Category Archives: Arts & Culture

Living as a street mime in Paris, Bruce Marrs was influenced by the use of masks in theater productions. A year later he tried his hand at creating masks while working with the Oregon Dance Theatre.

Although the show was not a success, it inspired him to want to learn more about the art form.

Bruce took an intensive class in commedia del’arte – a form of theater using masks that is both scripted and improvised – at Del’Arte International School of Physical Theatre.

He was hired to teach dance, mime and mask making. He worked at the school for the next 25 years.

During the summers Bruce worked at county fairs as a stilt character, dancer, clown or whatever was needed. Rather than changing makeup for each character, he decided to create a set of papier-mache masks from brown grocery bags.

The Pickle Family Circus and Jeff Raz of the Clown Conservatory in San Francisco commissioned a set of masks and, through word of mouth, there became a demand for his handmade character masks.

Bruce’s mask set of 10 characters became popular with universities, high schools and guest teachers all over the U.S., Canada, Scandinavia, India, England and Australia. Touring companies asked for custom sets for their shows.

He made and sold thousands of masks to sustain his family through the summers when school was not in session.

The masks are transformative for the actor, according to Bruce. “They are magic. The same mask on a different actor will be a different personage.

“For teachers, it’s always new and surprising. For students, they are, at first, invited to be other than themselves. Then they become responsible to discover and serve that new life.”

Michel Reeverts, aka Maquette , holds a master of arts degree in art education, serves Alberta Art Works as director and Alberta Street Gallery as a board member. She is also a practicing artist. Contact her at Maquette@AlbertaArtWorks.org

If you want to get your art, political message, logo or just your name out there, stickers are the media of choice to reach the masses. Slap tagging – or sticker bombing – has been a viral art medium since before the internet even existed.

Spray paint or a marker takes time and increases the chance of being caught. Stickers can be slapped up quickly. It is mostly an urban art form that focuses on walking, public transit and public spaces where people wait and look at their surroundings.

Stickers are easy, cheap and can be made at home in bulk or printed at the local print shop. Priority Mail stickers can be obtained for free from the post office and make a great surface for drawings or tags. Sticker artists often trade their work with each other to expand their distribution.

Some slap their stickers next to friends’ stickers to say hello, or they place stickers next to better-known artists to get noticed. This is called spot jockeying or side busting.

Portland is a hub for slap tagging and, over the course of the past decade, has elevated Portland to be the sticker capital with Alberta and Mississippi districts having high concentrations. That’s because both have specific walls that are popular with local and national sticker artists.

Like other forms of graffiti, slap tagging can be seen as an unsightly nuisance that contributes to the negative impact on livability. Others see it as a form of chaotic and free human expression – an attempt to reclaim boring environments or public space.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation spends an average $42,000 a year on cleaning street signs and helps coordinate community volunteers to clean graffiti.

There are also individuals who take the task upon themselves – which can end up stripping the reflective surfaces off street signs and rendering them illegible at night.

Michel Reeverts, aka Maquette, holds a master of arts degree in art education, serves Alberta Art Works as director and Alberta Street Gallery as a board member. She is also a practicing artist. Contact her at Maquette@AlbertaArtWorks.org

After seeing friends share photos of themselves standing in front of wings painted on walls, artist Stefan Senna was inspired to direct his talent toward a public purpose.

Stefan lives on the section of Alberta Street designated as a bike corridor. “After the last year and a half being so challenging on everyone, and me having my own experiences, I decided to focus on things that would be fun – things that make me feel good.”

The artist got to work painting wings cut from wood, with each set in support of or to acknowledge an aspect of local culture. The first set in the Freedom Wings Project are dedicated to equality and freedom for all people of all back–grounds, race, gender and identity.

The second set, the Butterfly Wings Project, is dedicated to all of the teachers who helped students traverse the challenges of the pandemic. Stefan is currently working on the Flying Fish Wings Project, in honor of beautiful oceans.

The Phoenix Wings Project comes next. “I asked my teenager which set of wings would be a good symbol for all of the challenges that our kids have faced during the pandemic,” he explained. “His response was the Phoenix. It seemed fitting.”

Stefan intends to install the wings from 70th to Mississippi avenues, and a map of the wings is part of his final plan.

The artist is seeking residents on the south side of the bike corridor streets to host sets of wings. To participate, contact him at StefanSenna@gmail.com, or help fund the project GoFundMe.com/f/cku8w4-wings-of-freedom.

Michel Reeverts, aka Maquette, holds a master of arts degree in art education, serves Alberta Art Works as director and Alberta Street Gallery as a board member. She is also a practicing artist. Contact her at Maquette@AlbertaArtWorks.org

By Maquette Reeverts | Alberta Art Works

Tap dance is an indigenous American dance genre that evolved over 300 years. In the 1700s, the Irish jig fused with the West African gioube to become “jigging.”

When slave owners took away traditional African percussion instruments, slaves turned to percussive dancing to express themselves and retain their cultural identities. Jigging was later refined for public entertainment and called tap.

The form of entertainment is honored with “National Tap Dance Day” on May 25, signed into law in 1989 by George H.W. Bush.

Twenty-eight-year neighbor Michael Conley, known as MC Shoehorn, is our very own tap master. As an exchange student in Peru his Peruvian “brother” played banjo and guitar while he played harmonica.

“I always listened to my footsteps when I would practice.” That led him to purchase an old pair of shoes at a thrift store and add taps.

MC Shoehorn now plays 12 instruments, has recorded 10 CDs and invented an electronic instrument that allows him to play additional instruments with his feet while he plays his saxophone and taps.

Performing spontaneously with no set routine, he improvises through blues, jazz, rock, world music and his own compositions.

MC Shoehorn started out busking on the streets of New Orleans and performed at Alberta Street’s very first Last Thursday in 1997. He plays at festivals and fairs, with local bands, school assemblies and other events, and he has toured Russia and Austria to share his passion for rhythms.

MC Shoehorn teaches his craft and is planning outdoor lessons for all ages this summer. Find out more at ShoehornMusic.com.

Michel Reeverts, aka Maquette , holds a master of arts degree in art education, serves Alberta Art Works as director and Alberta Street Gallery as a board member. She is also a practicing artist. Contact her at Maquette@AlbertaArtWorks.org.

By Maquette Reeverts | Alberta Art Works

It’s time to recharge the community, and our artists and creatives are ready to jump. For the past year there has been a void in the arts which rely heavily on an audience. Luckily a street artist’s audience is the passerby.

With a do-acracy attitude, the multi-disciplined artist Campo, of Campographic Murals & Design, stuck his head in the door and met Aisha Keita building out a thrift store in the former Island Foods Market building at 1436 N.E. Killingsworth St.

“Understanding the importance of having an approachable facade, I offered her my services to hire a team of artists to paint her building and boost her visibility,” he reported. Faced with 2,500 square feet of surface to paint, Campo turned to GoFundMe.com to raise funds to buy supplies and pay expenses for participating artists.

Local businesses GreenHAUS Gallery and OpenHAUS, the Alberta Main Street organization and others helped promote the effort to reach the target goal. The team of artists include Calm, Flash, Cead, Case 12, Bose, Rong, Heysus, Eyedrawp, @Mungala_Nao and Campo. Each artist is working on a different space on the building.

Campo is painting the largest span, which faces the intersection. Following Aisha’s suggestion, the young poet Amanda Gorman – with lines from her poem read on Inauguration Day – was chosen as the subject for his section of the mural.

With all the changes happening to the landscape, this site too is in flux. But the artists take it in stride. “Nothing is forever. For me this is OK, as it allows me to enjoy something temporarily and then release it someday.” Campo said. Their work is for you to enjoy while it remains.

Michel Reeverts, aka Maquette , holds a master of arts degree in art education, serves Alberta Art Works as director and Alberta Street Gallery as a board member. She is also a practicing artist. Contact her at Maquette@AlbertaArtWorks.org

By Maquette Reeverts | Alberta Art Works

In 1997, the Alberta Streetscape plan was hatched as an attempt to rejuvenate Alberta Street. The main street had lost its luster and the city finally invested in the district via the Portland Bureau of Transportation.

Aligned with the community, the plan included a focus on the aesthetics of the strip. Curbs were extended, trees planted, the iconic kinetic street lighting added and eight bus benches installed.

The idea was to make the street more functional and aesthetically pleasing for both pedestrians and cars.

By 2016, those bus benches had been forgotten. They were covered in tags and were in utter disrepair. Alberta Art Works negotiated an Adopt a Landscape agreement to do something about the eyesores that ranged from 7th to 24th avenues.

By creating a sponsorship program, businesses or individuals pay local artists to paint benches. The benches are repainted every two years. The artists thank the sponsor(s) on the backs of the benches, and they sign the fronts.

This spring several benches will be repainted and – with all the changes in the landscape of Alberta Street – it will be a welcome splash of public art in our shared space in time for summer.

Want to sponsor a local artist and contribute to our Alberta arts legacy? See AlbertaArtWorks.org to find out more.

Michel Reeverts, aka Maquette , holds a master of arts degree in art education, serves Alberta Art Works as director and Alberta Street Gallery as a board member. She is also a practicing artist. Contact her at Maquette@AlbertaArtWorks.org.

CNA respects the views and beliefs of all Concordians, and their cultures and faiths. The views expressed by this writer do not necessarily reflect the views of CNA.

By Maquette Reeverts | Alberta Art Works

Take the power of art and add community. Art in public spaces creates culture by building character and improves the quality of life.

Art doesn’t have to be a luxury or something in a gallery or museum. Art can happen in your yard. You have an opportunity to improve the quality of place while engaging your brain in something creative.

It is going to be a long winter, so why not use that extra indoor time creating something for everyone to enjoy? Think yard art, little libraries and other ways to enhance your lawn for the good of all.

Engage your neighbors with something that makes them smile, a little surprise along their evening stroll.

Not a painter? Stencils are a great way to enliven a garden wall or concrete steps. Make a stencil using thin cardboard or buy one from a craft store. Hire an artist, or paint a mural yourself on that tired wood fence.

How about a street mural? Start planning this winter by visiting PortlandOregon.gov/transportation/67083, then putting it into action come spring.

Interactive art could be a chalkboard, little libraries or shelves for free piles. Assemblages are works of art that use found objects. Look in your attic, garage and bike shed to find interesting parts to make a yard sculpture.

Those born with green thumbs could start a “kids cut-your-own flower bed” or how about inviting a fairy or gnome into your garden by building them a house or an entry at the base of a tree?

Do it for yourself and do it for your neighbors. Create a smile for everyone to enjoy. By simply participating in a creative way, you can help bring a little humanity to our everyday and improve our community’s well-being.

Editor’s note: After you’ve created and placed your community art, send a photo and its location to CNews for Concordia Curiosities. Or post it on Facebook.com/ groups/ConcordiaPDX.

CNA respects the views and beliefs of all Concordians, and their cultures and faiths. The views expressed by this writer do not necessarily reflect the views of CNA.

Michel Reeverts, aka Maquette, holds a master of arts degree in art education, serves Alberta Art Works as director and Alberta Street Gallery as a board member. She is also a practicing artist. Contact her at Maquette@AlbertaArtWorks.org