Shrug Studio
Shrug Studio is the creative collaboration of a pair of Portland, OR-based artists, namely us: Jessi Buck and Garret Conour!
More specifically, it is:
- A shared online shop for us to sell our creations
- A physical space: the shed studio we've set up in the backyard of our NE Portland home.
- A dream for the future where we're able to dedicate ourselves to art full time, and where - if things work out as envisioned - we can one day share our creativity, resources, and space with other creatives through an artist residency program!
As far as most directly concerns you right now though, Shrug Studio is a place to find and buy some art that you love and support a pair of independent artists while you're at it!
Jessi Buck
From a long line of Buck-family makers, Jessi grew up around wood-carvers, sewists, music-makers, and more, so creativity has alway been a natural part of life. After graduating college with a degree in interior design, Jessi eventually turned her focus towards painting and then embracing the crafting side of her creativity and taking up embroidery, felt-work, block printing, and just about any other medium that can be worked on at home. Taking a job with Sticker Ninja helped usher her to embracing digital art and sticker-making too!
While there are many avenues for her creative expression, the factor that brings together Jessi's art is making things that have lightness, joy, and warmth, using vibrant colors, soft textures, and shiny materials that speak to the inner child as much as the outer adult. There's a natural maximalism in her art born from the need to pack in as much energy, character, and texture as possible.
It is her hope that those who interact with her art will recognize a lovely little piece of themselves in it, and it will remind them to treat themselves with kindness <3
Garret Conour
A web development manager by day, Garret took a little more of a circuitous route into his artistic pursuits. A longtime hobbyist musician and dedicated music listener, in 2017 Garret dipped his toes (fingers?) into liquid light shows and the world of live concert visuals. He now performs regularly around Portland under the moniker Coast Range Lights, combining old school liquid lights with custom-coded digital programs and analog video hardware. But this newfound outlet for visual arts soon also led him into code art and eventually graphic design. He now designs gig posters, art prints, and stickers in addition to releasing video art on VHS.