Venture 2018

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STAFF

EDITOR’S NOTE

Editor Megan Phelps

Writers Ben Crichton Antonio Edwards Matt Krajicek Megan Phelps Cassie Wilson

Designers Sheila Embers Svetlana Meshcheryakova

Photographers Kathleen Hay Nicole Poitiske Lisa Sellers Fadi Shahin Fletcher Wold

Contributors Amanda Brixius Pete Eckert Drew Fuller Bryon Logan Kayla Meng

The magazine in front of you contains stories about impressive, creative individuals. It is something to be admired: people who pursue their passion regardless of obstacles.

You have the opportunity to read about how two artists who came together after college, making a name for themselves in Portland and around the country.

You’ll also be able to plug into the music scene with a list of upcoming artists making their way to the top of charts.

There is also a profile on Joe Broders, former staff member at Scott | Edwards Architecture in Portland. Learn about the process of creating aesthetically pleasing and functional homes, and get an inside look at how the famous Music Box Residence was created.

Our final story tells the tale of how the magical Centaur Guitar music shop started out in Portland 13 years ago.

There is also a photo spread showcasing some brilliant work from Mt. Hood students.

This publication required a continual effort over several months to produce.

Each year our staff is comprised of students attending Mt. Hood Community College. I applaud each and every person involved in Venture this year, and I am extremely grateful for your contribution.

This would not have been completed without you.

A special thank you, also, to advisers Dan Ernst and Howard Buck in assisting throughout the process.

I’d also like to thank Morel Ink for giving us a generous donation to meet our printing budget this year.

I hope you enjoy exploring this year’s publication of Venture Magazine.

I am honored to have helped create this publication.

Megan Phelps

Advisers Howard Buck Dan Ernst Cover photos by Fadi Shahin

Mt. Hood Community College 26000 SE Stark Street Gresham, Oregon 97030 Phone: (503) 491-7250 E-mail: advocatt@mhcc.edu

Venture Magazine is a Mt. Hood Community College student publication produced by students in the journalism department. The articles and materials present in Venture do not necessarily represent the views of Mt. Hood Community College. None of these materials may be reproduced without written permission from Venture.

Rather Severe

CONTENTS

Megan Phelps

Rising Artists Cassie Wilson

House Vibes Antonio Edwards

Centaur Guitar Ben Crichton and Matt Krajicek

Photo Spread Lisa Sellers, Fadi Shahin, and Fletcher Wold

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16 Photo credits in order from top to bottom: Fletcher Wold, web photo, Pete Eckert, Nicole Piotiske, and Fletcher Wold.

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ortland, like any large city, has main characteristics that add to the vibe and personality of the area.

The slogan we have around here is “Keep Portland Weird,” and I think Portland stays true to that identification. Portland itself is a hub for arts and culture; there are several avenues of creative expression to be shared within the population. A prime example of this is the Portland Saturday Market.

Another artistic outlet in our city is the muralist community. There is a wide range of styles in Portland’s muralist roster; one in particular is called Rather Severe.

This muralist duo is comprised of two young men who graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio. Jon Stommel and Travis Czekalski have a unique style with bright saturated colors, organic and linear designs, with quirky characters jam-packed into their pieces. Elements of birds, beaks, clouds, rainbows, and eyes create a psychedelic and playful aesthetic. Their original style mainly developed from improvisation of the brush, along with the artists’ inspirations and aesthetics.

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How it all started While studying at CCAD, they became interested in the street art scene in the country and around the world. A main resource for Jon was Wooster Collective, which was founded in 2001 by Sara and Marc Schiller, and has had a website, woostercollective.com, since 2003. The collective’s focus is to discover and document authentic art experiences.

As Jon recalls: “When I was a sophomore in CCAD they (Wooster Collective) hosted this huge show in New York where they invited a bunch of artists to paint all over this building on the corner of Wooster and Spring Street. I went there with some friends and saw it. It was like a lifechanging experience. We started painting walls together and doing some stop-motion animation stuff and kind of started a mural painting business there and then moved out here about six years ago. (We’re) still just as enthusiastic about the street art, graffiti, and murals as ever, there’s more and more of it going on all the time.”

RATHER SEVERE

by Megan Phelps

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Travis adds: “Hopefully we’ll get hired to do more stuff like that (stop-motion animation) occasionally, but (we) still prefer mostly to do public art murals. Exterior is kind of our favorite.”

Outdoor murals are publicly accessible to all members of the public; they are a shared experience in the communities that host them. Murals add an aspect of personalization and uniqueness to cities, sometimes helping bring them to life. In a dreary – at times – city with a majority of overcast, rainy days, public art adds a refreshing element of color. These works of art even create a sense of interest in visitors: Some murals are destination spots, which bring in new people, who in turn may contribute to local businesses in areas around murals.

Rather Severe has painted numerous murals in Portland over the past seven years, but their work is not only in Portland.

They travel all over the country doing their work, and they have ambitions to paint outside of the country at some point.

Jon explains, “Portland has been very supportive and encouraging with us. We have gotten a lot of great feedback from everyone here, people seem to enjoy our work, we are getting a lot of opportunities, but we are also traveling a little bit more now. Last year we painted in Denver, Colorado; Lincoln, Nebraska; the year before that we painted in…

“For us to be able to show kids that if you are really passionate about wanting to do it (art), then it’s totally possible to figure out a way to make it happen and to support yourself, and to make work that inspires you and other people.”

- Travis Czekalski

Photos by Fletcher Wold Oh! We also painted in Myrtle Beach [South Carolina] last year. Year before that we painted in Roanoke [Virginia], and Boulder, Colorado. So yeah, really we’re just trying to travel to paint more in other cities, but I think Portland is going to be the home base, honestly. There’s a huge mural scene going on here.”

The PDX Muralist Community A couple main contributors to the expansion of murals in Portland is Portland Street Art Alliance and Forest for the Trees. I highly recommend going to each group’s website to watch videos, and find information about what they do in the PDX community.

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The Portland Street Art Alliance is comprised of artists, academics, and professionals whose goal is to promote creative interventions in public spaces. They believe vibrant street art is an essential ingredient in building a unique, dynamic, and playful city. You can find more information on their website: pdxstreetart.org.

Forest for the Trees is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the creation of contemporary public art. It generally has an event once a year that brings in artists from around the globe, along with local artists, to come and paint murals in Portland.

Their website is forestforthetreesnw.com.

As Jon recalls, “Forest for the Trees is another awesome

We had the privilege to see Travis (left) and Jon (right) work on a mural at C2K Architecture in Portland, which is where these photos were taken. Check out the finished product on their Instagram or visit their website [www.rather-severe.com] to see more of their work.

thing that happens here every year. We got to participate in that in its second year (2014), and things like that are bringing a ton more mural art to Portland and the more walls that get painted, the more everyone seems to get enthusiastic about it.

And the more excitement that builds around that, the more Portland is going to become a mural town or a destination to really see a lot of public art. I think that’s really special, you know, and it’s exciting to continue living here and see how that grows in the next five, 10, 15 years.”

Another organization that has worked with Rather Severe is Color Outside the Lines, a nonprofit that empowers and inspires foster children and at-risk youth by providing opportunities for self-expression and creativity. It believes in the power to transform lives and promote mental and emotional health. This belief is showcased in one of the two murals the group worked on with Rather Severe, which was part of the Find Your Words Campaign, organized by Kaiser Permanente, which focused on breaking the stigma around talking about depression. The typographical mural stating: “I GAVE MYSELF TIME” is an intriguing visual that surely will resonate with public viewers who have been affected by depression or mental illness.

Inspiring children is one of Rather Severe’s main goals as muralists, and getting to work with them directly and seeing their enthusiasm around art is awesome to see. A lot of the time art is seen as a secondary part of people’s lives rather than a way of life and livelihood or career. Rather Severe takes pride in showing youths that it is possible to do what you love if you put your mind and hard work into it.

Travis says the goal is “for us to be able to show kids that if you are really passionate about wanting to do it, then it’s totally

possible to figure out a way to make it happen and to support yourself and to make work that inspires you and other people.”

Rather Severe has worked on two murals with Color Outside the Lines. The other mural was painted on a street intersection, located on the corner of NE Clackamas Street and NE 2nd Street. Painted during the peak of summer heat, the youths and volunteers powered through and completed the mural in a day, and the Rather Severe duo came back to finish the line work.

As Travis recalls: “One girl was just dancing barefoot in a tray of paint and then just running around the outside of the mural. If you go up to the mural on the street, you can probably still see these little footprints on the edge. It’s just like ‘All right, that probably shouldn’t be happening, but it’s kind of awesome that it is anyway.’

“Another time we got a series of sketch books for the kids for their participation and set them up in a big square and then painted a uniform design over the whole group of sketch books and each kid got to take one of the individual sketch books. A lot of them were already pretty intimately connected with making artwork, so for them to actually be able to participate in something public – you could just see a genuine sense of enjoyment.”

It goes to show that these guys are passionate about what they do. Murals can be a form of community engagement, there are already Portland bike tours centered around historic and artistic sites. It’s possible that in our future we will see more volunteer-driven activities formed around public art. Creating and viewing art can be a way of stress relief. It will be fun to see where our muralist scene progresses in the future and how it will transform our city and other communities for the better.

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by Cassie Wilson

Flor Originally from Hood River, the now LA-based, indie-pop band Flor have made huge strides outside of the Pacific Northwest. They’ve toured the U.S. and U.K. with Halsey, signed to Fueled By Ramen, played huge music festivals, and have scored millions of streams on their debut album, “come out. you’re hiding.” Flor’s music is full of sing-a-longs, and every track feels like a breath of fresh air. The production makes each song feel weightless and atmospheric. The band also puts on a stellar live performance, and, fortunately, since they’re from Oregon, they play shows here whenever tour routing is in their control. If you’re in need of music that will lift you up, Flor is the band for you.

A Will Away Connecticut indie-rock band A Will Away have been hard at work the past couple years as they fine-tuned the direction they’re going with their sound. They released their debut full-length album, “Here Again,” on Triple Crown Records as an extension to their EP, “Bliss,” and they’ve been turning heads ever since. Their lyrics touch on themes of existentialism and mental health from a new angle, and all of their songs are irresistibly catchy. Their guitar work is mesmerizing, and the variation in the vocals throughout “Here Again” means the album never gets boring. In a music scene that seems to churn out a lot of bands that often sound too much alike, A Will Away have found a way to stand out, and it’s refreshing.

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Grace Weber Calling all fans of Chance The Rapper… some of you may already be familiar with artist Grace Weber. While she was in the process of recording her debut album, Chance asked if he could have her song “All We Got,” which became the opening track on “Coloring Book.” Weber’s music combines elements of hip-hop, R&B, and folk, but at the forefront of her sound is her soul- and gospel-influenced vocals.

She worked with producers Nate Fox and Nico Segal to create nearly 50 songs that would then be narrowed down to form the tracklist for her forthcoming record. Her debut single, “More Than Friends,” has a vibe that can easily be enjoyed by fans of all music genres.

Julien Baker Julien Baker’s music will break your heart. The singer/songwriter’s latest record, “Turn Out The Lights,” will summon your undivided attention, and have you exploring your deepest feelings you probably thought were tucked away for good. The gorgeous, gentle instrumentals in her music set the somber mood, but primarily act as a platform on which she sings her innermost thoughts. Some of her songs flow more like hymns, and the way she belts certain parts of melodies will send chills down your spine. On top of that, Baker’s live performance is unparalleled, and creates such a powerful feeling in the room. She’s quickly selling out increasingly large rooms around the world, so don’t miss out on seeing her play whenever the next opportunity presents itself.

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SWMRS With music being such a unifying force, it gives songwriters the platform to write about important issues in a way that is digestible for people of all ages and backgrounds, and to a large degree, that’s what SWMRS is all about. Their songs are catchy, and come with a raw punk feeling that’s not often found in younger artists. Their drummer, Joey Armstrong, is the son of Green Day’s Billie Joe, and the band’s sound is definitely influenced by older punk-rock bands. SWMRS is becoming well-known for passionate, politically charged speeches on stage, and for their activism in making shows safer and more inclusive. They’re working on releasing a new record this year and it’s likely they’ll have a lot to say, since it’s their first album release in the Trump era.

Grayscale Young Philly band Grayscale have rapidly gained quite the following over the past year! They signed to Fearless Records, released “Adornment,” and have since gone on some of their first full-U.S. tours as openers for bands like Four Year Strong and Trophy Eyes. The crowds during each tour keep growing more enthusiastic, and the number of people singing and yelling along has multiplied with each run. Grayscale surely takes influence from bands that blew up in the 2000s, such as Mayday Parade, and their sound floats between pop-punk and pop-rock. A lot of Grayscale’s lyrics are written about specific memories and use imagery and storytelling details to paint pictures in listeners’ minds, while simultaneously getting fans across America off their feet and on top of the crowd.

Phoebe Bridgers Anyone out there follow John Mayer on Twitter? He’s great at discovering young new artists, and the most recent one he can’t stop talking about is Phoebe Bridgers. Much like Julien Baker, Bridgers is another singer/songwriter who writes lyrics in a way that will have fans tearing up at some point while listening to her debut full-length album, “Stranger in the Alps.” Bridgers’ music has a bit more of a pop-influenced groove to it. It’s relatively tame, but songs like “Motion Sickness” may have you bobbing around despite its heartbreaking lyrics. With big names like Mayer talking about her, there’s a high likelihood that 2018 is going to be a huge year for Bridgers.

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House Vibes

by Antonio Edwards

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nless you have been under a rock, you’ve seen the development going on around Portland and some surrounding areas. Houses, and buildings in some cases, are being completely knocked down and replaced, or just restored, to produce creative and attractive monumentlike structures. The work of the town’s architects and designers definitely deserves recognition, and I’ll be the first to applaud thee. Portland’s population is growing like crazy and business for architecture firms is booming.

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cott | Edwards Architecture ranks among the best design firms in Oregon – handsdown. The firm earned three awards in 2015, including Best Commercial Project for its work on the 10 Barrel Brewing Co. renovation in the Pearl District, and most recently won the 2017 Art DeMuro award for its restoration work on the Oregon City Public Library. Founded by Sid Scott and the late Kelly Edwards, the team has designed some of the most extraordinary homes and commercial buildings in the state.

Meet Joe Broders, 33, an architectural genius and staple at Scott | Edwards: Born in nearby Ridgefield, Washington, he also was born to design shit. He was introduced to architecture at a young age from his two uncles. Both seasoned at their craft, they inspired him to entertain the thought of pursuing architecture himself.

Despite this hidden gem of talent, Joe admits to not being the greatest student in high school.

He hung with his fellow skaters and didn’t get the type of grades you would want to throw up on the fridge for everyone to see. Doubts of pursuing architecture started to slowly overwhelm him.

After graduation, he explained how he had a

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“The Music Box, in its own (right) was incredibly fun.

It was a much larger house and the site constraints were pretty challenging because it was on a supersteep hill, so there’s really only one way that we could get all that they wanted in this one form.” - Joe Broders pep talk with himself to figure out what he really wanted to do with his life. Then, like a champion, he buckled down and began taking art classes at Clark College in Vancouver, and his love for designing began to rekindle.

Joe was approached by his instructor, who took a liking to his work and coincidentally asked if he were interested in being an architect – a sign that hit home and wouldn’t go unnoticed. He would soon transfer to spend the next five years at Montana State University, where he racked up a degree in environmental science and a master’s in architecture.

He represents the core values of the Scott | Edwards firm, which preaches a belief it can elevate quality of life at work, at home, and

in the communities it serves, through thoughtful planning and design. Also, Portland architecture legends Pietro Belluschi and John Yeon have inspired Broders to be a top contender among architects in the city.

For the past four-and-a-half years, he’s been producing magic – such as having a hand in designing some really dope shit, including his own home he is currently designing in Vancouver, Washington, and my personal favorite, Portland’s famous Music Box Residence.

John Greeney and his wife Yoko, both professional musicians and teachers, needed a home that would fit their musical lifestyles. And the Music Box Residence offered its own unique challenge to Joe and his colleagues.

Photos by Pete Eckert

Joe Broders on the Design Process “When someone comes to us, sometimes they’ll have an idea or a sketch, sometimes plans from Pinterest that they found, but for the most part they come to us and we talk to the client and see what it is that they need, what spaces they need, then we create a matrix essentially of all the spaces and sizes they desire,” Joe explains.

“We visit the site, and talk to them about what their vision is. We take the site constraints: the views, the way the sun moves across the sky, and the climate of the area. We then create three or four options for the client and present them at the first meeting. One of the sketches will address the ideas of the clients, but the rest of the sketches might be wildly different, so that we can see what direction they like the best.

“A lot of times it’ll be an amalgamation of multiple options, where they might like the entry on one, and the way the kitchen addresses the view on another, and then we’ll combine those to create the final design.

“The Music Box, in its own (right) was incredibly fun. It was a much larger house and the site constraints were pretty challenging because it was on a super-steep hill, so there’s really only

one way that we could get all that they wanted in this one form. Yoko teaches piano from home, so she needed a space that would fit two baby grand pianos, but also be acoustically separated from John, who’s a part of the symphony and plays the timpani, which is an incredibly loud instrument.

He has drum sets and other instruments and teaches from their house, as well.

“In order to not disturb Yoko’s sessions he needed a different entrance in, but it all needed to be totally acoustically separated from that. So, in his room, even though the floors and the house are traditional (wooden) framing, we did a concrete floor, we hired an acquisition to come in and help us design a wall system that would isolate the sound of him playing from the rest of the house, while not creating too much of an echo in that room, so that it has good sound quality.

“When you close ( John) off, he has doubledoors that close and everything’s steel, with multiple sheets of sheetrock that are on clips. It was a really interesting design process to create this sound-isolated studio. So, when (Yoko) teaches kids how to play the piano he can be going to town in his separate studio, and there isn’t a big deal.

“They host a lot of events in their house, so we had to design the piano room to open to the main living space so she can play for guests if she wanted, or they have one of their friends who’s another terrific musician come play. They have fundraisers with musicians on the balcony or musicians on the roof deck playing violin. I would absolutely love to go to one of their parties,” Joe adds.

“That house is just all about the view, too.

Granted, it has this musical component to it, but you get into it and their view is just mindblowing. You’re looking out away from the sun, which for a solar gain design-wise, you wanna collect as much sun as you can. When you’re designing a view house, it’s nice not to have that southwestern light hitting you in the eyes. Their view is looking out into the north and they can see all the way to the east and west. They can see planes landing at PDX, the whole Columbia River and Willamette River coming together. It’s a mind-blowing place.

“And even when it’s raining, they’re up on the hillside at the top of this bowl, just watching the clouds and weather move through. It in itself is its own kinda symphony outside. It’s pretty cool.”

In May 2018, following reporting for this story, Broders left Scott | Edwards and joined the collaborative firm Workaday Design, based in Portland and Kalispell, Montana.

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Photos by Nicole Poltiske and Kathleen Hay

THE MEN BEHIND THE MUSIC

Story

by Ben Crichton and Matt Krajicek

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entaur Guitar is everything but your typical guitar shop, and its owners wouldn’t have it any other way.

Kelly Manahan and Jason Snell set out to start a “community music resource center” and they did that, and so much more.

From the day they opened their southeast Portland store in spring 2005, the community has been at the forefront of their daily operation. Thirteen years later, that approach remains the cornerstone of Centaur Guitar. The actual business of buying, selling, trading, pawning, and repairing guitars helps to keep the lights on and the work fridge stocked with beer.

“A beer fridge was a big part of the dream…”

- Jason Snell on starting his own business The duo of Manahan and Snell began just like you would think: a band. However, their relationship is as unique as one will find and has given their business its distinct individuality.

Initially, they named their company “Guitar Centaur” in a brainstorming session comprised of ten beers, and stop-motion animation.

“We had bought a box set of Ray Harryhausen movies at a garage sale,” said Manahan. “Ray Harryhausen was a stop-motion animator for, like, “King Kong” and [movies that have] lots of mythological creatures and stuff. It’s playing in the background while we’re drinking and shootin’ shit.”

Snell continued: “As the magic moments always happen, Kelly goes (he gasps), ‘Dude!’ and then we decided we would be Guitar Centaur, which made perfect sense – right before [Guitar Center] in the phone book, and it sounded like Guitar Center.”

The duo had set up a phone line 30 days prior to their grand opening, and they were flooded with calls from people looking for Guitar Center.

Since they didn’t really have product to sell or a service to offer yet, they promptly referred people to local guitar stores, as opposed to Guitar Center.

Right: Jason Snell (left) and Kelly Manahan (right).

View the video version of this story here: www. youtube.com/watch?v=9mpcQW6zFpU

However, when they did open in the spring of 2005, the name Guitar Centaur lasted a whole three days before they received a cease-anddesist letter from the Guitar Center lawyers.

Lesson learned – thus, the birth of Centaur Guitar.

Since it opened there have been various events hosted inside the store, from book readings, to wine and cookie night, even to live band performances. For ten years the pair held concerts outside in their parking lot. For several years they also hand-designed and created every poster with a letter press at home after work, and spent three-to-four hours a few days out of the week to produce them.

Over the years, the owners have successfully built a business that fosters creativity and encourages personal growth through the use of the guitar. It’s a constantly evolving business that has grown organically. As far as plans for the future go, according to Snell, “We never had a plan when we started; why should we start now?”

Given their past success, it’s hard to argue with that. The operators recently opened a second store at 9103 S.W. Barbur Blvd., and offer guitar lessons at that location. They had a few specifications to keep in mind when choosing the new store location. Such as: the store is on a boulevard, the No. 12 bus stops at both shops, and there’s a tattoo shop close by.

Some people spend their whole lives trying to find a way to make a living doing what they love. These guys have captured the proverbial unicorn... or, should I say, centaur?

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PHOTO SUBMISSIONS 16

Photo by Fletcher Wold

Photo by Fadi Shahin

Photo by Lisa Sellers

Photo by Fadi Shahin

Photo by Fletcher Wold

Photo by Lisa Sellers

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Photo by Lisa Sellers

Photo by Lisa Sellers

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PHOTO SUBMISSIONS

Photo by Fadi Shahin