Have you ever wondered what it would be like to walk into an altered reality? Well come October, you will get the chance. “Jtown” will be taking over the 1078 Gallery. A multimedia, interactive environment, and the brainchild of artist Janice Porter, “Jtown” will transform the gallery into a neighborhood, the likes of which you’ve never seen before. 

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“I want visitors to feel that they have arrived at a neighborhood that’s part of a larger town,” said Porter, “a place that is both familiar and yet very strange.”

Though Porter is the creator, director and producer of this project, she does have the help of her friends, family, and other artists. Porter will create the large backdrops that will span all of the walls of the gallery. She’ll juxtapose and distort the paintings in odd ways in a deliberate attempt to reorient viewers to a new reality. Guest Artists will join in on the design and creation of 3 dimensional architectural components for the neighborhood.

Performance artists and visitor participation events will keep Jtown energized throughout the run of the show. “I’d like visitors to hang out in Jtown when it’s relatively quiet, during regular gallery hours, and then return for the high energy of our events.

I’m looking for a delightful blend of art and anarchy here,” said Porter. “I want the environment and performances to lure people into exposing their true selves.”

Porter has always been into art. She grew up in Highland Park, Illinois, a suburb  of Chicago. After high school she attended Kansas City Art Institute, where she received her BFA degree. She moved to Minneapolis and spent the next 25 years there, raising a family and working as a painter, graphic designer, book illustrator, workshop teacher and community  arts organizer. In 2003, she and her family moved to Chico, and she received her MFA from Chico State in 2006.She has taught art classes both at Chico State and Butte College. She is now teaching two art courses at Shasta College in Redding as well as promoting and creating art in Chico. When Porter isn’t making art or teaching, she is hanging out with people she loves, taking walks or doing yoga, reading books, watching movies, and meditating.

Her inspiration for this new project comes from several different ideas.  She’s been working with neighborhood imagery for a long time now in her art, so the subject matter is a natural.  But Porter says she’s grown a bit weary of exhibits that take a long time to create, and then sit lonely in a gallery after the opening night hubub. This project isn’t about selling the art, either. Her primary motivation comes from her feeling that art is a lifestyle, and that it offers alternate views on how people can think and live. “Jtown is a social, emotional, and metaphysical statement for me,” said Porter. “It was important for me to create a performance and event calendar as an integral part of the town’s life. I’m excited about the quality and variety of the events, and particulary about our opening night event, the consecration of Jtown. We’re going to use funny, serious, and evocative ritual performances that involve the visitors, and together we’ll give birth to a town whose values are distinctly different from the status quo.”