Bruns, Dow, Chase & Gere @ Goodfoot

**scratch** · 01-25-2012, 09:45 AM

The Goodfoot will have an art opening Thurs, Jan 26th from 5-12. the show will be up until Feb. 20. The artists this month are Allison Bruns, Melissa Dow, Scott Chase and Zak Gere.

Allison Bruns earned her Bachelor of Arts in Illustration from Pacific Northwest College of Art in 2007. She received the 2007 Creativity Annual Student Award for News and Editorial Illustration for her thesis illustrations on the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. While Bruns's illustration work is figurative and at times satirical, her fine art is interpretive, focusing more on expression and contemplation. Using multiple layers of vivid color, along with her self-styled "splatters," her abstract work is designed to evoke energy and volatility. Her portraits--painted in the same vivid, expressive tones--depict a diverse cast of characters, each with his or her own story to share, and Bruns tries to capture these stories in her art.Allison Bruns works in oil on canvas, and oil pastel on paper. She has done illustration and design work for Oregon businesses and private clients and her fine art has been shown in local galleries, exhibitions, and business offices. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Melissa Dow is an illustrator and character designer living in Portland, OR. She graduated with honors from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in 2007 with a BFA in Illustration.
Her work reflects her interest in pop culture, graphic novels, history, portraiture, character design, poster art, neo-noir, gothic Americana, and nearly all variety of things misunderstood, ant-heroic, strange looking and generally not to be trusted. A focus on drawing and questionably rational color theory are strong features throughout her work. She uses both traditional and digital mediums, sometimes exclusively, often together.
She is a reptile appreciator, insomniac and music addict who believes in creatively embracing your inner geek, no matter how embarrassing the results. *

Scott Chase*was born in San Francisco, but raised*in the Pacific Northwest. He is new to painting, but has been drawing his whole life.
Inspired by pop culture, film and history, Scott’s portraits create dramatic contrasts from familiar iconic subjects. Scott’s free-hand interpretations of photos and images capture a “likeness” in positive/negative space, while creating a painterly high contrast. His “subjects” are his interests, an honest and down-to-earth realism.
He began painting after he was laid off from his factory job in a chemical plant in 2010. Within a few months, Scott’s passion for art and painting created his first body of work.
While Scott paints he talks to his muse, a friendly and highly critical 90 lb pit bull named “Pete”, who sits with him while he works. His works shown and appeared on KBOO community radio and Willamette Week Newspaper and on the walls of Peoples Art of Portland Gallery, and numerous Portland locations.
Scott loves to draw, and has worked on national parks as a journeyman stone mason. He currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon.

Zak Gere was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1978. As a self-taught artist, he has been independently showing and selling art since 1999. Zaks paintings vary greatly in subject and style from photo realistic portraits to highly stylized figures and landscapes. Zak also sculpts with a variety of materials but has focused on wire sculpture which he builds in to incredibly detailed solid forms.