To the Dreamers, the Makers, and the Visionaries of Portland

Image courtesy of University of Portland

Trying to explain why one is an artist is a little like trying to explain the meaning of life. It certainly can’t be done in a sentence, if at all.

I’ve spent over fifty years on this creative adventure, and what I’ve realized is that being an artist isn’t just about having a career or picking a medium. It’s really a responsibility we have to our community.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about our city.

Portland is at a bit of a crossroads, caught in what I sometimes call a "stiff breeze" that is separating the wheat from the chaff. We’ve all seen the reports of "sobering" economic data, the outmigration, the quiet streets in our central core.

But as I look out from the windows of my studio, I don’t see a city in decline. I see a city waiting to be reimagined.

For too long, the "Modern Art" establishment and municipal planners alike have treated what we do as an elective luxury. Art is a "pretty" line item to be funded during the flush years and the very first to be cut when the budget gets tight. We’ve been marginalized, told that our voices are "liberal fluff" or, worse, "kitsch."

I’m here to tell you that the pendulum is swinging back.

We are the "Creative Infrastructure" that holds the built environment together.

When a sculptor places a monumental piece on a street corner, or a muralist transforms a blank wall, they aren't just decorating.

They are operationalizing what Jane Jacobs called "Eyes on the Street." They are creating a sense of "territorial reinforcement" that makes a neighborhood safer. They are inviting the public to stop, to look, and to engage in a dialogue. And as we’ve seen in the data, where that cultural density exists, serious crime drops, and property values double.

When someone comes to see a show or visit a gallery, they don’t just buy a ticket. They eat at our restaurants, they park in our lots, and they shop at our retail stores. In Portland alone, our sector generated $400.7 million in economic activity in 2022. While traditional corporate sectors were shedding jobs, our creative economy grew by 18%.

We are counter-cyclical. We are resilient. We are the economic buoy that keeps the city afloat when the corporate giants stumble.

But more importantly, we are the heart.

Since my 8th-grade art teacher, Mr. Hop, first showed me how the Renaissance artists reshaped civilization, I’ve believed that art must carry the mythos of our time. We need a new "Age of Enlightenment" here in the Pacific Northwest.

We need to stop "talking to ourselves" in an elitist avant-garde war zone and start speaking to the center of society.

We need to provide the visionary leadership that our politicians and corporate leaders have, quite frankly, struggled to find. We are the ones who can turn a distressed urban corridor into a "creative canvas." We are the ones who can provide "heart statements" that help our community heal from the trauma of the last few years.

This series of articles is an invitation. I want us to look at our work through a new lens—not as "fine artists" struggling for crumbs of philanthropy, but as the high-yield utility of the modern city.

The Renaissance held that creative, cultural value was the underpinning of economic value, not the other way around. It’s time we put the clothes back on the emperor and remind Portland who we really are.

We are the makers of meaning. We are the builders of the future.

Sincerely,

Martin Eichinger  Sculptor & Founder, Art at the Geode