novamber ì 2000 *
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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