artwork. His innovative sculptures describe reimagined life forms in luminous and intricately textured glass. He is preoccupied by the new science of synthetic biology. Similar to the way scientists may reengineer an organism’s function by rearranging its genetic structure, Morrell uses computer software to reorganize images from the natural world to use in his work. His fused and carved glass sculptures are informed by these images, describing a refined surface of dense, organic textures in this very solid yet translucent material.

Morrell was born in Oregon and spent 15 years in New York City creating sculptures for Cartier, Saks 5th Ave. and a two story glass facade for the Milennium at Times Square Hotel. Collaborating with other artists, he created the New York Vietnam Veterans War Memorial in carved, illuminated glass. He was interviewed on National Public Television on The McNeil Lehrer News Hour about the experience. In 1995 he moved to the vibrant West Coast art glass community in Portland, Oregon, creating sculptures for VISA International and an actively illuminated, 30 foot long horizontal sculpture for The Portland Center for the Performing Arts. Inspired by the lush, botanical diversity of Oregon, he created a glowing, spiral glass staircase. The transparent steps were hollowed out with a pine tree branch and needle motif and filled with thousands of illuminated fiber-optic strands that softly undulate with color.

Morrell is currently exhibiting at the United States Embassy in Doha, Qatar as a part of the Art in
Embassies program and has taught art in Switzerland and New Zealand. His sculptures and art
installations are collected nationally and internationally.

The Mad Pursuit

I am interested in the structures of minute, living organisms that surround us but are invisible to the naked eye. These elegant textures have been refined by evolution over millions of years into the most efficient shapes for each organism’s purpose. Now, scientists are starting to redesign these living organisms using the new science of Synthetic Biology. This scientific frontier, which has the power to solve many of humanity’s current and future problems, excites my imagination and informs the current direction of my work.

To create my sculptures, I combine images from the natural world, the bio-sciences and my own photography with other forms into my own, newly imagined bio-organisms. I use computer programs to synthesize different images and textures using a modified photolithographic process. I then reductively carve these two dimensional images into colored layers of melted glass, creating translucent and intricately textured bas relief sculptures.

Some of my artwork is characterized by organic webs of spherical cell textures that are deeply incised into luminous glass, others by intricately laced insect wing structures that seamlessly morph into the faceted surface of an insect’s eye, mirror imaged and abstracted.

In the future I want to explore this subject matter further, particularly as it relates to the way living organisms use light at the cellular level, and the new research field termed Optogenetics, in which scientists use light to change cells in living organisms. The pace of scientific developments is accelerating and provides me with new and challenging opportunities for visual exploration of the natural world at its most elemental level.

Sienna Morris

“Numbers are beautiful. If they aren’t beautiful, nothing is.” Paul Erdõs

Every mark in my work is a number or an equation drawn by hand.

I am not a mathematician, I am not a scientist, and I have no real artistic training. If you gave me a multiple choice question about education, I would tick off the little box next to “some college”, and even then I would just barely qualify. I’ve come to my love of science organically, and I’ve never known any other way to be than an artist. I’m self taught in most everything I do, so I’ve really made a career of being curious and persistent.

My pieces take me an average of 200 hours to draw and upwards of a year to research. My media is pen, pencil or color pencil on paper or etchings on scratchboard, metal or glass. I use the smallest nibs I can find and often work under a magnifying glass.

Without a math or science background, studying things like the body and brain can be daunting. I have found that illustrating what I’ve learned with data that define the subjects function, connects me to it in a meaningful way and provides me with a lasting memory of the material. As an artist and science enthusiast, it is impossible to learn and not be inspired. This work is my way of sharing that awe and love with you as it continues to motivate me to study and learn about subjects that may seem out of reach, given my background.

The Mad Pursuit

Anatomy and Physiology

The pieces you see here are from my ongoing series on the body and brain. My research into this series included hands-on research in dissection and microscopy in my humble little ad hoc home lab as well as online open course ware, text books and the Internet. My long term interest is in the brain, consciousness and mental health. I decided to start with physiology and move my way “up” as it were. These pieces are drawn entirely with numbers and equations relating to how the body functions, from math used to calculate the health of a human heart to equations explaining how a neuron fires and how that signal is sent along axons throughout the central nervous system. Full descriptions accompany each piece and are included with any purchase.

Julian Voss-Andreae

Contemporary technology is ushering in a new era for sculpture, comparable perhaps only to the invention of metal casting during antiquity. In my work I draw cutting-edge approaches from very diverse fields to re-imagine the ancient art of figurative sculpture. My goal is to convey elements of our spiritual essence and open our eyes to the miraculous nature of the underlying nature of reality.

I started out as painter in my youth and later switched to physics. I studied at the universities of Berlin and Edinburgh, and did my graduate research participating in a seminal experiment probing the foundations of quantum physics in one of the world’s leading research groups at the University of Vienna. My science training enables me to take advantage of the latest technologies to achieve my artistic visions. But most importantly, my first-hand experience of the enigmatic nature of reality has provided me with key cultural insights, informing my path ever since. Contrary to our strongly held prejudices about the workings of the universe, there simply is no ‘reality’ out there that is independent of us. Similarly, the divide we perceive between us and the rest of our world turns out to be an illusion: Ultimately, we cannot separate ourselves from each other and the rest of the universe, both in a physical sense as well as when it comes to our actions. These kinds of ideas were well-known for millennia in certain Eastern spiritual traditions but in the West they appeared only relatively recently, at about the same time as non-representational art emerged in the early twentieth century. Quantum physics came as a complete surprise even to its discoverers and it stands in striking contrast to the old (and still absolutely predominant) ‘Newtonian’ paradigm, the mindset of separating subject and object, of detaching ourselves from nature, and of dividing the world into small parts assuming this will lead to an understanding of the whole. Art is holistic in its very essence, both when we create it, as well as when we consume it. And art provides the seeds for our future. Before our future happens, we have dreamt it up. And the central place where we, as a collective mind, dream up our future, is in art. It is therefore critical to harness the transformative powers inherent in art to get to the future we want. I believe a cultural change comparable in depth to the Renaissance is imminent. The urgent need for a paradigm shift is most obvious in our reckless attitude toward our environment; we are jeopardizing our future by rapidly making our planet uninhabitable. Art is a powerful driver of the cultural and spiritual change desperately needed. The lessons of quantum physics offer us a glimpse of a different way of dealing with each other and dealing with our world and I feel it is critical that those embryonic ideas get out into the cultural mainstream. My work is a reminder of our fundamental connectedness, giving tangible expression to the vital paradigm shift from Newtonian separation to a renewed connection with Nature.

The Mad Pursuit

Science has inspired my work since my days as an art student when I began to create sculptures based on the form and function of proteins, the molecular building blocks of life. Throughout my art studies I also retained a strong interest in the field that had most fascinated me as a scientist: quantum physics and its philosophical implications. Quantum physics is the scientific foundation of practically everything we encounter in the world, ranging from virtually every aspect of current high technology to the miracle of life itself. Despite its overwhelming importance and its fundamental status in science, quantum theory remains philosophically extraordinarily problematic.

With our intuitions schooled within the paradigm of classical physics, we tend to assume that reality has definite properties, regardless of whether or not there is anyone around to observe them. This view, called “objective realism,” turns out to be incompatible with quantum theory. For example, there is no accurate space-time representation of, say, an electron: It is neither a particle nor a wave nor any other “thing.” So, when attempting to visualize concepts from quantum physics, there is a danger in presenting artificially concrete representations without making sure they are correctly understood as only a facet of something more complex or as something altogether different. There is always a danger of taking any image or model too literally. Using images in science or philosophy to illustrate states of affairs is generally a two-edged sword, because it is essential for the audience to know the limits of a picture and use it with discrimination and intelligence. With that caution, I believe that art in general, especially once we dispense with the requirement that it visually represent reality accurately, is uniquely capable of instilling an intuition for the deeper aspects of reality that are hidden to the naked eye. The ability of art to transcend the confines of logic and literal representation, and to offer glimpses of something beyond, can help us open up to a deeper understanding of the world. This way, art can help wean us from the powerful grip that the worldview of classical physics has had on our every perception of reality over the past centuries.

In quantum theory, matter is mathematically described as a wave, and therefore each portion of moving matter is associated with a specific wavelength: the distance between two consecutive waves. My former group leader Anton Zeilinger once remarked jokingly that the fact that the wavelength associated with a typical walking person happens to be approximately the Planck length cannot possibly be a coincidence. This comment made me think about what such a wave-function might look like, and a few years later I created a series of sculptures inspired by this idea. Modeled in the shape of a stylized human walker, Quantum Man consists of numerous vertically oriented parallel steel slabs with constant spacing to represent the wave fronts. The slabs are connected with short pieces of steel. These irregularly positioned connectors between the regularly spaced slices evoke associations with stochastic events and, more concretely, with the formulation of quantum mechanics in terms of path integrals. When approached from the front or back, the sculpture seems to consist of solid steel, but when seen from the side it visually disappears almost completely. This fascinating effect offers a range of possible interpretations. In the context of quantum physics–inspired art it is natural to see Quantum Man as a metaphor for the wave-particle duality, the phenomenon that all matter exhibits wave-like or particle-like properties depending on the experimental question we ask: Quantum Man’s particle-like concreteness when seen from the front shifts to wave-like near-invisibility when the sculpture is viewed from the side.

The simultaneous advent of quantum physics in the sciences and the rise of modernism in the arts in the early 20th century marked a profound shift in the cultural evolution of humankind. The uneasiness many of us experience when dealing with either illustrates how little we have grappled yet with the consequences of this paradigm shift. The sculptural work presented in this article aims to explore the character of this shift by transforming ideas that emerged in the isolated intellectual realm of quantum physics into art that evokes a sensual experience. My hope is that my work will help to lift those ideas into the sphere of our collective consciousness and aid us in intuiting the unfathomable deeper nature of reality.

Elise Wagner

The physical wonders of the world spark my imagination, and as an artist, I feel compelled to respond through the creation of art. My work, like science, manifests through discovery, learning and remaining open to new ways of understanding and interpreting the world around us.

As an artist, I feel a strong responsibility to transcend and distill human concerns through my art making. The narrative for my work combines contemporary contrasts found in nature and science as its template and is created by way of continual unearthing in both concept and materials.

My studio practice is fluid and multidisciplinary and explores the contradictions between chaos, the indifference of nature and the human impulse to comprehend through exploration. Using four mediums, encaustic and oil painting, drawing and printmaking, the work weaves a continuous thread. I work as if I am navigating an uncharted path, facilitating a conversation between all disciplines.

The Mad Pursuit

The revelations of science are available to us all, and as an artist, I am interested in melding my understanding and curiosity about these discoveries with my chosen materials. All branches of science – astronomy, physics, meteorology, geology, biology and environmental – have provided me with an evolving visual vocabulary of my own.

Science isn’t just for scientists; it is the discovery of the natural world, manifest and understood through observation and experimentation. Creating art works much in the same way. For artists, concepts are borne through observation, and often executed by means of experimentation and discovery in materials. Artists throughout history have played an essential role in interpreting the world around us. Art has the power to express a deep and profound understanding of human activity in society, nature, technology, culture, science, climate and geo-politics.

Two underlying ideas that have always dwelled in my creative consciousness and have motivated me to continue creating art, are the human impulse for order amidst the indifference of nature, and how we as humans have impacted nature and the environment.

Some of the works I selected for this exhibit use the word “transits” or “collision” or “collider” in their titles. These are references to particle movement, and to the images that are revealed through sophisticated technology and the gathering of data. Several bodies of my work have addressed neutrino particles; event horizons, solar flares, storms, the Pluto Flyby, gravitational waves and the receding ice shelves. The contemporary relevance of these events has coincided with my artistic development.

Artists have the power to transcend. The narrative that I take with subjects specific to my work combines existing contrasts found in nature and science in an attempt to distill the unknown, unseen and incomprehensible into visual art.

 

Exhibition runs through August 23rd.