Sarah Cummings
”Dream”
2019
Acrylic on canvas, with paper
38" x 50" x 2.5"
Artist Bio
Upcoming artist Sarah Cummings is a senior finishing up her Social Science and Art Practice Bachelor degrees at Portland State University (PSU). Sarah started painting at Portland Community College (PCC) in 2014. Her past work has been a more realistic style of art using ink, ink washes and watercolor. Most recently she has created acrylic paintings using some collage, painting memories or places in a surrealist style. She has been a part of an Exposition at the Stein Haus in 2015 and the 2017 “ CORE In Flight” pop up show at PSU.
Artist statement:
This acrylic painting was painted in the winter of 2019. I was playing with the idea of Place, as well as looking into my inner self for inspiration. The idea of creating a piece that a person can look at and wonder, what this place? Then coming up with their own ideas, creating a dialogue around their own thought, really interests me while I paint. What this painting means to me will be different to you, the viewer. The big oval figure is a reflection of my inner compass looking to the past, the smaller oval, is my mini self as a child growing up. The babies that are crawling are the unknown future that is so uncertain. The light blue like window in the background is empty and is a reminder that everyday is a new day and black canvas.
Sarah Cummings’ Instagram Handle:
@sarah.wade98
Katie Costa
The Frogs Are Singing
2020
Oil on wrapped canvas
Katie Costa
”Soul Rider.” 2019
Oil paint on wrapped canvas
36" x 36" x 2"
Artist Statement:
I am interested in how memory and emotion frame our perception of places. Places are sites inhabited by the spirit of the people and carry the residue of undocumented moments. My abstracted landscape paintings are assembled from memory of places that I have traveled. Recent work has been constructed using my intuition and chance. A framework of lines and shapes build a structure, and the color alludes to a specific mood and memory. This method allows my subconscious thoughts to come out through symbols and shapes. Recognition of symbols allows me to unearth the meaning behind the mythology through research, often unveiling a dialogue about spirituality. Exploration of these vibrant and mysterious places are a reminder that none of us are alone in our pursuits, nor are we the first to explore any location. Although the physical landscape may not remain the same, the memories and emotions attached to that space are timeless.
Artist Bio
Katie Costa has lived in California, Washington, and now Oregon. She began her art career later in life after working in corporate business environments for fifteen years. Her interest in economics, data, and business development turned into an obsession with the patterns and inner workings of society, culture, and nature. Her paintings investigate how memory and emotion frame our perception of place. Katie has had several solo exhibitions in commercial spaces, Sugar Cube Gallery, and has also been part of group exhibitions at the Oregon Society of Artists and the Lake Oswego Festival of Arts. She has a pending bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts with a focus in painting at Portland State University’s College of Art and Design.
@katie_costa_studio
Zeph Fishlyn
Zeph Fishlyn
Zeph Fishlyn
Artist Bio:
Zeph Fishlyn (pronouns they/them) is a multidisciplinary visual artist dedicated to personal and collective storytelling as nonlinear tools for reinventing our world. Zeph’s participatory projects, drawings, objects and installations nurture alternative narratives by questioning, dreaming, distorting, celebrating and demanding. Their most recent work explores absurdity, embodiment, intimacy and playfulness as sources of resilience and creative subterfuge.
Zeph is also a serial collaborator with grassroots groups focused on social and economic justice and LGBTQ liberation in the SF Bay Area and Portland, OR. Zeph is an MFA Candidate in the Art and Social Practice program of Portland State University.
Artist Statement
I'm submitting a project based on the queer "hanky code," a tradition of wearing different colored bandanas to make specific sexual offers and requests. I designed a hanky and user manual that depict thirteen fabulous species whose scientifically-observed romantic and sexual lives are queer as fuck (chosen from 450 species detailed in Bruce Begamihl's 1999 book, Biological Exuberance.) The hanky is being distributed nationally and is anchoring a short video project to be completed by June 2020, questioning the idea of what is "natural" and celebrating the wide variety of ways we can express relationships.
Vartan Friedman
"Tel-Aviv, Jaffa," 2020
Made with Acrylics
18x24 in and 2 inches depth canvas
Vartan Friedman
"Soul Recycling"
2019
Made with Acrylics
30x30 inch canvas with 4 inch depth
Artist Statement:
My work is hard to pin down in terms of a repeating style. I am constantly soaking up the noise around me. The politics, the conspiracies, the pop culture, the genius and the stupidity, the mundane the ethereal and the spiritual. I am hardly ever deeply affected by these outside considerations but like any sentient person they have an effect. I do my best and to the fullest extent of my capabilities I try and put my thought and vision{s} into the art. I am not by nature a talkative social person so my art is my way of communicating with the world. I try and keep any negativity out of my work but occasionally it can slip in. But one man’s negativity is another man’s normal I guess. Sometimes I feel reality can be boring as hell so I inject beauty and color into my work to try and open doors to a more peaceful reality.
Artist Bio:
Vartan Friedman was born in Tel-Aviv, Israel where he lived for the first 9 years of his life. He moved with his family to a small town in Oregon. Growing up, he explored many different creative pursuits. As a child painting and drawing were not his favorite things. It was only recently in his late 20’s that he started to dive head long into his artwork. He is self-taught. Vartan lives out in the countryside surrounded by horses, cattle and his dog and family. He enjoys his guitar playing and exercising for creative stimulus.
@vartanfriedman
Inna Leonchik
”Floating” 2019
Etching
15"(width)x 22"(height)
Artist Statement
I am exploring the disintegration of identity. Playing with the scale of figures and insects in a space of disorganized chaos, where incomplete bodies are scattered, merging and overlapping one another. Floating is a vision that represents the beauty and vulnerability experienced during psychedelic states of mind.
Artist Bio:
Inna Leonchik is a multimedia artist with a focus on the human form. She lives in Portland Oregon and received her BFA from Portland State University, and is currently taking classes to become an art teacher. Her art has been displayed in various locations in the Portland area, including exhibitions in the Everette Loft galleries in 2016, 2017 and 2019. Her artwork has been published in the Pathos literary magazine as well as a few other independent sources. Her process consists of working with a variety of mediums, where she focuses on the interaction and collective existential connection between the psyche, the body and nature.
@inna.chik
Kayley Sandige
”Doc Footage 1 (4/22/08 - XX/XX/XXXX)”
2019, Short Film
Artist's Statement
Seen through the lens of a found footage tape: in an alternate reality where genetic modification of evergreens has led to a shortage of oxygen, an amateur nature documentarian explores the eerie, post-apocalyptic landscape. This film was made over an eight week period for college film production class. Writing directing, cinematography and editing were all done by the same person, and had a budget of $0. Inspiration came from a YouTube short series called “Local 58.” This film attempts to embrace the limitations of the production period, cast, and budget, while playing off the fear of genetic engineering and environmental collapse. This film also seeks to illustrate the importance of ecosystems and sustainability.
Artist's Bio
Sandige began making films her sophomore year of high school, while also participating in the school’s drama program, culminating in directing a half an hour stage play. During this time she also created a YouTube channel called Fractions of a Penny. After high school she enrolled at Portland State University for a bachelors in film. She is still attending college and expects to graduate in one year.
@thewonderfulkaty
Brianna Graw
"The Painted Church"
2019
Digital Collage using original photography and painting
22x17 inches.
Artist Bio
“I can no longer accept the things that I cannot change, I will change the things I cannot accept” -Angela Davis
Brianna Graw is a multimedia artist from Portland, Oregon. Her influences span from contemporary activist art, surrealism, to documentary photography and social practice. Her first introduction to art was as a child who often found herself getting into trouble; she then discovered how painting and photography gave her the tools to express herself and her frustration with contemporary society. After spending time as a self-taught freelance photographer, she began her art career as a tattoo apprentice in 2018. After leaving the tattoo world, Brianna returned to Portland to focus more on community based art. Today her work focuses around the seen and the unseen in world of vulnerability and continues to explore how to use art as a tool for change.
Artist Statement:Painted Church:
The photo of the church was from my time traveling though Hawaii during my early twenties. This was a time of turmoil and transition in my life. Although I had moved to Hawaii in search for paradise I found many roadblocks and growing pains along the way. It was on the island that I learned about my own resilience and strength. Like many coming of age stories, I had to leave the world of my parents traditions and form my own. By using my own paints and digital tools I created a new landscape. A landscape less structured than those of my ancestors but full of potential and color.
Instagram: Brianna Graw
@zom_breee
Shannon Tracy
"Moments" 2019
Acrylic on Canvas
30x40
Shannon Tracy is an artist originally from Anchorage Alaska whom now lives and works in Portland Oregon. Growing up in Alaska has shown her not only the beauty in nature but the vastness as well as how much is still unknown. Her work explores and is a reflection of her curiosity in her surroundings as well as nature and place and its affects on us as humans and on herself. She will be receiving a Bachelors of Science in Art Practices from Portland State University with a minor in Music History and has as previously received an Associated of Arts degree from Portland Community College. Her work has been shown around Portland such as at Sugar Sugar and at Portland State.
Isabelle Garnand
”Fluid Warrior,” 2020
12.5"x10.5"x6".
Artist Bio
Isabelle Garnand is a local of Portland, Oregon, working on her Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Portland State University. She primarily works with hand building clay works from slab pieces. In 2016 her work was place in the National K-12 Clay Exhibition, and received a Golden Key award for her work “Warrior” by the Pacific Northwest College of Arts.
Artist Statement
This bust is one in a series of ceramic thin slab busts of various creatures. I make no intentional comment on anything; the purpose of my work is to express myself and hopefully illicit emotion in others. I suppose a case could be made for the intention of my art to find my unconscious through the process creating ceramic busts and bring it to light through the physical. My work is a manifestation of my inner, then, vulnerable and raw.
@sauvagepottery
Ruby Mullen
September
2019
Video/collage
Duration: 00:54
“January” 2019
Video/collage: 00:17
Ruby Mullen:
Ruby Mullen is a film student at PSU; she spent her first two years of college in Olympia, WA, before transferring. Her films have been shown at festivals such as the Portland Film Festival and the Olympia Film Festival.
Her work utilizes multimedia techniques of video collage and encapsulates the aesthetics and moods of life in the Pacific Northwest. She aims to make filmmaking chaotic, sentimental, and accessible.
Raja Timihiri
Frustrations, 2020
Acrylic on panel
20 x 20 in
Raja Timihiri
”Disapproving,” 2020
Pastels and collage on paper.
12 x 18 in.
Artist Bio
Raja Timihiri is a painting and drawing focused artist. Her work consists of figurative drawings and paintings inspired by people watching and everyday interactions. While identifiable, her depictions are neither fully naturalistic nor loose. The figures painted often have exaggerated and at times distorted body parts as a result of her imagination and drawing process. In recent work, Raja explores topics of human-food interaction and how human beings perceive and relate to each other. She negotiates the relationship between forms and gestures to explore social perception and individual subjective states. Additionally, Raja is interested in using formal elements such as shape, line, and texture to create a space that encourages self-discovery and allows for free expression of ideas and emotions.
Raja Timihiri
@rajatimihiri
Alisyn Smith
“Untitled #2” 2019
Plaster, metal, tumbleweed, baseball
33" x 5" x 5"
Alisyn Smith
“Untitled #2” 2019
Plaster, metal, tumbleweed, baseball
33" x 5" x 5"
Artist Statement
My practice is rooted in reverence for the complicated emotional world that is active beneath our everyday facade. I create both abstract and figurative paintings and sculptures, often combining them to assemble sculptural sketches. Working with the immediacy of material and state of mind I that suggest the viewer consider that there is more to uncover than is immediately perceived. I experiment using building materials such as cement and plaster, which, by nature, compel an urgent and automatic response in their handling. These utilitarian mediums, when taken out of context from their traditional use, take on ambiguous undertones while simultaneously speaking to the conditions and limitations of working within a certain socioeconomic status.
Artist Bio
Alisyn Smith was born in Minnesota and currently lives and works in Portland, OR. She is a painter and sculptor whose work explores themes of vulnerability, introspection, and anxiety. After commercial fishing in Alaska, Alisyn was inspired to learn a trade and moved to Astoria, OR, where she completed an Associates's Degree in Historic Preservation and Restoration. There, she was able to combine a love of research with the hands-on building methods in masonry, plaster, and stained glass, among other historical techniques. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Portland State University. Her work has been shown at the Arnold Gallery, Littman Gallery, and Cascade Gallery in Portland, OR, and The Royal Nebeker Gallery in Astoria, OR.
@damapeligrosa