Dan and Luis Oyster Bar

Dan & Louis Oyster Bar has been serving oysters in Portland's Old Town since 1907, tucked into Ankeny Alley a block from Voodoo Doughnut. When Covid closures forced them to board up their windows and doors, the owners didn't just wait it out. They offered up their whole storefront and patio to local artists, wanting to give the neighborhood something to hold onto besides bad news. We paired them with three different artists and turned the building into a small outdoor gallery.

The first mural went up on the boarded front windows, painted by an artist who normally works in stickers and wood cutouts, this was her first time painting a mural at full scale. She filled the panels with a black and white garden of local plants, strange little creatures, and mushrooms that look pulled from a dream, and called it "Together We Will Grow," a phrase that ended up naming every mural we installed downtown that year. Friends and family showed up to help her paint it.

On the patio, a second artist, an illustrator whose line drawings show up all over the city on the backs of signs and benches, painted a building cracking at the seams, windows shattering, with the words "Don't let it break you down" beside it. It read like a message to every small shop trying to hold on, Dan & Louis included.

The third mural covered eighteen narrow windows along the front of the building, an odd shape most artists would turn down. We brought in a Portland illustrator known for collage work and a style shaped by graffiti and tattoo culture, and she gave each window its own icon: a candle, a ladder, roller skates, a peace sign, an oyster pearl, dice. Small symbols of luck and staying strong. The owners loved it enough to ask about commissioning individual canvases for their staff, a thank you for sticking it out through the closures. All three murals became part of the Together We Grow PDX Community Art Project, which eventually spread across downtown Portland.

Want to bring public art into your space or neighborhood? Kali Grey handles the artists, the concept, and the full installation, from a single storefront mural to a citywide project. Get in touch and let's talk.