Lace your dunks and get some fucking coffee

You don’t need me to tell you this but it is cold outside. Really cold. And in Portland when it gets really cold things shut down. Just mention snow, and people call in sick to work. We live in a city where a large chunk of the populace wears shorts 365 days a year and hasn’t owned a coat in over a decade. We just don’t expect it to drop below 40. So when winter rears its ugly head, the streets clear out and consequently so do the galleries.

So if you’re too chilled to get out and shudder between spaces, how are we, as dedicated patrons, supposed to get our visual fix? By getting it where we live of course! And where do Portlander’s live all winter long? In coffee shops.

Coffee shop art is a unique and occasionally horrible phenomenon. For many artists it’s an easy venue to get started with – an audience to test out ideas on and hone their craft. Coffee shops are a good way to get a feel for what’s influencing local work. Inevitably, young artists are going to touch on similar themes and recurring images begin to appear. Thanks to a stop at Tiny’s this week, my “Portland Bird Art” tally rose by more than a dozen sightings, putting the total at 315 for the month so far. Go Portland!

But for some artists, coffee shops are a last-ditch effort at ego stroking, a way of life. Some of the worst work I have ever seen has been over lattes, and there are shops in town where the work is so bad I wouldn’t even buy a drink to go. The mediocrity seeps into the beans, infusing them with the flavor of overworked canvas and gift shop acrylics. But then there are the gems, the local spots where the owner/curator almost never misses, and on days when the wind leaves frost on my arm-hair these coffee shop galleries are indispensable.

Courtney Booker

Homestar Cafe, 4747 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd.

Booker’s figurative work, oftentimes collaged and heavily shellacked, is a breath of fresh air in a world of doe-eyed innocents and damaged diary keepers. Her characters are tired and oftentimes shocked, and where many artists seem to represent their inner loneliness, Booker represents her inner hangover. Maybe it’s just the fact that Booker’s work feels more at home with hip-hop than fucking Quasi, or the fact that her intricate chair drawings fit so well with Homestar’s “distressed modernism” aesthetic, but this show really stands out. Oh, and it’s bird-free.

Justin “Scrappers” Morrison

“Home Sweet Home”

Stumptown Coffee, 3356 S.E. Belmont St.

My love for the work of Justin Morrison is well known, and I would be happy to give his name a break if he would just stop being so prolific and amazing. His show at Stumptown this month is an exploration into the idea of home and its many incarnations. Throw into that an aside about a new Northwest folk art and you’ve got a show full of sculpture, cabinet doors and Hulk Hogan. Morrison is as dedicated to his personal mythology as to that of our region and together it’s unbeatable. Plus, this is the stiffest cup in town.

“We Heart Gocco”

Half and Half, 923 S.W. Oak St.

OK, the Half and Half is the world’s best coffee shop. The coffee is good, the food is better and the people are great. From pies to homemade Oreos I’ve gained at least 15 pounds here. This month those fine people at the Wurst gallery present a show dedicated to the Japanese mini-screen printing kit known as Gocco. Gocco has for years been a standby for DIY artists and cartoonists, but as of this December will no longer be produced. In homage to the little wonder, the Wurst put together an international collection of Gocco postcards lovingly reproduced and affordable. From the animorphic work of Evan Harris to the typography of Ian Lyman, Gocco’s dirge is a beautiful one.