8
street roots
Jan. 17, 2014
street roots
9
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Jan. 17, 2014
Corneas
you are
Portland artist Michael Horwitz
has been a staple at gay venues,
creating portraits of queer youth
in an environment all their own
BY ANN-DERRICK GAILLOT
S T A F F W R IT E R
f you have attended any dance parties
around Portland recently, chances are
you’ve noticed revelers taking a break
from the festivities to wait in line. The
sight is an odd one until you find local
artist Michael Horwitz at the center of the
crowd, colored pencils sprawled about,
drawing anyone who is willing to sit down
and have a chat with him.
A Virginia native now in Portland by way
of New York City, Horwitz has been making
his name known at queer events around
the city with his free, portrait-drawing
series.
Horwitz began drawing crowds almost
immediately when he appeared on th e
scene last June with his Ikea bag of art
supplies and his hand-drawn signs reading
“Get Drawn for Free!” Now he and his
drawings are fixtures at Portland’s queer
dance parties such as Blow Pony at Rotture
and Gaycation at Holocene, making
appearances at a variety of other concerts,
art gallery shows, and
private parties. From
renowned drag
queens such as
Alaska Thunderfuck
to museum patrons to
twenty-something
partygoers, Horwitz
has managed to
document a diverse
swath of Portland
youth/queer culture
in the over 700
portraits he has
drawn and given away
for free.
Now, the Pacific
Northwest College of
Art grad student’s
work has been
gathered for a show
titled “If You See
Yourself Here, Thank You” at PNCA’s
Arthouse. Recently, he and I met over
coffee to discuss his portraiture series, his
gallery show, and Portland’s queer
community. And, of course, he came
prepared with colored pencils and drew me
as we spoke.
I
Michael Horwitz
Ann-Derrick Gaillot: Tell me about the
first time you drew people at events around
Portland.
Michael Horwitz: The first time I did
portraits (publicly) was at a Portland Pride
party in June featuring RuPaul’s Drag Race
Runner-Up Alaska. I camped outside on the
patio of the venue, Rotture, with a clamp
light and a poster taped to the wall letting
where they are, not so much in a directed
way like being more considerate, but just
like relax and enjoy it. Like, this space is
something that is supposed to be an escape,
and because I have been openly gay for so
long and going to bars I kind of forget how
segregated they are.
A.G.: Segregated how?
M.H.: From straight venues. It’s much
different in Portland. And that was actually
something that was really surprising, how
much overlap there was. I didn’t realize it
until that first night, and I think it’s
primarily because in New York that wouldn’t
happen. And that’s definitely less true in
certain areas but the more I did it the more
I realized I’m just interested in people. And
I’ll do this anywhere. It doesn’t matter if it’s
a gay place or a straight place or, as long as
there’s kind of a steady stream of people
who are all there for a reason and they’re
willing to talk. I was getting this interesting
cross-section of people who are interested
in entertainment, but also in culture.
A.G.: What in your mind makes a
successful portrait?
people know what I was doing. I was super
nervous at first but it became apparent that
people were having a blast and I drew from
7 p.m. until to 2 in the morning. I was
walking home across Burnside after the
party ended and thinking that it felt like I
was doing something right and should find
a way to do it again. I started e-mailing
different venues and booking dates to come
to dance parties, clubs and events.
A.G.: What gave you the feeling that you
had to keep doing this?
M.H.: Part of it was this level of trust
that something was working that hadn’t
been before, which was the conversations.
And I’ve been asked a lot why do I do this
primarily in gay clubs, and I think the first
answer is clearly because I’m a young, gay
male and these are the social spaces that I
inhabit But it’s also,' for me, an injection of
kind of a pause in a setting, in a scenario
where most people are not just bored with
it but, actually, they go there to have fun
and I actually seem miserable most of the
time. And I know because I kind of came of
age in gay bars. I hung out in them a lot in
New York and in Virginia and there’s
always this sense of expectation, waiting
for something to happen. Waiting to meet a
guy, or for you to fall in love, or for you to
be with friends and it just never met that
romantic ideal. There were things there
that were good, like community, and
sometimes when you weren’t worried about
being attractive or if someone would find
you attractive, then you just kind of let
yourself be at ease. So with this kind of
drawing, I thought it was a way for me to
just get people to sit down and think about
“If You See
Yourself Here,
Thank You” is
available for
viewing by
appointment, www.
ihearthorwitz.
tumblr.com.
M.H.: It’s paying attention to how much
they’re giving me information-wise by what
they’re listening to, what they’re saying,
how they’re sitting, if they’re conveying
realistically the way they are inhabiting the
space, posture. There’s energy,-! think, in
people so I’ll include an aura around them,
usually in paint. I think the biggest thing is
doing as much as possible with as little as
possible so the less noodling there is I think
the stronger the drawing is for it. I’m really
happy with it when people say, “Oh, that’s
how I feel like I look like,” or “These are
things I do that I hope no one else notices.”
I’ve never done a drawing where I’ve tried
to make anyone feel bad about the way they
look. It’s like the number one reason for
doing it in these venues: A lot of them are
focused on, yes, community and queer
people, but also there’s this really toxic
level of imagism and body focus and I want
people to see, like this is how you look and
it’s good enough. It’s definitely a concern of
mine.
A.G.: Usually when I see you; you have a
line of people waiting to get drawn. Why do
you think people like being drawn by you so
much?
M.H.: I think part of it’s because I’ll keep
talking until my mouth hurts. So if they’re
not talkative
I’ll pick up the slack and show them I don’t
need anything from you except you relaxing.
And I hope they feel comfortable enough
that they can go wherever they want to go
in the conversation. We talk about
innocuous silly things, we talk about video
games, we talk about “Adventure Time,” we
talk about music and then we talk about
heavy stuff every now and then. And I’m
pretty open with people too when they ask
about me. I don’t really censor it too much
just because I feel like if I give a little then
they feel comfortable to share'.
A.G.: The person sitting with you, what do
you feel like they have to give you in order for
it to be a good experience?
M.H.: Part of it is information (about
their lives), but it can even be as minute as
this is what I’m feeling today. As long as
they’re honest about what they’re feeling
and not just compartmentalizing. With this
I’m also trying to provide people with the
opportunity to hopefully just relax in their
feelings and feel them. Some people get
really uncomfortable around that.
A.G.: Do you see this ds kind of a
performance art project?
M.H.: It has elements of performance art
in it. Performance for me is something
that’s practiced and understood through
repetition. Itincludes observations of
patterns and all of that is in this project.
Because I’ve done this enough times I kind
of understand the different cues that people
provide, my own mindset going in, my
energy levels. I understand what turns
people on in terms of the set up and what is
confusing. And that’s actually taken a while
to realize.
A.G.: Did you have a show in mind when
you started this project?
M.H.: Not at all, no. The nice thing about
having the show is that it’s been completely
a surprise. But I made all of the work really
prepared to never see it again.... But I
never really knew how to display the work.
Display has always been a weakness of
mine, so the act of giving it to people kind
of solved that problem.
A.G.: What's it like seeing all this art in
one place that you were never really expecting
to see again?
cwn o«»«» ♦*»<$•
M.H.: It’s really surreal, honestly. Some
of them are from that first night. It says to
me that I was doing this for the right
reasons. I didn’t really do it expecting,
certainly not to make money, but I didn’t
expect it to resonate as much as it did. That
was a hope, certainly a hope.
A.G.: So what’s next for you?
M.H.: Right now I’m working on my
thesis project for grad school, which will be
a 50-page comic about my fictional romantic
relationship with the writer Walt Whitman.
On Facebook we’re dating and I’ve
constructed a very detailed backstory for us,
and I update quite frequently with stories
about our life together. I’m also
collaborating with the Museum of
Contemporary Craft on an upcoming
fashion exhibition in the spring and with the
Portland Art Museum from a program
organized by Jen Delos Reyes, called Talking
About Museums in Public, which features
social practice artists directly engaging
museum goers. I have a show at East End
Bar that I’m working on currently that
should go up in February.
Above, the work of
Michael Horwitz.
You can find
Michael drawing
portraits at about 9
p.m. at these
upcoming events:
Jan. 18, Club
Tropicana at
Knock Back 2313
NE Alberta; Jan.
25 at Blow Pony at
Rotture, 315 SE
3rd Ave; and Jan.
31 at Lounge,
2432 SE 11th Ave.