The press release reads “can 18 disparate Portland artists, writers, designers, art directors, fashion designers and illustrators get together and work as a singular unit to make art? Probably not.”

Hordes of us have been talking and coffee-tabling collaboration as the new salvation, the new -ism, the way to move forward. Generally, I hear gushes and swoons about how Portland has been leaning-in on the forefront of whatever collaborative explosion has happened on this planet. Perhaps that’s because everyone I hear talking about it lives here, because certainly it happens elsewhere.

Thursday (tomorrow) at 5pm my personal experience with collaboration will come to maturity here in Portland.

Jelly wrote a charming piece on how all this got started, but it seems pertinent to contribute some remarks about the process right before the show opens, because technically, we are still in-process.

So here’s what I’ve learned.
You’ve got to find your people, and when you find your people, reconsider your project. It is difficult to get groups together. I’d love to be all fluffy-rosey about how every step in the process is inspired and cerebral, but the amount of work required to corral working, talented humans, is nothing short of leviathan. Once in-studio though, the perception is that things are getting done. Despite the best efforts of writers, thinkers, makers, and do-ers, it is supremely difficult to find a collective POV. And, if you do, it’s probably boring, because the nature of consensus isn’t interesting. It takes almost the mindset of an anti-social jerk to revolt from the niceties of a group trying to agree. Or, as was our case, a misunderstanding of a joke scribbled on scrap paper, which lead to our central idea.

Even then, as with any good idea, our point-of-view was not received by the group with unanimous affection. There still may be those that absolutely hate it. I find this wildly interesting, and solid. If you go on safari, part of you wishes to get into trouble in the bush. If you come home with no scratches then perhaps you’ve just gone on a packaged tour, not safari.

Despite the bristles and furrowed brows, there was one thing that we could all get behind: One big simple message that each of us contribute to. This was misread at first. We probably thought each of us would contribute to the actual idea, which in essence, is damn near impossible. This is what stalled us for over a month, while trying to talk about execution without having the idea first. This can be frustrating, but we leaned in and held a few create nights in order to flush out our idea. We made stickers with our heads on them so that once all our ideas were tabled, we could simply approve with our face. These were tallied, scanned, and sent back out in preparation for the next meeting.

Finally, we uncovered our mostly-loved concept and POV.
The show opens tomorrow, and we are excited and exhausted. Our partners, wives, and husbands hate us for being in the gallery for so many consecutive nights, but we will be forgiven at exactly 5pm. Hopefully.

But even if we aren’t forgiven, 18 humans created something that one person couldn’t. 18 busy people, that didn’t have time to spare, spared, made, fretted, and showed up. That’s enough, actually, everything else is bonus.

For your next collaboration: use fewer people, find the idea first (if possible), and double the amount of time you’ve budgeted.

Info on show

Participants:

Jelly Helm
Aaron Rayburn
Jeremy Pelley
Matthew Foster
Fritz Mesenbrink
Chris Hutchinson
Damion Triplett
Jennie Hayes
Kate Bingaman-Burt
Marco Kaye
Mike Giepert
Justin Scrappers Morrison
Driscoll Reid
Jason Sturgill
David Neevel
Taylor Twist
Jimm Lasser
Julia Oh