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Black Ribbon Road: Tim Stapleton

Black Ribbon Road: Tim Stapleton
IFCC/ Tim Stapleton
May 28 - June 20
Tuesday through Friday 11:00-6:00pm and Saturdays noon-4:00pm

Gallery Free

Artist’s Tea June 13 1:00pm


Performances of Leaning on Everlasting Arms are Sunday May 31, June 7, 14, 21 7:00pm

“Tim Stapleton’s striking design . . . the long diagonal wires with their curtains of transparent white material, the cloudy sky painted on the wall at the stage, the white panels that frame each scene . . . is a perfect ground for the story.” – The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon


“I paint the way thought travels. If I’m successful, the traces of memory I choose will emotionally challenge the viewers and lure them to explore the mysteries of their own experiences.” – Tim Stapleton


Haunting photographs by Tim Stapleton document his journey home to the Appalachian mountains after a heartbreaking 30 year separation from home. Sunday performances of his original play, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms,” bring to light his baptism into a strict southern church and the abuse that follows. Haunting and healing the artwork and performance reveal a fascination struggle to happiness.


A note from the artist

I decided to do this project because my stories have been buried for sometime. They kept crying out to me. So I dug them up and exposed their decomposing parts. I made a sojourn back to my roots, back to the Eastern Kentucky Appalachians. I dredged up the past and took a good long look at where I came from. I talked with a choice few who have remained there, One who has been living in a deep recess of my heart for low these forty years. I took photographs. I painted. I wrote a performance piece and a manuscript detailing my childhood there and my journey out.

When I had uncovered everything I could find, and brushed the cobwebs from my memory, I had these piles of torn recollections, and I had to decide exactly what to do with them. So I went about pasting them together to see if I could make, out of faded visuals, a representation of how it’s been for me. You know, a collage, an image of a life.

Tim Stapleton lives in Portland, and has been a professional Scenic Designer for thirty years. He was the resident designer for Boarshead: Michigan Public Theatre in Lansing, Michigan for eight seasons. He came to the Pacific Northwest in 1986, and has since designed scenery for several Theatre Companies in the area. Tim has worked with the Regional Arts & Culture Council in Portland as a liaison to Social Services, and has taught Theatre courses for Willamette University, Central Washington University, and Lewis & Clark College. He has three Drammy awards from the Portland Area Theatre Alliance for his stage designs, as well as a Fellowship from The National Endowment for the Arts. He has been a guest designer for The Pacific Dance Ensemble and Red Octopus Theatre Company in Newport, Oregon, The Apollo Theatre in Chicago, The Riverwalk Theatre in Okemos, Michigan, Wenatchee Children’s Theatre in Washington State, and the Mariko Dance Theatre in Kyoto, Japan. Tim’s paintings have been shown at the Mina Dresden Gallery in San Francisco, the Lansing Art Gallery in Lansing, Michigan, the Huntington Galleries in Huntington, West Virginia, Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and with the Kentucky Arts Commission in Louisville, Kentucky. He received his MFA in Creative Inquiry from New College of California. Tim has written a soon to be published manuscript titled BLACK RIBBON ROADS: a journey out of Appalachia.

Events Calendar

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In the gallery

IFCC 25th Anniversary Time Line IFCC 25th Anniversary Time Line

In the theatre

Church Girls Church Girls

Crazy 8’s to Perform at IFCC Homecoming

Imagine being in charge of entertainment for your homecoming dance in 1982. You would probably have to get some lame DJ or maybe that guy who used to be a senior like three times and now he has a band. OK, that’s the nightmare now imagine the dream. You would want a band that was hot. All around hot. Great music that was jumpin’ with lots of horns and guitars and like, two drummers. And they were so hot the girls would go crazy but the band was cool enough that even the guys would be like, dude… they rock! That dream is now a reality! Portland’s hottest band from the 80’s is playing your homecoming! I just booked the Crazy 8’s!!! (insert fan scream here and read more . . .)