By Daniel Perez-Crouse
The Portland Street Art Alliance (PSAA) recently teamed up with JAM Makery LLC (partner of Open Urban Practice and Bridge Rats Artist Studios in the Central Eastside) and PDX Farm to revitalize 831 SE MLK Jr. Blvd. in the Central Eastside, right by City Liquidators. The new project sees PSAA muralists creating spooky visuals on the building and PDX Farm installing edible gardens with native species and seasonal interactions. It also includes extensive building renovations and a major dig-up to create an event space.
For those unaware, PSAA has been working since 2019 with various partners and funders to turn Portland’s Central Eastside into an artistic destination and celebration for street art with a bevy of murals now spread throughout the area—and this is one of the latest unveilings in that journey.
The aim is to create a centerpiece for the Central Eastside’s Mural District. “Our dream is to seed a greater civic venture that celebrates the geography, heritage and dynamic future for the Central Eastside. A future that is in dialogue with the socio-economic significance of this part of the city, the natural ecology as foundational to urban prosperity, the people who have shaped the creative, nuanced and diverse voices of the district’s cultural production, and new possibilities for how we imagine our city’s future vibrancy,” said Alexis Sanal, AIA, partner of JAM Makery.
PSAA Executive Director, Tiffany Conklin, said PSAA has wanted to do a Halloween and harvest theme mural for a long time and that this property owner was open to creative freedom through their Community Art Program. “It seemed like a great match since PDX Farm is installing the gardens, and our mural work would play off those natural surroundings.”
However, Conklin says the plan is to rotate the artwork at this site periodically in association with other Community Art Projects, but to always keep the theme focused on plants, growing food and changing seasons.
As for the in-progress urban farm itself, Dan Campbell of PDX Farm said, “Our crew plans to cultivate a beautiful, creative and bioactive growing space that will inspire and encourage those visiting to care for the land and nourish their community. This transformation comes to us on a patch of land long neglected and forgotten.”
Photo by Sara Sjol and Tiffany Conklin for PSAA.
This series of murals (supported by a grant from Metro Regional Refresh Fund) and space has an explicit horror and Halloween-inspired vibe—with the unveiling happening near the end of October. Jack-o’-Lanterns, imagery from Beetlejuice, tombstones and more make this clear. Tyler Shrake, one of the muralists, said that, “Halloween is an invitation to embrace not only spooky thrills and darker days, but also death itself and all of the regeneration that comes with that part of the cycle of life. In this autumnal mural, I chose to create a blood moon graveyard scene with a tombstone that has inscribed in Latin, nihil est creatrix quam mors, which is a quote from Alan Watts that means nothing is more creative than death.”
Conklin says the timing and rapid progress of the Mural District in Portland aligns with broader social trends across the country and world. “Mural festivals started popping up all over the world, following the Pow Wow model in Hawaii. Over the past decade or two, public art has become an even more powerful medium for storytelling, social commentary and community engagement. We have always used walls to express ourselves as human, so this is just the new iteration of that,” she said.
She also says there has been a strong collaboration between property owners, artists and organizations like PSAA over the past decade. “We thank Adam Tyler at Killian Pacific for introducing us to several key property owners early on who were open to murals. It snowballed from there once we could prove to old-time large property owners the impact murals can have. Property owners have been increasingly open to partnering with nonprofits like PSAA, independent working artists, seeing murals not just as decorative but as transformative, attracting visitors and fostering a sense of pride among our community.”
While the murals are clear and visible from the street, the event space and urban garden are still being built and are currently gated off. A final date hasn’t been announced or firmed up for its completion and when events will be held, but is projected for Spring 2025. Stay up to date on progress by following PDX Farm, @pdx.farm, on social media outlets for updates.
Top photo: Muralist Tyler Shrake works on the graveyard scene mural. Photo by Sara Sjol and Tiffany Conklin for PSAA.
