Text and Photographs by K.B. Dixon

As with the portraits in the previous installments of this series I have focused on the talented, dedicated, and creative people who have made significant contributions to the art, character, and culture of this city and state—in this case a poet, a theater director, a painter, a jazz guitarist, and a literary arts director.  

 My aspirations have remained the same: to document the contemporary cultural landscape and to produce a decent photograph—a photograph that acknowledges the medium’s allegiance to reality and that preserves for myself and others a unique and honest sense of the subject.

The environmental details have been kept to a minimum. The subjects have the frame to themselves and do not compete with context for attention. This provides for a simpler, blunter, more intense encounter with character. It is character that animates the image.

Sponsor

Judith Barrington

Judith Barrington is a poet, memoirist, and educator. A creative-writing teacher for more than forty years and a political activist, she is the author of five poetry collections, two poetry chapbooks, a prize-winning memoir, and a bestselling text on writing literary memoirs. Her most recent book, Virginia’s Apple, is a collection of fourteen memoirs. Barrington’s work has appeared in innumerable anthologies and literary journals including Creative Nonfiction, Narrative Magazine, Prairie Schooner, Americas Review, Kenyon Review, and ZYZZVA. She has received a number of awards—the Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize, the Lambda Book Award, and the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir, among others. Four of her books have been finalists for the Oregon Book Award. She is the co-founder of The Flight of the Mind Writing Workshops and one of the founders of Soapstone, a grassroots organization that supports and celebrates women writers.

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Harrison Butler

Harrison Butler is the artistic director of HART (Hillsboro Artists’ Regional Theatre), where he recently directed productions of Brighton Beach Memoirs, Native Gardens, and Morning’s at Seven. In addition to being an actor, director, and educator, he was the executive director of Theatre of Arts, the oldest acting conservatory in Hollywood, California. While he was executive producer of the Arena Theatre in Hollywood, he produced plays and a regular standup comedy showcase featuring students and headline celebrities. As an adjunct professor at the University of Northern Colorado he received a Director’s Meritorious Award for his direction of Elmer Rice’s The Adding Machine. His television acting credits include feature roles in Go On and Arrested Development.

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Phyllis Trowbridge

Sponsor

Phyllis Trowbridge has been a painter and educator for more than 30 years. Her work has been exhibited in local galleries and numerous invitational and juried shows, including the Bowery Gallery in New York City, the Schneider Museum of Art at Southern Oregon University, The Art Gym at Marylhurst University, and the Oregon Biennial at the Portland Art Museum. She has been an artist-in-residence at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, Red Cinder Creativity Center, and Vermont Studio Center. Trowbridge’s work is represented in the collections of Portland Community College, E.R. Jackman Foundation of Oregon State University, and the City of Portland Portable Works Collection. She teaches at Portland Community College.

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Ryan Meagher

Ryan Meagher (pronounced Marr) is a jazz guitarist, composer, and educator. He is the artistic director of the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble (and director of its in-house label, PJCE Records). He was a co-founder of the Montavilla Jazz Festival and at one time an editor of Jazzscene Magazine. He teaches at Mt. Hood Community College, Willamette University, and the University of Portland, and is the jazz director at Lower Columbia College in Longview, Wash. He has recorded nine albums as a leader and has been a sideman on many more. His most recent release, AftEarth, is a multidisciplinary work that was featured in the October 2023 issue of Downbeat magazine.

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Amanda Bullock

Amanda Bullock is the senior artistic director at Literary Arts. She directs the annual Portland Book Festival as well as Portland Arts & Lectures and various large-venue special events. She co-hosts and oversees production of The Archive Project radio show (broadcast weekly on OPB, the statewide NPR affiliate) and podcast. Before joining Literary Arts in 2015 she was director of public programming at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, a nonprofit social enterprise in New York City, where she publicized and produced more than 200 events annually. She is the co-founder of Moby-Dick Marathon NYC and has worked as an editor, a bookseller, and in book production.

Sponsor

EARLIER IN THE SERIES

• The Cultural Landscape: Part 17: Portraits of media artist and filmmaker Rose Bond, painter Chris Russell, choral composer and performer Judy A. Rose, Mother Foucault’s Bookshop founder and owner Craig Florence, and novelist and editor Rachel King.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 16. Portraits of theater director and choreographer Jessica Wallenfels, painter and printmaker Ryan Pierce, poet and book editor Valerie Witt, actor and director Isaac Lamb, and Resonance Ensemble choral director Katherine Fitzgibbon.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 15. Portraits of graphic design artist Chris Chandler, Miller Foundation leader Carrie Hoops, author and educator Evan Morgan Williams, Caldera leader Kimberly Howard Wade, and memoirist/essayist Steven L. Moore.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 14. Portraits of novelist Lydia Kiesling, actor Charles Grant, multidisciplinary artist Emily Ginsburg, photographer Thibault Roland, and writer/editor Margaret Malone.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 13. Portraits of jazz drummer Ron Steen, multimedia artist Pamela Chipman, musical-theater leader Sharon Maroney, filmmaker Jim Blashfield, and author and environmentalist Allison Cobb.
• The Cultural Landscape 12: Special Edition. Portraits of five trailblazing woman artists in Oregon: Lucinda Parker, Judy Cooke, Phyllis Yes, Sherrie Wolf, and Laura Ross-Paul.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 11. Portraits of visual artist Marie Watt, percussionist and musical conductor Niel DePonte, dancer and choreographer Oluyinka Akinjiola, poet and storyteller Brian S. Ellis, and actor/producer Lauren Bloom Hanover.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 10. Portraits of All Classical Radio President and CEO Suzanne Nance, poet Carlos Reyes, playwright and librettist Andrea Stolowitz, visual artist James Minden, and flutist and Aligned Artistry founder Amelia Lukas.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 9. Portraits of illustrator and educator Kate Bingaman-Burt, visual artist Dan Gluibizzi, novelist and nonfiction writer Cecily Wong, essayist and journalist Aaron Gilbreath, and choreographer and Oregon Ballet Theatre artistic director Dani Rowe.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 8. Portraits of writer and Portland Parks Foundation leader Randy Gragg, playwright/director/photographer Lava Alapai, mixed-media artist Erik Geschke, writer Erica Berry, and dancer/choreographer Samuel Hobbs.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 7. Portraits of singer/actor Susannah Mars, violinist Tomás Cotik, Native Arts and Culture Foundation leader Lulani Arquette, sculptor Ben Buswell, and artist, costume designer, choreographer, and filmmaker Fuchsia Lin.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 6. Portraits of Profile Theatre’s Josh Hecht, Pacific Northwest College of Art leader Jennifer (Jen) Cole, opera singer and teacher Hannah Penn, novelist Tony Ardizzone, and make-up, prop, and effects artist Christina Kortum.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 5. Portraits of musicians Marv and Rindy Ross, artist David Eckard, actor Maureen Porter, and writer Todd Schultz.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 4. Portraits of Oregon Symphony’s Scott Showalter, Renegade Opera’s Madeline Ross, theater leader Michael Mendelson, poet Genevieve DeGuzman, roots music legend Lloyd Jones.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 3. Portraits of Reser Center Executive Director Chris Ayzoukian, Shaking the Tree Theater Artistic Director Samantha Van Der Merwe, Oregon Public Broadcasting President and CEO Steve Bass, photographer and head of Pacific Northwest College of Art’s photography department Teresa Christiansen, choreographer and interim artistic director of Oregon Ballet Theatre Peter Franc.
• The Cultural Landscape: Part 2. Portraits of musician and composer Kenji Bunch, opera leader Priti Gandhi, actor and theater director Dan Murphy, contemporary art leader Victoria Frey, dancer and choreographer Shaun Keylock, landscape and urban design leader Zeljka C. Kekez, visual artist Barry Pelzner, poet and editor Susan Moore, musician and composer Cal Scott, writer and indie filmmaker Kelley Baker.
• The Cultural Landscape: 11 Portraits. Portraits of theater leader Marissa Wolf, musician Darrell Grant, museum film leader Amy Dotson, Red Door Project leader Kevin Jones, bookstore owner Emily Powell, philanthropist and art collector Jordan Schnitzer, visual artist Jef Gunn, actor and singer Ithica Tell, guitarist Scott Kritzer, publisher Rhonda Hughes, and poet John Beer.