Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 2000)
novamber ì 2000 * » Jane's addiction Gallery owners are committed to their craft by O riana G reen T| \\e funky, fun, lesbian-owned gallery Plain Jane is anything but. Contributing to the revival of North east Alberta Street, the gallery is just 8 months old hut already in the black. As for the artwork on display, it’s wildly colorful and lives up to the motto: Anything hut ordinary. Partners in life and business, Jane McLain and Carrie Wright decided to get the new cen tury off to a blazing start last January with a new years resolution to open their own gallery. Both artists and survivors of the corporate world, they had long dreamed of doing just that. Together for more than seven years, they met in Colorado, then moved to Tucson, Ariz., be fore arriving in Portland five years ago. Always adventurous, they lived for a time in a tent. “We built furniture, then took it into town to sell for a meal,” McLain recalls with a chuckle. So without the benefit of a business plan or venture capital, they lucked out and found a space within shouting distance of their Port land home and set to work. “We built the fixtures from scrap wood and our dream from the ground up,” Wright explains, “All of our artists volunteered and pitched in— we couldn’t have done it without them.” And in just one month these ambitious gals and pals transformed the space into a bright, cheerful storefront. Currently, they feature the work of 20 artists, most of them from the Port land area. But this is no stuffy, pretentious space where you might feel the need to whisper (or gasp when examining the prices). “We want to have something for everyone,” Wright says. “More important, we want our art to be accessible.” Plain Jane displays a mix of fine arts and crafts and one-of-a-kind furniture pieces. You can find anything from metal sculpture to a hand-painted child’s chair to ceramic tiles and vases to “shrine mirrors"— unique as semblages using recycled wood and architectural ornaments. But the star of the place is not-so-plain Jane McLain, a talented, self-taught furni ture maker. It all began some years hack when she realized she needed some furniture for herself, but funds were tight. “I just went out and bought me a hammer,” she remembers, describing her characteristic Jane McLain (left) and Carrie Wright are having fun on Alberta Street take-charge attitude, per haps a result of being one of 13 children. “I’ve always worked in the elements. We Then, she points out how well-diversified Today, McLain’s pieces reflect a playful have a lot of fun,” she insists. “We’re laughing their end of the street is. “There are two Mexi nature and joyful approach to color. She all the time.” McLain says she and Wright work can family-owned and run restaurants, three describes her work as “primitive, rustic, recy well together and continue to inspire each other. African American businesses, one Asian- cled with an artsy edge.” However, McLain is still new enough at this owned, nine women-owned businesses and sev Indeed, she collects hand-painted tiles to that selling her creations is a thrill. “People are eral that are owned by lesbians. If this isn’t incorporate into the fronts of cabinets and coming in and they’re buying a piece of me, diversity, what is r j n occasionally collaborates with Wright, who is and they’re going to take it home and live with also a painter. McLain is a scrounger who can it,” she marvels, after writing up yet another P lain J an e is located at 2936 N .E . turn almost any found object into something custom order for a repeat customer. Alberta St. C all 503-528-9691 or visit clever and beautiful. Various chairs in the So how about the ongoing discussion on ivtvw.plainjanegallery.com. gallery incorporate bottles and masks into their Alberta Street about gentrification? McLain is backs with a whimsical result, and each one is quick to say she’s not too political but does OR1ANA GREEN is a survivor o f the art world an original and never duplicated. offer, “I don’t want to see Starbucks or any cor and the Entertainm ent Editor o f Just Out. She porate money on the street.” Clearly a hard worker, McLain gets up early can be reached at oriana@ justou t.com . to craft her furniture pieces before heading into the gallery five days a week; the other two days she’s at it all day long. She works under a tarp outside her house, but she’s not complaining. Who was that masked woman? Jenna MacGillis uses art to express repressed feelings by H eron enna MacGillis is a passionate woman. You might not think so when you first see her. Pale eyes. Quiet demeanor. But just get her talking about her masks and watch the embers flame. MacGillis makes masks, writes poems and dances. She and two other lesbian artists have collaborated on a show that runs through Nov. 29 at Plain Jane. MacGillis’ masks grew out of her desire to express deep emotions, which always had been a problem for her. Her grandmother, a schizo phrenic, had insisted that emotions were danger ous and imposed a strict, almost Puritan ethic on her and her mother “in order to keep us safe.” She says they still are recovering from the trauma. About five years ago, MacGillis was taking authentic movement classes in San Francisco to help her express feelings too long repressed. "You listen to your body’s inner impulse and let your body do what it wants to do,” she explains. “You are, in effect, dancing for your self, not for anyone’s viewing." One day while dancing she saw “with such clear focus, 1 wanted to create a mask.” She began sculpting in clay. “I could directly create those faces that would come to me in a dance." These days, the 32-year-old wears the masks while she dances. “My dancing embodies the J mask to portray ideas and feelings that are often denied or repressed.” MacGillis says she came out at the same time she discovered she was an artist. Isn’t it funny how that happens? She now has a master’s degree in art and leadership and has per formed in the Bay area, where she lived for 12 years before moving to Colorado. She moved to Portland this past June "for the culture and a strong gay community." Gallery owners Jane McLain and Carrie Wright are proud as parents to have discovered MacGillis and to give her a start in the local art community. They arranged for Joya Menashe and 9 Linda Peters to collaborate by taking i photographs of the artist dancing with the papier-mache masks, hand-tinting them and framing each one in a unique way to enhance the final effect. Fragments of MacGillis’ poetry accompany them on the walls. The masks are bright faces, intensely colored and alive with expression; each has a name and personality. Some are larger than life with rivers of bright hair flowing from them. jn H eron is a Portland free-lance writer. & 9 I The many faces of Jenna MacGillis
