2010

2010 is looking so far pretty good far as art goes. I think this will be an exciting time right now to be an artist and in Portland no less! I have been laying low fat as art goes in Portland until a few months ago. I wanted to study the art scene a little bit before I jump in. I find that Portland locals are nice but they fear the change that outsiders can bring to their city and the art scene here is clear proof of this.

In Phoenix for a time it was hard for local artist to get into the Galleries of Scottsdale or even Phoenix. Local art didn't sale and if you wanted to show you had to make a name for your self some where else before you could show. Then local artist bought old houses in the Willow and Roosevelt Districts and made new rules for the game. Local only. That was good and all but what the snob galleries in Scottsdale did was make local Phoenix artist want to be better then what they were. They made them step outside the box and create their own space and step a way from this bushi bull shit art that only a corporate whore would ever want to buy for his office on the 32 floor of his empire of greed.

So back to Portland...I think the Portland art scene is facing a rut. One the Economy is horrible just just here in Portland but across the US but it's hit the city pretty hard. Two I think we have a divide in the city between Pearl District's art scene and every where else in the city. I think the Pearl district might be new foam of hell.

Truth is the Pearl needs to be what it is and so do all the other districts. I Love Bell Mont, Sellwood, Hawthorn, Alberta, Mississippi and Multnomah Village. All very different from one another. And there are more art districts that I have not even named. I think we need to embrace the differences and stop trying to make this city one giant clone Pearl.

So as an artist we need to embrace that things change and we should accept that as new and different people come things changed. Lets embrace cultures and use the things that make us different are the adjectives but the now is the same...human. We are all just humans.

So you want change then be the change you want to see. And I want to see more diversity in this city and in doing so I'm going to attempt to diversified my style of painting and embrace new ways and explore and experiment and just grow like a tree.