Artist Spotlight: M.C. Pasinski

By Julianna Paradisi

                 (This interview was originally published in the Spring 2009 issue of the Oldtown Chinatown Crier)

Morgan Pasinksi's Chair for the Chair Affair 2009 (photo courtesty of M.C.Pasinski)

Morgan Cole Pasinski’s paintings have an elegant simplicity that belies their creation. Worked in oil, wax and pencil, her surfaces vary from transparent and glass-like, to so textural, they almost invite touch. Morgan acknowledges this observation: “I spend the majority of my time on the backgrounds by adding paint and scraping it off until it looks like nothing I could have done intentionally.” She finds inspiration in the yin/ yang of old walls and sidewalks, ugly and beautiful with their patinas of passing time. Finishing the background, Morgan then sits and stares at it until an image takes shape. Rendered in simple lines, sea creatures, figures, and familiar household items overlie the background surfaces of her paintings.

Morgan received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Western Washington University in 2000. Transplanted from Bellingham, Washington, her studio is in the Goldsmith Blocks Building in Old Town and is open to the public each First Thursday. In April, she is a participating artist in The Chair Affair, an art auction benefitting Portland’s Community Warehouse. Visit Morgan’s website  http://mcpasinski.com/ to learn more about her work.

 Morgan contibuted a chair for the 2009 Community Warehouse Chair Affair auction April 23 at the Staver Locomotive in NW Portland. Tickets are $50 and can be purchased from Community Warehouse by calling 503.274.4750 or on their website:                          

 http://www.communitywarehouse.org/chairaffair/index.html