Portland Magazine
June 1, 2022
FOR YEARS BRAD FRANCO, chair of UP’s history department, had wanted to make a map of Portland. How fortuitous, then, that the Admissions team asked him to jump in and give it a try. They wanted a map to send to prospective students, one that highlighted the city’s neighborhoods, its parks, its famous food scene, and other cultural institutions—all the fun things that were waiting for them here.
That Franco had never created a map before wasn’t really a deterrent—even if he admits that in the end it was a bigger undertaking than he’d ever imagined. And really, if his kneejerk answer to projects he’d never done before was to avoid them, then he’d never have started making art in the first place.
Visual art has been a later-in-life pursuit, one he started only about five years ago. It probably loosely started while he was doodling with his kiddos on a cross-country flight from Portland to upstate New York, where he grew up and discovered his love of history—he got his PhD from Syracuse. It’s also where he acquired his love of making music. That was his comfort zone as a teenager. “Music and songwriting and recording—I’ve loved that whole process since I was fifteen,” he says.
Mustering up the courage to make visual art took a little longer. “I swore off art at age twelve,” he says. After getting a so-so grade on an art project, he just thought he couldn’t do it. But the energizing and meditative quality of making something new always stayed with him.
“I’ve always felt most alive during the creative process,” he says. And he includes teaching among his creative pursuits. During a sabbatical, when he had the headspace for a new creative hobby, he started to draw. And he kept drawing. Now his work has been exhibited in Buckley Center and Clark Library galleries, and he created an official NBA Gameday Poster for the Portland Trail Blazers. He enjoyed the map project because he loves living in Portland, and creating this map of his home reminded him of all the things that make it special.
To see more of Brad’s art or for more information on the poster, visit his Instagram @bradfrancoart.
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