“I knew at a very young age that I loved design,” said president of Portland, Oregon based JHL Design, Holly Freres. “My mom restored a 1920s Tudor when I was in high school. I vividly remember helping her select the finishes for each space and watched how she developed the story by weaving our family history and modern finishes together.” Today, she proudly leads a woman-owned and run business that was founded in 1999 by her mother, Jane Freres.
“[My mother] nurtured me to be a savvy-minded business woman, but she also showed me how to have a discerning eye. Jane started the business and trained me in my twenties. One of my first pitches was to a group of investors for a new commercial building – the entire interior package and branding. She let me run the show, and from then on I’ve been learning and growing my practice. Twenty years later, I am still loving it.”
Holly took the lead as Principal in 2003, and now leads a 12-person team of collaborative, dynamic design visionaries. Her husband, David Horning, leads the building design and architecture side of JHL. Both Oregon natives, their backgrounds includes a mix of residential and commercial projects, including restaurant and hospitality clients, high-end single-family homes, and retail and industrial designs.
Holly’s extensive experience traveling – which includes living in France and New Zealand, as well as visiting much of Europe, Mexico, Southeast Asia, India, and Africa – has helped shape her modern aesthetic. She relishes the juxtaposition of textures and colors encountered during her travels, such as vibrant, hand-dyed ikats from Indonesia or hand-made artifacts of Africa.
As well as a successful business, Holly seems to have her work/life balance down pat – which includes belting out a few songs in the car each day. “My commute home is delightfully short, so I find a good tune or two helps me reorient my joy to share the love with my family of four when I get home. My little ones are five and seven, so we dive right into art, cooking together, and telling stories of their school day,” she shared.
We’re happy to have Holly Freres joining us today for Friday Five!
Photo: Holly Freres
Cape Town, South Africa is a place I visited with my husband about a decade ago. It quickly became the favorite trip of my lifetime. The city was very metropolitan yet also felt like it was on the verge of being engulfed by rugged, natural beauty. The blend of historic and modern architecture was incredible. In particular, the buildings in the wine region of Franschhoek are centuries old, and yet the interiors were so gracefully modernized. The people coming from all over the world, combined with beautiful views and amazing food and wine, made for a life-changing experience.
Photo: Darlene DeMichele
I am fascinated by anything woven. When I travel, you will find me deeply immersed in the textiles of a region. There is so much to glean about a culture through an understanding of fabric makers. I always ask about the tools they use, what fibers they work with, and how the art and production of textiles impacts a community. I love learning about what the different patterns and symbols mean. Some of the richest conversations I have had were in Jaipur, India where everyone I talked to spoke from a place of incredible pride. I’ll also never forget hiking to some of the smaller villages in Sumba, Indonesia to learn about the beautiful Ikats made by local women on the island.
Photo courtesy Civic Wines
We are doing so much work in wine country these days, and I am very much delighting in all of the perks that come along with it! I haven’t yet earned the title of wine aficionado, but I definitely know my way around a cellar. I am really enjoying the versatility of Etna Rosso. It’s a medium bodied, dry red wine with a very fresh taste. It comes from a volcanic region of Italy, so there is an acidity and minerality to it. You can eat it with meaty pasta, or chill it and enjoy with lighter fare like grilled shrimp.
Photo: Holly Freres
I lived in France in my twenties, and when I visited Paris for the first time I fell completely and totally in love with Sacré-Cœur Basilica. This ancient Roman gem of Byzantine architecture is like nothing I had ever stepped foot into. Its mass, its location on the hill, its solitude and peace. I will never forget the feeling of sitting inside and taking in all of the details. I visited during the daytime and at night to study both the interior and the exterior form. It truly is the sacred heart of Paris. I can’t wait to show it to my children one day and see it again through their eyes.
Photo: Lincoln Barbour
In our designs, we advocate for use of natural materials in their purest form. This stems from my upbringing in Oregon, where my family has been in the wood products business for more than 100 years. In order to have this type of tenure in the business, you have to think long-term about how you are using the earth’s resources. I am very proud of the approach my family has taken over the last century to harvest sustainably, use every last piece of a log, and ultimately re-plant.
Cosmo Modern Portland, Oregon, condo interiors by JHL Design Photo: Lincoln Barbour
Silver Falls Custom home interiors by JHL Photo: Haris Kenjar
Studio Penthouse Portland, Oregon, Corporate office interiors by JHL Photo: Haris Kenjar
Tanner Place Portland, Oregon, condo interiors by JHL Design Photo: Haris Kenjar
The photography of Pam Riley Blake is now on display at the Verona Public Library.
Blake, who grew up in East Orange, has lived in Verona for 43 years. She attended Ursinus College and did graduate work at Penn State University. She was a vice president at both Marsh and Aon companies in New York City in the field of professional liability and still provides seminars to architects and engineers as an independent consultant.
Much of Blake’s photography is inspired by her home in Downeast Maine as well as her travels. In addition to her love of photography, she enjoys being active with the Woman’s Club of Verona, the Food Pantry at Church of the Holy Spirit, the Verona Book Club, and Verona UNICO.
There will be an artist’s reception at the Library on Sunday, November 5, from 2 to 4 p.m.
Much of the photography collection of Sir Elton John and David Furnish will be loaned to and exhibited at the V&A Museum in London, England, and will showcase a who’s who of legendary photographers.
Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection will be exhibited in partnership with Gucci at the V&A next year. The exhibition will be comprised of over 300 rare prints from over 140 photographers – the majority of which will be on display to the public for the first time. This is a perfect opportunity to see the work of some of the greatest photographers of all time.
The exhibition will showcase photographs from the 1950s to the present day and will follow on from a previous exhibition at London’s Tate Modern – The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection.
The new show brings together an unrivaled selection of the world’s leading photographers to tell the story of modern and contemporary photography. Works by Robert Mapplethorpe, William Eggleston, Diane Arbus, Sally Mann, Zanele Muholi, and others will be included.
The V&A states that the exhibition will include photographs “across eight thematic sections, it will explore subjects such as fashion, reportage, celebrity, the male body, and American photography. Portraits of stars from stage and screen will feature, including photography of Marilyn Monroe, Miles Davis, and Chet Baker, as well as iconic images from key moments of history from the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, AIDS activism of the 1980s and the events of 11 September 2001”.
As well as showcasing and celebrating some of the great photographers, this exhibition also marks 30 years of collecting, John and Furnish’s passion for the medium, and their unique eyes as collectors.
“Since we first loaned a selection of Horst photographs to the V&A in 2014, our relationship with the museum has grown significantly,” said Sir Elton.
“Fragile Beauty takes our collaboration to really exciting new heights, showcasing some of the most beloved photographers and iconic images from within our collection. Working alongside the V&A again has been a truly memorable experience, and we look forward to sharing this exhibition with the public.”
Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection is curated by Duncan Forbes, head of photography at the V&A, Newell Harbin, director of The Sir Elton John Photography Collection, and Lydia Caston, exhibition project curator.
Just by looking at the list of photographers included in the exhibition, this is a must-see! I always appreciate photography and the work involved in making an image more when viewed in person – there is magic to a print’s physicality that is lost in the modern age of artificial screens. This will also be a great time to see so many great works in one place, with many being shown for the first time.
The exhibition will take place May 18 2024 – January 05 2025 in The Sainsbury Gallery, V&A South Kensington, London, with tickets available soon. Plenty of time to make travel arrangements!
Three Indigenous artists and content creators are Indigenizing nerdy popular culture while battling stereotypes, building communities and collaborating with one another.
Alina Pete, an artist from Little Pine First Nation in Saskatchewan, has edited a collection of stories into a graphic novel called Indigenerds, which is set to publish next year.
She said popular culture spheres have been mainly white-centric and through her artistic journey she has worked toward creating space for Indigenous creators.
“I really like seeing these stories celebrated because so often we can get pigeon-holed and stereotyped especially with Native people,” she told CBC Indigenous from her home in Surrey, B.C.
“There’s this idea that we’re really still focused in the past and a lot of people’s perception of us is teepees and buckskin and not, like, playing Nintendo on the reserve like I used to with my cousins [when] I was a kid.”
Indigenerds includes 11 stories from Indigenous people from all backgrounds.
Pete said much of her own work is within the science fiction genre, including the story she wrote for Indigenerds. Pete based her story off of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode which features a common trope in sci-fi.
A group of Indigenous people have occupied land and are looked at as a “primitive” society while the futuristic heroes resemble a “civilized” culture.
“They are being asked to move off of their planet once again; my story is how [the episode] affected me even as a young child,” Pete said.
Pete remembers thinking it was cool to see that Indigenous people were represented in this futuristic setting.
“We’re in space. We’ve got our own sovereignty even if it means having to leave Earth,” she said.
“But how depressing it was to know that even in the far future where everything is supposed to be utopian, we’ve fixed all of our problems now in space, [and] colonization is still happening and we are still being forcibly removed from our land.”
Her own science fiction writing, she said, is written with a more hopeful and decolonized focus.
“It’s sort of idealized, back to living in sync with the land and we [bring] a lot of sustainable practices, traditional practices in fact, with us back to the future,” she said.
“I know we spend a lot of time thinking about the colonial traumas that are affecting us currently and I really like thinking about a future where that’s no longer the case.”
Another Indigenous author and illustrator said they enjoy starting with fresh ideas and not so much the old western themes.
Jordanna George, from T’Sou-ke Nation in B.C. and currently living in Coquitlam, is an artist and illustrator featured in Indigenerds with a story called Roll Your Own Way.
“In an ideal world [those tropes] are just a bridge to original ideas from Indigenous creators that don’t use that western lens as a starting point,” they said.
“We can just have our own things from the base up.”
George’s story in the novel revolves around Dungeons and Dragons, something they themselves are passionate about.
George said Dungeons and Dragons and other tabletop games are similar to writing or any other creative outlet.
“You’re building a story and you’re building a character and you’re building this narrative,” they said.
“It’s a safe way to explore your own identity [and] different ways of living.”
Bianca Martin, a Mi’gmaq Twitch streamer from Gesgapegiag in Quebec, does a variety of things on her stream revolving around her own First Nations identity, like teaching her language and going through Indigenous literature to teach people Indigenous history and truths.
She said streaming has given her a sense of community by forming connections with people from different backgrounds.
“[I] have authentic connections with people who have similar values, who have similar ideas or who have an interest in learning,” Martin said, adding her viewers come from around the world.
“Because they don’t have access to that education, they don’t have access to those resources.”
Martin said along with providing education, streaming is a way for her to be in an industry where Indigenous people are underrepresented.
“Land back is about taking up space and taking back ownership and our ability to make decisions for ourselves and our land … It also extends to digital environments, to me,” Martin said.
“I want to occupy space that might not have been very friendly or safe [for] Indigenous people and I want us to take that space.”
