About

Hello! I am Linnea Cat Stahura, and I am a queer/trans/disabled media and tattoo artist living in Portland, Oregon. I work mostly locally but have done international commission work, and can be found every so often in shows like RAWartists, First Thursdays, and small pop-up shows around my city. My work centralizes around letterforms as both a visual medium and as a pathway for merging ideas between the people of this world. I am inspired by words that helps us feel known, important, and connected.

history

My practice focuses on non-traditional lettering surfaces and the idea of embodiment, with these artistic decisions based largely on my technical background in fine arts. I grew up in California and studied techniques in watercolor, charcoal, oil color, and gouache when I was 6 to 10, and then began working with ink and paper structures in my twenties. I was able to explore intermedia techniques and object design at the Oregon College of Art and Craft, and finished my BFA in Intermedia at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. This degree is deeply intwined with my community engagement, using fine art methods to talk about oppression and injustice.

Why I make art

I do commission work for individuals and business, mostly local to my hometown in Portland, Oregon. I prioritize local businesses and QTBIPOC, and gain most of my customers from word-of-mouth and connection to my community through mutual aid projects. I work with local farms through MERP, the Municipal Eco Resiliency Project, to connect underprivileged communities to food and land. I also co-run PDX Non-Binary, a community support group for gender-nonconforming folks in the Portland area. I support these organizations through both in-person work as well as my art, as I design graphics and images that center accessibility, craftsmanship, and social justice. I prioritize art as my main tool for supporting my community and combating the daily struggles of our failing capitalistic system. The most important aspect of my work is accessibility, so that it serves as a place for people to feel recognized and understood. I want to speak to and honor the messier parts of being a person, and hold them to the light without shame so that we all might be able to grow and connect in new ways.