Winter 2015: Artwork

Introduction

For our Winter 2015 issue, a number of women contributed explorations of a single concept – be it in subject, form or process. So in conjunction with our featured artist, I selected three works from three contributing artists to allow our readers a fuller view of their sensibilities as confident mark-makers.

Michelle Latham's bold contour drawings in her "Sibling" series express character in simplicity. Each mark carries a weight. Latham is a printmaker by trade, an identity that shines through in her ink drawings.

Kelly Neidig explores the desolate yet comfortable landscapes of Oregon in paint. She breaks down familiar land and sky into amorphous lines and shapes making for vaguely familiar scenes while allowing Neidig to develop a trademark style.

Erin Leichty uses visceral mediums like plaster and wax to create layers in her mixed-media paintings featuring text and female forms. Her clean compositions create a deceptively safe viewing space that, upon a deeper gaze, reveals both literal and psychological layers.

Brittany Chavez, our featured artist, conversely dares to give minimum information to tell a story in her photographs. Yet, like with all of our winter artists, it is Brittany’s marks – what she has chosen to frame – that carries each piece.

Sarah Fagan
Art Editor

Featured Art by Brittany Chavez

Brittany Chavez may have turned only 23 this year, but she is just as comfortable in a darkroom as behind a digital camera. Chavez received a BFA in photography from Portland's Oregon College of Art and Craft in 2013. The school is known for its hands-on and historical approach to craft, which means Brittany was just as often developing negatives under a red light as blinking at computer screen and toying with editing software during her four years as an undergrad.

The images featured in this issue are a mix of digital and color film, with limited post-production editing. Photographers like Brittany take advantage of the moment by "painting" with the elements they have at their disposal. Exposure times, lighting and compositions are used to craft each shot as it is taken. Brittany has her color film developed by a company in Portland, and then scans the negatives herself using facilities at Newspace Center for Photography in the Southeast quadrant of the city, where she also volunteers. She then tweaks elements like contrast and color-balance digitally to compensate for shifts that can take place when scanning the film.

Brittany’s method of scanning her negatives means she has a collection of hundreds of high definition digital images to pore over, making choosing specific images for the journal a pleasure, though a daunting one.

Shop talk aside, it was the lushness of Brittany’s imagery that won me over. I was drawn to a softness – both literal and metaphorical – in her portfolio. Objects of comfort often appear in her repertoire of images: pillows, bedding, overcast skies and warm lights. A soft focus blurs some hard edges of forms, making them appear to have an inner glow. Her images are intimate without being confrontational. We see hands and knees, a recently-slept-in bed, playful details and purposeful emptiness. While each image has the power to tell a story, groupings of any number of pieces result in new collections of form, color or narrative.

Serendipitously, Brittany is also a writer, making her a fitting steward to the poetry, prose and art of the talented cast of women who make up the 2015 issue. Her images and words can be found on her blog "A Personal Archive" at http://blog.brittanyvchavez.com.

Enjoy a sampling of Brittany Chavez's work in VoiceCatcher's Featured Artist Gallery:

Poetry Through the magic of language, 20 poets challenge us to write and live bravely.		Prose Five risk-taking voices burn with the fire of transformation.		Artwork Four artists share their diverse sensibilities as confident mark-makers.		Young Voices With clear eyes and articulate voices, five young women confront terrifying aspects of human experience.		Contributors Meet the authors and artists – from first-timers to well-established – who grace our sixth issue with their voices and visions.

LETTER FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR POETRY         A Great Wild Goodness by Annie Lighthart         Going South by Christine Gray         a welcome week by Hannah Sams         Ophelia, at Fifty, in a Blue Blow-up Canoe by Deborah Dombrowski         A Passing Music by Barbara LaMorticella         Girl Fishing with Grandpa by Helen Kerner         Perimeter by Amy Schutzer         Two Poets in the Weight Room by Tricia Knoll         Skeletons by Christa Kaainoa         A Poem for Dany by Suzy Harris         Lineage by Amy Schutzer         The Bucket by M.K. Moen         Bernier River by Christine Dupres         Silence by Margie Lee         Advice by Donna Prinzmetal         Sometimes at Night by Jennifer Pratt-Walter         Fissure by Elizabeth Moscoso         Whale by Cathy Cain         In the Modern World by Annie Lightheart         Love poem to an acquaintance by Allegra Heidelinde         Dialogue between Magician and Tattooist by Christine Gray         Under the sign of the water bearer by Jennifer Kemnitz         city spacious heart by Pearl Waldorf PROSE         Bless Our Great Nation, Zambia! Zambia! by Gypsy Martin         Liminal by Stephanie Golisch         The Tomorrow Fire by Kelly Coughlin         Ablaze by Heather Durham         Left As It Was, It Would Come Apart by Jackie Shannon-Hollis ART         Sibling 1 by Michelle Latham         Sibling 2 by Michelle Latham         Sibling 3 by Michelle Latham         Totem by Kelly Neidig         Stratum by Kelly Neidig         Swift by Kelly Neidig         Breaking Free by Erin Leichty         Capture Threads by Erin Leichty         Hardware by Erin Leichty YOUNG VOICES         Visions on the Playground by Meghana Mysore         Chasing Thunder by Berkeley Franklin         Elegy for Christy by Lily Boyd         Social Media by Maya Coseo         A Hundred Acre Wood by Audra McNamee CONTRIBUTORS