Muralist Kyra Watkins celebrates Jason Washington's life through portraiture

Watkins

Kyra Watkins, a Portland-based public and digital artist hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio, served as PSU’s Artist in Residence during the 2023-2024 academic year, during which she created the new Jason Washington Mural now on display in Smith Memorial Student Union. Watkins’ background is primarily in portraiture and figurative work, as well as in large-scale public murals. She has a strong passion for working with youth, in part because her own creative practice began when she was a child. Claire Hinkley from Inside Portland State sat down with Watkins recently to talk about the Jason Washington Mural, the residency and her journey up until now.

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CH: Can you describe your artistic practice?

KW: I could tell you about how I got my start in the arts, for that heavily influenced my practice and what I do now. When I was 13 years old, I drew my very first self portrait. I had a preschool picture of myself in my room, and I don't know if I was on punishment, but I drew that picture of myself, and I thought, Wow, this looks amazing. We could do something with this. Then, when I was in high school, there were these flyers around my school saying, ‘Make art, get paid.’ And I was like, Okay, I like to make art. I like to get paid. So I applied, and that's where I landed my very first apprenticeship with a nonprofit organization called Artwork Cincinnati.

In college, I majored in fine arts. And when you're doing your undergraduate in fine arts, you have to do everything. You have to do studio time, you have to do painting, drawing, all those things. But I still liked portraiture. Then I met a person that I started dating and, through that person, I moved to Portland. The relationship failed, but I was like, I cannot allow my only experience here be that I moved here because I was dating someone. So I started applying for murals, because I had this extensive mural background, and I landed my very first mural with Portland Street Art Alliance. I still had this knack for portraiture, so a lot of times when people commissioned me for murals, they commissioned me to do portraits.

CH: What was your experience like working on the Jason Washington piece as the PSU 2023-2024 Artist in Residence?

KW: It was absolutely amazing. This was actually my very first residency, so every residency after this one will have a pretty high bar. The [PSU] faculty was so welcoming, [Jason Washington’s] family was so welcoming. I have to give a shout out to the entire Jason Washington Committee for the legwork. There was a long line of work that happened before I even got there. The amount of championing that the committee has done for this piece has been tremendous, and it's made my job a lot easier.

And I have to give a special thank you and appreciation for [committee chair] Dr. Patricia Schecter, for she has been the buffer point. If I needed anything, she got it. If there were any hiccups, she relieved any type of stress I could possibly have. I just had to paint. So that was absolutely amazing to have her and to have everyone on the committee.

Then also having a family that is open and willing to share their story as much as the Washington family has been open and willing to share their story. It's an interesting position for me to be in, but I can only imagine the position the family is in to continue to move forward with such a tragedy. They do it with such poise and such strength and such bravery, I can't commend them enough. I can't express my appreciation enough for trusting me with such a sensitive story, and one that they hold so dear. That made everything worthwhile.

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Muralist Kyra Watkins (left) with Jason Washington's family at the PSU unveiling event.

CH: What was your process for designing the mural? Did they approach you with the idea?

KW: I got an email, a request for qualification, from Julie Perini [Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design Professor]. I get a lot of requests for qualification, like, hey, maybe you want to throw your hat in a ring. I saw it, and I knew that it was based in portraiture so I applied. One of the asks after submitting the request for qualification was to meet with the committee and have a sketch. So my sketch was actually a small 11” by 14” painting of Jason. I interviewed with the committee, and I showed the painting, and everyone was blown away. Kayla Washington, his daughter, was very impressed. You could tell that it meant a lot.

CH: After you got the residency, was it up to you to design the piece? Or did you work with anybody on it?

KW: It was a large-scale collaboration. I met with the family and the committee, but everyone really just gave me the reins. I would do a few designs, and I'd show them the designs, and [I’d say,] if you like them, we go forward, or you can just give me ideas of what you want. Then I would present a design, and everyone was like, we love it. There was really no pushback. I felt like I really had the reins, and they really trusted that I would accurately depict him, and trusted the vision that I'd acquired by sitting with the family. We kind of just ran with it. In many projects, the design process can be a very long process because a lot of people have a lot of opinions. But here, no one really had any objections. I thought everyone felt enthused by the work that I was doing.

CH: Tell us more about the mural and its various elements.

KW: I guess we'll start with the approach of the color. The color was to be analogous to the room that the piece was going to be in. I knew it was going to be in the upper mezzanine, so I wanted something that wasn't too complimentary to where it would cause contrast or conflict. I picked an analogous color to the type of reddish oranges that were already in the room.

As far as the piece, I knew going in that we wanted Jason to be the centerpiece. I wanted to remember Jason the way his family remembers him, the way his community remembers him. So I wanted to show glee in his face. From all that I gathered by being around his family, he was a very cheerful man, clearly a very strong patriarch of this family, and everyone loved him. So I wanted to give that sense of warmth and invitingness to his face.

Watkins

It was very important that we include his name, because a lot of times, people will hold onto the event that took place, and there's a lot of erasure that comes with the parties that are involved. And we do not want Jason's name or his memory to perish while the event still lives on and we're claiming that we want to move past this, or to grow from this. In order to grow, we have to continue to remember not only the event, but Jason, and that he's a real person and not just a persona or a character in a story. This was a real life that was lost. So the name was important.

Another element of having his name in the piece is [the audience] will probably be curious as to who Jason Washington is. We want people to look him up and see the story and see the tragedy. But I didn't want the painting to necessarily portray tragic, because I didn't want to surmise him into his final moments. I think his life is greater than his last moments.

Then for his first name, Jason, I decided to do a double exposure of his family on his name, because now that's what we have left of Jason – his family. In his first letter, you'll have Jason, in the second letter, you have his wife, and in the last three letters, his daughters.

CH: Now that the mural is complete, what’s next for you?

KW: A load of things. Right now, I have a show that is happening at Portland Center Stage through the month of July. It's up right now through the 30th. I'm teaching at the Bodecker Foundation, and that's been amazing. My passion has always been working with youth, and I'm so thankful to the Bodecker Foundation for giving me that pathway. And just a lot of murals, a lot of paintings of children. A lot of hanging out with my nephews and enjoying my family. So just a lot of art and love.

CH: I love that. Okay, last question. Any go-to summer activities in Portland, or things you want to do with your nephews this summer?

KW: Oh, my goodness, you know what this summer for me is, the summer of the kickback. We're taking it out of the bars, we're going into the backyards, and we're throwing something on the grill. Just invite everybody. It's a potluck every weekend. Not at my house, though. We're in the backyard and we're throwing something on the grill.

You can view Kyra Watkins’ mural of Jason Washington in the upper mezzanine of Smith Memorial Student Union on the PSU campus. You can learn more about her work by following her on Instagram at hernamewaskyra.

MORE ABOUT THE JASON WASHINGTON MEMORIAL PROJECT

Jason Washington Mural a Call to Action for Campus to 'Move Beyond Bystander'

Memorial marker for Jason Washington unveiled near Portland State University

Jason Washington Art Committee