dflCflmber 21.2001 * Ju st out 37
A T
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S
ierra Lonepine Briano is bold and con
frontational. Her gaze is direct. Her laugh is
raucous. Her hair is as short as her finger
nails. And her art is a lot like she is. With a
boyish grin, she admits, “I like to shock people.”
Briano was bom in San Francisco and raised
in Richmond, Calif. “I have always painted
some,” she begins, but she is not proud of her
early works. Her first painting was “a bunch of
grapes on driftwood,” she says, calling it “trite”
and “corny” and laughing at how much her
work has changed in the 34 years since.
“1 was a hippie,” she says, describing her
early years. “I used to hitchhike.”
Briano traveled throughout the
Pacific Northwest, Mexico and
Canada. She had a son and moved
to Oregon when she was 21.
“I lived in various hippie com
munes, drank, took drugs and
came out at 28,” she says. Like so
many people at the time, “I tuned
in, turned on and dropped out.”
Briano moved to Portland at
32 and “vaguely began to study
art,” she recalls. When her inter
est increased, she stayed sober and
began art studies in earnest.
From Briano’s
“Going to Marylhurst was a rare
decision. Up until then, 1 just did things. 1 never
made decisions. But 1 wanted art school, even
though it was certainly not practical,” she says,
referring to how few people actually make money
in the field. In 1989, she graduated with a bache
lor’s degree in fine arts.
Art school helped Briano find her style. “I
had tried to paint women from old
photos, but 1 felt that they looked
dead,” she recalls. “Then I took advice
from a male art teacher. He told me
that most artists are not successful
until they did what they really wanted
to do. I knew 1 really wanted to paint
big naked women. That was the desire
that came from inside me. I knew if 1
were a Beaverton housewife, I would
not want to paint big naked women.”
She guffaws at her own statement.
Briano began painting nudes on
large canvasses. She used rich colors
to give the women passion and sexuality. Those
brazen images became her Broken Hearted Butch
Madonnas, which, she says, are all self-portraits.
“1 was very nervous about showing these
portraits. It was a very personal body of work. I
felt very vulnerable. I worried about how I
would feel if people didn’t like it.”
It surprised Briano how much people did
like it. “It was my first crossover work," she
says, “because a lot of people could relate to it.
I wasn’t thinking of it as universal. I was just
The butch Madonna
and breakfast. Their summer workshops teach
paper making, clay, watercolors, life drawing,
book binding and acrylics.
Last year, Briano painted a mural at Port
land International Airport titled
Women with Wings— Oregon
Women m Aviation. She grins,
“I got to paint a lot of cute old-
time dykey women in that.”
Briano is considering a
change in fix:us. “I got a lot of
notoriety in the past. But I
have had enough of being
famous. Now I want to be
rich.”
To that end, the artist has
created numerous projects for
herself, including a line of
greeting cards and handmade
books and paper, all of which
she sells at Irvington Flower
Market. She also makes wear
able art she calls “Road Kill.”
The assemblages of beads, bot
tle caps and hardware scraps are
made into pins, boa clips and,
possibly later on, necklaces.
She sells the jewelry at
friends’ homes. “I call this
the dyke version of Avon,”
she quips.
Later this month O N D A
Gallery in Northeast Portland
will display Briano’s painting
series Big Bones. The show
features 34- by 40-inch can
vasses— each featuring one
huge bone.
“1 like to force the viewer
to look at something they would not otherwise
look at, something like Georgia O ’Keefe. I
have to credit her for inspiring me to paint
huge objects, straight on.”
The bones are from animals, each with dif
ferent shapes. “I collect bones,” she croons. “I
just love looking at them. Bones imply death
but are full of life for me.” Multiple layers of
oil paint give each bone a leathery richness
that jumps out from its solid, contrasting
background.
Briano’s work in progress is an oil painting
series tentatively titled Witches, Crones, Hags
and Battle-axes. “I am positive I can paint
some very butchy, outrageous female images
out of that. ” j n
Sierra Lonepine Briano likes
big bones and battle-axes
by
H eron
trying to save my ass [from having my heart
broken]. It was very therapeutic.”
Early on, Briano’s passions expanded to
include helping other aspiring female artists
and writers hone their talents. In 1989,
she, Jemma Crae and Jean
Mountaingrove founded
Dyke Art Camp in southern
Oregon.
In 1992, Briano received
a grant from the Metropoli
tan Arts Council to paint
the visual history of lesbians.
The result was Out of the
Shadows — 200 Years of Les
bian Lifestyle. “I painted lots
of butchy women,” she says
with pride.
Briano emphasizes the
joddess series love and support she receives
from her partner of more than
nine years, Marg Greenhut, a therapist.
Together they bought property in Gaston,
remodeled the house and turned the bam into
a studio. “We wanted to create a northern
Dyke Art Camp,” she says.
In 1996, they opened ArtSprings, a writers
and artists retreat, which is also a tiny bed
by Sierra Lonepine Briano will be on
display Dec. 27 to Jan. 29 at O N DA Gallery,
2215 N .E . Alberta St.
BlC. B o n e s
Sierra Lonepine Briano relaxes at ArtSprings; she inspired her self-portrait series Broken Hearted
Butch M adonnas (above right); Big Bones (inset) opens Dec. 27
HERON
is a Portland artist and free-lance writer.
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