Dates: September 5- September 28

Opening Reception September 7, 5-7pm

Statement:

Nate Orton and Cynthia are colleagues and friends who have collaborated on many projects in the past and regularly explore the world together through museum visits, plein air drawing and thrift store shopping. Their artworks share the beauty and depth of mark making and a love of the evocative quality of materials. Both artists’ artworks are influenced by human artifacts from ancient times to the present, as well as by personal experiences and emotions. They believe even the smallest artifact can evoke the most powerful feelings, and draw inspiration from objects and images, both historical and contemporary, that have the potential to reflect beyond themselves.

The show at the Portland State University Littman Gallery will be a place where the Orton and Lahti artistic worlds collide and bleed together to create one experience. The differences and commonalities contain in each collaboration will excite and enforce the artwork but retain their artistic voices common dirge. The exhibition, combining the sacred with the profane, the wise with the stupid and the beautiful with the grotesque, will force a deeper explanation of reality and to facilitate a connection with a larger human experience.

Forget the fact that MY DAY #41 came out waaaay earlier. MY DAY driving The Dalles ORE to Lewiston IDA is here! Find it at Passages Bookshop or from my studio. Edition of 50.

My Day #40. Driving The Dalles ORE to Lewiston IDA. Xerox, Letterpress and Linocut on found paper. 16 pages. 2017. -Nate[/caption]

As my school-year as a K-8 art instructor begins to wrap up I look ahead to a wonderful summer at the Multnomah Arts Center teaching adult letterpress, lithography and drawing fundamentals as well as a slew of youth art camps and afternoon classes. Rumor has it Ill even be instructing set-design and cartooning classes! Below: Student work from Southwest Charter School:

My Day #41. “Chopsticks III” AKA “A temporary hold on a temporary ban” AKA “Fake News Karaoke”. James-Writing. Nate-Images. Xerox, fold-out, pop-up, handwriting and pochoir on paper. 12 or so pages. Avalibale at Passages Bookshop or through me.

My daughter editing my mural at Passages Bookshop. MY DAY issues 1-40 on display and for sale at Passages Bookshop in NE Portland till February 25th 2017.

Happy Solstice!

This winter I will be instructing adult drawing, adult letterpress and two youth drawing classes at the Multnomah Arts Center. Check their catalog at multnomahartscenter.org or email me. For this school year I am also the resident art teacher for Southwest Charter K-8 School, so, um, register your child for a new school?

Im excited to be showing the My Day book collection in it’s entirety at my old friend David’s amazing Passages Bookshop mid January till the end of February. There will be an opening Saturday, January 14th with readings from James and Chris, live drawing installation by me, booze, and hopefully wild surprises, etc. Email with questions.

The first 10 years of MY DAY (issues 1-35) is available as a box set. The handmade box sets include all issues from 2005-2015,  letterpress broadside, statements, bios and catalog. Available at Passages Bookshop and Reading Frenzy  in Portland or by emailing me. 

I decided to focus on Portland’s very large homeless and housing crisis for MY DAY 38. After hearing my neighborhood’s resistance to a proposed homeless shelter THEN hearing our mayor’s decision to sweep the city’s Springwater Corridor of the 500 homeless campers with few alternatives for them, I was left very confused as to the ethics and function of this city. I decided to draw some of the homeless dwellings while walking from my neighborhood to Downtown Portland. Hand printed with paper relief and letterpress. 6×5″ closed. 24pages. Available at Passages Books, Reading Frenzy, and through me. All profits from this book will go to Sisters of the Road, a barter cafe working to end homelessness. sistersoftheroad.org

This month and next I’ll be showing new and old work concerning the neighborhood that I live in. Over the 3 years that I’ve lived in Sellwood/Westmoreland I’ve made countless etchings, books and drawings that come from my sketchbook that I pack with me every day. I’m very happy to have this art show in my favorite neighborhood coffee shop. Shoot me an email and we can meet at RCCO for a cup of coffee. (image letterpress/linocut).