We make Portland awesome: Ida Done That

"We make Portland awesome" is a weekly series. I’m interested building our community of artists by helping us all find out more about each other.

This week: Ida Done That

 

Who are you?
A housewife in Portland.

What do you make?
Everything I can out of things that already exist. I make lots of collages/altered art using images from the golden age of consumerism since I feel like everything that needed to be made was made then. All of my materials come from estate sales.

Besides making things, what do you do?
I play card games and chinese checkers with my kids, draw cartoons, complain about having to weed, other mom and wife things like vacuum and cook. Lately I have been coloring the same donkey every day and hanging them upstairs to remind myself that every day you get a donkey and you have to figure out how to make it nice. That's more of a winter hobby though.

What inspires you?
Everything outside of screen media is interesting to me, I feel like some of it just needs to be arranged differently and then it is amusing.

Where can your work be found?
Since I'm mostly with a four year old, you can find my work at parks and in my basement. I have done shows in Portland and San Francisco, this year I am going to do some things in Seattle, I have weekends off so sometimes I go and sit in a booth. I do the major shows, first Thursday in the Pearl and Portland Flea (new this month). You can also find me on Etsy. As for shops, that makes it hard-- I am in the Crafty Wonderland shop and look to expand next year.

What do you love about Portland?
It's pretty here looking out the window at mountains, and I love that it rains enough in Portland that you never feel guilty spending the day thumbing through books of vintage papers, wandering through thrift shops or sitting inside reading or making art. I like that this town is full of people who can entertain themselves. The hyperbolic reading, beards and coffee and everything else we all do but people here seem to really really do. I love when the sun shines and everyone is happy and all of the parks and trees and gritty dirty stuff in between that make Portland interesting.