Chroma: Tribute by Chroma Magazine

magazine

TRIBUTE DECEMBER 2019

magazine

A publication showing the unique creativity photography students at VSAA hold. Here is to celebrating their creations of the now and the future. Volume 5 Issue 3 December 2019 Based in Vancouver, Washington Editor: Natalie McNulty Advisor: Abby Harris Staff: #19 issue.com/chromamagazine chromamag2015@gmail.com All photographs belong to the artist and have been published with their permission DO NOT copy or share these images without explicit permission from Chroma Magazine Thank you for respecting the photographers featured and the intergrity of their work

editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s letter As photography level three students get another opportunity to demonstrate their talents in this publication, they used their voices to shine a light on someone that has given them a voice. Their platform today, is not for them, but a tribute to their loved ones. To remember when they are with us, and when theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re without us.

Natalie McNulty

Contents Lauren Kollash Annalise Selby Wesley Jordan Arlet Ruby Kaitlyn Norstrom Ian Mccuen Darus Poling Jaina Flessas Janessa Winslow Bria Austin

// 5 // 11 // 19 // 31 // 39 // 49 // 55 // 63 // 69 // 75

Kassidy Minick Jane Tewinkel Cora Beeson Ethan Waddle Jack Koral Maren Greene Will Braaten Quinn Edenfield Tori Moffett

// 83 // 97 // 103 // 111 // 119 // 125 // 133 // 139 // 147

Marion Kollasch By Lauren Kollash

Q: What’s her name, Birthday, and Birthplace and death? A: “Marion Grace Kollasch, April 14, 1925, Albany New York, Died December 15, 2012”. Q: What was she like? A: “My mother was very generous and giving, extraordinary loving, very protective, Very smart and very intuitive. She had a 6th sense, she could predict when things were gonna happen and they would. She was very spiritual. She was very beautiful considering she was a model.” Q: What did she like to do for fun when she was a kid? A: “Loved to ice skate, travel, do sewing and crafts. She loved designing.” Q: what's a famous saying or motto of hers?

A: “Actions speak louder than words, it’s what you do not say that matters.” Q: Did she have any big insecurities? A: “She wasn't insecure about anything, she was the most capable, strong independent women.” Q: When was a time everything changed for her? A: “The day she married my father then had to see him die. It turned her world upside down the day he died because he could have prevented it. My mom a very independent sophisticated women came to many challenges after he passed.” Q: What was it like for her to move from New York to California? A: “For her, it was an opportunity for a new exciting, but also a warmer environment life with her mother, and her sister. As at that time her

father was out of the picture. She moved to San Francisco in 1942.” Q: What was your relationship like with her? A: “Love-hate. Haha. Just kidding. She was very worrisome and always had to know where I was, what I was doing, and how I was doing it. She loved me dearly and mothers only want the best for their kids.”

Q: What do you miss most about your mother? A: “Being able to talk to her because she always had good advice about life circumstances whether it involved, people, finances, love. She always had her opinions and usually, her opinions were fairly accurate because she had so much experience in life. She was very vocal.

By Annalise Selby

Roshan Tayefemohajer

This photo series is about my mom, Roshan. I wanted to be able to put her in the spotlight for once since she is always busy providing for my brother and I. A lot of times I take her actions for granted, so this photo series is a tribute to her to show my gratitude for all that she does for me.

12 1

he is the daughter of an immigrant from Iran, who didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have running water or a change of clothes. Contrastingly, my grandmother grew up on a farm in California where she lived the typical American lifestyle. His dark features combined with her strawberry red hair and freckled skin combined to form my mother, the most uniquely gorgeous woman I know. She grew up in the suburbs of southeast Portland, in a small navy blue house and a yard full of flowers. Despite her extraordinary intelligence, school was never really intriguing for her, so she took extra classes to graduate early before heading off to beauty school. In her 20s, she lived in Las Vegas with a group of dysfunctional women who

were still trying to find their calling in life, as was she. She later moved back to Portland after tiring of the busy and unorganized lifestyle offered by Vegas. There she met my father, got married and had me. 1 year into my life they divorced, as their opposite personalities simply didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work. He was an organized businessman with traditional views, she was more freespirited and outgoing. She moved on, and so did life. A couple of years later, after moving from salon to salon as a successful hairstylist, she took her years of hard work and put them into opening her own salon. The tiny 4-chair salon with a beautiful chandelier dangling from the ceiling was merely the start of what was to come.

Years passed by, when finally it was time to open a new, and bigger salon. Glow Boutique Salon was moved across the street to a larger building, where they now employ over 25 people and offer a wide array of services.

Her hard work paid off for her, as she has won a handful of awards, including businessperson of the year. She also educates for a hair company, where she travels around the country to teach amateur stylists tricks she has

accumulated from her 25 years in the industry. My mom never stops. From working constantly to providing for her family, there are no breaks. Something ends, and a new thing pops up. And she handles it all so well,

not showing a wink of stress or negative emotion. This is Roshan, the mother, provider, daughter, owner, activist, that just keeps going.

Michael Jordan

By Wesley Jordan A photo series dedicated to my dad, a man of many stories, experiences, and trauma. He deserves to be heard and listened to, so I used this opportunity to let him be heard and to get all of his struggles off of his chest. I used this to learn more about his experiences and I hope you appreciate it as much as I did.

Q: What’s your name? How old are you? A: My name is Michael Jordan and I’m almost 48 years old. Q: when’s your birthday? A: uh, December 5th of 1971. I am a flaming Saggitarius, like, just on fire. Q: Where did you grow up as a kid? A: I was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona and I lived there until I was 30 years old. Q: What was your childhood like? Like a general… if you could put it into, like a sentence… A: My childhood was rough. Q: Rough? How rough would you say it is? A: 7 step-dads. Couple of really nasty people. Poor for a long time, uh, got a lot of government-assisted food. Mom, busting her ass, never there, y’know that kind of thing? Being stupid with my brother. Mom used to buy us these two-liter bottles of no-named soda that were like 50 cents-a-piece and we’d start mixing all the flavors together trying to get something decent. We used to go to Taco Bell and order one burrito in the drivethru and then ask for a couple of handfuls of sauce and then my brother and I would put that on our Ramen. We had a lot of Ramen back then… ate a lot of elbow macaroni, tomato sauce, and hamburger back in the day. Q: How was that? A: Maybe that’s why I can’t eat it anymore. Had a lot of shepherds pie. I hate shepherds pie. I’ve had powdered milk. (Q: how was that?) uh… you just don’t think about it! I’ve had roomtemperature tap water milk and off-brand cereal. Not the good stuff.

Q: Hmm...who would you say is your favorite step-father? A: None of them. (Q: None of them?) No. Q: why’s that? A: I didn’t like any of them. They were all douche-bags in some way, shape, or form. Q: who do you think was the worst? A: Jordan. The guy I’m named after. That’s why I kept his name, y’know, Uhm, thought about putting it back to my father’s name... but… my father was never there, so… maybe at least I could at least do something good with the name ‘Michael Jordan’. It didn’t hurt that there was someone famous named that… so. Yeah, it wasn’t terrible. Q: What’s one distinct memory you’ll never forget about that guy? A: I can’t tell you… Q: you can't tell me? A: I can tell you… He put a gun to my face. After he emptied out all but one bullet. And he spun the… it was a revolver and he spun it and he slammed it shut and hit me in the face, right here (points to a small dent in his forehead) and he pulled the trigger. He did that six times. And… just to make sure I understood how lucky I was when he was done torturing me, he opened the revolver up and he dumped out the bullet so it was in there the whole time. It’s still not a comfortable memory. A: Uh… He… I tried to run away one time and he found me. (Q: He did?) He did. And he pulled over, he almost ran me over pulling over. He pulled over, walked around, grabbed me by the back of the neck - cause he’s a big guy. Long hands. And he picked me up off the ground and opened the passenger door and threw me inside the car. He walked around, got inside, and he turned the car off and he pulled out the keys out of the ignition and he goes, “I should cut your f**king throat and put you in that ditch over there.” Yeah…

that wasn’t as scary as the 357 he did. That’s what it was. It was a 357. While its a rather large handgun, when you’re looking at the wrong end of it the barrel looks like it's the size of your camera lens. He had me to the corner and just BAM! To my head and racked back click, click, SPIIIIIIIN. 6 times. That’s how many bullets it held. 6 bullets. Me: you’re a pretty lucky guy! Him: Yeah, I kinda think so. Not the smartest guy but I’m pretty lucky, that’s always been kind of a given. Q: How’d you even get to Washington? That wild, insane journey. A: So, um, I’ve been married for… a little more than 9 and a half years, and uh Ashley (my sister) was 4… and my wife and I really didn’t have any kind of relationship. It was just kind of a… day in, day out kind of thing. Our marriage fell apart because we both did some stupid stuff and… I wound up so depressed and she left me for a guy I had been friends with for almost 10 years. Worked with him! It just broke my heart and I got really stupid and I started doing Methamphetamines. I wound up losing y’know… a job that made more than $50,000 a year. I lost a house I bought ten months prior, uh… I lost everything! I came up here actually after all that happened. I was still doing dope really hard so I wrecked my u-haul, in Las Vegas. Me: Aye, what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas! Him: (laughs) It did not. Anyway, Aunt Charlie came up to rescue me, brought me all the way up here and I stayed here until I got clean and sober and… there was a little Hoochie Mama I had been messing with and we were talking on the phone and… I told my mom I was moving back home and mom said: “You’re stupid!” I said “No, it’ll be okay, I’ve got my shit together I’m gonna try and work shit out,” and, she gave me a little 88 Honda Civic 4 door and I drove it back to Arizona and within three months I was living in it. I lived in that thing for almost a year and a half.

Him: One day I called mom and I was like “This is stupid. Everything is stupid. I need to get out of here.” and uh… she goes, “Well, how much money do you need?” I said, “Don’t send me any money. Send me a gas card. Something that only gets me gas and I’ll just come up.” I said, “If you give me money I’m gonna buy dope.” So she sent me a gas card that was good for like little snacks and stuff and gas and here I am! Q: What was one of the most complicated/hard to get out of things you had to do at that moment of time? Being homeless, I guess? A: I was already a well-seasoned second-degree black belt by the time I had become homeless and drug-addicted and I used those skills to collect money from people that didn’t pay so that I could get dope. I hurt people. Fortunately for both of us, Tweakers are so skinny and light-weight that I only had to slap one or two around before when I knocked on the door people are like “here ya go here’s ya money.” Q: How long did it take you to...recover enough to a place to where you could really think to yourself and say “I won’t ever touch that again.”? A: Uh… when I put Arizona in the rearview for the final time. Um… I got about 20 miles out of town where there’s no traffic, everything’s quiet. There are no cops. My car’s not recognized and I took the dope and the pipe that I had. Right out the f**king window. And it was everything I had. So, everything I had that pertained to Methamphetamines I threw out the window within an hour of leaving Phoenix. My ride here was awful.

(We both laughed) Him: I did have some pot, so… I mean, I had that going for me. But I did. I went through withdrawals. And I was using about $150 worth a day. Yeah, I was bad. So, when I dropped out of Life I was 185 lbs and just sculpted as f**k. I was amazing. I was training to cage fight, I was doing all these things! When I got here, finally, I weighed 127 lbs and I could wear boy’s clothes. My wardrobe changed 8 times in 12 months after I got here because I kept gaining weight and getting back to normal. I’d buy clothes and sometimes only have them for 6 weeks and then I had to have bigger clothes. It was crazy. Q: What was your favorite part about moving, then? A: So, two things. Um, when I first saw the Columbia River. ‘Bout caused an accident on the I-5 bridge ‘cause there’s nowhere to stop but I’d never seen that much water except for the ocean. I had never seen a river that size before in my entire life. Rivers in Arizona you can typically throw a rock across. So, that much water all at once I was like (he makes a surprised, silly face.) And then, when I got here first, I dunno… week or so that I was here you’d go somewhere, like a convenience store and get a purchase and they’d be like, y’know, “Have a great night!” and you’re like “F**k you! What the- what? Oh! I’m sorry! Oh!” Cause everyone is so rude down there! It moves so much faster. Q: What’s one of your favorite memories I guess of being a classic teenager? A: 45 minutes from here in La Center. Jeramy, (his brother) said, “Dude I’m really kinda wanting to get into rollerblading!”

and he came to and was like “Yeah, man! That sounds cool!” and mom was like “What? You wanna go rollerblading? Let’s go!” and uh… we went to Big 5 and bought rollerblades. He bought recreational rollerblades and I bought those little stunt park rollerblades? F**k me! The wheels are so hard that when you try to skid, they just slide! His wheels were so soft that when he skid, he went and flew over and he was on his hands and knees! I wound up on my a**! But the hill we were on, dumped out on a highway! Q: How close was the highway to the hill you guys were on? A: It T-ed into it! The road came down the hill and just the very bottom did this (he did a small hand motion to signify a flat bottom.) and there’s the highway going this way! We’re like, rollerblading down the hill and we see like four cars and a log truck go VROOM!!! I looked over at jay and I’m like (He skids to a stop.) He looked at me, wiped out, and he looked back forward and that’s when he tried to skid stop and he tipped over and he was on his hands and knees and one of his knee pads came off and just scraped his knee apart. None of my gear worked ‘cause I fell on the side of my a**, so that was wonderful. The plane ride home with all that road rash was just awesome. I saw your mom, actually. Him: You all done taking me down memory lane? (we both laugh, again.) Me: mm, yeah. A bit.

Mom + Dad By Arlet Ruby

Q: cuantos años tenias cuando te veniste a los estados unidos ? A: 21 Q: cual es tu primer memoria de tu infancia A: cuando llegaban los reyes magos que nos daban juguetes Q:cuál es tu memoria más recordatoria de tu niñez A: cuando salia a jugar a la calle Q: que fue un momento que cambió todo en tu vida A:cuando me vine a los estados unidos / cuando me sali de mi casa Q: si pudieras regresar en tiempo y eliminar alguna cosa de tu pasado, que sería ? nada toda mi vida la vivo contenta mas bien agregaria al poder haber estudiado Q: como te describes en tres palabras

A: buena enojona comprensible Q:cuantos años tenias cuando te veniste a los estados unidos A: no me acuerdo como 17 Q cuál es tu más vieja memoria A cuando iva al kinder Q: cual es tu memoria más recordatoria de tu niñez A: que me picaron las avispas Q: que fue un momento que cambió toda tu vida A: cuando me case con tu mama Q: si pudieras regresar el tiempo y eliminar un momento de tu pasado que sería A:no estoy seguro Q: como te describes en tres palabras A: bueno bonito y barato

Jack Heick By Kaitlyn Norstrom

Heick Gang When thinking about those who deserve honoring in my life, my immediate thought was my grandfather, Jack Heick. Knowing how much he went through, how much he grew from, made me respect him even more. Some things in the following summary have been rephrased and slightly cut to protect his privacy and wishes.

The interview started with my Grandpa voluntarily telling me he wouldn’t change things in his life, by saying “Nah, I don’t think id change anything in my life, but everything ya know, that I had control of, was ok. I mean it wasn't the greatest I was okay, and didn't know my dad, didn't really know my mom” Me: Did he pass? G: Nah he just left us, only came home long enough to get my mom pregnant them move on again. I grew up [with] seven siblings… five girls, two boys. Me: Can you tell me about your career? G: I like what I do. Being a mechanic, being able to repair things, kind of rewarding to know that people appreciate you for doing what you do. Me: Like your work matters? G: Yea, you know they always appreciated me, and that was nice. Still do, I guess. Me: You were in the foster home growing up, how many did you hop around? G: We were in, like 3 or four foster homes. Mainly because we would run away from them. We didn’t want to be away from [our mom], back then the courts and the Catholic religion figured that if you were a single parent you couldn’t raise your kids right.

Me: Could she support you all if she wanted? G: Well she couldn’t, but that was the courts and catholic religion that really decided that. A single parent couldn’t work and take care of you, you know you’re at work 8 hours a day. So growing up I guess you’d say I turned outlaw. We were living in a boys home after all the foster homes. We ran away 3 times, walked home from Beaverton to my mom’s house, 13 miles I think it was. Over the northwest hills, it was all forest back then, and we’d hike through the forest at night and get to my moms. Next morning cops would be there to take Me: Would you change it if you could? G: I don’t know, I’d like to be born rich or something, but wouldn’t we all? Me: Can we talk more about what you mean by “going outlaw” and “gone crooked”? G: Well most of my going crooked was before I met

grandma. [we were] Always out looking for trouble, we didn’t find it, we’d create it. We were known as the “Heick Gang” on Broadway there. Everybody would have ou at our house. My brothers and I, we would have anywhere from 3 to a dozen guys in the house, people come by and smart off to us, and get out of their car, you’d have a dozen more guys come out to the house and… Me: Sounds like a movie. G: Yeah it’s just being crooked, there’s a lot of that stuff I regret now. Stuff that I did back then, you know too late now, If I could go back, that’s one thing I’d like to do. Make changes in my life before I met grandma. Even partially after I met grandma. Me: Would you? Or did it help shape things? G: Yea, I guess you’d say that, I figure unless I’ve been there and went through it I have no right to judge other people. I just wish I would’ve been

more helpful to people than hurtful. I take care [my] kitty cats now. Me: When did you start, turning things around? What kind of put it in your head you need to change things? G: It wasn’t back then when I figured I should change stuff. Growing up, living with 7 other kids, you didn’t get much. Got a lot of hand-medowns, didn't get shoes unless they were on sale. One time my mom bought me on shoes, one sale because they were two different sizes and stuff like that. [at the catholic boys

home] all the nuns did was feed you, give you somewhere to sleep, if you did wrong, the head priest, if you did something wrong, you’d have to go up on stage in front of all the kids, if you did something wrong he’d beat on you with a, like a tennis racket, padel. Maybe that’s why I grew up the way I did, treated mean. It affects your life I guess. I was probably 5 or so when they started putting us in foster homes. I don’t know how old we were when we were allowed to go back home. My

mom has just remarried, back to a 2 parent family. Me: What year? G: Back in the â&#x20AC;&#x2122;50s. Me: How did you and grandma meet? G: A friend of ours, they had a band, they used to practice in

his basement, grandma used to go over there all the time when they were practicing, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d go up there and dance. I went up to her one day, saw her, decided I wanted to be with her weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been together 52 years. Good women, we have our differences

but sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a good woman, I hope she feels the same about me. The rest of the interview was cut due to a recording error, however, the rest was simply him telling me more about his family values. How he raised his children right, how he

knows his grandchildren will be alright. I believe we will, we will all be alright, with a special thanks to the values and morals of life we were taught along the way.

Kathy McCuen Kathy McCuen

By Ian Mccuen This interview took place when my Nana came over to my house to make some food for a family dinner. She was very excited to get her photo taken and interviewed.

What is your name? Kathy McCuen Where are you from? I am from Portland, Oregon. What is your relation to me? I am your nana (grandma). What are you doing right now? I am making perogies for us all to eat. How long have you been doing this? I have been making perogies for most of my life.

Where did this originate from? It originated from my grandma, who came from Russia, who then taught me. I wanted to learn how to make them from her, because I loved watching her hands as she made them. When was a time in your life when everything changed? Getting married and having kids changes everything.

What was the best moment of your life? Again, having the kids is the best. What was the saddest moment of your life? Watching my husband with dementia deteriorate, and forget everything. Watching that was worse than when he died. What in your life would you change?

I would want more money from the dry cleaning business. I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know much about business at the time, and college would have helped me with that. What is something you are planning for your future? To travel to more places. I am already planning on going to Hawaii, and then Mexico again.

By Darus Poling

Hazel Butler

I was working on my notes for driverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ed on an old, cluttered oak desk with a pulldown tabletop. My greatgrandfather-- my Papa- came in and told me that I could snoop around and reorganize to help him when he would do so later. One object in particular caught my eye. I pulled out a green, tightly bound spiral notebook, opened to its yellowed pages, and began reading. Scrawled onto the lined pages in elaborate cursive, was Big Hazelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s poetry.

When Papa came in to see what I had found, he had to leave the room to cry; something I hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seen him do since my greatgrandmother passed away many years ago. He was close to his grandmother, loved her writing. He never understood why she

never shared her work outside of the family. I knew that night that I wanted to honor her work and her life in any way possible during my senior year of high school. That night was full of familial love. Raw and powerful. The following questions

and responses are compiled from a collection of poems and letters I recently found in my great-grandfather Darusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s old desk that my great-great-greatgrandmother Hazel Butler wrote. I chose her because in my almost eighteen years on

earth, I had only heard her name a few times. I wanted to get to know her as a fellow writer without digging into a healed wound still so sore. She was born in 1896 and died in 1993. I was born eight years later.

Q: What is the most important thing in your life?* “For as long as I have my mother I’ve nothing to worry about.” -1925 “My Darling Daughter…And you’ll never know/ What to me you’re worth.” -March 10, 1940 “He’s sweet and I love him/ Cause he’s my own dad.” -1939 “Our Little Grandson Darus… Help him to grow to an honorable man/ In some far distant day.” -April 22, 1939 “To My [Husband] Ted/ I’ve never regretted a day in life/ Since I promised to be your wife.” - Christmas 1939 Q: What would you say has been your biggest hardship in life? “Dorothy. To our darling wife, mother and daughter/ God took you away, why we just don’t know/ But it must have been, so you didn’t suffer so/ God knows we loved you each day of the year,/ But we miss you so much, that you’re not here./ We miss your calls each day to say/ How are you and daddy today/ God only knows how we miss you dear/ And we’ve shed many and many a tear/ But God knew best when he took you away,/ So you didn’t have to suffer day by day/ God Bless you dear is all we can say,/ But our love is with you every day/ You’re missed by everyone so sincere/ God Bless you darling, you’ll always be near./ Your heartbroken mother.” -April 1, 1970 Q: What advice do you have to offer? “Remember This. Be good, but not too good-- a little/ naughty, but not too naughty. Say a prayer if you feel that way, say D-mn/ if it gives you consolation/ Be kind to the world always, if possible/-- yet if you must be unkind, smash right/ and left, get it over and forget it./ Smile, always smile, have a smile ready/ even though sometimes it hurts.

*Titles of pieces are italicized and line breaks are marked by slashes.

Grab all/ the happiness you can -- wherever and/ whenever you can -- don’t let even a wee/ bit slip past you. Live, above all things/ live, don’t simply exist./ If you are blessed enough to know what/ real love is -- love with all your heart,/ soul and body./ Live your life so that any hour you/ will be able to shake hands with yourself/ and try to accomplish at least one thing/ worthwhile each day. Then when your/ nights come you will be able to pull up/ the covers and say to yourself--/ ‘I have done my best.’” -September 19, 1958

Austin Flessas By Jaina Flessas

I chose my older brother Austin for our interview project in photo 3. I chose him for multiple reasons, I’ve always looked up to him, the way he uses art as an outlet, the way he’s persevered through life to be where he is and as successful as he is, how independent he is, and so much more. Austin does so much for me, he takes me out and listens to me, he gives me rides places when

I need it, he made me feel protected when I wasn’t. Not to mention how much he’s done for our brothers and mom. I’m incredibly proud of him, and I’m incredibly thankful for him as well. Anytime Austin walks into a room he’s able to fill it with laughter and the feeling of warmth. He’s been a role model for me since I could remember.

Some specific things he’s

be independent, you can’t rely on

said to me that have always

other people to do stuff for you,

stayed with me is that it’s good

it’s up to you whether you want

to stand up for yourself, but only

to succeed or not.

if it’s really worth the energy. Why waste your precious time

This is for my brother, I love you

on something when you could

frosty.

use the power of silence and move past. Another thing that’s stuck with me is that you should

Camille Winslow By Janessa Winslow

I chose to interview my younger sister Camille Winslow because she does so much for me. And this interview is a way I could show my appreciation for her. Also, I thought it would be cool to get someoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perspective that is younger than me. So here are her answers to some questions that I thought of.

Q: What age do you look forward to being? A: “12 because I want to get out of elementary school” Q: What do you want to be when you grow up? A: “A doctor so I can help people and get lots of money” Q Who is someone you look up to and why? A: “My mom because she’s pretty, works hard and is nice” Q: If you were an animal what would you want to be and why? A: “I would want to be a shark so I can easily scare people”

Isaac Austin Isaac Austin

By Bria Austin I chose to interview my dad because he is one of the most important people in my life. He is caring, patient, kind, and is always putting others first. He listens to me and is always there for me. He is very in tune with his emotions, he doesn’t often share how he’s feeling because he doesn’t want to burden people. That is why I wanted to open up my dad and ask him questions pertaining to that topic.

Me: What is your name? Dad: ‘’Isaac Austin’’ Me: Can you tell me the difference between thoughts and emotions? Dad: ‘’emotions affect how you feel whereas thoughts are just passing things that you think and thoughts are very powerful they can very easily affect your emotions.’’ Me: “I agree.” Me: what is one of your favorite memories from growing up? Dad: “that’s so tough...I have a really hard time with favorites..”

Me: “why?” Dad: “Because there’s just too many amazing things in this world, great colors great memories great food great people... So I don’t really think I can give you an answer to that.’’ Dad: ‘’But I do have some memories with my uncle we would go logging a week at a time and spend the time up there camping up in the woods and I would always have so much fun.’’ Me: “that sounds very sweet.”

Chris Tewinkel Tammie Ferrell

By Kassidy Minick Tammie Rose Ferrell. She is a 61-year-old nana to 3 kids and 8 grandchildren. She devoted her life to helping her kids and grandkids become the best versions of themselves. I am the luckiest person alive to have her as my nana. I chose to interview my nana because she has always been my rock. She has proven to me every day of my life that I can trust her when I felt like I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t trust anyone else.

She has been by my side when I took my first breath, my first day at preschool, when I was dealing with my parent’s divorce, my everything. She takes me to school every day, she cooks and cleans when it's nobody's top priority but hers, she does my chores for me when I’m sick, she lets me wear her socks when I can’t find mine and gives me old shirts to sleep in. She holds me whenever I need her too. I can’t imagine life without her. So, this is a thank you to my nana, for everything you ever did for me. I owe you the world. Interview questions: What is your full name? Tammie Rose Ferrell What is your relation to me? I’m your nana How old are you and when is your birthday?

I’m 61. I was born on July 28th, 1958 How are you feeling about this interview? Are you nervous? I’m not nervous, I’m excited. It’s an opportunity to pass on information. How are you feeling today? I’m good today. What makes you, you? Well, I guess being born in the country, you have that sense of cohesiveness with your family because you depend on one another to live the country life. You depend on your neighbor’s farms and that kinda stuff, so you grow up with a sense of family and its everything. Family is everything. So ingrained in me is that sense of family. And I strive every day to be that type of grandmother to all of my grandkids that my grandmother was to me. Like she was my rock and I strive to

be the best mom that I can to my kids because they lived in the city, I wanted them to still have the same kind of family values and yet that there is something to be said about having strong family values and a sense of being grounded, being stable in your environment and I wanted that for my kids. From my side it’s awesome! More so now in this time of my life then before, I mean, family was everything to me so my kids were everything to me, I did everything with them, for them. And there became a time in my life when getting divorced was the best thing for me because my kids had moved on. And there are days that I wish I had done it a lot earlier in my life, however, I wouldn’t be me without living through the experiences and now I’m happy. I have been happy for 7 years spending the time I want with my grandkids and my kids. I have built outstanding relationships with my children and my grandkids and I wouldn’t give that up for anything.

What is your favorite part of your day? Waking up every morning. If I didn’t wake up every morning, things would be a lot different in my life but I’m an early bird person. I get up early in the morning and so for me to be able to get up and open up my eyes and just be grateful for another day and be ready for whatever comes that day, whether it’s spending time with my grandkids and my family or if it’s actually meeting with friends or co-workers, or getting to know other students I might work with, it’s an opportunity, and I’m grateful for those. What is your favorite memory? Oh, do I only have to list one? My favorite of all time memories? Well, there you got me cause I have so many favorite memories all stemming from family times together. I think to see my first child for the first time. Those are memories you don’t want to replace and you don’t want to negate by saying some other memory was more important. So, watching every

one of my grandkids be born. You know, do I just have one favorite memory? No. I have so many. What is your favorite memory with me? My favorite memory with you? I have so many Kassidy. I remember taking you to daycare for the first time. And watched you suck on your thumb, like maggie off of Simpsons right, because you were so scared, you know, it was a new environment for you and you were scared, and I remember holding you and thinking that I would do anything to keep you from being scared and so it took me a couple of weeks to transition you to that, but when you took off and flew for the first time in that, it was like the bird giving the baby its wings. That really meant something to me. We have special moments a lot but that’s one I will always remember. What is your favorite thing to do with me? Travel right!? If I could pick

a kid that I could depend on, that enjoys the traveling that I do, it would be you. I mean you have been the only one that I have been able to take so I don’t know. I mean I’ve traveled with other grandkids before but just traveling with you. What is your favorite part of being a nana? My favorite part, my favorite part is snuggling with my grandkids. Every chance I get. Whether it’s laying in my bed and snuggling or seeing me after a few weeks and just running up and calling my name and jumping into my arms, they are all precious moments. Seeing you after being gone at your dad’s for the weekend. Like coming home, it’s wonderful. Where is your favorite place to be? Oh, my favorite place to be. My favorite place growing up and even when my kids were parents themselves, was taking them to the cabin in Montana. That’s where I spent the majority of

my time with my grandmother and grandfather, they taught me everything about digging sapphires and water skiing and eating ice cream and cantaloupe on hot summer days. I would walk hand in hand with them in stores and have such unconditional love for us, and I continued to take my kids there because you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t not have such a positive influence on someone's life, knowing my grandmother and her sense of humor and her talents, sharing that with my kids and I wish she was still here for my grandkids, but she was what I aspired to be like for my grandkids. So the family cabin in Montana would be my favorite place to go, and again being family-oriented, that makes sense. What was it like growing up in Montana? Ahh. Winters were cold, not like chilly to the bone cold but cold enough so you could put on enough layers and play out in the snow all day long. You would have to wet it down to make snowballs and make a

snow fort, so the winters had their season but then it was over and it would be spring and everything thawed out and things grew and you would plant your garden. Summers were the best because it got hot in Montana during the summertime but it could rain and there would be a great big blue sky, you just donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know. And then of course fall had such beautiful colors around the state. Very concrete seasons and I miss that. How did showing our family where you grew up feel? It had been a while since I was there, and the circumstances in which I left were questionable at best and having a dispute in the family and you feel like you are no longer welcome to the place you grew up and was home to you, it took a lot for me to be able to stand on that property this summer. However, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worth it to be able to share where I grew up and the things that I did there, the things that my kids did there, and now my grandkids get an opportunity

to do that as well and why that piece of property means so much to the family. How does it make you feel knowing we are going back this next summer? I’m so excited. I’m really excited because I think that when we went there this summer, I really felt like my grandparents were smiling again. You know, that it didn’t keep us away forever and that the reason they brought the property was so that our family and generations behind us could enjoy that piece of property and be right there at the lake and do all the things that they provided for us growing up. So, now I’m excited and looking forward to going. What does this picture mean to you, tell me about it what memories do you get when you see it? This picture is of deuce holding you for the first time so he was so excited that a baby was coming. I don’t know if he knew you were gonna be a little girl, but I remember him wanting to hold you all the time because

you were his and he wanted to be so strong and always said I hold her, I hold her. He loved you so much. He wanted you to go everywhere with him too. He didn’t understand that when you came home from the hospital that you couldn’t go everywhere that he could go. You needed to be home for your own safety and health. He was like no we take her. What was the day I was born like? What were your concerns? Well, there was a lot of concerns the day you were born because your uncle was getting married that day so I was really torn on whether your mom was going into active labor and her water was gonna break during the ceremony, and then having to leave because your mom was not feeling well. Having to leave and then feeling like I abandon my son and my daughter-in-law. It was like what possibly could you do and before I left, Keith asked me to come dance with him and I did. I waited long enough to do that but I am so grateful that I went to the

hospital because it was a tough night. You know, we expected you to be born right away, then that didn’t happen and all of a sudden your mom said I am done with this! It's time to get this show on the road! And then when you came out you were so much smaller than Deuce that your mom was afraid to hold you, she was afraid that she would drop you or that you were so tiny that she’d break something. And she would let me change you and everything and bundle you up and hand you to her and she would nurse you and it was like ok she would hold you as long, but when you needed something done it's like ok can you do that? I can’t. It took your mom a little while to take care of you but your delivery was such a blessing because we didn’t have to worry about anybody taking you out of the room or having to have any little procedures done or anything like that so it was a

good experience. What is seeing all your grandkids be born like? So the first time with your mom giving birth to deuce and how hard she worked for that, numerous times I almost cried because she was working so hard. And for me you know having the longest baby took 5 hours and your mom was on lots of hours. Her strength was so amazing and always putting the baby first. But when you see your child for the first time, hold their child for the first time, something magical happens. And its engrained right there *points to heart*. I can’t get rid of that, and you’d think that 4 kids later you’d be like well just hand me the baby but when they look at that baby for the first time, such a miracle happens, and the fact that I have seen that 8 times. 8. I am so grateful that I didn’t miss any of them. Tell me about how leaving my aunt and uncle’s wedding was

like to be there for my mom in the hospital. It was a tough decision but like I said I wanted to, and your mom was such a trooper, she didn’t want to leave right in the middle of everything, she really tried to stay as long as she possibly could. And that was like she just had to go and I was torn because I didn’t want to leave Keith and Luanne on their special day and yet I knew that my daughter was gonna need me to be there for that baby coming. And I don’t think that anybody holds any ill will towards me for making the choice that I made, but all was forgiven when they came the next morning to see you. What was/is it like to watch your kids and grandkids growing up? Oh to have the privileges that you guys have, that my kids got to have, that I didn’t is like oh just remember to be grateful because you don’t know how hard it could be. Right? I try and tell you kids, my grandkids and I told my kids growing up

they’re lucky, they had T.V. and games to play and they had a neighborhood to play in like literally neighbors right next door not miles down the road or fields away or something like that but they had neighborhood kids that they grew up with and they went to all the same schools and that kind of thing. But the privileges that were extended to my kids even though we lived pretty poor, they didn’t work for clothes, or food, or home. And when they needed things like shoes, it wasn’t an issue of when, it was let’s just go get them, tell me how we are gonna go get it and we will get it. For my grandkids with phones and cellphones and the technology stuff and the opportunities. Like I said, they should come from a place of gratitude. You know, I see that as a wow I never had that growing up. Or the traveling we have done as a family, my kids didn’t have that, we had a summer vacation thing that we did, we didn’t go

like over spring breaks and things like that. So the opportunities that we have now to drive up the freeway for 5 hours and see somebody for a weekend and spend some time with them or do something fun. I am so grateful for those opportunities like that. You were really close with your grandma before she died, how would you compare and contrast our relationship with your relationship with your grandma? Oh my, grandma was way more artistic than me. You got the short end of the stick on that. I’m just gonna say right now that my grandmother was very humble with everything like they had money to travel and do things but she didn’t flaunt that kinda stuff. But what she had was love and time, and she spent that with us and I have time, and I spend it with my grandkids too. And the downside is that you don’t live in the country and you have all this technology and stuff, so the stuff that would have been exciting for you going on walks, and learning about rocks and

cactuses, and other things in my childhood time wouldn’t be as exciting to you if you could sit at home and be on your phones or chit-chatting in your little social arenas and things like that. You also don’t find many cactuses around here anyways but the time has changed. But she is always on my mind, is to how I talk to you kids, how I spend time with you and try to make memories for you that will always inspire you and enlighten your life in some way. How do you want to be remembered? Well, I know now, that I have friends that said if anything ever happened to me, that I am a loyal person and those friendships have a value to them and that you validate that value and you keep them. I think for my kids and my grandkids, that I want them to look back and say my mom loved me no matter what and she was always there supporting me, and I think, my grandkids would say the same thing. It’s not me to leave you guys $5,000.

I wish I could but that's not me. They can spend that $5,000 and then what are they gonna remember me for. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d rather have 5,000 memories of them and 5,000 reasons to remember me for, than money.

Chris Tewinkel By Jane Tewinkel

I decided to interview and take photos of my mom because I wanted to learn more about who my mom is. I don't know what she was like when she was a kid, or about her insecurities. I wanted to truly see her as a person, not just my mom.

She grew up in a family that made everything by hand. Her

dad builds anything and everything like furniture, decoys, and instruments. Her mom does a lot of sewing and loves cross-stitching and making quilts. Even to this day they still feel the need to be creative and do things with their hands and still practice those hobbies. When my mom was young she didn’t really feel that way. She enjoyed playing sports and being physically active instead but now that she’s older she felt the need to be creative like her parents are. She found a love for knitting and says it’s the perfect hobby to keep her hands busy but also provides a creative outlet. I love that part of my mom so I wanted to take photos of that since it’s such a big passion of hers.

(answers summarized) How are you feeling right now? -refreshed -had a good night's sleep What did you like to do for fun as a kid? -played soccer a lot -went to the movies with friends How is living here different than living in New Jersey? -its a lot less crowded here -Washington has a calmer energy -The mannerisms are different here

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What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned transitioning into adulthood? -You can’t please everyone -There’s no way to know what everyone’s opinion of you is -You don’t have to be good at everything What's your favorite thing about yourself? -How caring I am to everyone in my life If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? -to not let people's negative energy affect my own Is there any insecurity of yours that you've carried throughout your whole life? -fear of not doing a good enough job How has your relationship with yourself changed over time? -I’m a lot nicer to myself than I used to do -don't set unrealistic expectations upon yourself How have your priorities changed? -Work isn't as much of a priority as when I was younger How has the world changed since you were a kid? -everyone is much less connected to each other -everyone is much more independent and asking for help is looked down upon What do you think the world will be like in the future? -I’m not sure this world is too unpredictable -I’m hopeful though

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By Cora Beeson

Rosemary Smith

What are you known for? What is something that people often say is one of your attributes that you disagree with? Anyone who’s ever met me knows about my two very different passions: knitting and playing the harp. My senior sweatshirt even says “stringweaver” as a pun between both worlds. What is one of the most honest, true things about yourself? The most honest thing about myself would have to be my love of teaching. Seeing that moment of realization as it creeps into someone’s eyes it better than any other feeling you could imagine. I love going out of my way to help others understand concepts, or get a chance to teach them something new.

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What in life is beautiful to you? What gives you inspiration? Something in life that is beautiful to me is change. Whether it be the passing of the seasons or the softening of a heart, we live in a world full of it. It’s easy to hate change, but if it’s given a chance it can be really beautiful. I find a lot of inspiration in how the world changes around us and within us. What is something you look forward to the most in your future? What is something you feel like you have to do in your life? I look forward to the freedom that comes with living on your own. I know it will be difficult, and I’ll find all sorts of little things that I never knew I needed to do, but it’s going to be wonderful being my own person.

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Jeffrey Walsh 111

“Gettin’ old’s a b*tch.” By Ethan Waddle

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didn’t have the chance to interview my grandfather. He passed away peacefully in his sleep on September 13, and when I was given this assignment, I knew had to do something to honor him. Born and raised in Vancouver Washington, Jeffery Walsh was always an upstanding man, consistently doing what he thought was right when no one else would. He served in the United States Marine Reserves and the United States Forest Service. He loved to sit around a campfire and remind me how dangerous one tiny little ember can be. He remembered stepping on the fallen pine needles while falling back from a forest fire, their footsteps bursting into flames as

they pushed oxygen into the ground, the sheer heat igniting the underbrush. He told me about a guy in his boot camp platoon who wouldn’t stop stepping out of line, so the Drill Instructors shoved him in a locker, doused it in gasoline and lit it on fire while banging on it with their boots. “He shut up pretty quick after that,” I remember him telling me. I remember him humming softly (and a little out of tune) to “Ventura Highway” by America after picking me up from school. I remember him teaching me to split wood when you have back problems using two hatchets and finding the “mechanical advantage”. I remember shooting clay pigeons with him in his backyard with a BB gun.

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I remember going out hunting with him and never seeing a single bird, and fishing with him and never feeling a fish bite, but I wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have had it any other way, and I mean that. I remember early summer mornings when the grass was dewy and the air was still crisp when we went out into the backyard and picked blueberries, only those darned birds had gotten through the netting again. I remember the day trip through the Columbia River Gorge, snapping hundreds of photos. Most of all, though, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll remember how he never gave up on anything or anyone, how he loved what he did, and how he loved his friends and family.

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Ken Koral By Jack Koral

Family Shadows

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very morning my dad wakes up before me and makes us both a cup of coffee. He writes before he goes to work and when he gets home from work, and he probably writes while he should be working too. This is a trait he feels he passed on to my sister and I. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re both creative people and have only been supported our whole lives by him to use this however we can. When

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I asked him what other traits are in our family, he said that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re very stubborn and that my sister and I seem to have the same dislike of authority his father passed on to him. My dad and I have a lot of other things in common, such as our love for dogs and movies. He has a passion for crime novels, specifically the author Patricia Highsmith, whose work he collects. I took these portraits of him while talking to him

about his life. Behind him, hanging above his desk is a historical map of Los Angeles, and a portrait of Stanley Kubrick, his favorite filmmaker. His childhood was vastly different from mine. He lived near San Francisco as a kid, then moved to Southern Oregon on the outskirts of a small town called Rogue River. His family lived off the main road in a patch of dense forest,

in a house big and mysterious. The place is still there, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve gone with him to visit it a few times. This property and years of living rurally have influenced his art and creative passions, many of his stories and books reflecting this lonely space of nature, some of which still remains today.

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As a photographer, visual artist, and avid writer, he’s influenced both my sister and me creatively in ways he’ll probably never know. I’m very thankful to have him as a father, and I hope this series shows my deep appreciation for him as a parent.

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Trece Greene

By Maren Greene This photo series is dedicated to my grandma, Trece Greene, who passed away in March of 2016. I decided to interview my dad (her son), Sam Greene, about what it was like growing up with her as a mother and the different stages of their relationship, from childhood to young adult, to becoming a father himself.

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My dad recalls that when he was a child, his mom always found creative ways to keep him entertained, like giving him a tree stump, some nails, and a hammer, which my dad strangely loved; or giving him a box full of cornmeal to play with his race cars in, which helped him explore his imagination on rainy winter days. No matter how frustrated or bored my dad would get, his mom would patiently guide him through it and come up with creative solutions to problems. When my dad was 8, his parents divorced, which presented a new set of challenges for his relationship with his mom. He spent every weekend with his mom for the first couple of years, which at times was challenging for him to be away from his friends and the comforts of his home. At times, it felt to my dad as if there was tension between his sister and mom and him and his dad about things like the cleanliness of the house that the kids would spend

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Monday through Friday in with their dad, the time that dinner would be served during the week, and so on. When my dad was in college, his dad quit drinking, which helped to resolve some of the tension and issues from that previous time and helped my dad to mature, which opened the door to a new phase of his relationship with his mom. Once my dad started his own family, the same caring and support she offered him as a young child carried into the relationship she would have with his adult family. As a grandmother to my sister and me, she would take us on long walks in the neighborhood to collect leaves that we would display in the house, or take us down to the river to collect rocks and driftwood that we would take home and paint. Just like she did with my dad when he was young, she always was patient in helping us to grow and mature.

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Trystan Braaten

By Will Braaten I choose my brother Trystan Braaten as the important person in my life to highlight because my whole life Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve looked up to him. He was my biggest life supporter, I grew up knowing if he could move past these challenges I could too. I could never thank him enough and here's a small way to do so. A way to showcase all he truly is. The following is a summation of the interview between me and my brother Trystan.

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Q: What was your biggest struggle? A: The biggest struggle within myself was depicting the difference between need and want, you have to find the perfect balance. I did not live with my parents for the remaining time of my teenage years. So financing was up to me, new shoes or food? That's a choice I had to make. I have overcome a lot in my life. I was in a bad situation but I got myself out of it. By choosing between what I need and what I wanted, I was able to take steps forward to a healthy life. Q: What are you most proud of yourself for? A: If I could be most proud of myself for anything Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d say taking the cards I was dealt and making them work. Overcoming where I was put in life. Although my parents tried as hard as they could. I had to make sure I didn't let where I came from, become an excuse. Q: Would you change anything you've done in your past? A: There are so many regrets I have. As a teenager, I made decisions that hurt people. There is a lot I can't unsay and I wish each day I could. Everyone has regrets and anyone who says they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t are liars. Q: Who is one person that has never given up on you?

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A: I’m the only person whos never given up on me. Every day, I continue to learn to love myself despite my mistakes. I wasn’t in high school for most of my senior year, most people had doubts if I would graduate. But I did it because I said I would. Q: What is one moment that drastically shaped your life? A: I can never seem to forget is when my parents divorced. The pain in my dad's eyes never seems to get out of my head. But if my mom would have stayed with my dad everything in our lives would have been different in every way. Q: How has skating changed your life? A: I owe my life to skating. When you get involved in the skating community, there will be so many changes for you. It brings out who you're supposed to be. I lived on the street for a while, and during that time you know what I had? My skateboard and the clothes on my back, but that was okay it's what I needed. I have seen what I've seen, done what I’ve done, and have the friends I do now due to it. I’m endlessly thankful. Anyways that's all this slightly dope dude has to say.

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Grandpa By Quinn Edenfield

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y grandpa is one of the kindest people I know. You might not expect it when you first see him, but he’s a big softy. He’s caring and gentle yet strong and reliable. He grew up in Southern California back when the area was farmland and country roads. He’s been with my grandma since they were both in high school and nothing makes me doubt that they have a perfect relationship. He’s a great husband and a great father, having raised two daughters, one being my mom.

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Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a man that has his heart set on family values. I asked him what he would do if he were to be a professional artist. He said that he would want to work with clay. This made perfect sense to me because pottery requires a certain skill set. You have to be patient, flexible and focused. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one of the strongest people in my life, and is no doubt one of my greatest role models.

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Charles Swarts By Tori Moffett

For this project, my interviewee was Charles Swarts. When Miz. Harris asked us to do an interview with someone that we felt needed to be honored and shown, immediately my mind went to Charles. He has been a very important figure in my life for the past 5 years and I thought that he would be a great candidate for this project. And now we get started...

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Me: “So the assignment is doing an interview of someone who we think should be respected and honored and all these things, and you have pretty much been the main role model for me throughout my five years-” Charles: “You poor thing” Me: (laughs) “Yea, my 5 years of being here (VSAA). you were one of the first people that came to mind compared to like my other…. Things, so we had to write questions that would be good to ask to you know, get tears flowing, things going, emotions going on.” Charles: “Are you trying to get emotions out of me?” Me: “ I know, surprising right.” Charles: “You suck” Me: (laughs) “I know. So to get started ...” Charles: “you have a list of questions? Do you want me to type out my responses for you?” Me: “no it’s ok I’m recording” Charles: “oh you're recording? Jesus Christ.” Me: “yea I’m planning on transcribing it later….. So ok... When you first came to VSAA, what was your first impression, like going from doing shows and stuff to becoming a teacher at a school”

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Charles: “yea so it was… it was similar to what I was doing, I was the shop manager, at my last job, and so you go through the same motions for the most part. You asses what you're doing you asses your needs, purchase your needs, and your wants and then you assign people to do it and the biggest difference is, and the frustration that I have with my job currently is administration. Because you know, you come from a private industry and you can just you know, ‘I need something I’m gonna go get it, like I have my credit card I can just go get it. Well here, I mean if I wanna buy a box of screws, I have to send it to convo[cation], which could take a week, for a 5 dollar box of screws! Or if I buy it myself then its a donation, now that’s not to say I haven't done that before, which they certainly frown upon, but ya know I mean sometimes you can't wait a week. And so the other hard part for me is coming from what I call a ‘blue-collar job’ where you would sit around and talk about anything and everything, I’d talk about my menstrual period, we would talk about someone else's menstrual period, we’d talk about sex, we’d talk about, I mean we lived

and breathed... Everybody. With that company we traveled together, we shared rooms together, we’d share dinners with each other, we cried together, we’d burn floats down together, and so you develop this really strong family, like a second family. And that's really hard to develop here. I mean the kids, the kids are great, they are accepting for the most part, and I think the way I do things, I treat them as adults for the most part, and treating them that way, you’ve earned their trust a little better, you make a better connection, so that’s been really great but that’s a lot harder to do with some of the teachers in this building, I’ve been here 6 years and I’ve barely said 2 words to them. It’s just the way it is but here, making connections have really been great though, I love to do this with students and see that a preverbal ‘aha’ moment. Like you hook someone up to the light board and turn it on and get that ‘oh that’s so great!’ and then you say ‘ok now move this light and that light’ and people are like ‘oh my god I made that happen.’

(At this moment, Seth Olson walked in and started talking about the show, so we got a little distracted) Me: “so, how did you even get started with going into the district, like why did you stop doing what you did there and came to the school” Charles: “well… you know it’s funny, I was here one year, about 7 or 8 years ago, I was hanging the elementary school art show with my wife, and I got to talking with Lori and Donna because we were eating food in the hall, or at least my children were, and I was donna a bunch of grief about her griefing at the point my four-yearold about eating chicken strips and french fries in the hall and wiping her hands on the carpet, and I said, ‘you know, there are a lot worse things on this carpet Donna’ and then Lori stepped in and said ‘we really have no food on the carpet area policy.’ so I asked where I should take them to eat, and she said ‘well you could take them down to the cafeteria, but the cafeteria is clean and we’d rather not clean it again.’ and I said ‘then I’ll get a table and eat at the table, and clean it off.’

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Then we kind of laughed and giggled around a little bit, I told some naughty jokes to Donna and Lori. Then a year later, Cam (Charles’ wife) came home and said ‘Lori wants to know if you wanna work at VSAA.’ And I went ‘ what the hell is VSAA?’ and I said ‘oh yea sure I would like that.’ The reason I left my old job was we were no longer a full-time company, so we were working nine or eight months out of the year, and I had no benefits, I had no retirement, I had no health insurance, my pay wasn't the best, it was a living wage, but one missed paycheck and I was doomed. It's hard to look at your family and say ‘sorry I don't want retirement, I don't want health insurance, I don't want a better living wage. You can’t really say that to your wife and to the kids that depend on you. I had never written a resume, I’ve never had to, I’ve always known the people I got to work with or work for. I had to learn how to write a resume, which wasn't really that hard, the hardest part was trying to make my portfolio because I've done a lot of things but I’ve never taken pictures of them. I never

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thought I would be in a position that I would have to. At that time, Jim O’banion was the principle here and Lori was the associate principal, and they asked if I could provide a portfolio, so I spent weeks trolling the internet for images of shows I had worked on parade floats I had built, any manner of things that I could find to even put into a portfolio. Now I have a couple of partial portfolios and I’m a little bit better about taking images, not necessarily of finished work but as work is in process. That's how I kinda ended up being here by my wife saying ‘yes he would love to have a job here.’ Every once in a while when I have to work late, like coming up into tech week, this week and next week, she looks at me and goes ‘why are you gone so long?’ and I always say, ‘you got me this job, you said yes, and I didn’t have a choice so.’” Me: “Blaming all of it on Cam huh” Charles: “I do, I throw it right back at her, its the only time I can ever be right.” Me: “so with the whole parade floats, and the tech industry, how did you get into that, did you do it as a kid?”

Charles: “I mean yea. I was on a path of destruction when I was in junior high, so going into my 9thgrade year--when I was in school, middle school was 7th, 8th, and 9th grade, 6th grade was elementary, and high school was sophomore through senior--my freshman year, 9th-grade year, I was doing a lot of things that young kids aren't supposed to do, I was drinking, I was doing drugs, I was stealing cars. It was a really bad, it was a really tough time for many reasons, but my friend, Jim, who at one point during my 9th-grade year completely alienated for months, he told me that at the high school I attended, they had a tech theatre class, and that I should probably take it. I have always been handy, I’ve always built stuff, I’ve always been mechanically inclined, and stuff like that, so I was like ‘oh haha yea theatre fags’ because I was too cool for school and all that crap. But I took it anyway. He essentially said ‘you gonna take it or I’ll beat your ass.’ He was bigger than me at that time so it was a good thing. So I enrolled in it and I thrived there. Carol Coburn,

the theatre director, or theatre teacher, she was many things there. I tell most people that she saved my life. I mean she allowed me to flourish and be the person that I could be, as opposed to trying to put me as a trouble maker, rabble-rouser, or whatever you want to call the kids that are delinquents. I mean I found my path, I took it upon myself to study lighting, I took it upon myself to study scene design. The tech theatre class at that time was literally the class for delinquents. That's where everybody went that couldn’t conform to other electives. We had a class of 37 kids most of the time, that were there just to screw around and throw nails in the parking lot and throw paint on each other, hide under the stage, and do whatever they could to not have to do work. By the middle of my sophomore year there, I was the master carpenter and I was the master electrician. I learned from Scott Bako, From Jeff Hofard, these were all the kids that were graduating that year that took me in and said ‘ these are the

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things that we do and this is how we do them, you'll need to learn to do these things’ and I did it. When I graduated high school, I became a baker's apprentice, of all things. Me: “ A baker's apprentice? Really” Charles: “it was one of the only jobs I could find, id get up and make the donuts” Me: (laughs) Charles: “I’d pound out bread, flintstone bread and, jalapeno cheese bread, ya know this body was built by donuts at 7 am with butter on it. And then I worked framing houses for a little while, and remodeling houses for a little while, then one of the kids I was framing houses with left, he was doing some work elsewhere, he called me up one day and said ‘ hey they're looking for the backstage crew at portland city theatre. Which was a WWII theatre built up around 15th and Norson? I think? Anyways. I went down and applied, and I started working there. My first show was the best little house in Texas, and I did nothing but move scenery around, and then they were looking for a carpenter, and then I started building scenery and doing shows at night.

I was single for the most part, so I lived and breathed tech theatre and backstage work, and built anything and everything I could. And doing shows in what we called the Blue Room, which was not blue at all. But was a small, 130 by 150 seats, theatre in the round that was convertible. The seats were attached to plywood bases so we could move them around, and we could convert the theatre to any position that we needed it. So all I could do theatre. We had cots, we’d sleep up in costume rooms, we’d sleep in the sewing room, we’d sleep in the dance studio, if it was hot enough we’d sleep up on the roof. So yea, it was a lot of fun.” Me: “so you slept here? I mean not here but at that theatre?” Charles: “yea, yea I did” Me: “wow” Charles: “ yea, ya know, one year we were doing peter pan, during the holiday season, and it was supposed to snow and freeze rain that night, and I lived in Beaverton, and so, going over the west slope, you know from portland to Beaverton, there was just no way I was coming back.

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So what do you do? I couldn't get home so ya just close the doors, throw your sleeping bag on the floor and wake up in the morning. Do what you gotta do. Yea, it was some good times. I spent a lot of time at the bar in Maleri. So, yea.” Me: “ well ok, so you talked a lot about the school and you growing up in that school system. So how different is it from school back then, than school is now.” Charles: (heavy sigh) “so there are students here that want to do things, and I think that's great, I don't know that much about that part of the industry. So here's a book, here's a book, here's a book. You wanna know how to do it better, just read through it, and find stuff you wanna know. It never happens. It's really hard because a lot of things happen here, in this building in general, that kids that could definitely benefit more from, if there was an initiative on their behalf, to do the job, but they don't. I blame a lot of it on social media, the fact that you have a computer in your hand, and you can go play games, or you can go talk to your friends, or you can go watch youtube videos about people putting bottle rockets in their butts.

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And doing stuff like that as opposed to staying late at school. I would ride the bus, the public transport, so TriMet, to school in the morning at 7:00 for an 8:30 start time. There were days where we would have a coral concert and I would ride the bus home at 10:00 at night. Ya know, my mom couldn't come get me, she was a single mom. There's a lot of things I could do at my age, back in '83, '84, '85, that you could probably do today, but there's so much paranoia about going to the bus stop at night, going to do this at night, going to do that. The likelihood that someone is gonna jump you in the parking lot when you're walking to the student parking lot is almost nil, ya know, it's VERY VERY unlikely. but, all the kids are encouraged to move their cars to the lower parking lot, because it could happen, but it's not very likely. So I think there is a certain amount of freedom that is removed from children, or students or kids, whatever you wanna call yourselves. Again, we would go out and play in the bushes. we had natural wetlands around the house where I grew up, out off 105th and highway 26, it’s all developed now, but we could go out and walk for days through fields and

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never see another person. we would go out there a play bb gun wars and shoot each other and ride motorcycles and bicycles, there was a place down the road called rock creek and we'd go down there a crawl through the crick and catch salamanders and snakes, chase ducks and geese, and never see anybody. You can't do that anymore, so like I said, there's a certain level of paranoia, from parents and from kids alone. they're afraid, they are inhibited to do things or step outside the box and do something that challenges them. there are students that are in the tech program that could be very good leaders but they just won’t take that chance. They just won't step up, it’s much easier to go home and make pizza in your oven." Me: "oh yea and climb instead of staying here late" Charles: "Well it's not just that person, it's everybody. everyone has something else to do. And even if they don't, I think its really hard for people to understand that commitment and that desire to be someplace. like I wanna be in school, and I wanna be in the theatre. I didn’t want to go home. I was so in my element, granted I did a lot of stupid things also, I was a kid.

We swung from electric cords out over the audience and out over the gallery. I mean we did things we weren’t supposed to do. I’ve put holes in the wall and got my ass chewed, and then the teacher did it and I chewed her ass, so, you know it was fun, it was good, it was a good time. So the difference I think is just the event of smartphones and social media and this whole alternate outlet of “I’m gonna grow up and be a youtube star, or I’m gonna grow up and be a TikTok person, or I’m gonna start my Reddit page and they’re gonna pay me millions.” Good luck!” Me: “alright, this is gonna be the last question because I’m running out of time, so I’m your first seven-year, and this is gonna get a little deep, but, I’m your first seven-year, and you have pretty much watched me grow up from 6th grade me to me now and you’re gonna watch me grow up until I graduate and probably after, how has that been for you?” Charles: “it's been pretty special” Me: “that’s your ‘bleh’ of me growing up man?” (laugh) Charles: “get outta here, you made me cry I hate you.”

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Charles: “yea I mean ya know its(heavy sigh)- I mean I’ve heard the stories of Tori on the bus, I've heard the stories of Tori this and Tori that and Tori comes in here and I’m like ‘why are you doing that?’ I get it, ya know sometimes you can't control your brain. But you have to ask yourself ‘is the trouble worth it’, and you've certainly matured, I mean you have a ways to go, but there are a few key things in life, and one of them is, you don't have to like the person, but you'll have to work with them and sit in a room with them and so you have to be respectful of the space. And you're learning that you're learning that. You're starting to adult. And it’s really special to see! I mean its a little- sorry I’m starting to get a little misty-eyed here- ya know its, it’s really cool to watch people grow up and again have those moments of ‘awh I’m gonna go out and take pictures for somebody’ or ‘oh look at this drawing I did’ ‘oh look at this’ it’s like f*ck yea! You're doing that! You're doing the things that you enjoy! And that's really important in life. A lot of people go through life and have to do things, because they have too, and at

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this age, you can do things because you want to, because you like to. And then you carry that with you into adulthood, and with any luck, you continue to carry that and nourish your body and nourish your brain and nourish those parts of you that need that, as opposed to just cutting it off and doing your 9-5. And that’s what’s really great about this school is that it allows people to explore a number of options, to trigger themselves into fulfillment, and I think photography's done that for you I think VA has done that for you, and hopefully some of the stuff up here in the booth and on stage has done that for you. It's a great opportunity for students to have this experience. Whether its VA, MIA, theatre, vocal, lit arts, whatever that case is, this is an opportunity for people to explore and find themselves and fulfill themselves with the things they enjoy, and the piss that away, just to throw it away because you're ‘too cool’ ‘too uppity uppity’. I think this is a great opportunity for students and I think they should realize and cherish that because they're never gonna have this option again. So. that's my bleh”

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