Gallery Mission
The American Red Cross Life's Crossing Community Gallery is aligned with the Red Cross values and fundamental principles. The goal of this gallery is to create a welcoming and relaxing environment for staff, volunteers and those they serve.

The gallery, located inside the Red Cross at 3131 N. Vancouver Ave. in Portland, will serve as a bridge to our local neighborhood through our arts community.

Call to artists and submission information
Download the consignment agreement (PDF)

Stephanie C. Meredith

About the Pollen Series:

These paintings are about beauty: unseen beauty.  Flowers are a universal symbol of beauty: a perfect creation of nature.  Besides scientists, few have ventured beyond the surface of a flower; gazed at the inner workings.  Pollen is so minuscule that with the naked eye it is mere dust, but with close examination its beauty is unsurpassed.   It is vibrant, sensual and striking.

The job of pollen is to carry the sperm of one flower to pollinate another.  Its purpose is to create new life, breed more beauty.   I painted pollen because they are beautiful, because they create life, and because life is beauty. 

Pollen is known little for its form and vibrancy, but for the annoyance and irritation it causes people during allergy season.  Yet beauty is never about perfection and harmony.  Beauty can destroy or uplift, it can devastate or inspire just as life can. 

I I painted pollen because I wanted a close up of life, a microscopic slice. Something that would show life’s polarities: its joys and hardships.  But most of all, something that showed life’s beauty. 

Matt Clark

About the Artist

My love of traveling began at age 9 when I snuck my new stingray bicycle out the driveway and rode the 12-mile trek to my grandmother’s house.  There I was given some soup and a sandwich; and with a wink and smile sent pedaling back home again. Since then I have been to three continents and hoboed around this one from West Coast to East, Alaska to Costa Rica.

I have had a love hate relationship with photography. After winning second place in a photo contest at the county fair when I was ten, I had a string of bad luck with cameras and film. As a result I have virtually no pictures of the Himalayas, camel caravans, or pilgrims in the Ganges. Then, in 2005, I discovered….digital cameras!!

A 3.2 mega-pixal CoolPix and a colorful Nicaraguan woman selling mangos lead me to my present love affair with photography. Though my “hoboing” is now limited to one month per year, my Canon EOS 30D is my constant companion.

Since then, I sat in on a couple of photography classes, and worked with two friends doing some wedding shoots, who taught me a lot; but mostly I’ve learned my craft through trial and error thanks to the instant image feedback of my trusty Canon and Apple computer.

Photography has become for me a journey of discovery of that which intrigues me and captures my attention and thus stops time for just a moment. In that sense it is the image that captures me the photographer.  A mutual attraction I suppose….as with all great love affairs.