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Rankin Renwick

Filmmaker and Creative Rankin Renwick Finds Inspiration Off the Beaten Path

written by Joni Kabana Imagine yourself sweeping floors for an Oregon-based designer who is creating puppets for The Lion King on Broadway when the thought occurs to you that you should be focusing solely on your own art. You quit your job on the spot and start laser-focusing on your lifelong passion in experimental filmmaking, documentary, video installation, writing and whatever tickles your artistic fancy. Freedom is what defines Rankin Renwick’s artistic style. Take Renwick’s gonzo film promotion process, for example, of calling museums, grange halls, universities and film centers on the fly. The game, Renwick said, is not driving more than one day without securing a paid showing. Renwick still takes extended backroad trips meandering through impromptu artists’ studio visits, following leads to rooms full of stored film footage and stopping along the road to capture something inspired by an intuitive feeling. “Everything I do I consider is working…

Meat and vegetables hang from a fire dome during Tournant’s recent Oregon Asado event near Dundee.

Tournant: Dreams on Fire

A couple’s foray into community building through ancient cooking techniques written by Joni Kabana photography by Aubrie LeGault During both of their childhoods, Mona Johnson and Jaret Foster spent a lot of time in the great outdoors growing and eating bountiful food choices. While a natural progression for both of them was ending up working in professional kitchens, they also both shared a dream of creating a more immersive dining experience. In 2009, the couple met and bonded over their love of food, farms, nature and community building while working at Portland Farmers Market, a nonprofit organization that organizes various farmers’ markets. They began to formulate a plan centering on a new way of cooking that would engage and inspire both themselves and their guests. Tournant, their open-fire cooking and events company, was born out of this shared vision. Tournant’s signature offering is an unparalleled outdoor dining experience using farm-to-fire…

Poison Waters

Tickled by Fancy

Portland’s Poison Waters is a drag queen icon written by Joni Kabana After becoming starstruck while watching black drag queens perform in an all-ages show at The City Nightclub in Portland in the late ’80s, Kevin Cook said to himself: that could be me. Drag is for me! Fast forward to thirty-four years later, drag has definitely played an important focus for Cook via the sharp-tongued and glam gorgeous drag identity, Poison Waters. Poison’s award list over the years includes titles such as Rosebud 13 (Underage Drag Pageant), La Femme Magnifique (both Oregon and International), Imperial Princess 25, Rose Empress 44 and Queen of Queens. Accolades and awards aside, what is most important to this queen is kindness and humor. Known for her intelligent quick wit and sassy communication style, Poison can also be found volunteering at numerous nonprofits (she grew up poor and benefitted from charities) and hosting fundraising…

Jeff Daly

Just Clowning Around

Emmy-winning cameraman Jeff Daly returns to Astoria to restore a piece of its past written and photographed by Joni Kabana What’s a guy to do after he is awarded two Peabodys and an Emmy for knuckle-clutching TV sports filming? Go back home. That is precisely what Jeff Daly did in the ’90s. He made his way back to the Pacific Northwest, settled in Seaside and opened his delightfully eclectic studio space in Astoria on the first floor of a boat house that juts out over the mighty Columbia River. Daly’s first foray into art car design was in 1969 when he acquired his first car—a 1948 Mercury Woody station wagon that he still drives today. When he realized he had to make a serious wage to be able to pay for all of his expanding projects, he took a career side trip to become a top notch TV cameraman. Having…

Sunday Afternoons hats

Hat Trick

Ashland outdoors retailer Sunday Afternoons doesn’t put a lid on innovation written by Kevin Max Angeline and Robbin Lacy began their business thirty years ago with an outdoor blanket they’d designed for their family adventures, but it was the fabric scraps that built the Ashland-based company. They began making high quality hats from the scraps. Today, Sunday Afternoons is focused on innovation and hats. The company has forty-five patents for inventions such as a sunglass lock, which is two narrow pockets on the sides of a hat that hold the arms of sunglasses in place, and a split brim that allows for easy folding and packing. They sell their hats in fifty-seven countries. Prior to becoming Sunday Afternoons CEO, Sarah Sameh was working in the outdoor retail sector and was intrigued by the brand and where it could go. “I had known about Sunday Afternoons and, by chance, met Robbin…

Founder Robert Seidel at The Essential Oil Company in Portland.

Aromatic Quest

The scent of balsam fir propelled a forestry student to build a company based on essential oils written by Seamus Casey photography by Dan Hawk Robert Seidel was studying forestry in New York in the 1970s when he encountered the aroma of balsam fir. This set off a “quest” for the extraction of aromatic compounds from natural products and, later, designing his own distillation equipment. He learned everything he could find on the topic and then, at Powell’s Books, found a six-volume set of books, The Essential Oils by Ernest Guenther. “I devoured all six volumes and still use that set of books today.” “I started my business in 1977 with the goal of supplying true essential oils to the consumer, the herbalists, soap makers and candle makers,” Seidel said. The Essential Oil Company, based in Portland, imports the majority of its essential oils from around the world—rose from Bulgaria…