studio♡share
was an eight-month relationship-driven gallery inside the MFA studio of LILLYANNE PHAM (LP) at portland state university with assistance from FRANK GAUNT, LP’s oldest friendship. each month featured works from different creatives with a deep history of radically shifting LP’s relationship to local arts and culture. studio♡share showcased four artists, one artist team, and two art collectives. their works, along with their friends’ works, were compiled for a final display at the psu art building (ab) gallery from may 17 to june 11, as part of psu’s long story short: mfa/bfa graduation showcase (2024) in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.
studio♡share, april 2024
NOTE FROM LP ON HOW THIS STARTED:
i’m an artist and cultural organizer based in so-called east portland (b. 1997). my family are boat people who fled vietnam in 1989 and lived in a thai refugee camp, where my parents met until being sponsored by a family in so-called indiana. i proudly grew up under a single mother household in a trailerpark near cornfields and suburbs. here, i became politically and socially aware of my identities and body in contrast to the mmerica! culture. as a survivor of intimate and systemic violences, art and technology were my tools to survive and claim my own life. and they have since expanded into a way of living, researching, and community building. in 2016, i left home to obtain a b.a. in sociology at reed college, where queer staff, students, and faculty of color radicalized my consciousness. FRANK GAUNT was my first friend in my new life. he taught me the beauty of growing with and leaning on someone. i was nineteen when i met RUBY JOY WHITE and MIKE FIRM. RUBY taught me how to feel my emotions and create socially responsive art. MIKE FIRM was one of the first people to hire me as an artist. he taught me to believe in my art and create for myself. after reed college, i have been on-the-ground and online, connecting my creative research to my relational work and vice versa. the online became super important during the covid-19 shutdown in 2020. i met a life-changing force, my art-ner PAOLA DE LA CRUZ, on facebook during this time. her partner, JONATHAN DENERSON, was starting SAMEWAVE RADIO during this same time. my first project with PAOLA was a yearlong mural process from august 2021 to august 2022. i was also
studying herbalism in the atabey medicine program, where i met FLYNNE OLIVAREZ. she made me laugh so hard and become so soft. at the closing ceremony of the mural, FLYNNE brought her best friend ADAM LUCERO. we immediately followed each other on instagram, where ADAM reached out in february 2023 to produce an interactive sound installation for their near and dear UwU COLLECTIVE. the project led me to meet CAY HORIUCHI, RYAN BUNAO, and NIKKI NICOLE. more projects led me to form a deeper friendship with CAY, who has shown me how to live a life aligned with my values. collaborating with RYAN on an acenstral altar reminded me of the joy and ease in cocreating. during the project, i also met SAVANH KOULAVONG, who taught me how to be disciplined in my care practice in my personal and public life. while i am a full-time artist, i am also a full-time youth worker. i met INKMOTHS, INKMIND and AVENTURINE ATALANTA last may as a youth worker. i would show up to their community space (p:ear) every week and witness them constantly chipping at an artwork. i have seen their deep compassion and strong art direction, and they have taught me how to question and look closer in my art practice. all of these relationships tell the story of how studio♡share started (at least the important parts), and how it will continue beyond my time at psu. in this book, you will learn more from more special people in my art practice — ridhi d’cruz, jackie santa lucia, dr. amara h. pérez, karena salmond, and aram han sifuentes, who shared conversations with me during the first two out of three years of my mfa research — and about the studio♡share creatives and their friends, giving a glimpse of how they all indirectly and directly transformed my small mfa studio space.
VINCENT, “INKMOTHS, INKMIND”, or CROW, deriving inspiration from the light fractures beaming from each facet of cognitive scar tissue. In my childhood, i had started drawing as an act of rebellion; i would “create” characters that would reflect a confusing, traumatic world in a much more cartoony and charismatic way, later lumping in abstract in the mix. over the last year i have experienced the ups and downs of homelessness, and have discovered a predatory and corrupt system that keeps disabled folks like me at the bottom. what can I do? Draw very angrily, and lovingly, of course
“the thing that i want is to just give people an interesting fun little experience. and hopefully inspire others to start doing whatever the fuck they want without thinking.”
photo of INKMOTHS, INKMIND using LP’s critque time with psu staff, students, and p:ear , october 2023
suspended in time.
SAVANH KOULAVONG started dreaming about the idea of transformation, along with the uncomfortable feelings that may occur before any change can actually happen. waiting periods, time passing, feeling stuck. once you wade through any obstacles, you emerge resilient.
after being on a printmaking haitus, savanh began making small relief prints on my kitchen table. “suspended in time” is a work-in-progress print series that repetitive line patterns and motifs of butterflies and leafy plant embellishments.
“why butterflies? when i graduated art school, i was kind of traumatized about making art focused on meaning and concepts so i made the first thing that came to mind, butterflies. then they turned into the theme of being in transition in my life.”
photo of folks adding to the butterfly on the chalkboard, november 2023
what i’m always trying to do is center immigrants, center people of color, center who i am and my needs and my communities’ needs. maybe it isn’t the first thought that i have, to fight whiteness. i think the first impulse i have is to center my communities. just centering ourselves, it ends up being a statement against whiteness. because that just tells us what kind of society we live in. in a lot of ways, it’s just about centering ourselves, telling our stories, and creating opportunities for us to connect with each other through art.
A LOVE LETTER TO BLACK AND BROWN SEEDLINGS (2021) aram han sifuentes
“Younghye Han: “My Mother’s First Exhibition,” 2016. photo by aram han sifuentes.
AVENTURINE ATALANTA: i’m many things but most relevant to this gallery, i’m a young trans woman whose survived severe abuse and a year and a half on the streets of Portland. i’m also a mountaineer, a poet, a musician, a witch, a homeless and harm reduction activist, and a piece of shrapnel from the big bang. there’s a lot of dark subject matter in this gallery, but there’s also my light. this gallery is a healing space.
“my art practice is very loose, very free. i paint fast. i don’t plan much. i like to just throw shapes down and stare at them like they’re clouds until a story starts to form. and then, as i continue painting, i do what i can to preserve that story while adding detail, texture, and movement.”
photo of AVEN making pour-over coffee, january 2024
MIKE FIRM’s the ink of a scholar is a collection of reflections, memories, and dreams. poetry, spoken word, and rapping have been pivotal tools for expressing myself, and i’m always excited and deeply honored when i can share it with my loved ones, my communities, and those looking for shared understanding amidst all of the chaos. in essence, the written and spoken word as tools for liberation, connection, and intro/retrospection. MIKE FIRM is a Portland-based hip-hop artist with a focus on storytelling, instrumental experimentation, and community building.
“i feel like my music, the types of things i talk about, and the things that have happened to me personally, i think people can really, not only resonate with it, but also see that it’s not all shitty things.”
photo of MIKE FIRM’s live performance, february 2024
HAFSA ADEN's artistic journey is a colorful adventure, guided by her insatiable curiosity and love for experimentation. with a passion for pushing boundaries and exploring unconventional mediums, she finds joy in the unexpected and beauty in the unexplored.
for HAFSA, art is more than just a form of expression; it's a powerful tool for transformation and empowerment. she believes in providing young people with avenues to express themselves, experiment, and create, fostering confidence and strength as they find their place in the world. drawing from her experiences, HAFSA has witnessed firsthand the impact of art in youth empowerment.
one of HAFSA's most cherished avenues for empowerment is through picture books. as an advocate for meaningful and racially diverse representation in children's literature, her work delves into the necessity for more books showcasing Black and brown people living diverse experiences. she champions stories where curiosity is encouraged, and imagination is ignited, aiming to foster a love for art and storytelling in today's youth.
fallen flowers, foraged and assembled by karena and her daughter, 2022
i think so many organizations and companies talk so much about the need to diversify, and I think without necessarily talking about the “why.” and I think it’s that “why” that starts to make it click.
ISO: MENTORS OF COLOR (2022)
karena salmond
when you were talking about the shift of expectations of building this collaboration together, i think that’s something that i love, is how we’ve collaborated together. we thought it was going to be this way, but it is definitely going another way. and it’s gonna go another way, and another. we’re gonna take a break, and we’ll come back later. if we don’t collaborate as a team again now, the timing will reveal itself.
TOBACCO, TIME, AND TAROT: CONNECTIONS TO YOUTH PARTNERSHIP
jackie santa lucia
workshop with jackie and las chicas at adelante mujeres, visioning their new community space, january 2020.
a love poem and illustration of a tobacco plant by ridhi in march 2018 to mark the anniversary of them stopping smoking tobacco after 30 years of use.
people are sacred and our lives are sacred. the time that we spend together is sacred.
TOBACCO,
TIME, AND TAROT: CONNECTIONS TO YOUTH PARTNERSHIP (2022)
ridhi d’cruz
UwU a portland-based artist collective organizing events to uplift, celebrate, and empower our qtbipoc and t/gnc community. through collaboration, we build a thoughtful community space, and imagine a world in which we can thrive and celebrate one another through various forms of expression with an emphasis on participation, djing, dancing, video, and installation art. UwU honors and contributes to the legacy of our queer bipoc ancestors. we are here today to imagine our version of the future.
“ It was started by us friends who share intersectional identities and are prone to harassment and violence in our everyday lives. Because of who we are. We will always find each other in a corner of the dance floor sharing our experiences, struggles, frustrations, wishes, hopes and visions for what we wanted, that we didn’t have yet. Our wishes and dreams for more awareness, a safer dance floor, more attention to visual art, a longing for communal experience, a longing for a space for people like us.”
CAY HORIUCHI
2024
FLYNNE, she/her, of MARIQUITA MEDICINALS, is a farmer, folk herbalist, flower arranger, seed saver, bird spotter, posole guzzler, sun worshipper, moon gazer, altar builder, bath lover, casual baker, aspiring abolitionist and seeker of moments and stories grounded in ritual and connection to her mexican, apache and sicilian roots.
this queer babe is going on 19 years in portland and is grateful for the waves of community work and play that keep her connected and rooted in this ever-changing city.
FLYNNE fiercely believes that all of us can and should have access to natural and ancestral ways of healing that allow us to lessen our grip on capitalism when it comes to taking care of ourselves and each other.
whether it’s herbal tonics, loose-leaf teas, or herb and flower bouquets, Flynne infuses extreme care and intention into all her offerings.
FLYNNE’s dry flower workshop for studio♡share x UwU, march 2024
NIKKI NICOLE (she/her) is an ikebana artist who creates sculptural arrangements using living, dried, and unconventional materials with an emphasis on novel combinations exploring mass, line, color, tension, and space.
elevating natural forms with her mind, heart, and hands, NIKKI NICOLE’s work explores the possibility of possibility. each piece is a conversation with color created under the spell of a floral reverie.
finding solace in stillness, NIKKI NICOLE creates ikebana that is a meditation on the Art of Space. transforming and transposing materials, her work illuminates the beauty of life forms by creating what isn’t seen in the natural world. following the “rules” of nature too closely is not important. this is how the artist becomes the flower.
NIKKI’s ikebana workshop for studio♡share x UwU, april 2024
friendship braclet making
♡share x UwU, march 2024
cultural worker, sociologist, and artist RUBY JOY WHITE (she\ they\p) (b.1988, denver, co) has a background in journalism and moderating, is a writer of creative essays, art reviews, fiction stories, and think pieces, and is a multimedia visual artist in a variety of expressions. RUBY is a facilitator of conversations that focus on the intersections of social locations, social ideology, and creative expression, and their myriad of work has been featured in Artslandia, Variable West, Tips on Failing, Nationale, Portland Center Stage at The Armory, Reed College, as well as in partnership with such organizations as Advance Gender Equity in the Arts and the YWCA of Greater Portland, among others.
RUBY’s sociological practice lies in the realms of family systems/violence, domestic violence and sexual assault, dynamics of poverty, and social equity. currently, RUBY serves as the Director of Culture and Community at Portland’5 Centers for the Arts, where they steward a body of work that’s seeped in collectivism within artistic expression, access, and decision-making.
within her many roles as a practicing artist, cultural curator, and self-prescribed nerd, RUBY’s creative execution aims to curate vibrant experiences that aim to transport those engaged into realms that storm up probing conversations on identity, relationships, social systems, and healing.
RUBY sits on the Contemporary Art Council Board at the Portland Art Museum and the Hey Doc Clinic Advisory Council.
“the concepts of bountiful joy and unmitigated, un-interrupted happiness are often framed in ways that suggest they are something that are to be earned—especially for those of us holding marginalized identities—and experienced for nearly all of us who are suppressed under the clouds of capitalism. this garden, framed around the concept of Habromania: a somewhat delusional state of happiness, is meant to invoke a sense of joy, light, and freedom that allows us to celebrate our ingenuity and humanness without the typical experience of violence and oppressive disruption.”
JOY WHITE
RUBY
2024
the power duo RUBY JOY WHITE and AMI GOSWAMI (2024)
founded in 2020 amidst the global pandemic, SAVEWAVE RADIO is a non-profit, independent radio station based in portland, oregon. created with the vision to provide a platform free from traditional barriers, SAVEWAVE RADIO offers unique broadcasting opportunities to diverse djs and personalities across portland, los angeles, new york, and beyond. at its core, SAVEWAVE RADIO is committed to promoting inclusivity and diversity in the media landscape. with a vibrant lineup of hosts, the station features a wide array of programs, encompassing niche music genres, community news, and cultural discussions that reflect and celebrate the diverse voices of its community.
SAVEWAVE RADIO operates with the support of a passionate volunteer team, led by JONATHAN DENERSON, a portland native and the visionary behind this impactful project. the station thrives on creativity and community collaboration, providing high-quality, eclectic content that challenges, inspires, and entertains its listeners.
as a community-centered station, SAVEWAVE RADIO is deeply involved in local activities, regularly participating in and hosting events that engage and uplift the local population. the station’s population. the station’s commitment extends beyond entertainment, aiming to educate and inform through dynamic programming and inclusive dialogue.
looking forward, SAVEWAVE RADIO continues to expand its reach and deepen its impact, striving to be a leading voice in community broadcasting by embracing technology, enhancing listener experiences, and nurturing a space where underrepresented artists can thrive.
SAMEWAVE RADIO (2023)
SAMEWAVE RADIO (2023)
i have to tell you that i thought many times, what if we discover nothing? what if there’s no answer to this question that we have, which is, what’s the relationship between race and space? what I appreciate most is that there was nothing we were trying to replicate. it freed us up to do some fabulous work, and to really see it as an exploration of questions. and we had support from the college to do that. we also felt like anything we learned would at least be more than what we knew when we started. we learned to trust the process.
THE CLASSROOM IS EVERYWHERE (2023)
dr. amara h. pérez
dr. pérez at The Revolution Will Not Be Funded Community Panel, 2008, In Other Words Feminist Bookstore, ne killingsworth.portland, oregon.
visit the studio♡share link library to connect with the artists, the conversations, and more tinyurl.com/studioshare-library
the gallery started in september with INKMOTHS, INKMIND, who displayed their sculptures, paintings, and digital illustrations. their opening involved a live painting and spells. for november, SAVANH KOULAVONG created a print series of butterflies and flowers, along with ceramic pots and felt butterfly sculptures. she then facilitated the group chalking of a butterfly, and a printmaking activity. studio♡share then took a deep winter rest in december. for january, AVENTURINE ATALANTA spraypainted the walls and floor to frame her paintings. for her opening, she taught attendees how to make pour-over coffee with a thermometer, scale, grinder, and a chemex dupe. MIKE FIRM took the stage in february, with over 10 years of lyrics displayed on the walls. he also performed live and introduced an artist important to his life, HAFSA ADEN. in march and some of april, CAY HORIUCHI and ADAM LUCERO of UwU COLLECTIVE hosted three events involving poems by LAURA BREAD KITTEN and PARIS JESSIE, open decks, friendship bracelet making, dried flowers with FLYNNE OLIVAREZ of MARIQUITA MEDICINALS, and ikebana with NIKKI NICOLE. JEN TAM and RYAN BUNAO of UwU COLLECTIVE left us with a risographed manifesto. the may show, which you can experience inside studio♡share, is a garden cultivated by RUBY JOY WHITE with AMI GOSWAMI. studio♡share’s grand closing ceremony in the ab gallery will start with SAMEWAVE RADIO with a 24 hour dj set featuring 24 djs, starting [friday, may 17th at 6:00pm]. following them, MIKE FIRM will perform live on [saturday, may 18th at 6:30pm]. then, studio♡share will conclude with an artist talk between CHRISTINE MILLER and RUBY JOY WHITE on [monday, may 20th at 6:00pm].
