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| Art provides link to multi-ethnic culture DARLENE VINSON The Mid-county Memo For 20 years the Portland Art Dealers Association galleries have hosted monthly exhibits and opening receptions on the First Thursday of each month. City Hall participates by inviting a different community organization to display the work of its artists.
Entitled “The International Language of Art at City Hall” the exhibit featured art and food from refugees and immigrant community members and was meant to showcase the multi-ethnic culture that abounds in our city. The featured artists represented Korea, Vietnam, Ukraine and Nigeria. Elizabeth Kim, a Korean who moved to Portland from Vancouver, British Columbia seven years ago showed colorful paper collages. Minh Quang Phan creates traditional paintings on silk. Once a professor of fine arts with a studio in Saigon, she now works in the cafeteria at the Veterans Administration hospital. “Painting is recreation for me now,” she said. “I paint when I have the time and inspiration.” Taras Yakymchuk is a 15-year-old freshman at David Douglas High School. Yakymchuk displayed a number of paintings. He and his family arrived in Portland from Ukraine seven months ago. His parents Nataliya and Pavlo Yakymchuk explained through an interpreter that they believe it is important to guide a child’s path from his very first steps and that they had encouraged Taras to paint as a small child but that he continued on his own. At age 12 he created his first oil painting, a seascape done while the family was visiting Odessa. Much of Taras’ art was given to friends and family before leaving Ukraine, but his parents said one person liked the work so much he purchased the balance of the collection. A birthday party brought Mufu Ahmed of Nigeria to Portland. His heart keeps him here. After exchanging letters with a local resident he paid a visit to honor her on her fortieth birthday. He says it was not in his program to stay here, but he fell in love. After settling his affairs in Nigeria he moved to Portland about four years ago. Ahmed is an accomplished artist who has sold his sculptures throughout Europe. He says sculpture does not seem to be as popular here, but he was commissioned to create a blue heron, a chameleon and a monkey for New Columbia housing in North Portland. The work of these artist stems from the Refugee Elder Traditional Arts project at IRCO that was inspired by one refugee elder’s wish for “something to make life happy.” That “something” was a project that would allow him and his peers to pass art traditions to youth, have the artists’ memories and talents be documented and preserved for future generations and have youth actively engaged in the documentation and preservation process. Phyllis Laners, art coordinator at IRCO, said IRCO allows clients to “connect to services so they can continue their art.” With inclusion in First Thursday, these artists are connected to the present while they share culture and heritage from the past. |
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