About
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Nationally collected artist Tabor Porter creates endlessly inventive jewelry and small sculptures. He finds joy in both extraordinary curios and everyday vintage knickknacks from cultures around the world, especially intricate objects and pieces with rich historic context often involving religious or spiritual symbols. These curios both inform and are represented in each unique magical objet d'art Tabor creates.
Tabor has been a metalsmith for over 30 years, often also incorporating woodcarving, rare gemstones and found objects in his work. Having defied a doctor’s death sentence in 1986, Tabor's work passionately represents the concepts of life and death and the unfocused barrier that divides and connects these states. He explores the collective unconscious across cultures to convey the natural concepts of death and existence. Each year Porter joins the celebration of the Day of the Dead finding inspiration in the essence of this spiritual holiday and fuses it with Jungian psychology, creating a bridge between spiritual and psychological representations of death. Tabor attended Oregon College of Arts and Craft from 1990 to 2010. His work is part of the Northwest Collection at the Tacoma Art Museum and is included in the book, Found Objects Art 2. While at Oregon Collage of Arts and Crafts, Tabor was honored to be the studio assistant for Fred Woell (considered the "father of studio jewelry") for many summers. Fred had a profound influence on Tabor's work. Tabor is represented by RiverSea Gallery in Astoria, Oregon. |