Variable West

04/29/2026

Flowers, pattern, and intuition.

In our last video, we get a look into the studio and process of Portland-based artist Amy Bay (amybay).

Amy Bay (b. Elkhart, IN) is a painter based in Portland, OR. Bay makes decorative floral paintings. She values the subjective, the emotional, and both the mysteries and traditions embedded in the painting process.

Check out our series of studio visits with Oregon artists here: variablewest.com/video or at the link in our bio.

Thanks to our amazing team:

Documentarian: Javier Montes d'Arce ()
Producer: Amelia Rina ()
Editor: David Torres () and Javier
Music: Slow Attack Ensemble - Dance Four

This video series is made possible with generous support from and .

04/16/2026

How can we use storytelling to reveal the power structures in narratives surrounding our lives?

In today’s video, Portland-based artist, illustrator, and writer Melanie Stevens () through her studio and talks about her multimedia process.

Melanie investigates narrative as a site of reflection or reinforcement of societal power structures and over-determined norms, specifically the manner in which stories (both real and fictional) supposedly centering people of the African diaspora have a long history of appropriation and erasure.

Her intent is to research and seek out these marked narratives, based on a predetermined set of rules and criteria, and to re-appropriate them, using a variety of media. In doing so, she illuminates the destructive resonance of these flawed narratives by juxtaposing a reimagined version that centers a nuanced and oft-ignored humanity in such a way as to appear irreverent or banal, as if it were the norm. She also empowers herself with these stories by reclaiming them as her own and resolving the dissonance of cultural amnesia, while encouraging opportunities for meditation and discourse.

Check out our series of studio visits with Oregon artists here: variablewest.com/video or at the link in our bio.

Thanks to our amazing team:

Documentarian: Javier Montes d'Arce ()

Producer: Amelia Rina ()

Editor: David Torres () and Javier

Music: Waltz- At First I Thought

This video series is made possible with generous support from and .

04/07/2026

03/31/2026

New video! This week we're visiting the studio of Portland-based artist Epiphany Couch ().

Epiphany Couch (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and writer whose work explores generational knowledge, storytelling, and our relationships with the natural and spiritual worlds.

As a spuyaləpabš (Puyallup), Yakama, and Scandinavian/mixed European artist, Couch centers cultural knowledge and community connection in both her process and presentation.

Working across photography, beadwork, weaving, and collage, she reinterprets traditional forms to create images, installations, and sculptural works that engage ancestral knowledge and invite new ways of understanding. Her practice is rooted in unconventional collaboration—across time, between generations, and with the natural world—recognizing these relationships as vital to sustaining memory, culture, and identity.

Watch our full video series of studio visits with Oregon artists at variablewest.com/video or through the link in our bio.

Huge thanks to our team:
Documentarian: Javier Montes d'Arce ()
Producer: Ella Ray ()
Editor: David Torres () and Javier
Music: Ignacio Maria Gomez - Omeñiso

This series is made with generous support from
and .

​ ​ ​ ​ ​ weaving​ collage​ crafts

03/23/2026

New video dropped!

This week we're visiting the studio of Vietnamese, Portland-based multimedia artist Vo Vo ()

They talk about the influence of their textile-worker parents and how their process starts with an idea then transforms into large-scale weavings.

Head to the link in our bio to watch the full video!

Huge thanks to our team:

Documentarian: Javier Montes d'Arce ()
Producer: Ella Ray ()
Editor: David Torres () & Javier
Music: Matthew Hisel

This series is made possible with generous support from and

03/11/2026

We are *thrilled* to launch our new video series featuring Oregon-based artists.

First up: Yuyang Zhang (). Yuyang (b. 1993, Chinese, he/him) is a Wuhan-born, Portland-based artist, whose studio practice reflects lived q***r diasporic experience through the lens of ridiculous pop culture ephemera in the style of campy melodrama.

Feast your eyes on this clip and head to the link in our bio to watch the full video!

Huge thanks to our brilliant team:

Documentarian: Javier Montes d'Arce ()
Producer: Ella Ray ()
Editor: David Torres & Javier
Music: -Ryan- Light

This video series is made with generous support from and

05/02/2025

Our friends at , the nonprofit publication for art in Texas, are currently holding their annual online fundraising auction! Click the link in bio to see and bid on 40+ works by top Texas artists, travel experiences, and more.

The auction closes on Saturday, May 3, at 8:15 PM PDT.

Head to the link in our bio to learn more!

12/05/2024

“For the artist, marking time via photography becomes ritualistic. The fruits of her labor are witnessed in the images she creates by herself as much as in the colorful worlds she dreams up with her kids.”

Writer Luiza Lukova (.s.i) explores the exuberant creative practice of San Diego artist Lee Materazzi () in a new review of the artist’s exhibition ¢a$h&¢arry at Quint Gallery ().

Read more at the link in bio 🎨✋🔗⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

11/21/2024

When does a photograph become an object? ⁠
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Artist Rose Marie Cromwell sat down with writer Sam Hiura to discuss the process of transforming her photography book "El Libro Supremo de la Suerte" into an exhibition at Pier 24 Photography in San Francisco. 📷⁠
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Read the interview here: https://variablewest.com/2024/11/21/interview-rose-marie-cromwell-pier-24-photography/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

11/20/2024

Weaving themes of spirituality, Black time, dysfluency, and remembrance.

On the heels of JJJJJerome Ellis' hybrid-performance Aster of Ceremonies at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (Portland Institute for Contemporary Art) for the 2024 Time Based Arts festival, writer Kaya Noteboom sits down with Elli to discuss finding home in writing fragments, the illusions of permanence, and living with unanswerable questions.⁠
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Read the full conversation here: https://variablewest.com/2024/10/30/what-cannot-be-destroyed-jjjjjerome-ellis-interviewed/
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Image: JJJJJerome Ellis, Aster of Ceremonies, TBA:24, September 2024. Image courtesy of PICA, photo by Robert Franklin.