An open letter of inquiry for the new Director of the Portland Art Museum

I am a new artist in transition to the Portland area since June of this year, having moved from another Western Oregon town in the Mid-Willamette Valley. I have been planning on this move for many years while I have been a full-time single parent. During those years, I accomplished many tasks in order to develop the skills I would need for my new life. It is with the help of friends, that I was finally able to afford my epic moment early this summer.
Upon arriving to the city, one of the first contacts I made was to the Portland Art Museum because this is the institution in which I really want to be employed and pursue my art career.
Yet, as a result of the quality of my employment inquiry experiences, through the website initially, and as well as in person by phone, thus far_ I write this as an open letter from my blog to Brian Ferriso, Director of the Portland Art Museum.

My inquiry is this: why, as a new artist to Portland, would I want to be ultimately negatively impacted by something of a standardized statement: that the PAM is inundated daily by too many artists seeking employment within her walls?
I hope that you very carefully consider that as an outsider and new arrival_ my perspective may offer fresh consideration that is worth your time.

What I think is that here is an institution on the verge of its own success, yet this institution is perhaps inattentively engaged in an unwitting habit of throwing away its own riches!

The obvious solution seems to me_ IF one is inundated with an overflow of offers to help then, why not assign a currently motivated administrator to apply for the size grant that would provide the funds to HIRE all of us educated, motivated, intelligent, and talented 'inundators?'

We can do the menial tasks within the institution to free up the talent at the top, so that you can all get on with the success of the Portland Art Museum, and assert her potential for a real change! Personally, this is my motivation for being employed at the PAM.

Innovatively invest in your institution's success, Mr Ferriso. We are living in times in which it truly takes all of us, to participate in the process of how everything in American society moves successfully toward a quality of life that is again people-centered.

I hope that I will hear back directly from you, very soon!


L'orgie du printemps, oil

The road to resettling

Having one's own room; home; a place one can lock and unlock the door_ is everything.

Land of Plenty Series, oil

Now a first-timer of First Thursday

First Thursday was a wonderful experience to the extent that there was great receptivity to my work, that all of my business cards disappeared, and that my prices were equally seemingly well-received. Having directly tested my work in the marketplace, I believe that last detail about prices can be trusted...
So naming the reality of the artist/ single-mom in transition from deep healing, to much deep nurturing, into the world of work, etc... One simply cannot finance an American life as a single woman who is NOT, dependent on "male" income-ability_ by compliments alone. Wish it were true. But then how else can a general maturity concerning the desire to consciously surround a life in beauty, occur? What are you worth? These are incredibly worthy thoughts!
A cognizant sense of response-ability is what distinguishes the collector of art from unconscious frenzy trend-following. Art is a tradition of work, rich in history and work ethic that makes room for the entire being in the process of creating, no matter who one's employer might ultimately be; Pope, Emperor, self...
The cost to me to set up my booth is enormous right now. Saying so quite forthrightly, I must respectfully request that one's perceptions which may be rooted in that traditionally pedantic sense of unresolved Puritan shame-reactionism; concerning HOW to define and accomplish the fruits of one's labor, as only looking like the expected mainstream defined sources of work-for-pay_ I forthrightly request these reactions be kept to oneself.

Can American people of socially mainstream/ traditional perspectives begin to do this kind of self-observation consciously?

Ok_right here, right now_ that is that. Stress over everything on the tenuous bridge of transition swallows up one's ability to breath, and get enough oxygen to the brain that could otherwise bathe one's capacity for inspired thought were one able to breathe without undue stress! So, come on America, stop being so insecurely stand-offish about intelligent cultural reflection. Do you like my work? Then, I say, get on with solidly matronizing/patronizing my work_ I have a life to live, and messages of beauty to chorus into the betterment of this world! Reacting can go on ad infinitum, such is the drastic battle of the ego identity in it's false belief that letting go to wisdom, means some dramatically final death... reaction can just be a stuck place, simply put. Trust yourself more_ clearly resolved of reaction!
I am also grateful to have been at the First Thursday in The Pearl street booth event, as I would not have these experiences to respond to, otherwise. For these alone as it turns out, I am the richer, and wiser! You, the onlooker? What have you taken away in your eyes that consciously connects you to your heart...?
Which brings me to the observation that this blog may need to begin an evolution for the purposes of being in a "more" public, professional context: strictly focused on the images for instance. But not to hastily will I adjust this particular detail just yet. One's differences in communication, perception, etc... is so layered and varied, and hence complicated that this kind of switch may be prudent only in the long run after all. This realization too, came about last night as result of the experiences of being there_ thank-you Portland, sincerely!


Waiting, oil

First Thursdays for newcomer and ungalleried artists

I have spent a little time since arriving in Portland with some of the painters who regularly keep booths at the Saturday Market. What I have learned from them respectively, is that First Thursday in The Pearl is a good place for artists without gallery representation to show and sell original works, and actually make money.Hence, I am throwing my hat in that ring this coming Thursday since it is the first one of August.
Traditional employment is not panning out with any efficiency, and so my efforts to be a cross-over or cultural hybrid income production-wise are stuck in the inertia of social goo.
Maybe returning somewhat to my true calling out in the marketplace will, if not meet the requirements of the universal life force, attract the support of guardian angels at least...
In Corvallis, I have been blessed for nineteen years to have the benefits of a relationship with a very special matron to my art work_ at ninety-seven, her name is still Hope. Perhaps Portland will be so benevolent. Perhaps a few of my dreams of a community that is seeking my work will begin to come toward what I do, in this bigger pond. To be sure, I am the newbie here, and still dusted with the inner idealism that is most easily preserved in small town life, particularly over thirty years.
As always, there is also the opportunity to be that patron, and pledge a guardian angel's support to my fiscal sponsorship account! Thanks for your continuing or developing vigilance concerning your own educational exposure to art appreciation, and proactive collecting, and for your continued support for all the arts that enliven your quality of life in healthy, and meaningful ways!

Just Another Girl from the Neighborhood, oil

Adjustments

We have been in our first semi-permanent home for almost two weeks. More tomorrow!
It is July 18th, and adjustments indeed to city life take some doing_ the job search goes on. I wish I had the wherewithal to back up enough to be able to see the big picture right now.


Ce Chignon, après Eva Gonzales, graphite

We did it!

From my observations, since our arrival in the big town/city of Portland, OR_ it would seem as though we may have found handsomely adequate housing in record time reflective of one's status on the economic ladder. More will be shared in the next two weeks, as we begin the larger transition to our new home... thanks for everyone's interest. The journey opens a new chapter!

après Suzanne Valadon, prisma colour

First week out & we return to our former home town for appointments...

The end of the first week, and how I am wanting life to say yes to me! It helps to see people who wish the best for us, and have shown up as new friends right as we are leaving home. All in life is a process... of waking up and letting go.
My anxiety is up, and so are my desires to provide well for us both. How will this transition actually pan out with just over half the initial capitol gone? Not possessing a personal history of social spontaneity or networking at this point, all my panic responses about the great unknown are on alert!
I feel like I am learning the hard way about the sheer magnitude of finding reasonably affordable housing in an inflated metro environment. Easy to see that choices would be greatly helped to enter the game from a much more reasonable personal sense of financial resource in the process of looking.
Why most people acquiesce to paying four-digit figures only in throw-away RENT is crazy! Then the vainly competitive application process saturated with fees giving sheer strangers access to one's personal information as a matter of course _ in "applying" for a much more complicated rental environment is equally unfathomable to the common sense of this country mouse! Is it really a wonder there is identity theft?!
The great illusion of America is her attachments to money... that it is too bad most of her "free" citizens do not more consciously comprehend the basic ideas behind defining a medium of exchange... yet philosophizing right now about the hard facts of finding a suitable dwelling place before the roar of the current machine of big-city housing, may be that which is only drowned out. The realities of finding housing are what they are, and yet talking about it helps to empower, and embolden the spirits of this tiny country mouse in the beginning steps of a new (old) process!!

Summer solstice will be here before we know it in this (modern) crazy world!

L'orgie du printemps, oil

Next time_ gratitude for a wonderful daughter! Gratitude for my own strong sense of self as expressing healthy empowerment!