Suzette Smith Good afternoon, Portland! I’m your new Mercury Arts Editor. I’m not really new but I’m NEW TO YOU. But I’m not really new to you! I’ve been writing for the Mercury, since 2011 when I was an intern with big hair and even bigger dreams. You may remember me as the intern who […]
Visual Art
Posted inBooks
How E.H. Shepard’s Illustrations for Winnie-the-Pooh Broke New Ground for Children’s Literature
One of E.H. Shepard’s early sketches of Pooh and Piglet digging a Heffalump trap. THE E.H. SHEPARD ARCHIVE, UNIVERSITY OF SURREY Good biographies don’t traffic in hyperbole, and that’s certainly the case with James Campbell’s concise, easygoing The Art of Winnie-the-Pooh: How E.H. Shepard Illustrated an Icon. So I’ll throw out some hyperbole of my […]
Posted inVisual Art
Local Students Reinterpret MoMA Works in Marvels. at Portland Art Museum
EMILY FITZGERALD / WORKSPROGRESSAGENCY.COM Working a white, square museum space isn’t the easiest gig, but [E]mpress is giving it her all. From a round stage at the center of the room, the local rapper whips her long braids and confidently strides into a crowd of teens, parents, teachers, and other curious onlookers who have no […]
Posted inVisual Art
Local Students Reinterpret MoMA Works in Marvels.
Forging Artwork as a Way of Taking Ownership of the Portland Art Museum
Students Forge Artworks to Take Ownership of the Portland Art Museum
Posted inArts
Before Disney, There Was E.H. Shepard
A New Book Explores the Illustrator‘s Work with A.A. Milne
A new book explores illustrator E.H. Shepard’s work on A.A. Milne‘s Winnie-the-Pooh.
Posted inVisual Art
GeekCraft Expo PDX: Portland’s Most Accessible Geek Gathering Returns
GeekCraft Expo When GeekCraft Expo launched in Portland in 2016, the Mercury’s preview, which I wrote, was disparaged and derided on Reddit. I mention this not as a sympathy-grab—as a woman with a public-facing byline, I’m no stranger to inducing ire simply by existing—but because in my experience, to be disparaged on Reddit is to […]
Posted inArts
GeekCraft Expo PDX: For Kinder, Gentler Nerds
The Triumphant Return of Portland’s Most Accessible Geek Gathering
The triumphant return of Portland’s most accessible geek gathering.
Posted inVisual Art
Painter Renée Hartig and Linocut Artist Kelli MacConnell Find Common Ground at Ford Gallery
Renée Hartig Renée Hartig’s oil paintings and Kelli MacConnell’s linocuts make for a highly cohesive exhibition of Pacific Northwest landscapes. The two artists have filled the spacious Ford Gallery wall to wall, intermixing their work. They take viewers from coastal Cannon Beach to the Wallowa Mountains in northeastern Oregon, from miniature studies to five-foot panoramas. […]
Posted inArts
Oregon Lines from Painter Renée Hartig and Linocut Artist Kelli MacConnell
This Effective Joint Show Finds Common Ground Between Two Portland Artists
A joint show finds common ground between two Portland artists.
Posted inBooks
Obama White House Photographer Pete Souza Visits Portland Tomorrow
COURTESY OF THE WHITE HOUSE PHOTO OFFICE Like a pro ball player or a touring musician, Pete Souza spent eight years at one of those jobs that doesn’t really seem like work from the outside. As the Chief Official White House Photographer for President Barack Obama, Souza had a front-row seat to a historic presidency. […]
Posted inArts
Pete Souza Reminisces About “What We Had”
The Presidential Photographer on the Visual and Political Legacy of the Obama Administration
The presidential photographer on the visual and political legacy of the Obama Administration.
Posted inArts
Yoko Ott’s Vision for Yale Union
A New Executive Director Brings Administrative Chops and a Curatorial Focus to the Gallery Space
A new executive director brings administrative chops and a curatorial focus to the gallery space.