Aww, design blogs: thereās nothing better to make yourself feel like a lazy failure (well, besides the Olympics). Clicking, glossy-eyed, through pretty photos of designers and artists in their modish homes and studios, sporting their sassy outfits, petting their pretty dogs, cooking their complicated meals; you realize what a shmuck you truly are.
- Carlie Armstrong
- Fashion designer Dawn Sharp sews away amidst her stacks of fabric.
Carlie Armstrong, however, who began her blog work.place earlier this year, does not make you feel like a lazy failure. Armed with her medium-format camera and a nevermind-the-mess approach, Armstrong documents the studios and working habits of Portland creatives of the likes of Gary Robbins of Container Corps and, our very own art director, Justin āScrappersā Morrison. The ambitious blogger is a California native who established her cred working for Spin and LA Weekly as a concert photographerārapid work which Armstrong claims pushed her āmore in the direction of film and careful composure, since it was the opposite.ā With the high cost of film and developing, each photo she takes possesses weight, financially, emotionally, physically, and her images have the odd quality of feeling both spontaneous and composed.
- Carlie Armstrong
- Painter and illustrator Evan B. Harris works out ideas on his blackboard.
Work.space especially means to document the practice of lesser-known makers. āI feel like Portland has a lot going for it, but so often I feel that the same art and the same artists are presented, and I know there are more out there that are producing work that needs to be seen,ā Armstrong admitted. She recently received a Portland Stock Grant, which is generously helping with the price of her project.
Knowing how one works elucidates why one works: knowing what inspires a person, how their mind moves from one idea to the next, lays the groundwork for what it is they want to say. Armstrong's portraiture deviates from the standard effect of jealousy and instead leaves you to ponder, what is it like to be inside this creative's head?
By focusing strictly on local folk, work.space captures the zeitgeist of Portlandās steadily growing art scene. That being said, Armstrong updates her site weekly, and loves to hear suggestions, wide-ranging suggestions, from musicians, to sculptors, to illustrators. Feel free to do so in the comments!
- Carlie Armstrong
- The work table and inspiration wall of fibers artist Sally England.
- Carlie Armstrong
- Illustrator and comics artist Aidan Koch sketches in her sparse digs.