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 theater director, an educator/filmmaker, a writer, a visual artist, and an architect.

Like this introduction, 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.

Brian Weaver

Brian Weaver is the Producing Artistic Director and co-founder of Portland Playhouse. He has directed productions of Amelie; Titus; Scarlet; Peter and the Starcatcher; A Christmas Carol; Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play; Radio Golf; Gem of the Ocean; Angels in America; Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson; Dying City; Detroit; The Light in the Piazza; AfterAshley; and bobrauschenbergamerica. 

His regional credits include Third Rail Repertory, Intiman Theatre Company, Shakespeare & Company, Berkshire Theatre Festival, The Idaho Shakespeare Festival, and Seattle Public Theatre. Weaver also founded New World Players in Goshen, Indiana, where he directed the U.S. premiere of the Spanish translation of Marisol, a Jose Rivera play.

Sponsor

Perrin Kerns

Perrin Kerns is an essayist, educator, and filmmaker. She served as the Director of Writing at Marylhurst University for 15 years and currently teaches at Portland State University, Literary Arts, the Fishtrap Writers Conference, and the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. Her creative work has taken her from lyric essays to digital storytelling to personal narrative documentaries. She won the Director’s Choice Award from the San Francisco Short’s festival for her documentary Between Sasquatch and Superman: Living with Down’s Syndrome.

Rajesh K. Reddy

Rajesh K. Reddy is a writer, editor, and educator. His fiction and nonfiction work explores themes of race, gender, religion, and animality. It has appeared in the Silk Road Review, Asia Literary Review, Mandala, and elsewhere.

He has served in editorial roles at the Indiana Review, Callaloo, and Narratives. Reddy earned an MFA in Creative Writing (fiction), an MA in English from Indiana University, and a PhD in English (creative writing concentration) from the University of Georgia. He is the Director of the Animal Law Program at Lewis & Clark Law School.

Sponsor

Jo Hamilton

Jo Hamilton is a Scottish-born artist. She graduated from the Glasgow School of Art with a degree in drawing and painting before moving to the United States, where she eventually began to explore the representational possibilities of fiber mediums by combining the traditions of crochet and academic painting. She depicts the urban fabric of Portland and its people using traditional materials such as yarn, as well as alternative materials such as plastic and parachute cord. Her work has been exhibited worldwide and throughout the United States. It is innumerous private and public collections, including the Portland Art Museum and the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation.

William (Bill) Hawkins III

William (Bill) Hawkins III is considered Portland’s elder statesman of architecture and historic preservation. He comes from a long line of civic leaders that include his great-uncle, who helped create Forest Park. An architect for more than fifty years, Hawkins was involved in the restoration of The Old Church, Pioneer Courthouse, and the New Market Theater block. His work has focused on preservation and documentation of historic buildings and landscapes in Portland.

His books include The Grand Era of Cast-Iron Architecture in Portland and Classic Houses of Portland, Oregon, 1850–1950. Hawkins’s civic involvement includes advocacy for the revitalization of Portland’s Skidmore/Old Town National Historic Landmark District and participation in organizations such as the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission, the State Advisory Committee for Historic Preservation, the Portland Parks Board, and the Bosco-Milligan Foundation.

Sponsor

Earlier in the Series

• The Cultural Landscape, Part 18: Portraits of poet and memoirist Judith Barrington, theater artistic director Harrison Butler, visual artist Phyllis Trowbridge, jazz guitarist and composer Ryan Meagher, and Literary Arts senior artistic director Amanda Bullock.
• 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.