Art and Events

Smith’s connection to Stumptown reaches far beyond the Portland connection — our green coffee buyer Darrin Daniel got to know him in the late 80′s at Naropa University under the tutelage of Allen Ginsberg,  when he helped to look after an ailing Smith over a fateful winter break. Darrin writes of his first entry into his living quarters on campus:

“Entering his place was like no other experience I have ever known. One was not to touch certain books or sit in places that were not designated by Smith himself. His fridge contained road kill and other undesirable mold cakes. There was cat shit throughout the entire bathroom floor and tub. We came by periodically to help clean and stock Harry up on things like baby food (which he could only stomach when he first arrived in ’88). After a few visits, Smith’s apartment had become the stopover before or after a class. Along with the carnival-like feel his apartment took on, Harry had slowly amassed a group of us who went in to hang out, assist with errands and basically spend time talking.

Our time together culminated in a couple of interesting projects… The last project was his allowing me to use four of his drawings for my first chapbook of poems, Methane Cocktail. He was drawing border art all the time and had really done some beautiful pen and ink works. I used one for the cover and three other pieces. I was a little shocked but also excited that he would allow me to use his work, considering his obsessive nature about his books and other projects. After giving a copy to Ginsberg, Allen seemed perplexed and asked, “Harry let you use his work?” Soon after the lecture, Allen made his way over to Harry’s place—book in hand. Either Allen wanted to have Harry sign it or ask what the hell he was doing giving his work away to Naropa writing students for free.”

Darrin later went on to publish Harry Smith: Fragments of a Northwest Life and Think of the Self-Speaking: Harry Smith — Selected Interviews. Several events this week celebrate the Oregon-born legend, starting with the Harry Smith Seance at Hollywood Theatre on Thursday, May 16 at 7 p.m., where Darrin will speak along with Rani Singh, director of the Harry Smith Archives at the Getty Institute, and writer-director of the the documentary The Old, Weird America: Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. Sheldon Renan, who wrote about Harry in his groundbreaking work An Introduction to the American Underground Film will also speak.

Also, this week don’t miss The Harry Smith Free For All at The Cleaners at the Ace Hotel, a series of short, interactive presentations about Smith’s life and work, including a screening of Kaveh Askari’s new experimental documentary about Harry’s years in Bellingham.

Read Darrin’s full article “Hypnotist Collector: The Alchemy of Harry Smith” here.

“The world is far more fulsome if you imagine it to be full of churches that can fill your mind and your heart. One goes to mass; one says the rosary. One goes to help those who most need it. One consumes those things–liquid or smoke or powder–that allow one to walk among the world calm and receptive. One sits–as I have–in cinemas, happy and stoned, and allows images to invade the mind and push its contours farther and farther back. That used to be a fine way to spend an afternoon. Harry Smith, Maya Deren, Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage. Smoke in the air, candy wrappers on the floor, Anais Nin in the lobby, proclaiming genius in the Village. Churches everywhere.” Tennessee Williams to James Grissom, 1982

On view at Belmont May 1st – June 4th
Reception is 4-6pm Sunday, April 12th

Laura is a process focussed artist and sculptor. The works are started by chance; a spill, a peel, a roll of coins. Nails are then placed surrounding the stain, peel or coins, creating a boarder. The edge of the plywood is then outlined by nails. Next string is worked back and forth between the two borders. The concept of the work is exploring different ways to move from one moment to the next – as well as looking for the beauty in chance.

On view at Division May 2nd – June 3rd
Reception is 4-6pm Sunday, May 19th

Trish Grantham’s work starts with wood frames that she covers in vintage paper. The paper is very important knowing how each page will react with different paint colors and resin. Layering the different styles of old paper and book pages in just the right way adds the perfect background to start painting.

Trish loves to spend time in the library going through the picture files and wildlife books getting ready to start new work. She doesn’t start with a sketch or a full idea, but simply starts with one character then begins to build from there. Watching the story unfold as if she is working from an old fable telling it as she goes. Trish always looks forward to the end result, seeing the narrative for the first time.

On view May 2nd – June 16th, 2013
Reception Sunday, May 5th (5-7pm) with a music performance by Jordan Dykstra

In The Bedroom Series artist Wynde Dyer draws on source material from a late-1930s/early-1940s catalog featuring staged bedroom scenes—almost identical to one another, until carefully scrutinized—populated with salable reproductions of early Colonial American furniture. The resulting large-scale black and white India ink paintings are empty of inhabitants but carry the emotional residuals of life lived. They are simultaneously haunting and tranquil, dream-like yet nightmarish, ethereal but concrete, static but moving, anxiety producing but calming, both burning and flooding, with a perspective that is intentionally off, though not grotesquely so. Following in the tradition of Wabi-Sabi, the works in The Bedroom Series seek reconciliation between and an acceptance of these dichotomies. Ultimately, these paintings are a meditation on what happens—or should happen, or should not happen—in the bedroom.

Wynde Dyer is a process-based installation artist and painter who lives and works in Portland, Or. Her work is concerned with representations and transformations of physical and psychological space, and the intersection between personal narrative and the universal experience. See more of her work on her website.

LiveWire Radio is a locally produced and nationally broadcast radio variety show that is taped live in front of a studio audience at the Alberta Rose Theatre. It’s smart, funny, irrerevent, and an absolute blast to see live. We are sponsors of the show and they invited us in for a peek behind the dial during soundcheck and rehearsal before a recent taping with the incredible Reggie Watts and Michael Kiwanuka–it was a kickoff to our partnership and they offered up bottles of Cold Brew to the enrapt crowd. Since this taping, the inimitable Courtenay Hameister has gracefully stepped down as host after nine years (listen to her goodbye speech here) but she remains on the show as the Head Writer and Co-Producer. The new host is the ever-talented Luke Burbank.

We sat down with the show’s Executive Producer and Co-Creator Robyn Tenenbaum for some insight about how the show started, where’s it’s gone and where it’s headed.

You are the executive producer and co-creator of the show. How did it all come together?

Kate Sokoloff (a branding consultant in town) and I began working on the show in February 2003. She approached me with an idea to produce a show for Portland, like what West Coast Live was for San Francisco, a live radio show that featured the best talent of what Oregon – and the rest of the country – had to offer in terms of people who did fascinating things, great musicians and the occasional oddball, who no one knew about but everyone should. Kate had been a caller on Car Talk once and that was the extent of her radio experience, but she had the vision of what she wanted to achieve. Her experience was steeped in live theater and she had a lot of great connections around town who helped in the early phases.  I had produced West Coast Live for 4 years so I had a working knowledge of the elements needed to get a show on the air.

Our friends over at Tiga are hosting a group photo show put together by Jake Arcularius, featuring some of our lovely and talented staff, May Barruel (PDX West Side Curator), Marshall Scheider (PDX Production), and Dan Wilson (NYC Roaster). Don’t miss the back room either, where Mike Martin has photos from his grandfather’s collection.