~the light of the moon~

                 I still rise when the Earth erupts

         beneath my feet and I fall, 

when the oceans flood 

            into my hands, over

                                -whelming me 

            with salted figs and flask of wine,

                                          I can’t see it, can you? 

              sometimes when the sun and lake

become one, it feels like a cloud

         whispering in my ear

               I want to grab the moon,

                                            and invite 

                                   him to dinner

                          I wonder though,

        if eating with the light of the moon

                                      is perhaps

                                              less romantic

                                      than eating

                                under it?

                    not that it matters,

my eyes close in

               -voluntarily

                        whenever

                            I eat chocolate

                              and in here,

                        behind

           my eyes, where the moon

      cannot shine, 

I’m already

      singing

             to the river.

Local photographer, Angel O’Brien works in experimental and alternative processes to create the often surrealistic and many layered self-portrait montages for which she is well known. Her love of photography began in 1994 in high school when she spent many a day wandering Portland with her Cambo 5x7 shooting this city’s architecture, and even more evenings in her bathroom-turned-darkroom making black and white contact prints. Angel’s hands haven’t been far from a camera since, working with everything from 35mm to twin lens to pinhole to large format. Having always loved black and white, she mainly kept to monochrome, but at one point, she cross processed some slide film and fell in love with the off kilter colors she saw in her photographs and that she continues to use today. A few years ago, out of frustration with not being able to make the photographs that she had in her head, Angel began to experiment with photo transfers, creating a lot of crazy (and mostly bad) work.  She then learned platinum-palladium printing from Ray Bidegain and went to Montana and learned gum bichromate printing from Christina Z. Anderson, and finally, she had the tools she needed to be able to manifest the photography that she was only just realizing she’d always been trying to make. A solo trip to Prague and Budapest where she had the time and mental space was the final key to discovering how to turn her crazy life into the handmade platinum/gum {self}portraits that get her so much attention today.

www.5x7angel.com

find me on Instagram @angelobrienphotography

Hello, My name is Matt Gruber. I have been drawing and making thingsfor as long as I can remember.  I mostly draw for myself exploring themes of humor, absurdity, violence and sexuality. I am able to let my imagination run wild on paper. I mostly use a stream of consciousness method. The drawing evolves as I work on it and I add things that I think are funny or look cool.

I began woodworking in 2010, and started my own picture framing business in 2014. Working hands on with other artists and gallery owners has been a great way for me to make a living in fine arts. 

I still aspire to be a working artist, who can make a living from selling drawings and paintings. Maybe someday I will even pay back my student loans from grad school. Until then I will continue to pump out custom picture frames and artist panels with a smile on my face. 

I hope you enjoyed the show, and if you ever need framing done, or something to paint on, please let me know. J

WAYS TO DISAPPEAR IN PLAIN SITE

2019, 

28 paintings and rubber stamp on paper, grommets, metal ring, ball chain

In a cultural moment where we are comprehensively tracked and traced, this piece is playing with the poetics and absurdities of camouflage, and the complexities within visibility and invisibility.  Like a decorator's ring of samples, this project is a collection of fabric swatch like paintings which riff on patterns derived from the clothing, workplace, natural/built environment, digital codes and social media  platforms from the daily life of Michael Reinsch.  As a performance, the piece operates as a non-linear score of visual cues with space on the back of  each painting for Michael to trace and record dates, locations and reflections on where/how a particular swatch resonates with what is in his field of vision over a one month period.  

ARTIST BIO

Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos and American, 1976-) is a master artist from the Umpqua River Valley in the South Coast of Oregon. Her studio work is multi-disciplinary. Her primary language is painting, but she also works in photography, printmaking, drawing, sculpture, video, and traditional Indigenous weaving. Her art practice branches into education and institutional reform. She comes from a family of professional artists and educators, her training began in the home. Siestreem graduated Phi Kappa Phi with a BS from PSU in 2005. She earned an MFA with distinction from Pratt Art Institute in 2007.  She is represented by Augen Gallery. Her work has been shown in museums, universities, and galleries and figures in prestigious private and public collections around the world. She lives and works exclusively in the arts in Portland, Oregon. 

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