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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 3, 1999)
septer ART Presenting Sponsors: ! L IJ C W E S T Taking aim at a new career lilt sbtttw hart • nautica A Portland woman captures her love of women with her camera by O r ia n a G r e e n fter 30 years as a professional m usi cian and songwriter, ¡M argo G irard has changed careers. “I’m very introverted,” she explains at her cozy Southeast Portland bun galow. “A nd with music you have to be out there. A nd I had stage fright plus, plus, plus,” she adds emphatically. A s a rock-fusion gui tarist with the Eugene band Transister, G irard got to display her creativi ty, but there was always another voice inside her seeking a different form of M argo G irard expression. It was, in fact, an old love. Thirty years earlier Girard studied pho tography and learned early on she had an apti tude for it. But after several years, she set it aside to devote herself full-time to music. A year ago she picked up her camera again and built a darkroom in her basement. “I’m extremely solitary, so photography is a refreshing change from the collaborative process of creating and making music,” she explains as she prepare: or the first public showing of her photographs. She does see some similarities between the two, however. “I like the yangy quality of pho tographing people,” she says, adding that for her, holding a camera is akin to holding a gui tar. G irard’s intention now is to make photogra phy her livelihood. “ I don’t like shopping-mall THE BEAT @107 5 style shots," she cautions, “but if people come to me and want unique por traits of people and places, I’ll do them.” She will exhibit 11 photographs at The Body Feminine, a group show at In Her Image Gallery. Her subjects range from moody portraits to nudes as part of the natural landscape. Speaking about pho tographing women, Girard says: "I’m drawn to people and creatures as opposed to buildings or landscapes.” Most of her subjects are friends and lovers, but her show also includes a shot of one striking woman she had just met. “1 just knew no matter what she did it was going to be beautiful,” Girard says, and indeed, that appears to be true. (See “Way Down Deep,” reproduced here.) Though this is her first show, Girard demonstrates mature technical ability and a seasoned approach to her subject. Several pho tos are skillful double exposures, and others she has hand-tinted to enhance the mood and mystery. Her titles, too, are evocative. “Eternity” fea tures a remarkably relaxed woman naked in the frigid pools below Multnomah Falls, while “La Luz Oscura” is a sultry nude flirting with the dichotomy of strong light and deep shadows. “T h at’s the ultimate: to photograph the female form in nature,” Girard claims. “ It’s bet ter than sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll!” Girard feels her style is more intuitive than cerebral— perhaps a byproduct o f all those years impro vising music. Although she was known as a musician for playing “loud, screechy, distorted, San- tana-esque guitar,” Girard now dis plays her mellower side. "I want to get my weird thoughts and dreams on paper,” she says, jumping up enthusiasti cally to point out an unusual detail in a photo titled “Eve’s Indecision.” Even though all her belongings are stacked in comers while her home is being painted, it is still clear that an artist lives here. Also obvious is her love of the whimsi cal and the unusual. “I love psychedelic, spiritual and surreal images,” she explains, summing up her love of photogra phy this way: “1 do it because I dig it.” And visitors to her show will definitely dig her sensual images of women. ■ T “ Way Down Deep” by Margo Girard he B o d y F e m in in e is on display September I through 26 at In Her Image Gallery, 3208 S .E . Hawthorne Blvd. For hours and information, call (503) 23T 3726. TODAY' S MUSIC WlILLAMETTE WE E K Producing Sponsors: ! H k Business Journal f i a r t e * “* (jüll Washington Mutual T b « f nend o4 *h# family ¡Contributing Sponsors: ! MEER & FRANK C o u n t on u t t o c o r e Ü PG&E Corporation. SOUTHWEST! A SYWIOl O f FI Et DOM Donating Sponsors: Providence Health System Wells Fargo O C T O B E R 2, 1 9 9 9 C A L L 2 2 3 - W A L K P I O N E E R C O U R T H O U S E S Q U A R E Cascade A 5K and 10K walk to benefit HIV services, prevention, housing and advocacy programs of Cascade AIDS Project. Design/lllustratlon: Scott Erwert l
