Artist Statement
As part of her BFA in photography and design, Erica J Mitchell created a photography project focusing on the identity and creative spaces of Poets currently (or recently) creating work in Portland, Oregon. This project was influence by the personal project, The Patriarch.
Mitchell says of her work:
“Curiosity has always driven me to explore new subjects. For a new portrait project I wanted to focus on a particular subculture, and was drawn to the world of poets living in Portland, Oregon. Using my photographic study I was interested to discover the inner workings of this different creative culture, and see how these poets’ processes compare to my own. Through this project I’ve learned a lot about this different medium of art, and learned that across genres all artists share many more methodologies and processes than I’d previously assumed.
As an artist, I’ve found that I like to surround myself with objects or create diorama-like spaces for inspiration. I approached this project wanting to learn more about the spaces each writer was drawn to when creating, and capture how these spaces reflect each poet’s interests and motivations, thus informing their work.”
A small preview of images from the project are shown below.
Poets (not all shown):
Shayla Lawson, Liz Mehl, Coleman Stevenson, Brandi Katherine Herrera, Jeff Alessandrelli, Carl Adamshick, Zachary Schomburg, Dao Strom, Megan Elizabeth Saint-Marie, Veronica Martin, A.M. O’Malley, Stephanie Adams-Santos, Grant Gerald Miller, Drew Swenhaugen, Hajara Quinn, Amanda Cochran Helstrom-White, Christopher Corbell, Mari Shepard-Glenn, Paulann Peterson, Diana Corson, and Greg Gerding.
