In a recent exhibition of eight gouache, ink, and colored pencil portraits, Portland-based polymath Storm Tharp vividly brought to life an array of imaginary characters. Melding influences ranging from Ralph Steadman (the Hunter S. Thompson illustrator, known for his “chrysanthemums” of splashed ink) to Richard Avedon, Japanese woodcuts to French Harlequinism, Tharp corrals bleeding ink into feathery, mottled images of men and women by turns gorgeous and grotesque in their self-presentation. Here, portraiture becomes less an art of resemblance than the making of images touched by a spark of