I developed the art direction for Shine a Light 2013 through thoughtful conversations with the artists. Shine A Light is a collaboration between the Museum and Portland State University’s Art and Social Practice MFA program. Design was executed by the Tricia Chin and Michael Smith of the Portland Art Museum. Campaign included print ads in the Portland Mercury as well as web ads on Portland Monthly.
In the past attendees of Shine a Light may have just thought they were having fun at the museum and not in fact viewing many highly considered artworks, this concept sought to activate the audience. The exhibition catalogue served as a piece in itself with a participatory 'Question Asker' and room for attendees to add their own meaning to the campaign.
The Journeyman: Bulletin One, 'Desert West' was made during my time at Epicenter. 'Desert West' is a guide book of sorts allowing you to pull yourself deeper into the landscape. This 10.5 x 5.5 inch, 30 page publication is available on the Epicenter Etsy for $8— Proceeds go to Green River's non-profit. Original writing and imagery.
More about my Frontier Fellowship with Epicenter here.
From April 15 to May 15 I was in residence as a Frontier Fellow in Green River, Utah at Epicenter.
I gathered, I collected, I researched, I wrote, I explored— themes emerged. I created a publication called 'Desert West' to summarize my findings for others.
It is a guide book of sorts allowing you to pull yourself deeper into the landscape.
Digitally I kept track of things on a blog entitled, It’s all happening. This came from my desire to share what I was doing immediately, Desert West must travel to you by mail or hand. It had to be edited, it had to be finessed. It’s all happening, gave me the freedom to track and share without such necessities.
Desert West is the end of my time in Green River, but along the way there were other projects. I had the pleasure of teaching in the creative writing class at Green River High School about blogging. I created a blog, ‘Workshop’ to help teach them.
In my first week, I met John Hughes, an enthusiastic educator at Book Cliff Elementary. He created a project called ‘Our Town’ with his students to help them learn and share about Green River. Armando (an Epicenter AmeriCorps VISTA) and I made him a six foot tall display from a paper model he made me.
I also mailed around forty postcards and took a lot of photos of the ground.
The Center for Person by Person Research in a project I created to explore my interest in community based work and non-traditional research methods. The design is a flexible, low-cost system allowing collaborators to easily borrow assets.
A research and educational organization interested in physical and virtual communities. This organization will investigate, document and cultivate the evolving way humans seek connection.
Everybody’s Neighbor is about creating a new visual language and commentary for the contemporary Multnomah County Library. Portland is a young city, this is about making the library apart of your life, as much as your coffee shop or your bicycle or your neighborhood. Public institutions have a long standing reputation of poor service and atmosphere, Everybody’s Neighbor seeks to revisualize that relationship.
Amble & Roam begins with small pocket sized books offering travelers an alternative to the usual expansive list of blaw must-sees. The visual representation of Amble & Roam is flexible, allowing it to change with the brand and iconography easily customizes the mark to the city or product.
The brand expands into Travel Outposts, design visitor centers in select destination cities. These shops sell travel necessities, artisan souvenirs and feature local designers. Every Amble & Roam Outpost is different, tailored to it’s city. The shops can serve dual purposes, acting as studio space for a rotating international artist in residency.
To date A Little Like Freedom has received over 200 submissions. The project started with 25 posters, printed 20 times each and hung around Portland, Oregon. Each poster was for one person I had encountered in my life. The posters directed the viewer to a website where they could submit their own. I made 25 more posters from the submissions I received.
Series of three screen prints with imagery from the Willamette Valley. Thistle, Snap Pea and Fern. All free hand paper cut-outs burned directly to screens.
In collaboration with Epicenter, Sarah Baugh and Nicole Lavelle spent a month working with high school students and residents of Green River, Utah to collect contributions for this single edition newspaper. As editors, publishers and art directors they invited me to Green River for a long weekend to execute the design.
The paper is available for free in Green River, Utah or you can purchase one here.
Read more about the process on the Epicenter blog, here, here and here.
The focus of Front Porch Project was on creating material that would foster a sense of community in the Clinton District of southeast Portland, Oregon. The project included an About Book; The Giving Guide, which included Iced Tea, Jam and Cookie recipes, a What Kind of Neighbor Are You? Quiz, a poster, tea, and wildflower seeds. The intent of these publications and offerings were to provide small gestures. Front Porch Project puts community development into the hands of the people living there.
Storyboard for the opening title sequence of 1971 classic Harold and Maude. Patterns and imagery from the film hand-cut from construction paper.
Branding system for Ethiopian restaurant, Enat Kitchen. Design was inspired by folk art of Ethiopia. Stickers and colored paper allowed for economical, but effective branding.
Life Long Work Month was a show I coordinated for Friends of Graphic Design looking into designers’ process, contemporary work habits, public space and the purpose of a gallery setting. Nine young designers brought their workspaces to the small AB Gallery for one month.
The gallery was open to the public while students worked collaboratively and individually. Students held workshops, sold artwork, made lists, hosted potlucks and a final show. The designers were sent prompts from artists living outside Portland via their Tumblr and used Tumblr for documentation.
The final web analytics from the show became the exhibition catalogue I designed.
12 inch and 7 inch record art with promotional poster. The piece tells the story between Nina Simone’s moody full length Wild is the Wind and poppy single I Love Your Loving Ways. Watercolor and paper cutouts.
