Portland Art Open

Portland /// Swan Lewis

Fortunate for me, I stumbled out of the pad on a beautiful Sunday afternoon two weekends ago, and figured out what exactly this Portland Art Open was all about. I had envisioned, for some reason, a lot more of a boring corporate feel, I was quite wrong.

This Art Open was an open house of sorts of participating Portland artists. Seventy artists set up wine and snacks with their art in their homes. Each artist had their creations on display in their own space. This was exactly what organizer ‘Brad’ (who withheld his last name, pointing out it is about the artists and community and not him) had had envisioned from the jump. I can dig that.

I only hit up a few of the participants throughout N.E. Portland. It was cool to chat with the local artists in their spaces instead of the superficial feeling you get a lot of times in galleries. Jason Doize, Shannon Playford, Peter Shaver, Lawrence Morrell, Karen Silve, and Matthew Haggett were the local artists who I was fortunate to admire. Each had a unique way of presenting their art. Some interactive, and others more traditional. Most are represented in galleries either here, or in other states such as California.

Brad and the artists mentioned above were into this first year gig and looking forward to even more experimentation and growth equalling fun for next year. This is something definitely worth being aware of in the future. There are even some ideas about getting spoken word and other non traditional types of Portland artists into the mix for years forward. I can also dig that.