My First Thursday pick for this evening is at the downtown Stumptown: It's a show by Britt Howard, who's known primarily as the founder and owner of the Portland Garment Factory, an institution near and dear to the hearts of followers of Portland's indie fashion scene, because it provides reliable, consistent production service to designers who have too much to sew all by themselves but can't fill the huge order that most garment factories have as their minimum—so someone like Emily Ryan can spend her time painstakingly using origami techniques to create sculptural masterpieces instead of churning out hundreds of that one simple black tunic top that's selling like hotcakes on Etsy. She's also an occasional model, an excellent curator who occasionally turns PGF into a gallery or costume party space, as well as an apparel designer, a wife, and a mother of two. Girl's got a lot on her plate, and she's channeling the experience of feeling simultaneous reverence for and exasperation with her responsibilities into her first public art show, Soft Knots. So says her statement:

In Soft Knots, Britt Howard intends to explore the inchoate nature of motherhood and the necessary deliberations that occur when one’s life has become the dependent of another. Knots secure and trap, bind and hold, they are defined through context, transcribed by circumstance. Couching them in feminine textiles implores the exploration of the pieces’ maternal premise. The various uses of texture further imply Howard’s contrasting, developing, and ever pliable relationships.

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