Skip to main content
DeAngelo Raines
GHTOBLST
What does he make? Dope stuff happen.
Whenever someone asks DeAngelo Raines to define himself creatively, he always has to laugh.
"I don't feel it's possible to whittle it down to one thing," he says. "So I usually just use the phrase, 'I try to do dope deeds.'"
Indeed, that broad description covers several years of dopeness, stretching back to his high school days in Atlanta, where he won a mural contest and played Franklin Roosevelt in a school play, once improvising a scene in which he jumped out of his wheelchair and moonwalked across the stage.
He's been a musician, comic artist, set designer, art director, gallery owner and DJ. He's still all those things. But when he truly thinks about his niche in the Portland creative world, he says it's "creating space" for all those dope deeds to occur.
He's curated pop-up concerts put on by Pabst Blue Ribbon, helped create a virtual reality playland at Ground Kontrol for artist and video game designer Momo Pixel, and thrown his own art parties at Portland Night Market and the Service event space. As an event planner, Raines' history as a polymath means he's never dependent on anyone else to make things happen, whether that means designing fliers or operating a forklift.
"If I've got to get up there and DJ at my own party, I can do it. If I've got to fucking move shipping containers around and organize them, guess who can do it?" he says. "I can do all that stuff, and that's why I like to change it up every time. I'm sick of Portland being stagnant and stuck on one wave. I want shit just to always be spontaneous. There's no reason why we can't keep switching it up."
FIND IT: ghtoblist.com
Bare Knuckles' Designer Workwear Looks like It Was Discovered in a Thrift Store from the Future
Bijan Berahimi Is a Graphic Designer Who's Worked with Everyone from Toro Y Moi to Akadi Restaurant
Manu Torres Makes Floral Arrangements That Look like They're from Another World
Drake and Katy Perry Are Among the Big-Name Fans of Vincent Osborne's Airbrush Art
Michael James Schneider Has Gone Viral for Making Memes Making Fun of Memes
Tiffany Thompson Makes Your Home or Workplace So Stylish it Looks Staged By HGTV Designers
Phil Sylvester Makes Guitars That Should Be Mounted on the Walls of Avant-Garde Art Galleries
Nick Tretiak Makes Furniture Out of Trees That Fall During Portland Storms
Deandra Stokes Makes Your Dream of Looking in the Mirror and Seeing Rihanna Come True
T Ngu Makes Subtle Statement Pieces That Speak Volumes
Ask DeAngelo to Define Himself Creatively And He'll Tell You He "Tries to Do Dope Deeds"
For Laura Allcorn, Jokes Aren't Just Words They Can Be Physical Experiences
Winston the Whale Makes Trippy Tattoos Straight Out of an Acid Trip