SOUTH WATERFRONT
PORTLAND OREGON

This is the first of a series of interviews of the artists, designers, architects, and musicians that live in the South Waterfront neighborhood. The interviews are conducted by Zara Logue – a Portland-based designer, John Ross resident, and member of the Art, Culture, and Science committee.

The first interview is with Jerry Inscoe, an artist, designer and competitive cyclist who lives in The John Ross.

(Zara Logue) Give me a brief history of your background – birthplace, upbringing, when you started making work, what you do for a living.

(Jerry Inscoe) I was born in Washington DC where I was raised till I was in my early twenties. As a kid I lived with my Mom and my Auntiemame (Grandmother) on Wisconsin Ave just across the street from the National Cathedral. My Auntiemame (named so because she was kind of eclectic like the character Roslyn Russell played in the movie Auntiemame) was very much into art and the social lifestyle of a city woman. She collected modern art and modern furniture and encouraged me to be artistic at a young age. Honestly, I don’t even recall having that many toys to play with as much as I did have colored pencils and sketchbooks. So I always drew as a kid to pass time. As time moved on my Mother and I moved around a lot, always in the DC / Virginia area but I always ended up in a different school district. Making new friends became a bit of a chore so as usual I kept my nose in my sketchbooks. Those early years were spent drawing Ace Frehley and Gene Simmons as much as possible. When Battlestar Galactica aired everything switched over to drawing vipers and cylons. And it went on like that for years. Just drawing what I saw.

I don’t think I really concentrated on making “work” till high school art classes. Most of what I did was modern or abstract…probably inspired by what I saw in my Auntimame’s house as a kid. In 1985 I started doing graffiti so I could have something to do since my Mom worked two jobs. With no parent at home during the night…I had full reign of the streets. In the early ’90s I moved to San Francisco and met up with some old school graffiti writers out there. A few of them were in to doing this really abstract and organic style of graffiti, and I found myself really attracted to the idea. I’ve been in that genre of the subculture ever since. In 2001 I had my first solo gallery show at The Compound which is located above Just Be Toys in Old Town Portland. I had made a few canvas pieces for group shows in previous years but I had never had to create a whole bunch of work for a solo show. The show was a huge success for me. I sold everything on the walls and was even commissioned by Mark Parker (of Nike) to create some artwork for his office. The success of that show led to many other shows and helped me realize just how lucky I really am as an artist.

I currently work full time for a major Northwest retailer as a Visual Merchandiser, which includes a lot more than just fussing with mannequins all day long. There’s not a whole lot of artistic ability needed to do my job but when I first started doing it sixteen years ago it was all different. The ‘display crew’ (as it was called back then) designed, built and installed all the window displays. Over time that creative outlet was taken away and now we’re basically a carbon copy of companies like Gap, Inc.

To compensate for the change I’ve tried to take up graphic design a little bit. I’ve learned that it’s a profession that isn’t as easy as it looks and totally takes a visually creative person of a different sort. I’m more of the kind of artist who is good at doing his own thing and not trying to think up something clever for someone else. I’m not sure what kind of artist that makes me. I’ve been lucky enough to do some stuff for companies like Burton, Nike and Nordstrom as well as a bunch of little things for friends and others. I enjoy working on the computer and teaching myself the programs but I don’t have the time to really buckle down and make a living from it.

(ZL) Do you consider yourself an artist or a designer? How do you connect to or deny those categories in your work? Do you think those kinds of categorizations even matter?

(JI) I would consider myself an artist before I would consider myself a designer. However, I draw a lot of inspiration from graphic design, web design, industrial design and architecture. I’ve found that I really connect with clean and simple images, very color-blocked images. There’s just something about design that I find very inspiring.

Categorizing art is a way for people who aren’t artists to put artists in their place. I think an artist is an artist, no matter what genre they fall in to. I’ve recently become really interested in typeface design…mostly cursive script. A new font called Burgues was just released and it’s amazingly beautiful. The time and energy that must have went into the design of that font has to be immense. I designed a font myself of just my regular handwriting and the work that went into it took a while…and it’s as simple as it gets. I can’t imagine doing something complicated.

(ZL) Graffiti seems to be where you got your start in terms of making your work public. Do you still consider yourself a graffiti writer? What role do you think graffiti plays in culture now that it’s been mainstreamed?

(JI) I still identify as a graffiti writer but I no longer partake in the actions that would label me as one. When you spend 22 years of your life connected to a subculture – even when you leave that subculture behind – you’re still going to be involved somehow. For me, it’s to be aware of my environment around me. The writing on the wall, the stencils and wheat pastes. And within the last ten years the mainstream has latched itself on to graffiti writing as a way to connect with folks. Even when an ad has a subtle hint of graffiti, it stands out to me. I haven’t yet decided if it’s a good thing or a bad thing for the subculture of street artists but I do know it’s opened doors for (graffiti) writers to become graphic designers and web designers. This has helped lead the way to amazing publications of books and magazines related to street art and of street art/graffiti. These books aren’t just images on a page bound together, the books themselves are pieces of art.

(ZL) How did you end up in the South Waterfront?

(JI) I’ve always lived in a city environment since I was a kid. I’ve learned to be very comfortable that way. My wife Rachel and I saved up to buy our first home by moving out the suburbs to save on rent. When we had enough for a down payment on a home we realized we couldn’t afford a modern home like we wanted or something close in to the downtown Portland area so we bought where we could. We got lucky and bought in an upcoming area and the value of our home rose over a five year period. When we saw what was happening in the South Waterfront we really liked the idea of a modern development that we could be a part of from the ground up. The more information we got on the buildings planned for the area the more we wanted to be a part of it. We looked into the Meriwether buildings but all in our price range were sold out. So we put our name in for any info on new buildings being developed. We got some mail about the John Ross building and the opening day sales and we were one of the first in line to buy. It’s great to see the area grow slowly and to be a part of that.

(ZL) What’s the best/worst thing about living here? Has the neighborhood influenced your work in any way?

(JI) For me the best thing about living here is its location. I feel like I live downtown without the hassles of living downtown – the traffic and the noise. I have easy access to most points in the city by hopping on the streetcar and if I feel like a jog on Council Crest I can take the tram uphill! There are some things that bother me but they’re mostly personal. There’s not much the community can do about them – the community has no control over the kinds of vehicles people drive or the laziness behind some folks’ recycling habits. I just hope that living in a green community will start to rub off on people and the efforts of a few will pay off.

I haven’t created any work since moving here but I have played around on the computer with design using elements from the neighborhood. Nothing I’ve saved or anything…just playing with the tools that come with the software.

(ZL) How can people find out more about your work? Are you represented by a gallery, have any upcoming shows, a website?

(JI) Currently I have no representation or website. About a year ago I decided to take a break from creating work due to a stagnant rut I was in. I hope to get back to creating pieces again soon as art is one of my biggest passions. I constantly doodle and sketch ideas so thankfully I have a stash of ideas tucked away so when it comes time to work…I’ll have a good head start.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 20th, 2008 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Art & Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

No Comments »

Comment On This Entry

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website