Page 8
News
S tre e t R o o ts •
A u g . 7 -1 3 , 2 0 1 5
S tre e t R o o ts •
A u g . 7 -1 3 , 2 0 1 5
News
Page 9
Always an artist
As a child during the Depression, Mary Pacios experienced poverty. As a young,
single mother, she persevered through college. As an adult, she wrote and published
books about notable friends. A ll the while, she was an artist — and still is.
BY SUE ZALOKAR
STAFF WRITER
ary Pacios, a printmaker living in
Portland, has a lot to say about
society and life at large. Her work is
as striking as it is personal. I’m no art critic,
but I can tell you there is something special
about the images that Pacios produces. They
are beautiful and tragic — semi-abstract
representations of real life and human
emotion.
Pacios has been an artist all her life. She
will chuckle as she tells you the story about
drawing on the huge canvas of the earth with
a stick as a small child in the late ’30s. Raised
in the poverty that accompanied many
families’ experience during the Great
Depression, Pacios didn’t have access to
crayons o r even paper and pencil.
True artistic drive cannot be repressed,
though, even in an era when women were
PH O TO S BV SUE Z A L O K A R
told where their place was. Pacios would
Printmaker Mary Pacios will participate in A rt In Action, the Geezer Gallery’s new working artists
politely albeit firmly ignore the naysayers and studio in the South Waterfront neighborhood. A t right, Pacios’ work, “The Salish Canoe.”Below: A
prove them all wrong.
few o f Pacios’ large, hand-pressed prints.
She would also befriend some society fringe
players: Elizabeth Short (known as “The Black of Mind” at Portland’s ArtReach Gallery, 1126
I’ve always worked big. When I was 5 , 1 was
Dahlia”) and, during h er time in New York
SW Park Ave., across from the Portland Art
asked what I would want to be when I grew up.
City, the Kuchar brothers (indie-cult
Museum.
I said, “An a rtist” I don’t know where it came
filmmakers).
from. We were very, very poor. I was bom in
Sue
Zalokar:
For
those
who
might
not
be
“Bette” Short was a neighbor to Pacios, and
the Depression, and we were poor. We didn’t
familiar with your work, how would you explain
in their youth — starting when Pacios was 8;
have crayons and pencils and paper, and I love
it?
Short was a teenager — the two would go for
to draw. So I would go out in thé dirt, and I
ice cream and to watch movies. Years after
would get a big stick, and I would draw in the
M ary Pacios: I draw from life, but I don’t
Short’s unsolved murder, Pacios’ desire to
d irt I would have all this space to draw in.
draw realistically; I draw emotionally — and I
correct public opinion of her friend largely
see emotionally. A lot of artists work from a
When I started school, we didn’t have
drove her write a book about her. It is the age-
photograph to make a drawing, but photos are
crayons, but we had little colored pegs. It was
old tale that women still have to navigate: you
very static. If you have a person sitting for
in the first years of school that set the pattern
are either a madonna or a whore. Short was
you, they have to sit 20 minutes and then take
for my whole life. In second grade, if you finish
neither but has been depicted as the latter. In
a break. The whole time, they are thinking in
the work, you could take out your little box of
reality, she was a woman brutally murdered,
their head, and that comes through. I don’t do
pegs and you can play with them on your desk.
quite possibly because of no other reason
portraits because I’m afraid people aren’t
I would always finish my work, get it right —
than someone thought they could get away
going to like what I see, how I see them.
fast Then while all the kids were working, I
with it. So far, Pacios is one of the only people
would be covering my desk making drawings
S.Z.: What brings you to this medium?
to restore some dignity to the memory of
with these p eg s.... The idea was to keep the
Short
kids who finished first quiet In my whole life,
M.P.: It’s like my whole life — it was a fluke.
Pacios also befriended twin brothers Mike
it was: take care of your responsibilities first,
(We both laugh).
and George Kuchar. She was cast in, or
and then do what you w ant
funded, Kuchar film projects. One such role
S.Z.: I can relate to this.
S.Z.: Can we talk for a minute about the
was the lead in the 1995 short film “Society
M.P.: I went to art school as a painter. Most responsibilities that you had as you were creating
S lu t”
of my shows in San Francisco were my
all of this art?
Although she spends much of her time
paintings. I was living in Modesto, Calif., and I
creating art, Pacios has found time to
M.P.: This is an important era for me
thought, if I went for a m aster’s degree, I’d be
volunteer in the community, as well. She was
able to teach and earn some money. In the Cal because the Republicans who are against birth
active in both Obama presidential campaigns,
State University system, the only advanced art control and abortion and want to go back to
and she was an integral volunteer with Street
the ’50s —th e y scare me.
classes they had were in printmaking.
Roots for many years.
I watched the first episode of “Mad Men,”
I worked out an individual major in a rt and
Through September, the public can watch
and I couldn’t watch it again because it was
social change. I had it worked out for taking
Pacios and other artists work at the Geezer
like PTSD. It threw me right back into the
anthropology and sociology courses for
Gallery’s new working-artists studio in
’50s.
academics, and I was going to take all the
Portland’s South Waterfront neighborhood.
I loved school. It was my haven from a
different
kinds
of
printmaking
classes.
In the fall, Pacios will be at Portland State
dysfunctional home. And at 17,1 had to leave
The first topic in the printmaking class was
University, auditing and printing on the large
(school). I was pregnant I didn’t want to get
relief, and the first medium was linoleum. I’ll
press. In October, her work will be exhibited
married, but I had no choice.
tell you from the first time I cut into that
with m aster printmakers Eleanor H. Erskine,
At the time, I would bring shame to my
linoleum ... where had it been all my life?
Josh Hulst, Michael McGovern and Jorge L.
family, and of course birth control was illegal
(laughter).
Porrata in “The Cutting Edge: Portland State
M
Art In Action
What: Observe Mary Pacios and other
artiste in action during open-studio hours.
W here: Emery Apartments, 3139 and
3147 SW Moody Ave., on the waterfront.
year program. You should go home and take
care of your kids properly.” I said no.
He told me I never should have been
entered here. The school is crowded, and we
can only accept the top third of those who
qualify —meaning I was in the top third. He
told me I was taking up valuable space.
S.Z.: WTia/ the... ?
When: 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Wednesday-
Sunday, through September.
More information: Geezer Gallery,
www.geezergallery.com.
in Massachusetts. So at 18, three days short
of a year, I had my second child. A nurse said
to me, I don’t want to see you in here next
year. This was a Seventh-day Adventist
hospital. The nurse told me about diaphragms.
I had never heard the word birth
control. These are the instructions she gave
me: She wrote down the doctor’s name and
phone number and said, “Call them; tell them
I sent you and that you want an appointment
for a checkup.” So I w ent
She also explained that in Massachusetts, if
a doctor dispensed birth control, he would
lose his license to practice medicine, so it was
very serious. I went, and I told all my friends,
and I gave them the doctor’s name. They had
never heard of birth control. Yeah (deep sigh).
So that’s what it was like. It was an
underground network of women helping other
women.
I left my husband, but I couldn’t make it on
my own at 18 with two children. Nobody
would rent to me. I went back to my husband.
I had no alternative. I had another baby at 20.
After the baby was bom, he said he wanted to
Duke Ellington ... Count Basie ....
Most of the wait staff were college kids, and
•som e of them went to Mass Art
(Massachusetts College of Art and Design).
One of the waitresses said she’d like to see
my drawings. I had been drawing sketches of
my children. I had to draw fast because they
leave me. Oh, God! I was so happy! I figured, I move so fa st I brought in a whole bunch of
can’t let him know how happy I am, so he’s at_
quick sketches of my kids, and she said, “You
the door with his suitcase. It was like a movie.
should go to art school.”
I’m standing there and he says, “You look so
I said, “Oh! I can’t. I’ve got three kids to
•sad. I can’t leave you like this,” and he comes
su p p o rt...” (but ultimately) I got accepted.
back in!
S.Z.: Oops! You might have looked a little less
sad.
M.P.: He left a week later. His girlfriend
was pregnant. But I had an apartment. I had
babysitters. I just didn’t have to support my
husband anymore.
I was making more money as a waitress
than he was making. Then I got my GED, and
I got a job at a jazz club called Storyville. It
was run by George Wein, who put on the
Newport Jazz Festival. He and the manager
hired me because I knew nothing about jazz.
He said our next band is Woody Herman, and
I said, “Woody who?”
The thing is they didn’t want jazz groupies
there. They wanted people who were going to
hustle the drinks. For the next few years, I
listened to Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan,
S.Z.: What was it like to be working and
going to school as a single parent?
M.P.: My first year in college was
something to get used to because I had to get
my kids ready and I didn’t want them to feel
rushed in the morning. (I’d have to) get them
off to school before catching my bus that was
45 minutes over to Mass Art then switch
gears and be an a rt student
Towards the end of my first semester, I was
doing (really well) in the studio classes. The
ones where I had homework? Not so good.
But I was one of the top students in the
drawing departm ent
The dean called me in, and I was all excited;
I figured he’s going to offer me a scholarship.
After a little bit he said, “I want to cut to the
chase. You should withdraw. You have three
kids, and there’s no way you can finish a four-
M.P.: Yeah. Of course I said no. I was the
first woman with children who was the sole
supporter of her kids to be admitted to that
school. He thought I didn’t belong there.
To counterbalance this, I had been living in
a housing project, and the women in the
housing project, we made friends and helped
each other.
I had so many people (in my life) — how the
society was at large - there was a subculture
that helped people (like me) get by.
‘Exerting the female dominance’
S.Z.: The female form is significantly
represented in your body o f work. What is the
significance of this to you?
M.P.: The female body is beautiful. It’s
exerting who I am and who I identify with. I
think to me, it’s exerting the female
dominance.
S.Z.: Indeed!
M.P.: I was surrounded by this. I had to
overcome — women my age had to overcome
— this thinking. If you were smarter, you had
to pretend to be dumber. I didn’t want to play
that game anymore.
I’m an ex-Catholic, and there’s a lot of
things I don’t like about (Catholicism), but the
one thing that it did do for me as a kid, I’d go
to church and I would see the Virgin Mary, I
would see all these female saints, and of
course I’m Mary. The highest thing you could
attain was sainthood. The saint was above the
pope. That meant that all these female saints
were above the pope. It gave me the
counterbalance to “Men are superior,
and you should defer to them.”
S.Z.: You talk a bit about the sexism you’ve
experienced. Do you experience ageism in your
artistic or day-to-day life?
M.P.: In my day-to-day life, it’s the
condescending attitudes that sometimes get to
me, whether it’s being told I’m “feisty” or
referred to as “lady” or just plain talking down
to me. I live in subsidized housing, and under
the new ownersj I received a pre-inspection
cleaning checklist suitable for a 12-year-old or
a recalcitrant teen. Wash dishes and put away,
etc. I saw red!
I experience good ageism in that I always
get a seat. (Laughter)
S.Z.: Take advantage o f that!
M.P.: When I was in New York C ity...
what’s the name of the Dorothy Day group?
S.Z.: The Catholic Worker Movement.
M.P.: Yes! I m et this young guy; he was
Puerto Rican. He did the (El) Museo del
Barrio (a New York City museum devoted to
Latino culture in the Americas). I gave him
the prints of Adam and Eve (a piece Pacios
created in 1984) for the museum. He
introduced me to this man who looked so old
to me; he was maybe 70. He had an etching
plate in his hand he had just done, and he was
showing me the plate, and I was thinking,
“Wow! When I’m 7 0 1 want to be like him —
still working.”
This is why Geezer Gallery is so good
because they have these programs and classes
to stimulate the creativity in older people —
the ones who have been separated from i t
The fact is that they show the work of older
artists like these. (Pacios gestures toward the
room around us and the artwork displayed
throughout) You can tell these are all
experienced, developed artists. That’s what
they show. Whereas other galleries would pass
See ARTIST, page 11