UW Portfolio Emma Colburn (PDF)

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Emma Colburn
Painting and Drawing MFA Candidate
University of Washington
Portfolio


Image List
Michael is a Vibrant Heirloom, 2011, Watercolor and gouache, 18”x24,” Urban League of
Portland, Portland OR
Calvin is a Vibrant Heirloom, 2011, Watercolor and gouache, 18”x24,” Urban League of
Portland, Portland OR
Ms Josephine is a Vibrant Heirloom, 2011, Watercolor and gouache, 18”x24,” Urban League of
Portland, Portland OR
Jimmie is a Vibrant Heirloom, 2011, Watercolor and gouache, 18”x24,” Urban League of
Portland, Portland OR
Maxine is a Vibrant Heirloom, 2011, Watercolor and gouache, 18”x24,” Urban League of
Portland, Portland OR
Adrian is a Vibrant Heirloom, 2011, Watercolor and gouache, 18”x24,” Urban League of
Portland, Portland OR
Marie is a Vibrant Heirloom, 2011, Watercolor and gouache, 18”x24,” Urban League of
Portland, Portland OR
Ms V is a Vibrant Heirloom, 2011, Watercolor and gouache, 18”x24,” Urban League of Portland,
Portland OR
Minnie is a Vibrant Heirloom, 2011, Watercolor and gouache, 18”x24,” Urban League of
Portland, Portland OR
James Lawrence III is a Vibrant Heirloom, 2011, Watercolor and gouache, 18”x24,” Urban
League of Portland, Portland OR

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Vibrant Heirlooms, 2011, watercolor and gauche, Ten 18”x24” paintings and six sewing classes,
Urban League of Portland, Portland OR


An interactive series of ten watercolor portraits of African Americans who grew up in
Portland’s redlined communities. The portraits are submitted individually, this slide shows
the community engagement component. High school students interviewed elders during
weekly intergenerational sewing circles, created a neighborhood mural proposal called
“Where Im From,” and interns learned watercolor painting. This project was funded in part
by a grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council.

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Say It Loud, 2013, Charcoal, oil pastel, watercolor, glue, paper, and print media, 8’x12’
installation and six interviews, Grant High School, Portland OR


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This Black History Month installation addresses the changing neighborhood demographics
around Grant High School. Based on six student-led interviews between African American
alumni and Black Student Union members, students drew live portraits of alumni, selected
and mounted quotes from the interviews, studied racial segregation to paint watercolor
FaceMaps of Portland, and wrote an article about displacement for the Grant Magazine.

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Narrating Beloit, 2008, Acrylic, string, paper, graphite, pins, 20’x20’ installation, Hales Gallery,
Beloit WI


This gallery installation rendered quotidian experiences of space. Personal anecdotes by
groups of students (elementary, high school, and college) embellished a mural-map of the
city of Beloit WI, using string to connect exact locations with handwritten accounts. The
installation became an integrated portrait of the city, incorporating communities that rarely
cross social and/or spatial paths.


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CityStitch, 2008, Muslin, embroidery thread, paper, wood, Thirteen 20”x12” pieces, Pleasant
Street Coffeehouse, Beloit WI


Thirteen hand-sewn maps and accompanying map keys mounted in wooden drawers and
installed at downtown community gathering spots. Participants embroidered tourism maps of
the city of Beloit during weekly sewing circles and wrote map keys to the particular places and stories - adorned.
Navigating Keur Sadaro, 2007, 2008, Acrylic, colored pencil, graphite, paper, 10'x70' (five
10'x12' murals), 42 penpal letters, Ecole Mamar Gallow Thiaw and Beloit Memorial High
School, Keur Sadrao Senegal and Beloit WI
An interactive mural-making project at Ecole Mamar Gallow Thiaw, thirty-plus Senegalese
students worked collaboratively to visually represent their daily life and home in five school
murals. The murals became the foundation for an arts-based curriculum to subvert
associations between “African” and “rural” for American students. The curriculum was
taught at Beloit Memorial High School as a guest lecture series in French classes and
culminated in a letter exchange. This project was funded in part by the Gilman Scholarship
Foundation.

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