Last month, on a bitterly cold afternoon when the winds threatened to turn all of our bones to dust, I paid a visit to Past Lives, a makerspace in industrial Southeast Portland, to see an exhibition reflective of its mission to support currently and formerly incarcerated artists. Or more precisely, that’s what I thought I was doing.
Less than an hour later, I found myself lying on the floor of the founder’s office repeating, “I don’t want to leave, I don’t want to leave.”
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
When I arrived, the marketing and events director, Ryan McAbery, greeted me at the door to walk me through the show, A Call For Light, which she was putting the final touches on for the opening later that night. An eclectic mix of work representing a range of creative practices and disciplines—from sculpture to…
