Jason Bradbury

An up-close look at a fire-red coral-like sea creature. A bird’s-eye view of a tight cluster of pointed, polka-dot-covered shells hovering in space. Swirling lines of microbial organisms spinning into a distant black hole. These are the lenses—magnified and telescopic—that Portland painter Jason Bradbury peers through when composing his brightly colored pieces. “I’m influenced by Ernst Haeckel, a German scientist who created detailed sketches of microscopic marine organisms,” says Bradbury. “I became fascinated with their complexity, and the symmetrical and radial forms.”

Morgan Walker

In Morgan Walker’s paintings, narrative is a key tool. “All of my paintings have stories that develop and change throughout the whole process of painting it,” he says. “When the painting is finally done, so is the story.”

Shannon Lewis

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Abstract artist Shannon Lewis organizes her paintings around the idea of space. “I’m interested in liminality, the spaces between things,”