Skip to main contentIt is a formidable Organ, 24 inches long and half as wide, and although it is not particularly thick and comes only once every two months, it still aims for penetrating engagement with the people it covers.
Portland's newest broadsheet, The Organ joins www.NWDrizzle.com and Red76 Arts Group's forthcoming Dis-connect as one of a small handful of independent publications covering Portland's burgeoning arts scene.
Kicked off in September with a wad of editor-publisher Camela Raymond's own cash, The Organ has since doubled its size (from two pages to four) and recruited as advertisers some of Portland's major galleries (no small feat--galleries typically eschew ads in favor of direct mailings to established clients). Graphically, the paper has a catchy, retro look, which the 30-year-old Raymond says was inspired by early Sears & Roebuck catalogs, topped off at the masthead with an endearing, freshly-cut-from-the-chest-looking heart, the eponymous organ, designed by local illustrator Corey Lunn.
Although an occasional cartoon breaks up the five vertical columns, the layout evokes the densely packed, "wall of text" school long favored by Rolling Stone. Most significantly, The Organ has found an editorial voice that does not talk down to its readers and finesses the line between seriousness and silliness--both important in the realm of art.
Raymond herself is not an artist but a part-time librarian and free-lance writer who, like filmmaker Todd Haynes, studied semiotics at Brown University. It was her brother, Jon, editor of the local art and design zine Plazm, who introduced Raymond to the world of art.
Early this year, she began telling friends she wanted to create "a gathering point, a community paper for the local art scene" that would also cover cinema, dance and design. Brad Atkins, co-founder of local arts group Charm Bracelet, admonished her one night, "Why don't you stop talking about it and just do it?" and challenged her to put the paper together in two weeks. Immediately Raymond began calling writers and drumming up advertisers. She had 5,000 copies of the first issue printed at "an old-timey press down in Salem, the cheapest place we could find" and personally dropped them off at Portland art galleries, bookstores and cafes. She also sent copies for allies to distribute in Eugene; Seattle; Vancouver, B.C.; and New York City.
Within The Organ's pages are interviews, reviews and commentary that fit Raymond's vision of "idea-centered pieces rather than event-driven ones." In the current issue, there's an essay arguing that The Royal Tenenbaums is better than its thematic prototype, The Graduate; a review of James Lavadour's recent show at PDX; and a post-mortem of a Portland visit by the Whitney Museum's Larry Rinder, portrayed in the article as a smooth-talking Easterner harboring Edenic fantasies of the West. There's also a story on Gavin Shettler and Bryan Suereth's plans for a new arts organization ("you scooped me on that one," she concedes), an interview with Seaplane clothing designer Holly Stalder and an exploration of sculptural qualities in the oeuvres of three local painters. For levity, there's a whimsical advice column by Portland Institute for Contemporary Art curator of visual arts Stuart Horodner, in which one reader, a sculptor, writes: "Dear Stuart: My dealer wants to bring a critic home for a three-way, and I'm wondering what the etiquette is in this situation, i.e., who gets to fuck me first?" (Horodner ducks the question.)
Raymond says her aim with The Organ is to air a wider variety of voices than those currently heard among Portland's print critics. Does this mean she believes there is something inadequate in the arts coverage of The Oregonian (to which Raymond contributes on occasion), the Mercury, Portland Tribune and Willamette Week? "I don't want to pick on anybody individually," she says with political aplomb. "I just think we need a greater variety of voices. In papers with a single critic, you hear the same voice over and over again. We want more."
A Portlander since the age of 7, Raymond sees the city in "an incredibly self-reflective mode right now. We feel disconnected from the big, glossy art you see in New York, L.A. and Berlin." But she says she does not have any particular agenda ("I don't see myself as a taste-maker"), unlike some of the more self-promoting independent art critics in town, whose raisons d'être consist of portraying Portland as the next L.A. "That kind of attitude bugs me," Raymond says. "I'm turned off by people who have this almost nationalistic, booster-type mentality. It's like rooting for the Blazers. I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in being moved by art."
The Organ can be found at major galleries, Powell's Books, Reading Frenzy, Anna Bannana's, CoffeeTime, Beehive, Haven and the Mississippi Pizza Pub.
The next issue hits the streets Jan. 2. It will include a discussion of "the presumptions of corporate art," a commentary about artist (and former WW arts writer) Daniel Duford and the destruction of his golem sculptures, and wacky new questions for advice columnist Stuart Horodner.
It is a formidable Organ, 24 inches long and half as wide, and although it is not particularly thick and comes only once every two months, it still aims for penetrating engagement with the people it covers.
Portland's newest broadsheet, The Organ joins www.NWDrizzle.com and Red76 Arts Group's forthcoming Dis-connect as one of a small handful of independent publications covering Portland's burgeoning arts scene.
Kicked off in September with a wad of editor-publisher Camela Raymond's own cash, The Organ has since doubled its size (from two pages to four) and recruited as advertisers some of Portland's major galleries (no small feat--galleries typically eschew ads in favor of direct mailings to established clients). Graphically, the paper has a catchy, retro look, which the 30-year-old Raymond says was inspired by early Sears & Roebuck catalogs, topped off at the masthead with an endearing, freshly-cut-from-the-chest-looking heart, the eponymous organ, designed by local illustrator Corey Lunn.
Although an occasional cartoon breaks up the five vertical columns, the layout evokes the densely packed, "wall of text" school long favored by Rolling Stone. Most significantly, The Organ has found an editorial voice that does not talk down to its readers and finesses the line between seriousness and silliness--both important in the realm of art.
Raymond herself is not an artist but a part-time librarian and free-lance writer who, like filmmaker Todd Haynes, studied semiotics at Brown University. It was her brother, Jon, editor of the local art and design zine Plazm, who introduced Raymond to the world of art.
Early this year, she began telling friends she wanted to create "a gathering point, a community paper for the local art scene" that would also cover cinema, dance and design. Brad Atkins, co-founder of local arts group Charm Bracelet, admonished her one night, "Why don't you stop talking about it and just do it?" and challenged her to put the paper together in two weeks. Immediately Raymond began calling writers and drumming up advertisers. She had 5,000 copies of the first issue printed at "an old-timey press down in Salem, the cheapest place we could find" and personally dropped them off at Portland art galleries, bookstores and cafes. She also sent copies for allies to distribute in Eugene; Seattle; Vancouver, B.C.; and New York City.
Within The Organ's pages are interviews, reviews and commentary that fit Raymond's vision of "idea-centered pieces rather than event-driven ones." In the current issue, there's an essay arguing that The Royal Tenenbaums is better than its thematic prototype, The Graduate; a review of James Lavadour's recent show at PDX; and a post-mortem of a Portland visit by the Whitney Museum's Larry Rinder, portrayed in the article as a smooth-talking Easterner harboring Edenic fantasies of the West. There's also a story on Gavin Shettler and Bryan Suereth's plans for a new arts organization ("you scooped me on that one," she concedes), an interview with Seaplane clothing designer Holly Stalder and an exploration of sculptural qualities in the oeuvres of three local painters. For levity, there's a whimsical advice column by Portland Institute for Contemporary Art curator of visual arts Stuart Horodner, in which one reader, a sculptor, writes: "Dear Stuart: My dealer wants to bring a critic home for a three-way, and I'm wondering what the etiquette is in this situation, i.e., who gets to fuck me first?" (Horodner ducks the question.)
Raymond says her aim with The Organ is to air a wider variety of voices than those currently heard among Portland's print critics. Does this mean she believes there is something inadequate in the arts coverage of The Oregonian (to which Raymond contributes on occasion), the Mercury, Portland Tribune and Willamette Week? "I don't want to pick on anybody individually," she says with political aplomb. "I just think we need a greater variety of voices. In papers with a single critic, you hear the same voice over and over again. We want more."
A Portlander since the age of 7, Raymond sees the city in "an incredibly self-reflective mode right now. We feel disconnected from the big, glossy art you see in New York, L.A. and Berlin." But she says she does not have any particular agenda ("I don't see myself as a taste-maker"), unlike some of the more self-promoting independent art critics in town, whose raisons d'être consist of portraying Portland as the next L.A. "That kind of attitude bugs me," Raymond says. "I'm turned off by people who have this almost nationalistic, booster-type mentality. It's like rooting for the Blazers. I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in being moved by art."
can be found at major galleries, Powell's Books, Reading Frenzy, Anna Bannana's, CoffeeTime, Beehive, Haven and the Mississippi Pizza Pub.
The next issue hits the streets Jan. 2. It will include a discussion of "the presumptions of corporate art," a commentary about artist (and former WW arts writer) Daniel Duford and the destruction of his golem sculptures, and wacky new questions for advice columnist Stuart Horodner.
WWeek 2015