Big Fields of Emptiness: Interview with Vanessa Renwick

By Nora Robertson
New Oregon Interview Series

Vanessa Renwick, one of Portland's most respected artist-filmmakers, is making me tea on a weathered gas stove. We're sitting in her kitchen, where a metal ladder leads straight up to a sleeping loft.  There are a couple of dogs at her feet that look like they have some wolf blood in them, Renwick’s got jeans and a band t-shirt on and has short shaggy brown hair.  She gives the tea to me in a yellow glass cup with a saucer.  We’re occasionally interrupted by the sound of her chickens...