Submission of the month

A surprise quilt

The Portland Upside
April 2010

We are students in Art Class at The Bridge, a special residential community in Beaverton, Oregon. Last Fall, we made quilts. We used fabric markers to draw pictures on some of the squares. The Blockbusters Quilt Club quilted the quilts for us. We each made a quilt for ourselves. In addition, we all worked together to make a quilt for our resident manager. We kept it a secret and surprised her. She loves her quilt. Here is a photo of the quilt, our resident manager and us.
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Submission of the month

Matilda and the Fairy

The Portland Upside
March 2010

Needle-felt artwork by Stacy Polson

Everything fascinates Portland needle-felt artist Stacy Polson. So when she discovered the craft of needle-felting she had to try it. Needle-felting is the process of adhering fiber to fiber using a barbed needle to compact wool into shapes. She’s used almost every medium there is and says that needle-felting is the most versatile and forgiving.

“It’s allowed me to experiment like never before because I can simply fix a mistake by plucking out the wool. And what other medium lets you paint and sculpt and needs no cleanup?”

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If you go to Stacy’s website, stacypolson.com, you’ll see she’s got eclectic tastes. Right now, she’s working on a series of Geishas wearing surreal hats. You can also view her work at Gossamer at 2418 East Burnside Street in SE Portland.

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Submission of the month

Sitta's Story

The Portland Upside
February 2010

Self-portrait photo by Sitta Cole, age 19

I was born in Liberia, Africa. My life with my family was good until the war. When I was seven years old the rebels waked my family up in the middle of the night. We walked for four days to Sierra Leone so that we would not be killed. For three years we lived in the refugee camp until we were allowed to come to the United States.

In 2005 I came to The Portland International Community School. The teachers treated me with love and respect and taught me things I did not know before.

I came to Focus on Youth in 2008 and started learning photography. The beauty I see and am able to photograph makes me forget the painful things that happened in Liberia.
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Focus On Youth was started six years ago as a way to keep at-risk youth on the path to graduation using photography and mentoring. http://focusonyouth.org

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Winter Smile

Photo by Aike Burger
The Portland Upside
December 2009

Aike is a sophomore at Lake Oswego High School. She started with photography when she was 11 years old. Aike uses humor and an unusual angle to get her message across. This photo was taken when she got bored being inside during the big snowstorm in December 2008.
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Alpaca Pair and Go By Train

Watercolor and line drawing by Joyce Lovro Gabriel
The Portland Upside
November 2009

Art director at Pacific University by day, on her own time Joyce is absorbed with the art of craft and the craft of art. She enjoys mediums from pen and ink to oil, but her favorite is watercolor...with pears and birds often front and center.

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Bus Love

By Kara Maslen
The Portland Upside
October 2009

One of 400 entries in Forest Grove’s Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival.

The Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival in Forest Grove has occurred on the third Saturday of September for the past 19 years. It began when the Board of the Valley Art Association was inspired to emulate Santa Barbara’s street painting festival as a way to encourage creativity and community. Unlike other Chalk Art Festivals, the artwork is not judged, so all drawing is done purely for the sake of creating art.

Lillian Read has volunteered at all but two of the festivals, and will co-chair next year’s event with her mom.

For more information, visit www.valleyart.org or contact Lillian at Lillian.Read@gmail.com

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Submission of the Month

The Portland Upside
September 2009

Yin & Yang

Woodblock print by Brian Lockyear
Willamette Heights neighborhood, Portland, Oregon

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