Artists I LIKE local and beyond....

The first artist I discovered about a year ago, but you all have probaly actually seen her work. Jennifer Mercede is a Portland, Oregon based painter working primarily with acrylic paint, colored pencils, cray-pas, and pen to create vibriant colorful abstractions. Mercede says she,"loves bright pink, lime green and I love DOING." Some things that inspire her are children's artwork, raw, unrefined circles (ELLEN!), graffiti... Her philosophy or goal is to, "design work that uplifts your soul. It is positive, spiritual in origin and one look at the honesty and warmth captured in my pieces makes a viewer smile. My process is whats important to my art, more than anything else. Each painting is another chance to let go, to be free. To escape all rules and restrictions." She does murals all around the portland area or you can find her work in numerous galleries.

The next artist I like is Eli Haplin. I discovered her art at a small ecofriendly clothing store at the beach in Manzanita last summer (Unfurl is an awsome store) She paints will oils and all paintings are made on RECYCLED light weight doors or a section of a door and tiny paintings are made on wood blocks. She paints a lot of animals and has simple backgrounds, but the colors and expressions that she is able to paint-produce an amazing outcome AND she given uses glitter sometimes HA!