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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 13, 2008)
art White Out Gay artist selected for Portland Art Museum's inaugural Contemporary Northwest Art Awards by Barbara Ann Hart eattle gay artist Jeffry Mitchell has hadn’t gone to art school, Mitchell admits he something to celebrate: He is one of five would have been a crafter. Pacific Northwest artists selected for If he were to put a label on the style of Portland Art Museum’s inaugural Con work he produces, it would be “decorative” temporary Northwest Art Awards. To and “folk art,” with a good dose of personal gether with artists Dan Attoe, Cat Clifford, experiences. Whit His work does have a crafty ing Tennis and Marie Watt, he will he recognized appearance, an homage to his childhood Although now considered an established artist, Jeffry in a series of special events that commence with apprenticeship with his grandmother, and in a Seattle restaurant as a waiter. the exhibit’s opening this month. covers three major disciplines: printmaking, Anonymous arts professionals nominated 259 illustration and ceramics. All are very detailed, is this?’ But I thought it was sublime. I think that artists in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana with animal and plant motifs, a reflection of his is one reason I use white. I think my own reason and Wyoming. Mitchell is excited and honored Scandinavian heritage. Mitchell frequently incor might be that I am kind of fair; it is somewhat that he was one of 34 finalists who received studio porates the word “HELLO" into his pieces, which self-portraiture.” visits from the show’s curator, Jennifer A. Gately. is a societal way of communicating, sending a Being gay, and coming out when he was 28 From her visits, five artists were selected. The message for a response. years old, has affected his process. He was “deep award is based on quality, innovation, skill and Then there are his elephants. His proclivity asleep,” as he remembers, perhaps because he was relevance to community or global issues. for elephants come from somewhere, but he is closeted for so long. His art is a reflection on his It’s been an interesting journey for Mitchell, not sure. Bahar, the fictional character created sexuality and his desire to liberate himself on his who, by his own admission, grew up in a cultural by Jean de Frunhoff, comes to his mind. Dumbo, uptightness about sex that is associated with his vacuum. His dad worked for Boeing on military the floppy-eared Disney character, is a favorite. Catholic upbringing. Some of the images are vi contracts, and the family traveled across the Whatever the influence, most of his pieces have sualizations he has while having sex. There are Northwest and Midwest to be near the bases. In an elephant or two. holes to represent anuses, and penises are occa these small towns of 30,000 to 40,000, there were Mitchell works in white. When asked why sionally embedded and camouflaged in his intri no art museums. white, he recalled a cate pieces. Mitchell’s visit to Switzerland Because the family moved a lot when he was grandmother when he was an young, Mitchell was never confronted by school cultivated his in 18-year-old student bullies like most other gay kids. But the subject ner artistic voice. in Rome. Robert still makes him uncomfortable. Mitchell recently Through her, he Ryman had a show completed a residency at a private school in Knox learned to sew, there. All his paint ville, Tenn. He recalls: “The kids were great, but knit and crochet. ing were white. I still get tense when fourth-grade boys beat up on He liked to work “There must each other in a friendly way and call each other with his hands have been 40 paint ‘faggot.’ I still get that ugh, crunchy feeling. In and would make ings exactly the high school, it’s all about fitting in, and to be la furniture. “Kinda same size,” Mitchell beled a faggot was awful. People sometimes called crafty,” as he calls recalls. “They were me a sissy. But no one knew 1 was gay.” it. Being a gay kid, square. They were Everyone in his immediate family of four and living in the hung high. It was brothers and four sisters is accepting and loving. towns he lived like heaven. Some He has a niece who just came out. A sister is very in, shaped his people would say, religious and would prefer he not be gay. “She A Robert Ryman exhibit in Switzerland inspired imagination. If he Jeffry Mitchell to work in white. ‘Oh my God, what thinks,” Mitchell admits, “it’s curable or some S Mitchell still works a couple of nights a week thing, or a deficiency. Isn’t it funny? It is so sick, that you wouldn’t want everyone to be fully them selves, like the wonderfulness of that.” Mitchell has always worked other jobs. He’s done manual labor, taught art at a university in Seattle and taught English in Japan. Although now considered an established artist, Mitchell still works a couple of nights a week in a Seattle restaurant as a waiter. The owner was a student of his, and Mitchell has watched the restaurant become very successful and high end. Some of his work is in the restaurant, and he has sold pieces there. He has gotten over the anger of someone who is making it as an artist with what Mitchell be lieves are inferior skills. “It doesn’t get you any where,” he says. © P ortland A rt M useum presents Contemporary Northwest Art Awards from june 14 to Sept. 14 at 1219 S.W. Park Ave. Jeffry Mitchell will participate in a panel discussion from 2 to 3 p.m. June 15 and a gallery talk with Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Denis Patry Leidy from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. July 13. P ulliam D effenbaugh G allery exhibits Mitchell’s works on paper through June 28 at 929 N.W. Flanders St. B arbara A nn H art is a visual art curator and agent for Horace Long Photography. She can be reached at info@art2hart.com. NGELIC k Healing Hands, Inc. J acuzzi B aths & D ry S auna MASSAGE D eep T issue • R elaxation C ouples M assage 503-226-1672 2075 SW F irst DOWNTOWN st . 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