Fireside Gallery artist reinvents her own paintings

Brooklyn born and raised and a relatively new Portland resident, moving here last March, the current Fireplace Gallery artist is no stranger to moving boxes.

Jennifer Gillia Cutshall has worked in New Mexico, New Hampshire and recently Oregon. That’s just a sampling from her résumé.

“I used to want my artist statement to say I paint. I don’t really see it as changing the world, it’s just something I do,” said Cutshall.

Her main medium is acrylic on canvas but she also explores mixed media, she said.

Cutshall has done a lot of mural work and wall treatments as well, be it commissioned or as part of a job. Currently she is working on a private piece in Oregon and has just taken up work on set pieces for Portland Center Stage for their upcoming performance of “Red” beginning in late February.

Regarding the private mural she is currently working on, “That was through someone that bought original artwork and then they hired me. They found me online even though I don’t have a website,” said Cutshall.

“I know it’s the information age where you can send your artwork everywhere through technology, but I like when we had that set up of meeting people and seeing artwork live. I think it’s really important,” Cutshall said.

Although Cutshall doesn’t have her own website, she has began to sell her artwork on Etsy, a website that allows individuals to sell their handmade or vintage goods.

“We (Cutshall and her husband) have an Etsy site. We just started, we were really reluctant,” said Cutshall.

Cutshall admires the individuality in artwork. It’s not like people can make what one person makes, she said. “Sometimes I’m shocked at how people price for something they handmade – put in their time and their skill,” she said about items sold on etsy, “Everyone is selling art very cheap and it’s sort of devaluing it and believe me, I’m contributing to it as well with an etsy site because the first thing we did was lower our prices. We had to do it. People aren’t buying as much art.”

Her process isn’t formulated when it comes to her art pieces. She starts with an initial image or idea that she may stumble upon when she’s trying to fall asleep, she described.

“When I get to the canvas I might start with that initial drive for that image but it never sort of lines up like that. Sometimes I’ll get frustrated with an image or I’ll like it at the time and then I look at it again and I don’t like it. So I change it,” said Cutshall.

Recently, Cutshall has been resurrecting her pieces, “They’re not what they originally were… There’s still the memory of something sort of coming forward,” she said.

“You want to unveil something that maybe isn’t so controlled. You want to unleash your best, the diamond in the rough. If we try to always make the diamond then you miss out on it,” said Cutshall about working.

Along with her set work being displayed in the Portland Center Stage’s performance of “Red,” Cutshall also has a show coming up this July and August in Texas at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts. Her work will be available for viewing in the Fireplace Gallery until Jan. 30.