Ringing in 2025
As the new year begins to unfold, Portland in Color would like to take a moment to set intentions for 2025. Our mission is to always create and nurture space for all of us to explore our highest creative selves and this year is no exception.
Moving through this year, know that we’re here to support calling in your artistic evolution and growth. This year, we’re aiming to be an even stronger resource for supporting and amplifying our creative community.
Here’s a few things we’re looking forward to offering to help strengthen our collective creativity:
Generate a consistent creativity ritual: the best way to master your craft is consistency and that looks different for everyone just make sure you’re coming back to whatever your creative practice is. We will share prompts via Instagram for you all to share with each other.
Be in Community with each other (face to face): whether it’s a covid-safe coffee date or a Zoom writing workshop we hope to continue hosting and help facilitate small meetup spaces for casual creation and feedback from the communities that inspire our work. (Contact us if you would like to host an open mic or sip and poetry/paint/collage etc.)
Shamelessly Plug Yourself: if you don’t hype yourself up, who else will? We are here to help you be seen. Have a new project you’d love to promote? DM or email us! Know a local BIPOC creative whose work you love? Allow us to introduce them via email or IG.
As creatives, we have the power to embrace self-awareness and make art through our unique lens and identity.
Creative Refresh Reflections
Looking back on our inaugural retreat with Tieara Myers
In December 2024, Portland in Color was thrilled to host our inaugural Creative Refresh, a retreat for BIPOC artists. The event was held at the Society Hotel in the heart of the beautiful Columbia Gorge on lands home to tribal communities past and present including the Cascades, Wasco, Wishram, Klikatat, Wayám, and Yakama, now known as Bingen, Washington. An intimate cohort of 10 artists were selected to spend time resting, imagining, sharing, and creating alongside community.
We’re thrilled to share bits from a Q&A with one of our beloved artists who was in attendance, Tieara Myers. Check out our site for the full interview here.
Portland in Color: Please introduce yourself to your community. Who are you and what’s your artist journey been like?
Tieara Myers: I’ve always been creative with a strong desire to produce art in the world. I started writing poetry when I was 10 years old and moved into writing fiction as I grew older. It was a means to express and distract myself during times of significant transitions in different living situations. It enabled me to focus on creativity through challenging and traumatic times in my life. Art has always been healing for me in that way.
Later in life, I started to explore art in the form of materials. I designed jewelry made of precious gemstones that often hung low from the neck. Then, I had the joy of going to a quartz mine and got to dig up quartz to take home. I came away with so much that I began to sell it online, create jewelry with it too, and my ex-partner made gemstone wands. It was fun to become more tactical and physical in making art. The expression that comes from moving my body invigorates me and brings me to life.
All that time, I continued to write poetry, prose, and fiction, and started to perform my work around Chicago. It was incredible to be on stage! Speaking a truth that felt taboo was liberating. Much of my writing and performance was focused on romance, love, and erotica.
In my thirties, I began to explore art in a new way. I started with fluid art, which was incredibly unpredictable, and that was the joy of it! Now, I work with symbols, lines, and circles as a way to create depth and emotion with ease. Much of my art is very colorful and generally always has an accent of iridescent gold. I’ve continued to stay focused on abstract art and have really grown into my own style. I’m looking forward to expanding upon my art, selling more, and working at a larger scale where my art has a significant impact.
PIC: There’s so much openness in your response. We love the intuitive approach to your practice and how you let this guide you towards the exploration of those varied mediums. Turning towards the retreat, how did you feel going into Creative Refresh? And what was the transition back home like?
TM: Coming into Creative Refresh I was excited to meet everyone and be in the community. As an introverted extrovert, I was nervous about group dynamics and fitting into the group. My goal for the retreat was to be IN the community. So I had an opportunity to challenge myself not to get quiet and to be present in the group. As the retreat started, I started to ease into things and open up more as I got comfortable. Our first yoga class profoundly helped me in this. It made my body feel safer and at ease.
As the retreat started, I started to ease into things and open up more as I got comfortable. Our first yoga class profoundly helped me in this. It made my body feel safer and at ease.
During the retreat, I remember having a sense of “knowing” everyone on a spiritual level. I’d look around and everyone felt like friends and family. It was quite the feeling. I never voiced it, until now, but allowed myself to experience it. I wasn’t ready to come home when the retreat ended! Even at home, I could still feel the retreat’s energy, hear conversations, see moments from the retreat in my mind. I allowed myself to marinate in the afterglow. I felt inspired and ready to take action on the goals and experiences I want to create for 2025.
Read the rest of Tieara’s interview here and keep an eye out on our newsletter for info about the next retreat in Spring 2026!
Upcoming Events and Opportunities
Sou’wester Art Week - Every March, the Sou’wester hosts over 30 artists and collectives for a weeklong residency, culminating in a weekend of performances, installations, and studio tours — free and open to the public. This annual celebration invites the community to engage with the creative process and connect with artists who bring a new light to the evergreen coast. Applications due January 10, 2025 at 11:59pm.
Future Flowers paintings by Sesalli Castillo at Portland’5 Department of Culture and Community is on exhibit January 11-26, 2025. Opening reception is Saturday January 11, 2-4pm
PAM CUT’s Sustainability Labs return this year with a new slate of multi-disciplinary, mid-career artists working at the intersection of art, technology, and storytelling. - Calling filmmakers, animators, podcasters, world builders, and more! Applications due Wednesday, January 15, 2025 at 5pm.
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts - Fully funded scholarships for artists of color and other funding opportunities — Fall 2025 residences at VCAA for fall (September 1 – December 31, 2025) Applications due January 15, 2025.
PDX Queer Asian Social Meetup - Moxy Downtown Portland QTAANHPI Affinity Space - January 15, 2025 6-8pm.
Queer Karaoke at Either/Or - January 19, 2025 from 7-11pm.
Emergency Preparedness with Creative West’s Capacity Building Webinar Series - January 29, 2025 2-3:30pm. Register here.
Gender Ordeal, a live show presented by Gender Reveal is coming to Portland at Alberta Abbey on February 11, 2025 at 7pm.
Sitka Center for Art & Ecology Residency - Sitka artist residencies provide time and space for self-paced work and reflection in an inspiring natural setting. Residents from a broad range of art, writing, performance and science-based practices come to Sitka to create and explore away from the familiar contexts and constraints of daily routines, and free from external expectations. Applications due March 17, 2025. Application fee waivers available by writing to info@sitkacenter.org
Last but not least…
Save the Date! Money Talks: Finance Q&A for BIPOC Creatives is back February 13, 2025
Our favorite financial literacy-focused event focused on increasing access to financial knowledge from tax basics to investing to debt repayment strategies. This will be our first in-person Money Talks since February 2020 (!)
That’s all for this month’s newsletter. Wishing you all the rest, inspiration, and intention for the new year ✨
- The PIC Team
"...whether it’s a covid-safe coffee date"
Seriously? You do realize it's 2025 right?