Forest for the Trees

A massive public art project is hitting Portland's walls late this summer, and everyone's invited to witness the creation in the making.Forest for the Trees is the brainchild of Gage Hamilton, a Portland-based artist who's best known for his murals of hairy knots. He painted one of the for Saucebox. He's also designed logos, gallery exhibitions and street work.The project is really an offshoot of Pow Wow, which has been previously hosted in Hawaii and Hong Kong. Hamilton decided to bring the concept to the Pacific Northwest, so he mobilized contemporary artists from Portland, Los Angeles, and as far away as Brazil and Japan.And as far as Hamilton's vision goes, his crew of artists won't need stencils or any sort of defined plan. Once they set up shop Aug. 19-25 in neighborhoods all across town, painting mural on blank walls will be improvised and organic:E+E: Love the idea of talented artists filling up empty walls in Portland. What made you want to start this project?Gage Hamilton: It was a project that I initially wanted to do here. Then I connected with a guy in Hawaii, who did a similar project called Pow Wow. It started in Hong Kong, actually for the last three years it's been in Honolulu, but then I decided to host a project here.I wanted to bring other artists here to the walls of Portland. It kind of organically built. I'm friends with Matt Wagner with Hellion Gallery. We curated the whole project together.E+E: Where will you be painting murals? Did you already get permission from the city or other businesses?Hamilton: We have five or six walls, we're trying to get 10. Basically it's going step by step. At first it was coming up with the mission and idea, then the identity, then bringing the artists, then raising the money to do all of this. Once we get the fundraising out of the way, the next step is to lock down those walls.I've been connecting with property owners who have an appreciation for the arts. I can show people the whole idea behind it. You have to show a little bit of trust, [because] I can't give you a design really. It's going to happen as it happens. The good thing about it, most of the artists work with themes and motifs and have a good idea of what they're going to do about it. There's no commission; they have to be open-minded.E+E: Why did you want to host the project here, in Portland? What's unique about this city's art?Hamilton: I feel like Portland is a really creative city, but it's not necessarily reflected. You don't necessarily get a sense of the culture through driving through the streets. In other cities I've been around the world, you really get to see so much of the culture by being out on the street. Here there's a palpable sense of art, but you have to go seek it out (Last Thursday, galleries).Even then, you [only] see the finished pieces. For me, it's seeing the whole process of it. Instead of going to a gallery, there'll be a finished mural, but you can go see the whole process from the first brush stroke, and then a week later see the whole thing.People can interact and engage with them, break the barriers between an artist's creative process and the audience and viewership.Written By: Dominique FongFollow @dominiquefong//