In Portland’s industrial Northwest District, a complex of buildings called Northwest Marine Art Works (NWMAW) covers an impressive two acres of former factory space.
Built in 1911, as a prune processing plant, the buildings transformed into a nautical ironworks during World War II, and in the decades that followed churned out parts for boats, dams, and bridges. The structure was left abandoned in the ’80s, but in the early ’90s a new property owner, Ken Unkeles, began renting out raw warehouse areas to local artists who saw the value of affordable, unfinished rooms where they could create and experiment freely.
Over time, Northwest Marine Artworks has grown into a massive complex of studios, hosting more than a hundred artists. In early December, the studio held a biannual Open Studios + Holiday Market, drawing over 10,000 attendees to drift into the building, look at the art, see what’s happening in everyone’s little work spaces, make some purchases, eat small donuts, and sip on wine.
“People really show up for the arts here,” says Felicia Murray, an artist at NWMAW who helps organize the Open Studios. “Our event is run by artists in the building. It’s been growing so much over the past few years. This year has been very very busy, it’s crazy.”
Part of the admiring crowd, I photographed some of the pieces on display and spoke with the artists about their works.
Michelle Suchland, sculpture and mixed media: “I have a habitat series that depicts animals in human settings—that show animals who have been displaced from their own environments, and then they show up in human environments, like swimming pools. And the people are just oblivious to the fact that they are there and to the plight that brought them there.”
Tina Jeffers, ceramics: “I make all my own glazes. It’s a lot of trial and error—you make a lot of really ugly glazes. I got into food this year, so I’m making all this ceramic food. I started making these eggs, and it’s become my number one. My work is very influenced by blobs, and I think the egg is the ultimate blob.”
Myra Clark, multidisciplinary practice: “I took a trip to the Antarctic two years ago, it was amazing. My husband always wanted to go, I did not care, but it was his dream, so I went with him, and I just loved it. One moment that really stuck with me: I was in the fitness area, pedaling on a bike, reading a book about the first Antarctic explorers, and I looked out and there was a Penguin on an iceberg. It was kind of mind blowing. I used styrofoam to make him because I had a big piece in my garage.”
Pamela Chipman, photo arts: “My work is all photo-based. I use UV reactive dye, I paint my fabric, and I use photographs and plant material to combine and make my prints.”
Tanyth Topia, landscape painting: “I’m inspired by Iceland. I was a ceramic artist, went on vacation to Iceland, and I was so moved by the landscape there that the day I got back I started oil painting. I think having it on canvas, being able to play with the colors, to add iridescence and gold—I use the gold paint as a way of finding the magic of in-between places. In Iceland, there’s fog, there’s lava rock, there’s so much happening in the moss; it’s really a stunning thing. The gold is just a little hint of magic for me.”
Lindsey Fox, watercolor painting: “I do a lot of work in the plain air, painting outside. I backpack with my supplies, start out there, then bring it back to the studio and work a little bit further. I do a lot of pattern-based work, I’m obsessed with patterns. I lived in a part of Michigan where there was a lot of farmland, and I was constantly looking at patterns—I just became obsessed with that.”
Nick Gundry, abstract painting: “I line up four or five panels at once, and I lay down a similar format. I really enjoy how repeating the same process ends up with something slightly different on each one. Different brushstroke, different weight, a very different result. I follow a similar pattern, but you can never really repeat.”
Hsin-Yi Huang, ceramics (above)
Matthew Landkammer, painting: “Some pieces are more landscape, some are more abstract, but there’s always a horizon line. Some of my newer pieces reflect a lot of layers of graffiti, torn band posters—the kinds of things you see in urban environments—mixed with American West landscapes. The little bits of writing in the sky, here, there’s a term for it, Asemic writing. It’s calligraphy that doesn’t mean anything; it’s using the gesture of writing without actually being writing.”
Lauren Huie, ceramics: “I have an engineering background, and worked as an engineer for a couple years. While I was doing a master’s degree in applied physics, I took a pottery class just for fun and fell in love with it. I loved studying engineering, but wasn’t enjoying the job I ended up in. I used to joke that I felt more like an engineer in the pottery studio than I did in my actual job. I got to work with my hands, designing my own products. I could be involved in every step of the idea; that’s not what I did at my job. I was just sitting behind a computer.”
Felicia Murray, fiber arts, particularly rug making technique: “A couple years ago, I discovered this machine called a tufting gun. It’s allowed me to work a lot faster and at a larger scale, so I’ve been able to create these larger-than-life landscapes, an environment for the viewer to experience. My work is nature inspired: coral reefs, fungi, lycans, and moss. It’s an abstracted version of what I see in nature, because what I’m really trying to create is something you haven’t seen before—a new environment, a magical world that you can immerse yourself in.”
Erin MacLeod, fiber arts: Pictured above is a portrait of MacLeod sewing a portrait of the author.
The finished product portrays the author wearing a Mariners hat.