Amy Steel
Amy Steel is an artist and educator living in Portland Oregon. She is currently doing an artist residency at a Portland elementary school and teaching at PNCA and PSU.
“Imagination gives us images of the possible that provide a platform for seeing the actual, and by seeing the actual freshly, we can do something about creating what lies beyond it” – Elliot Eisner www.amy-steel.com
SnackBar is a project where participants make drawings in exchange for snacks. The following photographs were taken at Bumbershoot festival in Seattle in September 09 where SnackBar recieved over 850 drawings.
Ariana Jacob
Ariana Jacob makes artwork that uses conversation as medium and as subjective research method. Her work explores experiences of interdependence and disconnection, questions her own idealistic beliefs, and investigates how people make culture and culture makes people.
Recent works include a conversation space inside a tent for people to discuss the American tradition of breaking with tradition, a series of original serenades made by musicians in conversations with selected visual art, an interactive poster project inviting and illustrating ongoing public dialogues. She collaboratively produces Portland Stock, an ongoing public dinner party and democratically awarded artist grant, with Katy Asher and Amber Bell.
Ariana has exhibited work and organized events at apexart, Betonsalon, The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s Time Based Arts Festival, The Portland Art Museum, Gallery Homeland, SEA Change Gallery, The Department of Safety, Southern Exposure; and in many public places.
Projects:
Conversation Station is an informal conversational research project where Ariana invites people in public places to sit down and discuss what they think about unsettling but ordinary subjects, including American relationships to history, why liberals and conservatives disagree with each other, and death.
The Serenades: Musical conversations between humans and artworks.
The Serenades were a series of performances by Portland based musicians for the Shine A Light event at the Portland Art Museum. Ariana invited each musician to compose an original piece of music specifically for an artwork of their choice from the museum’s permanent collection. The performances explored creating direct and personal relationships with visual artworks using different forms of music, including pop, electronic, spoken word/hip hop and classical.
Original songs written and performed by
Mirah
Joe Preston of Thrones
Honey Owens of Valet
Khaela Maricich of The Blow
Christopher Doulgaris of Hooliganship & Jonathan Sielaff
Drew Slum & Blacque Butterfly
Stock is a public dinner event and presentation series, which uses direct democracy to fund artist projects. Diners pay a modest $10 for a meal of homemade soup and other local delicacies, and the chance to vote on which artist proposal will receive the evening’s proceeds. The dinner’s profits immediately become the artist grant, which is awarded according to the choice of the diners. Winning artists present their completed work at the following Stock dinner. Inspired by Incubate’s Sunday Soup program.
Collaboration with Katy Asher and Amber Bell
Avalon Kalin
Interdisciplinary artist and educator Avalon Kalin explores consciousness and relationships through idiosyncratic project work. Most often originating from the particular interests and anecdotes of himself and those around him, Kalin’s work provokes and embodies a spontaneous reverie of the experiences that comprise contemporary life. Artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles has described Kalin’s work as “marking the world by looking at it.” He lives in Portland, Oregon. artist’s website: avalonkalin.com
Kalin recently launched a project to explore the creative and documentary possibilities of House music and is compiling a book of graffiti removal from around the world with film maker Matt McCormick to be published this year.
images copyright the artist except where noted: Losing Illusions (Autzen Gallery, 2009), Stranger Moments at the Museum, photo copyright Motoya Nakumura (Portland Art Museum, 2009), Breakthrough — Neighborhood Projects (Time-Based Arts Festival, 2009)
Eric Steen
Eric Steen lives and works in Portland, Oregon. His work explores leisure, pedagogy, and microtopias through socially engaged projects. He has exhibited work and facilitated events in galleries and public venues including: Apexart in New York, NY; Portland Art Museum in Portland, OR; Klondike Institute for Art and Culture in the Yukon Territory, Canada; PICA Time Based Arts Festival in Portland, OR; Ox-Bow in Saugatuck, MI; California College of Arts in San Francisco, CA; Portland City Hall, Igloo Gallery, Disjecta, and Worksound Gallery in Portland, OR. As a supplement to his work, Eric runs beerandscifi.com. His work will be published in Paul Butler’s book, Lateral Learning, through Vantage Art Projects. Eric was a panelist at the San Francisco MoMA as part of the Art and Participation: 1950 to Now exhibition and recently presented at the Foundations in Art: Theory and Education (FATE) Conference about implementing social practice into the Foundations classroom. Upcoming projects in 2010 include: a group show at Smack Mellon in New York, NY; The Mythical State of Jefferson exhibition at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, OR; the Open Engagement Conference in Portland, OR, and he will be an artist in resident for the Market Gallery in Glasgow, Scotland, participating in the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Arts.
Art & Beer (At the Museum)
2009
For an event called Shine A Light: A Night at the Museum at the Portland Art Museum. I worked with Lompoc, Laurelwood, and Lucky Lab Breweries of Portland. They each received tours of the museum, chose an artwork, brewed new beers inspired by that artwork. The three beers were available for free sampling only on the night of the event.
Cultivate (Brew Crew)
2009
Fifteen people were invited to collaborate over the course of three months to: select a type of beer to brew, brew it, bottle it, create labels for the bottles, create beer coasters, create beer mugs, and organize a celebration where other people could enjoy the fruit of our labor.
Helen Reed
Helen Reed is an artist based in Portland, Oregon. Over the past 5 years Helen’s art practice has involved working with specific invested communities. During this time she has landed the first senior citizen on the moon, contacted Marshall McLuhan by Ouija Board, and coordinated a lesbian-separatist rave in the farmlands of Ontario. Her most recent project is Twin Twin Peaks, a 3rd Season of Twin Peaks, written and acted by the show’s fans. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at The Kitchen in New York City, Power
Plant Contemporary Art in Toronto, The Portland Art Museum, The Seattle Art Museum and La Centrale in Montreal. Helen Reed holds a BFA from the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver, BC and an MFA in Art and Social Practice from Portland State University.
Twin Twin Peaks:
Still from Twin Twin Peaks, a fan-written, fan-acted, all new episode of Twin Peaks shot on location in North Bend, Snoqualmie and Poulsbo, Washington.
Portrait of Erskine Wood
A dress-up and face-painting station for children, based on the life of Erskine Wood. The tour took place at the Portland Art Museum during Shine a Light 2009.
Lucky Lips
Collaboration with Hannah Jickling. Lucky Lips is a magical lip balm, infused with luck from four-leafed clovers harvested in Dawson City, Yukon.
Jason Zimmerman
Portland Silver, 2009
Portland Silver comprises objects of varying uses and materials that were collected from staff and visitors during a one-night event at the Portland Art Museum. The collection grew mostly from the random contents of people’s pockets, bags and wallets, as many visitor’s had no prior knowledge of the project before that night’s event. After items were accepted, donation contracts filled out, catalogue and assession numbers assigned, the unique contributions were transformed through a “silvering” process into precious metal objects—of sorts.
Selected Screenplays (Stick and Theresa), 2008-2009
Stick and Theresa are examples of two short screenplays I’ve written, Stick being in the early stages of production. The latest versions of both these scripts are available for download from my website http://jasonzimmerman.info.
My Friend Derek Tracing the Bottoms of My Feet, 2008
My friend Derek agrees to trace the cracks, welts, and callouses on the bottoms of my feet as they are healing from an unsightly summertime infection.
Adjoining Plots, 2006
Adjoining Plots is a photo documentary showing the grave sites of couples who’ve purchased adjoining plots. Often when one dies, the date of birth and name of the remaining partner is carved on the headstone. I revisit the sites until that remaining partner also dies and their death date is subsequently inscribed.
Rape the Willing, 2005
The substance of this project, 100+ color laser prints of email responses, originated by means of a solicitation on the common social networking website craigslist. A short request for a supposed rape fantasy was posted in personals forums all over the United States—including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. The words “rape me” formed the bulk of the content.
Sandy Sampson
Sandy Sampson is a multidisciplinary artist whose work includes video, painting, installation, guerrilla, and socially engaged art with a public exhibition history spanning 30 years and several countries. While her focus is on the local, and the value of everyday casual pedagogy, she has also published and delivered peer reviewed research. Preferring to work collaboratively her current practice is almost exclusively, public and interactive, and the lines between completed, ongoing, commissioned and self initiated projects are becoming less and less distinct.
In the seven months since graduating from PSU with an MFA in Contemporary Art Practices: Art and Social Practice she has completed several public projects, some in response to opportunities extended to her as a student in the Art and Social Practice program, and some at the request of local organizations such as the Oregon Environmental Council.
She continues to work as an art specialist and curator for Project Grow a north Portland Arts and urban farming program powered by adults with developmental disabilities:http://www.growinginalldirections.org/
She is teaching Intro to Drawing and co-teaching a capstone Change for the Common Good: Project Grow both at Portland State winter term.
In collaboration with fellow Alum Laurel Kurtz, and the Pride Toastmasters club of Manhattan’s district 46, Sandy is working on the project Public Speaking for apexart’s The Incedental Personcurated by Antony Hudek. This project will manifest on Feburary 19th in NYC. http://apexart.org/exhibitions/hudek.htm
She is an active member of the planning committee for Open Engagement an international three day conference on socially engaged trans disciplinary practices to be held in Portland this coming May. She is also participating in the conference as an assistant to the artists at Project Grow who have submitted a successful proposal.
Sampson has been selected as one of five finalists for the Oregon State Hospital Replacement Project’s % for the arts commission and is deeply engaged with further research on the history, and potential future, of OSH and mental health care in Oregon.
Projects:
Apples to Apples: Art and Labor. Visitors to PAM for Shine a Light: A Night at the Museum in the American Gallery play the game, making arguments for why an image they hold best fits with the card in play that describes some socio economic fact or quote. Near by a video,Artists Working, is playing, it explores the WPA and FAP programs of the 1930’s and the public role of artists today.
David Crittenden, aka Ducky Fresh and Jamond Williams at Project Grow, working on an amplifier for a music video set.
Video still from Come As You Are/ Vines Tel Que Tu Es a long distance conversation between artists at Project Grow and people in Paris. Pictured here are participants from Association Aurore. The project had screenings at Betonsalon Paris, and Igloo gallery Portland. Produced in collaboration with Laurel Kurtz and Mark Johndahl.
Claire Chomasse presents Non a La Pub a display she/we created for INFO POINT as part of the Parties Prenantes residency at Betonsalon in Paris France.
Varithorn Christopher
Varinthorn Christopher (also known as the Siamese Buckaroo) is of Thai-Mon descent. Varinthorn was born in Bangkok, Thailand during the middle of a Coup d’état and immigrated into the United States when she was 20 years old. Her work is mostly generated from her own personal experience and background, which derives from her interest in politics, cultural diversity, community engagement, and environmental activism. Her medium ranges from writing, book publishing, website design, computer programming, photography, mindfulness research, cooking, and documentary films. She received her MFA in Contemporary Art Practice with an Emphasis in Social Practice from Portland State University in 2009. Varinthorn has exhibited at several venues including Exit Underground (Exit Art, New York), Portland City Hall, New York City Conflux Festival, Project Row House (Houston, Texas), Disjecta (Portland, Oregon), and the PICA Time Based Art Festival. She has also recently co-authored articles in Mental Health, Religion & Culture and the Art Journal. Website www.daikons.com
What am I working on: I just received a $4800 grant from the Portland Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) to publish and distribute Good Seed book so I am working on publishing and planning distributing event. I also just gave birth to my son 7 weeks ago and really enjoying every second of motherhood.
Projects:
Good Seed
I worked with Dave Dahl, a self described “ex-convict” and “drug addict” who turned his life around and opened the bakery Dave’s Killer Bread. I designed and edited a book to be donated to correctional facilities throughout Oregon and United States. The book chronicles Dave’s life and the dangers of amphetamine use, and includes a chapter on treatment options for addiction. The book is divided into ten chapters according to Dave’s breads. Each type of bread tells a specific chapter from Dave’s life. The book was titled “Good Seed” not only because it is Dave’s favorite bread, but also because it is the term Dave repeatedly comes back to during difficult times. The title of each photo and all book text are written longhand in #2B pencil, the primary writing tool used in prisons. The introduction to the book is my answer to Dave’s question: “Why are you interested in an ex-con?” (I was saved from a near death accident as a child by an “ex-con” neighbor). Harrell Fletcher wrote an introduction in which he reviewed Dave’s bread, my husband Michael Christopher (Pacific University, School of Professional Psychology) contributed a chapter on drug addiction and treatment, and my sister and her family (Kittimaphorn, Gerhard, and Preston Doll) created a number of recipes that include Dave’s breads.
Unforgotten Language: The Mon Counting Book
This is a book translation project for endangered languages around the world. According to The United Nations, “Once, there were between 7,000 and 8,000 distinct languages. Now, very few people speak most of the 6,000 known languages around the world. Of the 6,000 languages still on Earth, 90 percent could be gone by 2100.” Because of this I decided to make children books for endangered languages. I began with Mon language because my ethnicity is Mon-Thai. The Mon are the earliest known inhabitants of lower Burma. Mon were massacred and our land were taken. My grandparents illegally immigrated to Thailand during WWII. Today people of Mon descent have no homeland and continue to experience brutal repression in Myanmar. As a result the Mon language now faces the danger of extinction. I asked my father, Pipat Bumrungton to collaborate with me on the project. My father had wanted to do something with Mon language preservation for a long time so he agreed to join me in this project. I hope that in some way, this book can help generate public awareness of endangered languages.
