Solo Show! @ MP5

Solo Show!

First Friday
Opening Reception and Open Studios
6-9 PM Friday, January 7, 2011

Milepost 5
Lofts building:
Lobby Gallery: Work by Dana Henderson
Studios building:
Open Studios and Five Alive Event

850 NE 81st Ave

Portland OR, 97213

First Friday@Milepost 5
January 7, 2011
6-9 pm

MP5 Lofts building Lobby Gallery

Work
Dana Henderson


MP5 Studios building 2nd and 3rd Floors
Open House
Milepost5 Creative Community
(representing sound, visual, textile, words, and motion)
presenting their January First Friday Event Come to meet the Studios artists and explore an array of visual & non-visual creative work. In conjunction with Milepost 5 and First Friday festivities, E.A.T. (Eat.Art.Theater.), will present “Five Alive” --=a monthly, all ages, free live-music event, plus a Happy Hour with food and drinks. Focus! Focus! and Outside Voices will be performing for this event.


More about the Lofts gallery artist:
Dana HendersonStatement:In my work I try to connect on a fundamentally physical rather than conceptual level. I tend not to trade in hidden symbolism or allegorical meaning as a basis for my painting; rather I try to appeal to the more primal appreciation that one derives from craftsmanship and immediate visual impact. I believe that our perception of beauty and value is inherently connected to our development within the natural world, and I exploit our unique connection to the human face to hold a viewers interest.In my reckoning, art is a human endeavor wrought by human tools; it is not a filtration of the language of muses, gods or spirit realms. It is a means of discovering and re-examining ourselves.

Bio:Dana Henderson was born in Rota, Spain. He lived and worked throughout Europe and the United States before settling in Portland, Oregon. His oil portraits combine a strong respect for the techniques of modern impressionism while being informed by a background in Illustration. His work hangs in private collections in California, Massachusetts, Oregon, France and Germany. He considers Boston his hometown, but doesn't particularly care how the RedSox are doing.

Milepost 5 is an intentional community in the Montavilla neighborhood for people engaged in creative pursuits. For more information please visit our website.

New work

Here's my progress on some recent portraits. Sorry about the lack of updates, but I'm never really sure when I have enough material for a post. Haven't gotten these properly photographed yet, but I should get them all done soon.

WIPs

To help dispel rumors that I've been swallowed up by the rampant and aggressive underground hacky-sack culture here in Portland; I'm posting some snapshots of a few portraits I'm working on right now. I was going to wait until I had the entire show finished, and could get professional photos, but there isn't much point in having a blog if you aren't going to put anything on it.

It turns out that I won't be able to participate in this year's Open Studios, so I'm looking for another venue to exhibit the show once it's finished. I've been looking at a few possibilities, but it will have to wait until after october at this point.

Call For Models

I need live models for a portrait series to present at the Portland Open Studios 2010 in October. I cannot pay for professional sitters and do not have enough commissioned pieces for a show, so I am going to be giving away the finished paintings to the individual sitters after the show is over, and the pieces properly documented.

If you are interested in participating in the project you will need to agree to the following terms:

• No requirements as far as age, sex, race or appearance

• Need to be willing to meet at least once a week for 2-3 hours for at least 6 sessions

• The sitter cannot make any demands on the actual content of the painting; lighting, composition, color choice, size, and level of detail will all be determined by the artist

• Must have own transportation, or can easily reach my studio at 2211 NE Front Ave, Portland Oregon (About a 10 minute walk from the edge of the Pearl District and accessible by the 16 bus line)

• Must wear the same simple outfit featuring no logos, text or copyrighted images to each sitting (flat colors and patterns are fine). The outfit can be kept at the studio and changed into each day if preferred. For women, wearing little or no makeup is preferred.

• No drastic changes to the sitter's appearance in the middle of the process (Newly shaved head, new face or neck tattoo, new facial piercing or gauging, etc... a haircut is not a problem as long as it isn't a major change in style or color)

• The painting will be turned over to the sitter after it has been properly documented; no earlier than November 2010, and no later than one year after the painting is completed.

• If the sitter moves away from the area or cannot pick up the painting themselves for any reason, they will need to pay any shipping costs.

• If the sitter cannot be contacted or located after one year, the artist will retain ownership of the painting.


I don't really like setting up lists of rules for this type of thing, but I know from experience that it's always best to try and anticipate problems or misunderstandings before they happen.

If you're interested in being a model, or know someone that is; please contact me by email or phone

dhenderson@dana-illustration.com
617-888-3411

New Studio Space, New Project

Moved into a new studio space a couple weeks ago. It's a great space in a co-op studio fairly near my house; I already feel pretty at home there. My next project is going to be getting a body of work together for the Portland Open Studios Show, to that end I'm going to be doing free portraits of live models; the details will be explained in a separate post. Since I haven't done much work since October I've recently been painting simple sketches to try and get back into an art-creating mode.

Here are a couple photos of the space: