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.