The View from Here

April 2013, Afru Gallery, Portland, Oregon
Basic information
Opening: Friday, April 5, 2013 (6 p.m.-midnight)
Show runs through Saturday, April 27
534 S.E. Oak St., Portland, Oregon  97214

When: Friday 12pm - 4pm
Saturday 12pm - 4pm
Sunday 2pm - 6pm
Until Saturday, April 27.
Gallery website: http://www.afrugallery.com
Show site:  http://www.launchpadgallery.org/view/
Lost is found and found is lost
A “Sense of Place”
            Cascadians have a very special sense of place, and in particular, Portlanders do have this near-veneration for the inexplicable and unutterable spirit that makes Portland special.  Oddly enough, very few of them I encounter have lived in Portland all their lives; most of them came from someplace else, only a few years ago.  I arrived in Portland exactly 16 years ago.  Even though it was only a few hours away from Seattle, the “Portland-ness” was not anything like “Seattle-ness,” “Tacoma-ness,” “Bellingham-ness,” “Victoria-ness,” or “Vancouver-ness.”
            I questioned myself what would be the three primary facets of Portland-ness, just as all colors are made of three primary colors.  Mt. Hood?  Columbia River?  Pioneer Courthouse Square?  The Saturday Market?  As a resident and not a tourist, I did not think of them as adequately representative of this region.  In the end, I settled with a historic residential area (Irvington), a newly developing urban core (South Waterfront), and a farm not far from the historic Oregon Trail (St. Helens).  Together, they represent three spirits that interplay in this region’s story: the past, the present, and the future; agriculture, community, and technology; and the rural, the residential, and the urban.
Icons of a sort
            The word illustration originally is rooted in the Latin word for making something bright, or to elucidate.  I find the work of illustration having much in common with that of an iconographer.  An iconographer is first and foremost a theologian and a person of deep spirituality.  As in the East Asian traditional art forms, it is neither an “art for art’s sake” nor a mere depiction of the physical reality, but is a path to personal cultivation, spiritual refinement, and enlightenment through developing a keener perception and discernment of the underlying metaphysical ideas behind what is apparent.
            Notwithstanding the contemporary subject matters and use of “Western” mediums (mostly because of financial and practical reasons), I am deeply rooted in both the traditional Far Eastern aesthetics and artistic techniques, as well as the symbolic languages of both Eastern Orthodox Christian iconography and the religious art of the Sinosphere.
            Each illustration is rich in symbolism as well as playful and whimsical details.  They are all there for a reason, and positioned at their specific places for a reason.  They are not photographic depictions of a place (many details have been changed), but rather an attempt at crystallizing the essence of what makes a place what it is, the spirit of the land.
            Meow.
Sarah-Andrea Amy Morrigan
Twitter @sarahmorrigan
Portfolio (2007-2012): http://www.myartplot.com/users/iriscat 





How this project came about


“The View from Here” is a challenge show centred around a common project.

1. Choose three locations, and at each of the three places, make 10 sketches in one sitting.
2. Create a piece of art that responds to that sketch.

As I wrote earlier, this proved to be a much harder task than I initially thought. There are many places that I call my favourite, and many of those have a special connection to me either emotionally or because of what happened in the past or present.

In the end, I chose these three:

1. Irvington neighbourhood in Northeast Portland. Of the past 16 years, I have lived mostly in Northeast and North Portland. Irvington, along with the adjoining Lloyd District and Sullivan’s Gulch, was also one of the first places I have visited when I was still living in Seattle. Irvington is a designated historic district, first such designation in Portland by the National Park Service, and is home to many houses that are over a hundred years old (”Century Houses”). It is within walking distance of the Lloyd Center, but it remains a quiet upscale residential area with low crimes. During summer there are several block parties.
Depicted: Several neighbourhood houses (they are in fact in different locations, and some details were combined and changed, to make the whole neighbourhood “fit” in this one small picture).

2. South Waterfront in South Portland. If Irvington is the history of Portland, South Waterfront is the latest and future of Portland. It still looks brand-new and somewhat sterile, despite the efforts at selling condos in the skyscrapers. This area was once a forgotten wasteland, and I still remember those days (which weren’t too long ago). Today, South Waterfront is home to the new Oregon Health and Science University Schnitzer Campus. Perhaps it is better known for the original Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant, however.
Depicted: Elizabeth Caruthers Park (in the middle); OHSU Center for Health and Healing (background); John Ross Condominiums and Umpqua Bank (to the right); Portland Aerial Tram (background); Portland Streetcar North-South Line (to the right); Portland Streetcar Moody & Gibbs Station (background left); Ross Island Bridge (far background); Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (far background); Willamette River (far background)

3. Ingenuity Innovation Center near St. Helens, Oregon. This is a recently leased farmland to house a research and development organization in agricultural innovation. The shack in the background is actually located farther to the right but I had to force it into the picture! It just looks like a farm! The cats’ names are Gypsy (grey kitty) and Izzy (yellow kitty). They are twins.
Depicted: Ingenuity Innovation Center as seen from the farm house.


Other places that did not quite make it, but worth mentioning:
TaborSpace (I had a solo show there in February)
Chapman and Lownsdale Parks in downtown Portland (of Occupy Portland fame)
Blue Lake Regional Park
Glenn Otto Park (Troutdale)
Downtown Estacada
Washington Park, Portland
Cathedral Park, St. Johns, Portland
Concordia University (Campus Greens and the George White Learning Center)

This show also marks my decisive embrace of the East Asian artistic and aesthetic influence. Since my early childhood, somehow the Western art did not quite appeal to me. The use of colours and too much emphasis on physical details in figurative and still life paintings all felt too ghastly, even when they were traditional or classical art. As for modern Western art, most of them simply I cannot relate to at all (with a notable exception of Art Deco, which I find beautiful and uplifting).

During my work for the previous show, “Purrsuit of Catness,” I have realized that most of my art is iconographical in nature, letting intentional placement of symbol-rich objects to appeal to the subconscious psyche of the audience. In my earlier artistic career, I have deliberately drawn inspiration from Eastern Orthodox religious icons. In many ways, the way I make my illustrations today are similar to the traditional icon-writing process, starting with line drawings and later colouring and embellishing. Often I make use of the canonical or reinterpreted iconographical symbolic devices in my illustrations as well.

Much of my techniques, aesthetics and use of colours are, however, more closely related to the traditional Far Eastern art forms, in particular Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. It is also worth noting that Japanese manga also traces its roots to the traditional brush paintings of ancient Japan. While mine is not manga, some have found similarity between my illustrations and Japanese or Korean manga/manhwa art. Even though I illustrate with ink and then with watercolour paints, I consciously incorporate brushstrokes that are more characteristic of the Asian brush paintings.





从这里的观点


展览开幕2013年4月5日礼拜五， 自下午6点至夜半
在阿飞如AFRU画廊 （俄勒冈州波特兰市东南区巴克曼街道橡树东南街534, 534 SE Oak St., Portland, Oregon, in the Buckman neighbourhood） 
这次展览将开放从4月5日礼拜五至4月27日礼拜六
Out of mud, brightness


北美西北部人民， 所谓喀斯喀特人(Cascadians)， 有着非常特殊的地方感。 在波特兰，本地居民几乎崇敬让波特兰精彩的莫名和难言的“地方灵”。住在波特兰的人谁在波特兰出生是一个很小比例。 可是，几乎每个我知道的在波特兰人都由其它城市地区。
            我来到波特兰十六年前从西雅图。 虽然波特兰只有240公里从华盛顿州西雅图市， 有420公里由碧诗省温哥华市， 波特兰的感觉不像任何其他西北部城市。 我问自己，这将是三个主要的“波特兰性”之刻面，就像所有每个颜色都是由红绿蓝三基色。 胡德山？ 哥伦比亚江？ 先驱法院广场吗？ 周六市场吗？ 它们作为一名居民，而不是游客，我没有想到它们充分代表本地区真正本质。 最后，我决定选一个历史的住宅区（波特兰市东北区欧文顿街道），一个新开发的城市核心区（波特兰市西南区南河边街道），和历史悠久俄勒冈小径附近的一个农 场（哥伦比亚县圣海伦地区）。总之，它们象征着三种地方性的精灵： 过去，现在和未来； 农业，社区与技术； 乡村，住宅，和城市。 这三精灵的相互作用，携手共进，创造我们独特的历史，文化，经济和社会。
            英词 “illustration"(图示)原本是来自拉丁词"illustris" (明亮或阐明). 我找到，图示工作和东正教的圣像画工作有许多共同点。 圣像专家是一个神学家和一个深层灵修的人。 东亚传统艺术形式和东正教宗教艺术相同， 绘画不是“为艺术而艺术”，相反，东方传统美术是一种个人修炼，向精神启蒙的一道。 对我来说，艺术是一种默观行为，像坐禅或祈祷勤行，培养更敏锐的灵性和洞察力。尽管如此现代的题材和“西方”材料使用，我深深地植根于远东美学传统和艺术 手法，以及东方基督教宗教艺术的东亚美术的符号语言。每个图是象征意义丰富，细节异想天开，让本地文化社区本质，波特兰地方之三个”土地神”。喵。
柳彩霞
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Tumblr http://alleycatmews.tumblr.com
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本次展览如何是约
“从这里的观点”是由一个共同的任务挑战的展会。每个四位画家了承担以下相同任务以创出对本次展览的艺术。
1： 选择三个地点，并在每个场所，在一坐画十张草图。
2： 基于这些草图，创造一件艺术品。

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