#forestforthetreesnw

I've been writing about this mural for several weeks. There's so much about it that I've been trying to say. It's about us. And the history within it, I take that so seriously. Those words are still coming. Meanwhile a mural ... BabeSis, Aunts Tenn, Ms. W, Miss Choomby ... & In Our company .. is up on SE Grand & Ash in Portland OR.  This was made within sight of this deep feeling knowledge I have about Black girls’ sight and -self- visionary capacities. How these visions, these forms of sight, show themselves to us and how our sight-doing makes presents, pasts and futures.. fans out worlds of change. Plural. This is reference and instruction. This work was made in sight of and in dedication to women and girls in my family. My mom is here, a sister, my aunties in Memphis, my family history is on this wall. My grandparents’ names are here .. and the story of my aunts, the seven Lee sisters, Black girls and young women, who together during the sit-in movement in Memphis in the 1960s were called the most arrested family in the country. These were Black girls - teaching a world that told them it did not want them - through their actions and bravery, their vision. Black girls, visionaries. And they still are today. I stand in the wake of their and so many Black girls’ visions. We all do. So this is in sight of them. This is in sight of and in dedication to Black women and girls in Portland. Lameah, Black girl artist .. AnAkA, sister, angel, storyteller.. Joyce Harris, educator and founder of Portland’s groundbreaking Black Educational Center, Mama Makini ..  Chabre Vickers ..  Oregon Supreme Court Justice Adrienne Nelson.. artist and poet Renee Mitchell .. all those imaged here .. and all those not imaged but here nonetheless. There is something about the line of Black women’s presence here, something close and made and done and continuing. Some ongoing way of life that regards itself and builds with its heart steadily. There's an ongoing courage in and of Black girls, Black women, and Black femmes here - and everywhere - that holds itself in the midst of. I see you and been seeing you. There is something to us. This work feels close. And more words will be said. I want to give deep thanks to the two Black women poets who said yes to my ask to open and close this mural with their words. The first night after we began mounting the images I stayed up all night with my brain open to everything .. and it said the mural needed words from a Black woman in Portland. And so from the title poem of Samiya Bashir’s 2017 work, her Oregon Book Award winning Field Theories ..  .. What is a thing of beauty/ if not us?..  A mirror cupped in the hand, these words tllt .. to catch .. and regard us .. ring-shining our lights right back to us. A gift. An illumination. Leading us imaginatively out of the mural, yet right back in. Saying .. here .. here .. here. Looking .. and gesturing towards our lookings. Written, painted as they are here, it is as much sight as seeing. Thank you so much, Samiya. And given to me framed by a dear friend, Nikky Finney's "Instruction, Final: To Brown Poets from Black Girl with Silver Leica" has become for me what I call a fairy god story or fairy god poem. I felt - feel! - so seen by this poem and its title, not just my adult self but my Black girl photographer self, herself beginning to teach me at 14 what I was to know .. finding her own form of Instruction .. and what her teaching still tells me, remembers me to me of our purpose and our ways. Our eyes - together - still opening, shutter still catching, still letting the light Black in. Worlds open in the visual and vision-ing field. Like these portraits, surfacing in the black, what emerges here? Who sees Black girl image makers, teaching, learning, telling? What do we feel-hear in that gleaning between vision and the image, feeling and photograph? The language of “Instruction, Final: To Brown Poets from Black Girl with Silver Leica” sees me, specifically as a Black girl Black woman photographer as almost no other written language has. It calls me to me, speaks of Black girls and Black women’s vision-making .. world-telling .. Instruction .. photographic, visual spoken, told, felt, recounted, recalled, written, danced, passed up, lived, dreamed.. and more.. and otherwise.. always. It tells me to “Be camera..” and my own “black-eyed aperture.” It charges me to “Watch your language!” Thank you, Ms. Finney!! Thank you for the Instruction. I am ! still listening .. learning. We are always looking! With the words of these Black women poets a living frame to these portraits was made and a truth said .. and I am so thankful. What a gift and excitement to have work set against the work of these poets. I am still not over it. Thank you  to my friend and poet Fork Burke, all the way in Switzerland, who when I emailed her at 4:23 AM on July 3rd asking “.. is quoting a poet in this way as an inscription/epigraph before a mural an acceptable or common practice?” responded within minutes.. ! “I think you need not question if it’s a common practice or not- it comes through you- it exists now.” ..  And so the vision..  the reach of process.. the reach of our care. .. And so I reached out to Ms. Finney  .. and ..and ..and.. Thank you, Fork!! We really be needing us. So this is also you.  Thank you to the Portland artists who saw this vision up with me. Thank you to Eatcho who reached out asking me to do this and whose heart and dedication was the fire that soldered the many pieces. Thank you for your care, lift, this spark! Thank you Gage of Forest For The Trees! Thanks for your kindness and care and steady through.. and the printing and the printing and  more printing. Thank you for asking me, "Are you happy?" that evening working at the mural when I was trying to listen to myself and the work, to really hear it.  Eatcho and Gage, thank you for listening to my vision .. for your encouragement and your teaching. Thank you Matt! of FFTT for all your support. Thank you Ash Street Projects for hosting the mural. Thank you to Alex Chiu, Jeff Sheridan, Buckley, Jon Stommel .. artists in community who came through to  paint, fix, wheat paste, and encourage. Thank y'all for your care in this process and bringing me into this mural life. It's a wonder. Thank you to all. And ... ! *Miss Choomby is from Margaret Walker’s “For My People.” .. so thanks always to her. Long the line! Love, Intisar Abioto

Since 2013, PDX artist and curator @Gage_Gage_Gage Hamilton has partnered with "Forest For The Trees" producer Tia Vanich, "pulling Portlanders away from their daily routines" to see the city as a literal canvas for the art of today. In 2017 @FFTTNW expanded their urban canvas into nearby Beaverton and Blaine Fontana added this work behind @MoChaTeaHouse on Farmington Rd. A "distinguished alumni" recipient from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, Fontana runs a successful art and design studio in Portland but still makes time amid his many other commitments, to make art. Exploring the roles of signs and images in contemporary visual culture Fontana says his work "straddles the physical and metaphysical, organic and architectural, and painterly and graphic sensibilities."  @blainefontana/

Born and raised in central Japan, Yoshifumi Nomura, aka Yoshi47, moved to California not long after he discovered graffiti, and spent four years in the Bay Area. Artist and blogger @AntheaMissy says Yoshi47's work is largely inspired by human greed and desire and calls his signature creations, with their mouths full of teeth, a combination of Dr. Seuss and Tim Burton. Painted on SE Stark St at 11th Ave at @adxportland, Yoshi47 says this 2017 contribution to Portland’s Forest for the Trees festival was "not just a big monster face" but his way of sharing the nature-filled countryside where he now lives. "All these textures become like rice fields in Japan, which I walk around with my dog every morning. I hope you enjoy the green spirit everyday."  @yoshi_47/  @ffttnw/

Launched in 2013, over the following four years the Forest For The Trees Festival returned bigger and better than ever and become a much anticipated staple of the Portland street art scene, with Portland artist and designer Blaine Fontana's positive Northwest-affirming messages and images providing a consistent cornerstone. After painting "Keep Your Chin Up" at 22nd and NE Alberta Ave in the inaugural year Fontana says he was delighted to return in 2014 to paint this message on a different wall of the same building. Fontana says he felt it was important to carry over the positive messaging from year one and this Andrew Murphy quote is offered as "a love letter to Portland, Oregon, and humanity."  @BlaineFontana  @ffttnw  

Growing up on the ski slopes of Aspen, David Rice acquired an early passion for both art and the outdoors, especially reflected in his paintings of seemingly every form of animal. After studying art in Boulder his journey eventually led him to Portland, Oregon where in 2014 he began an internship with Blaine Fontana. Awarded “Best in Show” for his senior thesis project at Otis in Los Angeles, Fontana and his wife run Fontana Studios, a multimedia art and design studio in Portland that has designed and licensed work for an enviable list of international brands. The year after Rice began his internship he and Fontana collaborated on this SE Oak St wall at ADX—a creative classroom and workshop space for makers and builders—as part of the annual Forest For The Trees NW festival.  @blainefontana/  @d_j_rice/  @adxportland/  @ffttnw/

Portland, Oregon artist and author Maryanna Hoggatt, aka Leetlewolf, is the creator of the Animal Battles series of illustrations, producing cute yet complex work that appeals to both adults and children. Overcup Press says her army of beasts dressed in children’s clothing are “playful and light-hearted without being overwhelmingly whimsical” and successfully capture narratives, human tendencies, and emotions. “They never seem to express uncertainty, and instead maintain an uplifting sense of optimism and positivity when faced with overcoming challenges.” In 2014, only a year after making art her full-time work, Hoggatt shared a sampling of her upbeat work for Forest for the Trees NW—apparently appealing to her adult fans at Second Profession Brewing on NE 59th Ave at Sandy Blvd.  @maryannahoggatt  @overcupbooks  @secondprofessionbrewing  @ffttnw

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Yatika Starr Fields is a member of the Cherokee, Creek, and Osage tribes. Recognized for his art from a young age Fields attended the Art Institute of Boston where he became involved in urban graffiti culture and began working on mural projects. In 2014 Fields made his first visit to Portland, Oregon, where he created several pieces for a Native(X) “Native + Portland” show as well as this work at the corner of Morrison St and SE 3rd Ave organized by Forest For The Trees NW. Fields told @PortlandMercury his work generally carries movement, and he has experience painting birds, so the choice of eagles was a natural—as both a familiar theme in Oregon’s Klamath River Basin, and as a Native American symbol of purity and perseverance, and a spiritual connection to the earth.  @yatikafields  @ffttnw

Jon Stommel and Travis Czekalski met at the Columbus College of Art and Design and started working together on everything from murals and animation, to illustrating Holly Zanville’s award-winning series of Z House books. Now based in Portland, Oregon the two continue to combine their styles working as Rather Severe as they “inspire the community and enrich the experience of being in public spaces.” For Portland’s second annual Forest For The Trees Festival in 2014 the two created this colorful work at 3600 NE Sandy Blvd.  @rather_severe  @ffttnw​