Opening Reception: First Friday (November 2nd, 6 – 10pm)
Show runs: November 2nd – December 2nd
Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, Noon – 6pm

Milepost 5 resident Manuela Kalestiantz has curated a group show featuring 17 members of the Oregon chapter of the International Encaustic Association, showcasing the vast range of possibilities inherent in this art form. Manuela was born in Portugal and studied Fine Art at the Superior Academy of Fine Arts in Lisbon.  Originally an oil painter, Manuela’s fascination with the extreme contrast she experienced with her Indian ink and charcoal work led her to a desire to express herself in a more multi-dimensional and textural process. Manuela has been working in Encaustic since 2008; she has been featured in several Encaustic exhibits in Portland, including MilePost 5, Columbia River Gallery, Portland Center for the Performing Arts, Oregon Society of Artists Gallery,  Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts, and Muse Art and Design’s “An Artist a Day.” Manuela co-curated the “Inspirational Voices Encaustic Masters” Exhibit at the Columbia River Gallery in Troutdale (September 2011). Manuela  is the President of the International Encaustic Artists Oregon Chapter and co-curator of the “Exquisite Wax” Exhibit at the Newport Visual Art Center (July-September 2012.  Manuela also teaches Encaustic painting at her studio in Northeast Portland.

Artists Statement:

“My ‘Painting’ is the vehicle for the unspoken word. The Voice from within, who I am as a ‘whole’ Woman. The different facets of Self, some evident through experienced sight, some felt through touch, smell, others hiding in the secret places within. It takes self-exploration and determination to perceive and discover all, should ‘all’ ever be found . . . through the transformation process of giving life to embodied passion.  I am fascinated by the natural patterns formed in nature, people or things . . . for instance, the pattern your footprint leaves in the moist ground, the way time maps one’s face and body, the wear and tear left upon an object. All of these are real and tell our true stories of being. They are organic, indisputable, deeply textured and sensory filled accounts of our existence.  I hope to provoke the viewer and elicit a dialog which once started will induce exploration and creativity.”

Click here to visit the Milepost 5 blog to meet the other artists.

Still Running in The Lofts

Selective Blindness

Paintings by Loren Nosan

Opening Reception: First Friday (November 2nd, 6 – 10pm)
Show runs: October 5th – December 1st
Gallery Hours: By Appointment

Loren Nosan was born in Michigan and currently living in Portland, OR.  Her work is often concerned with shedding light on the hidden, the mundane, and the overlooked.

Artist Statement:
“The inherent subjectivity of experience and memory, and the tendency (or ability) to see a moment in time from multiple perspectives can lead to synthesis or entropy. Clarity or completeness of understanding is something we claim to strive for, but we often spend more energy deluding ourselves than seeing clearly. We lie to ourselves, shaping our perception so that it conforms to our conscious or subconscious aims. In shaping our experience of a given moment, we alter the picture to suit our vision.  In this series, I examine some critical moments in my life during which I chose not to look at certain details, and thus, chose not to see clearly. I refer to this experience as ‘selective blindness,’ because of the willfulness and hidden intent behind the choices I was making to remain in the dark with regard to certain decisions and facets in my life.  I have always been fascinated by the relationship between time and space, past and present. Looking back at these moments through paint allows me to capture the mysterious wished‐for simultaneity of moments separated only by time. In these paintings, past and present exist and commingle. Immediacy and hindsight operate in tandem. Painting itself is a metaphor for shaping experience. Areas of the composition are blotted out, obscured, painted and repainted. Layering, laboring, and repeating—all the while avoiding choice by allowing the object of my fascination and obsession to be something I never could control—is significant and necessary in this context. Details blend together and reality merges into abstraction. The paint is a lie, and the painted surface is a beautiful façade, intricately constructed out of chaos.”

One Night Only In the Theatre

Eastside Forum Workshop Series

Presented by Living Stages

Friday, November 2nd, 7:30 pm

Living Stages presents the public performance of the 2012 Eastside Forum Workshop Series, an opportunity for neighbors of 82nd Avenue to engage in conversation through interactive theatre. This series of free workshops, funded by a grant from Multnomah County Cultural Coalition, runs through October and culminates with this November 2nd public performance/dialogue.

About Living Stages: Living Stages is a Portland-based theatre organization that practices interactive theatre as a process for community engagement, dialogue, and action. Specifically, Living Stages uses theatre techniques developed by Brazilian artist Augusto Boal, founder of Theatre of the Oppressed. The goal of Theatre of the Oppressed, in Boal’s words is “to create actors out of non-actors, in the theatre and in society.” Workshop participants engage in simple games and exercises, share stories, and learn how to create theatre out of their own experiences. The intention is to not just reflect reality, but to transform it by inspiring participants to take positive action.

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First Friday at Milepost 5 is sponsored by KZME Radio.