The new Bel Esprit logo was created in collaboration with Jacob Stevens, local Portland graphic designer. We provided Jacob with the...

Three years ago, in October 2020, with a half-formed idea, a few lofty ideals, and some friends who liked to write, I built the bones of a website and launched Bel Esprit. There were no goals, there was no money, there was no experience or expectation, but what stood firm was the principle of the matter: Art was being made and it needed a place to go. “Art” was anything and everything being created: essays, poems, fiction, doodles, painting, music, photographs, ceramics, etc., and “the...

That time comes back to me nicely as a spliced up montage of debauchery, a dicey collage of sot tampered memories lacking any solid form...