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Sandra Marianne Preston is an artist living in Portland, Oregon, whose mixed-media sculptures, paintings, and performance works address how cultural narratives inform aesthetic practice. Her colorful and often painfully funny works cross a diverse range of expression—from abstract painted algorithmic patterns to writing to fictional ‘Holocaust Educational Kits.’ Sandra has exhibited both locally and nationally, and her work is held in international private collections. She received her M.F.A. from Maine College of Art and is a member of The Bunny Sandwich Collective. Her paintings at Moxie this month are the beginning process of a larger project with the collective.

An artist and mother living and working in Portland, Oregon, every Anna Joyce piece is handmade, one of a kind and unique.

One of our favorite local artists is back at Moxie!

I paint, most often, metaphors, memories, and small pieces of stories. Lately, when I paint, I am working to invoke a sentiment, an atmosphere or a way to wholly honor the beauty and mystery in the worldaround me that I find so profoundly inspiring. I find myself being swept up very quickly into a dimension of my imagination that has not been so exercised since I was a small child. I am also very motivated by the desire to experiment with color tension, compositional tension, an unfamiliar (to me) simplified sense of design, and intuitive relationships between, seemingly unrelated subjects. Anything could fall into my subject matter but most recently I have been intrigued by animals, sailing ships and words. In addition to painting I also write. Over the years my writing has left the page and reached out to the canvas. I write on my paintings,under my paintings and on the backs of them too. As I work, stories, memories, and songs move through my mind. I hope that my work is weighted with mystery or lovliness.

Painting for me brings back good memories. My painting reflects different times of my life and the memories associated with them. Growing up in the northwest I found myself spending time outside in nature . The thought of those times defines my life and I find myself comforted when I reflect on them. I’m also very interested in lines and color. The manipulation of the two can make a painting interesting or just average. I enjoy putting different colors and shapes together. These two pieces of memories and technique come together to form my paintings. I have shown in galleries in Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and New York

I am a local artist here in Portland. Arcane Arts is the name of my shop. My illustrations mainly consist of work in cut paper, water colors, markers, inks or acrylics. I am inspired by all things in life, music, people, nature and most of all, humor. This series of bikes and birds are inspired by the innocence of nature and pure joy of riding bike riding. www.Arcane-Arts.com

Brenda Dunn is an artist/illustrator currently living and working in Portland, Oregon. Brenda's specialty is her vintage inspired pinups that capture the sultry, glamour of the forties and fifties. Her pinups have been shown throughout the Northwest and in numerous publications. In addition to the pinups, she also specializes in fashion illustration. Brenda has worked with several designers and boutiques in Portland. She has also had her work featured in Portland and New York Fashion Weeks. Come see her prints on wood from pencil and ink illustrations during the month of December. Art always makes a great holiday gift!

artist statement: Under the moniker, The Reclamation Project, I make art and craft out of reclaimed and found materials. As I've progressed with my craft, I've began using the contrivances of Japanese and Chinese art -- the spontaneity of Zen ink washes, the textures of Japanese woodblock prints, the inherent beauty in decay and weathering, how the essence of nature is captured in Chinese painting -- as a lens to examine the inevitable processes of decay and rebirth, forgetting and discovery. For this collection of woodcarvings -- Birds + Trees + Flowers -- I used old cedar fencing, cabinet wood and construction cast offs to build "canvases." I then carved simple compositions of natural, somewhat abstracted scenes with a router and finished by filling the images with stain or paint

Oil Paintings featured at Moxie this month: When I first began this series, I was inspired by simple lanterns against colorful walls. The changing shapes now resemble a number of different things. I enjoyed abstracting the shapes and experimenting with different colors and texture on wood panels.

artist statement: I am intrigued by the concept of song as an inherent natural spirit. Music fills our soul, it is a universal language that connects us to the world around. Our human attempt to put our feelings into words as a written song draws me, as it appears in the form of black notes across a page. I extract phrases of lyrics to utilize as the background or internal message of the birds I paint. I paint forms showing an exterior of what exists in the nature, and then, the essence of a message captured in a moment of time, like the very inspired feeling of songs. When I paint instruments, I focus on a section, the particular line and form in the shape, the contrasts I see, how the instrument appears to sing even without being touched. My oil paintings are worked over a layered texture medium on wood, with cut out sections of sheet music. Each one is an inspired original with a captured message.

Artist Statement: I specialize in logo design and cut-paper illustration. I'm mostly inspired by the plants in my back yard and the food in my kitchen. Once in a while I like to take a break from the intricate cut-paper technique and shoot photos of vegetables.

Moxie welcomes back Nik Arnold and her amazing woodcarvings and new wood burning techniques all with a nautical theme.

Artist Statement These paintings are meant as an abstract representation of skyscapes - mainly the altocumulus and fair weather cloud formations. Combining beeswax and organic pigment, depth and harmony are created. The underlying amber pigment of the wax gives a natural warmth to bold graphic illustration and rich tones. Size is utilized to capture attention. Then the eyes settle to gaze comfortably into the presence of color, shape, and form. Just as a nature transforms atmospheric turbulence into visual calm beauty these paintings are born out of the same process - emotional "storms" physically rendered into creative resolution.

Hadley Hutton, a native Portlander, works as a freelance illustrator, artist, and children’s book author / illustrator. She is a graduate (with honors) from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her work is a blend of traditional illustration, painting and collage. Hadley draws inspiration from Asian patterns and motifs as well as Victorian die cuts. Her work explores nature’s beauty, our influence on our surroundings, and our environment's influence on us. The works are layered with colored penci and watercolor pencil drawingsl, ink, archival digital media, pastels and encaustics. Philosophy: Less is more. {Art supplies are the exception to this rule.}

In this new series, I have been mostly concerned with the idea of balance between industry and nature. As humans living in this now industrialized world, we must be cautious of our choices as well as the consequences of our actions. I do not blame us as people for wanting to grow and develop and to gain more knowledge, understanding, and even control of our environment. However, as intelligent beings, we have created such amazing structures as steel bridges spanning mile-wide rivers, glass skyscrapers that grow 80 stories high, and divided highways, interstates, power lines, and telephone poles that extend for thousands upon thousands of miles all to make our lives easier. Surely we can devise ways of respecting the earth that houses these magnificent structures. It’s a difficult but extremely important task. These pieces were made to discuss that need for balance between nature and industry as well as to create awareness of our daily surroundings and choices.

The red cross, hearts, stripes, shoes, and letterforms are collaged into tight, slick pop art on wood and ceramic surfaces sealed in epoxy resin. These sturdy and fashion-conscious collages are produced by hand in single editions. Personal photographs are edited and combined with fashion magazine cut-outs to create graphically charged collages that blur the lines between fine art and design.

self taught modernist painter

Jewelry and Art Trunk Show with special designer from Los Angeles, Zachary Pryor