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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 3, 2001)
auguri 3. ?001 - |M t « She also played a lot o f volleyball in high look like, what it’s going to be. I’ve got 24 school and once was told by a scout she was hours to finish it, and if it sucks, well, so be it, too short to play college ball. Edmunds’ lip right T' (It didn’t.) curls. “ 1 was like, ‘O h yeah?’ ” Sh e went to The wall drawing is a series of symbols that M ontana State University soon after on a vol make up a kind of shorthand text only Edmunds leyball scholarship. can decipher. At the opening people spoke with Edmunds’ nomadic youth prompted her to her about creating similar pieces in their homes. think about ways in which people can connect “They have to give me a story that they would and communicate, which led her to study film- want to say to someone, and then I abstract it making. She was one o f only two women in a into this translation,” Edmunds explains. department she calls “the good ole boys club.” T he ink monoprints were finished in sim i She recalls one of her male professors saying larly speedy fashion. “My time is very fragment to her, “ 1 don’t know why you are pursuing ed and fractured, so I deploy myself with majoring in cinematography and directing when absolute focus for short bursts of time.” the only job you’re going to get in Hollywood is In the course of our discussion, I have become a script girl.” Much like the volleyball incident, concerned about something. Does she ever sleep? she says, “It galvanized me right into over Am id laughter, Edmunds admits she does. achieving.” (G ee, isn’t this the familiar story of “ Again, in short bursts o f highly focused con half the lesbians you know?) centrated time,” she jokes. “Sleep to me is this Edmunds went to Berlin on an thing that I wish we didn’t educational program with other need. Because, damn, there’s a students to work on a film and lot to be done.” eventually came back to M ontana Edmunds does her sleeping State to teach avant-garde cinema. in her inner Southeast Portland Bursting the good ole boys bubble, home with two cats and one she was given the task o f writing Irish wolfhound. “H ave you and directing an art piece com bin ever seen an Irish wolfhound? ing different disciplines that were T hey’re huge and really laid- in the process of being departmen- back, sweet. He com es to work tally merged. She created a multi- with me sometimes.” media program utilizing visual art, What does Edmunds do architecture, film, theater and when she’s not sleeping or work dance. To round out her experi ing? She can’t think of anything. ence, she took acting classes. I make several suggestions. Kristy Edmunds “I started realizing all these Yoga? Gourmet cooking? Clubs? huge connections between the different art “N ope, none of it,” she insists. “ In fact, it’s forms and the language that goes on in visual actually hard for me to take vacations because art, in film, in theater, in dancing, in all of when I’m on vacation, it’s like, what do I enjoy them,” Edmunds shares, “and I started thinking doing? I enjoy seeing art. S o pretty soon, no about how to bring these different elements matter where I am, if there’s any art around.... together.” She went to grad school at Western T h en I’m meeting with so-and-so and doing a Washington University, earning a master’s studio visit. I end up working again.” degree in both playwriting and directing theater. I suggest loving your work isn’t such a bad Then she came to Portland. thing. “My life is very intertwined with my work,” Edmunds replies. Besides acting as director and curator for P IC A , Edmunds sits on the boards o f the A nd now that PICA finally has enough o f a Northwest Business Com m ittee for the Arts, staff to depend upon, she can slow down just a Artists for a Hate-Free Am erica, the Western wee bit. “It’s not quite the Mach 10, hair-on-fire, Front Alternative Space and the Portland Arts if-you-don’t-do-it-nobody-will” it was for the Alliance. She is also a creative consultant for first few years. “Now it’s much more about being various architectural firms. able to step back and have a more humane life.” Som ehow she found time to serve on the Like, maybe she’ll take some yoga? G overnor’s Executive Task Force for Develop Edmunds hesitates. ing a Cultural Policy as well as on various “ M aybe.. .maybe. It’s probably going to be national arts panels. In addition, she is the lead letting myself make more art, making my own consultant to the Ford Foundation for their thing. Because there are so many things I want Internationalizing New Works Initiative, to do.” J H which is developing practices for international performing arts exchanges. The P ortland I nstitute for C ontemporary A rt is located at 219 N.W. 12th Ave. For more Oh, and then there’s her own art. Her series o f monoprints and wall drawings will be on information call 503-242-14/9, e-mail view at Savage Gallery through Aug. 4. pica@pica.org or visit www.pica.org. Entrance to Edmunds was between out-of-town jaunts when exhibitions is $3, free to members. she created the drawings directly on the wall. “ I had one day to do the wall piece. It’s a LlSA B radshaw is a free-lance writer from big experiment; I don’t know what it’s going to Portland. Just a writer, nothing more. Escape your eveiyday routines in this secluded, creekside setting on 28 acres. 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