Support for Oregon Art Beat is provided by... and the contributing members of OPB and viewers like you.

[ ?

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WOMAN: I started photographing people in the van community.

Ready?

But then I think it kind of unfolded deeper than that.

MAN: Get the other foot up, yeah.

[ imitates drum beating ] Covid definitely hit us, gave us that curve ball that nobody expected.

It allowed me to come out with a new game plan for White Lotus.

MAN: Artists, poets making work that speaks to injustice and speaks to racism is important.

It's this apocalyptic feeling that we all have, and I took that and I wanted to make art with it.

From wildfires to protests to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been a year, and artists have been responding in real time.

Last fall, the Oregon Society of Artists put out a call to photographers to capture images of this extraordinary time.

WOMAN: I feel like the year 2020 is just a year of change.

CROWD [ chanting ]: George Floyd!

George Floyd!

There have been a lot of protests...

CROWD: Black lives matter!

Black lives matter!

and I think things that have been going on for decades are really hitting a boiling point right now.

Because of the pandemic, people are dying in the United States.

There's wildfires destroying more than a million acres in Oregon now, also devastation up and down the West Coast.

People are learning to cope with things they've never dealt with before.

For me personally, I'm out of my regular day job, and it kind if made me take a step back and think, ''How can I make work for myself?''

[ barking ] Right there.

GILFILLAN: One thing that fit right in to Elizabeth Fennelly's quest for reinvention was an upcoming photography show.

It's called ''Oregon in Extraordinary Times,'' and it's put on by the Oregon Society of Artists.

Elizabeth decided to revive her interest in wet-plate photography.

It's pretty disorganized.

[ chuckles ] I knew I wanted to make this mobile darkroom and I knew I wanted to do a series of tintypes, so I started photographing people in the van community.

Look at me for a second.

That's good.

But then I think it kind of unfolded deeper than that.

I think for a lot of people, their van is their kind of safe haven.

Kind of staggered a little bit, like 45.

Yeah, if you, like, turn towards me a little bit.

Back up a little bit that way.

Cool.

That's their vehicle that they use to escape, the way that they feel solace.

I started to realize with the pandemic and lockdown, the van is kind of the answer to that for a lot of people.

This is a 4 x 5 camera from about 1915.

To me, different processes work better with different subject matter.

And I just felt like this was something that took more care and time than I would devote to it if I shot it in digital.

I feel like digital photos to me are kind of a fleeting moment, and this didn't feel like a fleeting moment.

[ ?

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I enjoyed this process because I feel like I'm really just thinking about that moment I'm in, and like hours pass.

Ready?

One, two, three, four, five, six.

Cool.

I like to control what I can, but I also accept that there's certain parts of this process I'm never gonna be able to control.

There's a whole other element to the photography that doesn't come from me.

It's really incredible to see, because I have no idea virtually what the image is going to look like.

You guys want to come see?

And sometimes it turns out really interesting.

Wow.

That's a good one.

I like it.

ELIZABETH: Yeah.

Coming back to the wet-plate process has been a long-term goal of mine.

This just felt like a time to focus on long-term goals.

So I'm going to enter some of the photos that I took today.

In case you've gotten as lost in the art of wet-plate photography as Elizabeth has, the show she's making these images for is called ''Oregon in Extraordinary Times.''

And Portland photographer Mark Fitzgerald is judging it.

MARK: So these images came in yesterday afternoon, and I've just briefly scanned over them.

And I've seen quite a range.

People are finding all sorts of ways to cope with these extraordinary times.

I'm going to be judging on five main things, and that is going to be impact, storytelling, artistic concept, creativity, and other things that can either make or break an image technically.

So this one jumped out to me immediately, because everybody knows what it's been like trying to get haircuts.

It's got a fun element with the young man in the back smiling and the other one sort of really focused on what he's doing.

And the gentleman getting the haircut looks a little uncertain, like he's not sure if he was right to do this.

So it's really great storytelling.

I feel like it fits the show perfectly.

So this is a great use of color.

It's not the traditional way to use color, but the yellow kind of adds a sense of danger.

It gives us this feeling that there's smoke in the air, and could be from tear gas.

The menacing looks that I'm getting from these guys, so it really makes me want to know what the story is and makes me come up with different stories in my mind.

And then we have one more here that is an older photo, looks like maybe in the '50s or something, and it's showing a different time when times were tough.

So even though we're going through some really difficult times right now, it isn't the first time Oregon or our society has been put to the test.

During these extraordinary times, it's a lot harder to put on a show like this, because who knows what the opening is going to look like.

Will people be able to come to the opening?

But it made sense to do it now, because there's going to be a lot more meaning to the images that are being shown.

Fortunately, the opening of the show managed to grab one of the last rainless October days.

But the nearly 100-year-old Oregon Society of Artists was definitely playing it Covid-safe.

All right, welcome, everyone, to OSA.

We have wine and water and some snacks individually wrapped, because that's the Covid way.

The OSA population is largely older, so we want to be extra cautious about their health.

So we put the arrows on the floor mostly so that we can keep the traffic directed.

And the windows are open and the fan's going, so we have a very safe space.

We are very blessed to have Mark as our juror for this particular show.

Thanks, Nancy.

So this piece was selected for best in show.

So I thought this piece did a really good job of telling a really interesting story about fear and anxiety.

Best in show is Ceara Swogger.

Congratulations.

[ crowd applauding ] I won best in show!

[ laughs ] Which I did not expect at all, so that was awesome.

I guess for me the idea is always to tell stories.

It's what we want to do as photographers.

We want to create an image that makes people think.

It turned out to be kind of 2020 encapsulated.

We're all stuck in this fear of a plague going around and protests and the fires, and it's this apocalyptic feeling that we all have, and I took that and I wanted to make art with it.

Some of the other outstanding images in the show included this highly crafted piece that seemed to reach right into our nightmares.

Or the way the natural world continues to amaze and inspire us, no matter what's happening in our own lives.

Or a subtle reminder that someday soon, the sun will rise over Oregon's biggest city and a wispy cloud will crown her highest peak.

Elizabeth Fennelly's tintypes were a bit smaller than the others, but they fit right in.

I really liked seeing how this experience has been for other people.

People really looked at it through their own lens, they way I did.

It was a lot about intimate moments in Oregon and how people felt like their own lives have changed.

I like that I see small personal statements about each individual's life through their work, which is what I tried to do too.

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Hey, my name is Gesina Kratzner.

I'm an artist, a sculptor.

I work a lot in animation here in Portland, Oregon.

And this is my report from the lockdown.

You know, my life has been surprisingly similar to the way it always is.

I get up in the morning, I go to my studio.

More often than not, I don't talk to anybody all day long.

Oh, I miss my friends, of course.

And I miss hugging -- hugging people.

So I came up with the idea... of making little hugging creatures.

So you can send hugs by mail to your friends and family and let them know you miss them and you love them.

The social isolation isn't so for hard for me, so, you know, honestly I'm surrounded by imaginary friends, so... [ chuckles ] I'll be just fine.

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Hi, my name is Nhan Danh.

I am the founder and director of White Lotus Dragon and Lion Dance association.

We're primarily a southern-style lion dance team.

We perform Hok San or Sar Ping, and these styles basically are movements that mimic life-like movements of, like, a cat.

And so it's very cute, it's very gentle, it's very attentive to details.

And so with lion dancing, it only requires two people.

You have a head player and you have a tail player.

The tail player is always hunched over or bent down so that it can create that body of a lion.

And then the head player mimics the eye blinking, the mouth, the ears, and just the expression of the lion.

The basic colors of lion dancing are just red, red and gold.

Red lions are just the most luck-giving lions, so any Asian clients or just any client in general that hires us, we will use our red lion as the go-to color unless they have a preference.

And then if they have no preference, they just want whatever we bring, then we just kind of mix it up and kind of bring them an array of color.

[ all shout ] I started White Lotus in Portland to give out the quality of lion dancing that it's very similar to Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia.

That same type of production, that same type of energy that every client, anybody that would have us for a show, would enjoy and would just, like, ''Wow.''

[ all cheering, applauding ] With running a lion dance team, the cultural significance of it is very important, especially for our Asian American clients, because they want two things.

They want us to bring them luck and scare away evil spirits.

Clients who are very superstitious, they will believe that if you mess up a lion dancing performance for their big day, it could reflect how their business turns out or how their wedding turns out.

You know, if you fall, does that mean there's going to be a bump in the bride and groom's relationship down the road?

Or if you break something during a grand opening, like, is that going to bring bad luck onto the business?

A leader of a lion dance team with the Asian community, all eyes are on the team and myself at all times, because are we doing things right, are we doing things properly?

Spread out.

All right, okay.

Let's, uh -- we're going to go around and correct everybody.

So we're going to go hard in force right now, okay?

So, ready?

One-two, one-two.

ALL: One-two, one-two!

Up!

ALL: Up, two, three, four!

COACH: Up two.

ALL: Up two, three, four!

NHAN: A typical practice day is very tough.

I drill them a lot on the form and foundation, as well as my coach.

He is very detail-oriented.

We don't like a sloppy lion dancer, the community doesn't like a sloppy line dancer.

So we really, really drill them on these form and foundations.

Get lower a little bit, bro.

You're standing too straight.

And make sure they hit all their movements and their stances right.

COACH: Cross.

ALL: Cross, two, three, four!

NHAN: Wrong way!

ALL: Cross, two, three, four!

NHAN: Okay, we'll do it one more time.

Make sure everybody stays in sync.

COACH: One-two, one-two.

ALL: One-two, one-two!

One-two, two, three, four.

NHAN: Okay, good.

Before every season, I always like to think of, like, a brand-new creative routine, something new that we can work on.

And so we think about these routines, I think about it, I brief it with the coach, and then we teach the members.

[ imitating drum beating ] Criss-cross.

[ imitating drum beats ] And then after that, it's like about four to five practices of just really drilling them hard in those routines.

[ drum beating ] Triangle!

Blink set.

Okay.

Okay.

Steady.

No, no.

This part.

Oh!

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right... [ imitating drum beating ] All right, good job.

First time, you know?

With all our members, you find a partner that you're comfortable with.

And between you two, they kind of decide, ''Maybe I'm a better head, maybe you're the better tail.''

Like, I have members on my team are just like really good buds, and they're a partner, then they understand each other mutually.

So it's like they always trust each other.

[ drum beating ] Perfect.

Perfect, yeah.

[ ?

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Jong performance is the pinnacle of lion dancing.

You're going to be performing on jongs, which are these high poles, and you tell a story because these poles represent a mountain.

So the lion is going through the mountain, and its goal is to either find food, fight off a monkey, or whatever.

There's always a goal that has to fit in with this story of them going through the mountain.

And you jump, you do tricks, you just really, really -- all your lion dance skills and what you've been practicing really pours into a jong performance.

The tallest pole on a jong is 10 feet, so imagine doing a head stack or just jumping from an 8-feet pole with a distance of 6 foot onto, like, a 10-foot pole.

That's a lot of trust, and the connection between the head player and the tail player has to be really in sync.

[ dancers chattering indistinctly ] [ ?

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The more known we got and popular we got with our performances within the Asian community, as it branched out, other key leaders in the community would reach out for us to perform at their event.

We performed at a 1-year-old's birthday, we performed at African American event, European events.

It's just -- lion dancing for us now has just kind of really been everywhere in Portland.

And that's what I wanted out of White Lotus, to not only perform for an Asian community but to be very diverse.

Covid definitely hit us, gave us like that nice curve ball that nobody expected.

One, two, three.

By not having so many shows and so many other components to worry about, it allowed me to come out with a new game plan for White Lotus: let's get the team involved in like a community service project.

Businesses like Fubonn supermarket is one of our biggest clients.

And so what could we do for their essential workers?

And so I had all the youth members write cards.

All the older members, we met up, masks on, gloves on, we ordered food from another supporter of ours, and we gave out food to the frontline workers as well as we supported our nursing home by also showing up and bringing them food and just these thank-you cards.

And this is like the least that we could do during the time to show that, hey, you know, you guys have looked out for us for many years.

Here's our chance to look after you guys this one time.

I would say the feedback has just been really good.

[ children chattering ] Okay.

Who's drumming?

Who wants to drum too?

Lion dancing, it's a part of my Asian culture, my Asian heritage.

And that's just like a piece that I try to hold with me for, like, future generations, which are like the kids on my team, my kids one day.

And just to be able to continue that legacy and this type of tradition on to more and more youth down the road.

We want to be the only lion dance team that anybody who ever thinks of lion dancing in Portland to go to.

[ drums beating ] It's that, ''White Lotus Dragon and Lion Dance is the production that we need for our event, because they do it the most authentically, in its most purest form, in its most festive and fun.''

Hoy!

NHAN: Perfect.

[ ?

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Artists, poets making work that speaks to injustice and speaks to racism is important.

Making work that can do that that can also serve as an outlet for comfort and healing also is really important.

So with my work, I'm trying to do both.

The George Floyd murder has impacted me pretty -- pretty greatly.

I mean, every time these -- these murders happen or these murders are highlighted, you look at a person, a man like George Floyd, and it's inevitable that you see yourself as a Black man in him, you see your brother, your dad.

You just see -- you see people that look like you, and it can just be really difficult.

And those thoughts come up periodically.

I have an escape with art that I can, in part, kind of turn it off, but there's a lot of us that aren't in the same privileged, in a way, situation, that have to face it down all the time, so when I put myself into their shoes, it's very difficult.

In 2016, that's when President Trump was elected and also a lot of unarmed Black men were being killed by cops, and again, similar to what's happening now, the spotlight was on it.

I used my work as a way to kind of work through personal feelings that I was having about it.

So I did a body of work that kind of highlighted Black faces.

My hopes were, along with highlighting what was going on, was also to show kind of a positivity for people of color.

Young people of color is what I thought about a lot, is if they were to see people that looked like them in galleries, a certain amount of positivity would spawn from that.

I like the idea of being able to highlight people that maybe didn't get the recognition that they deserved when they were around and bring them back into the forefront and the conversation.

The subject of this painting is Pauli Murray.

She was a Civil Rights activist, women's rights activist, poet, author, lawyer.

So, yeah, I chose her as a subject because -- because of the amount of things that she did and how unaware of her I was.

My hopes when I do these paintings, when I find out about people, is to educate myself first and foremost and then, hopefully, when the pieces are hung, people will gain the same kind of interest based off the paintings and want to learn more about the people that I paint.

[ protesters chanting on video ] I think the marches and protests that are happening right now are amazing.

Unfortunate circumstances that they have to happen, but seeing everybody together like this and some of the images that I've seen have just made me feel just really good.

Racism or injustice is almost like this boulder that people are trying to push up a hill, and it's really difficult.

It's very heavy and it's a lot of work, and when things like this happen -- George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, anything that kind of catches the national attention or spotlight -- a lot of people rush in to help with that boulder being pushed up the hill, and it gets a little bit easier and it feels really good to have all these people on your side, helping you push it up.

And...

I guess my hopes are that people stick around to try to get that boulder over the hill, because once they kind of filter away, the boulder just feels that much more heavy.

WOMAN: This theater is very, very special.

It was built in 1928, so it has survived everything you could imagine.

So if a business closes its doors, all those bills just keep rolling in.

Right, like you've got to make your mortgage, your insurance company, they still want their money.

[ ?

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So what we decided to do was drive-up popcorn sales.

Hello.

WOMAN: Hi.

Can I get four buckets?

For sure.

Butter on all four?

Yes, please.

LEAH: People stay in their cars, and we come out with a mask and gloves and a dish for them to put their money in and bring them their bucket of popcorn, and then off to home to watch a movie they go.

We sell between 250 and 400 buckets of popcorn in one shot, so it's a lot of popcorn.

[ chuckles ] That first day that we did it, people waited for over an hour in their cars.

The support and the love that they show this theater, that they want it to be here, it's overwhelming.

I love these old theaters, so to have other people in town say, ''We want that too,'' it's a big deal.

MAN: I've lived here since like third grade.

And it's just one of those things where I've always come here as a kid, so, you know, I just want to be able to keep it open.

It's not about the popcorn.

It's about the community.

Anything we can do to help our local neighbors, you know, to help keep them on their feet, we're gonna do it.

All right, guys.

We got popcorn.

It's partly because this theater's not just mine, right?

It's theirs too, so they're going, ''Thank you for playing your part in this theater's timeline to keep it there.''

I don't think I would've ever experienced it had it not been for this situation, so I'm going to carry that good when this is all over and not just all the other stuff, you know, like that I miss hugging my parents.

I'm going to also carry that the town shows up and says, ''You're important and we want you to still be here.''

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Thanks for joining us.

We'll see you next time.

[ ?

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Here you go.

Support for Oregon Art Beat is provided by... and the contributing members of OPB and viewers like you.