INSIDE GARY HOUSTON’S
VOODOO
CATBOX
PHOTOS BY TOMAS VALLADARES
THE PORTLAND-BASED ARTIST AND MUSIC JUNKIE’S SCRATCHBOARD STYLE IS UNINTENTIONALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE VISUAL AESTHETIC OF
OREGON’S LARGEST MUSIC FESTIVAL
BY CHRIS YOUNG
T
he last thing Gary Houston wants is for you to be staring at a picture of his mug splayed across the pages
of this magazine. He might even be downright unhappy
about what you see on the cover of this issue.
Maybe unhappy is too strong of a word. Humble almost to
a fault, he’s likely just a little apprehensive—uneasy about
the fact that his face is on display rather than his artwork.
Yet, the work he does with his hands has unintentionally
thrust open the curtains he was “wanting to stand behind,”
especially starting in 2001 when Houston—or at least
his instantly recognizable scratchboard artwork with its
woodblock feel—became the face of Portland’s Waterfront
Blues Festival.
“It was never our intention to brand any of t