justynhegreberg's Profile

Bio

I live in Portland with my flock. We are a mixed flock but we like it that way.

If you would like to know more I have placed my Etsy Featured Seller interview below.












Tell us a bit about yourself (name, location, affiliations, personal stuff).

Hello, my name is Justyn Hegreberg and I live Portland, Oregon with my fiancé, her son, three cockatiels and a ringneck plumhead parakeet. We recently moved here from Napa, California, but I am originally from Coeur d’Alene Idaho.

Apart from creating things, what do you do?

This is our first rainy Portland winter so we spend much of our time baking, drinking tea and reading books. When it isn’t raining we go for walks to explore our new city and ride bikes. I have also been looking for a job. If you live in Portland and know of one please contact me! We look forward to getting chickens in the spring and gardening in our yard now that we finally have one of our own.

What first made you want to become an artist?

I think I could most easily answer this question by quoting Barnett Newman: “An artist paints so that he will have something to look at; at times he must write so that he will also have something to read.”

Please describe your creative process (how, when, materials, etc).

My collages always start with the photographs, naturally. I get almost all of them from posts on craigslist.org. I ask for people’s doubles, blurry or unwanted photos. At first I went for the brightest and most colorful images, but then I got a collection of photographs from the 70’s. I loved the subtle colors, and they are what I go for mostly now, but I never know what is going to be useful until I get it.

I work on them whenever I can. I have spent over 200 hours on a piece that is currently unfinished; it is a triptych 8 feet by 3 feet. I measure collage time by the number of seasons of television I watch on DVD while working.

Perhaps you have some photos sitting around that you don’t need or maybe some that you would really enjoy knowing will be shredded in a paper shredder. If you do contact me or you can send them anonymously to:

Justyn Hegreberg
P.O. BOX 13495
Portland, OR 97213-0495

What handmade possession do you most cherish?

The plush SARS virus that my fiancé made for me around the time we first became friends. It doubles as a lavender sachet!

Name your top five books, movies, songs/musical groups, and websites (besides Etsy).

I’m not one much for lists but here is a little bit:

Books: The Dead Fish Museum by Charles D’Ambrosio
Music: Sincere Trade
Movie: The Corporation
Website: The Paradox of Choice – How More is Less


What advice would you give to artists who are new to Etsy?

Make what you feel is right. Don’t try to make what you think will sell.

What are your favorite features on Etsy? What new features would you like to see?

Etsy has always been a cleanly designed and easy to navigate site. I didn’t really appreciate that until I started to see other Etsy like sites pop up. The “Shop Local” feature is great. I only wish it extended beyond the 100 most recently updated shops.

The shop categories were a help but I work in different media and I have no way to organize them to create a more visually consistent shop. The ability to organize items in a shop independent of date listed would be greatly appreciated. A more efficient listing process for similar items would be nice as well. Maybe some shop metrics.

How do you promote your work?

I have to admit that I have done little to promote my art. I started on Etsy almost exactly 2 years ago selling pinback buttons made with exotic materials like snake and eel skin. As I started to make art that I was happy with I would list it on Etsy. I didn’t expect much to happen but it was out there. The paintings I sold were from internal Etsy traffic. Then I started to take photographs and make my photo collages. I got a job working at a café and took it upon myself to replace the mass produced art with my own. Many business cards and false alarms later I started to receive sales from that. Having people ask me about my art all the time in the café really helped me get over talking about my own work. Something working at a gallery had not prepared me for. Not that it made this questionnaire any easier!

My focus has been on creating a body of collage work that I will be able to show in a gallery. Once I have built that up I will be more interested in promotion. However, I will be having a small show here in Portland at the Tin Shed on Alberta St.. It will be for Last Thursday in June and will show through July.

In ten years I'd like to be...

at home creating my work without having to have another job. I admire the working lifestyles of Agnes Martin, Chuck Close and Yoshitomo Nara. To the best of my knowledge they have no assistants and they make consistent work that seems to remain true to themselves. I want to produce a small quantity of giant collages that have a reasonable following. That is what I would like.

Male, Born on March 6

Favorite Materials