ART SHOW & FIRST THURSDAY ARTIST RECEPTION

Portland in Postcards: Portland’s Public Art & Architecture in 4×6
Woodcuts and original illustrations by Carye Bye of Red Bat Press

June 7 – 30, 2012

Lulu’s Vintage
916 W Burnside
Portland, Oregon
Hours: Wed – Sat 12-6 and Sun 1-5

First Thursday Artist Reception
June 7, 2012, 5-8pm

Lulu’s Vintage is proud to host an art show for the month of June featuring 4×6 inch postcard-size hand-printed woodcuts and original watercolor & ink illustrations by artist Carye Bye of Red Bat Press. Her love of Portland has been a theme in her printmaking over the last decade and in the illustrated guidebook Hidden Portland she self published in 2009 and Bedouin Books published in 2010. Janet Julian, a local musician and folksy artist refers to Carye as a “Tourist in her own town”. What is more touristy than the postcard!

Bye has collected postcards most of her life. Her grandparents in Florida sent her alligator, shell collections, and cute kitten and puppy postcards to Minnesota where she grew up. In high school she started her first reproduction printing by making a variety of zines which she’d sell to friends. One zine The Bizzare focused on different subject matters and the fourth issue was all about bathtubs. This launched a collection of postcards with bathtubs. Today Bye curates the informal Bathtub Art Museum with a collection of nearly 400 “bathtub” postcards. Her interest in postcards has continued in her professional arts life.

Through Red Bat Press, a small artist press Bye started in 2002 that specializing in woodcut illustration and hand printing on a letterpress, a tradition of making Portland Postcards has emerged. The popular Bridges of the Willamette, a collection of 10 woodcut reproductions of Portland’s unique bridges, is one of Bye’s signature contributions. Other Portland scenes in the collection so far include, Paul Bunyan, Vaux Swifts, Union Station, Chinatown, Stag Sign, City of Roses and many bicycle prints.

In this new exhibit, Bye will illustrate her favorite public art sculptures and architecture in woodblock and Ink & watercolor. This includes a new carving of the Steel Bridge in honor of Steel Bridge’s 100th Birthday this summer.