Our Board
Craig Florence is the founder and proprietor of Mother Foucault’s Bookshop.
Craig Florence
Pat Boas’ abstract paintings mine the gap between body, space, and language. Her work has been exhibited at the Portland Art Museum, Oregon Contemporary (Portland, Oregon), the Schneider Museum of Art (Ashland, OR), the Hallie Ford Museum (Salem, OR), the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (Eugene, OR), the Center for Contemporary Art (Santa Fe, NM), the Boise Art Museum (Boise, ID), the Whatcom Museum (Bellingham, WA), the Eiteljorg Museum (Indianapolis, IN), and the Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, OH). She is a recipient of honors, fellowships, grants and residencies from the Corporation of Yaddo, The Ford Family Foundation, Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation, Jentel Foundation, Oregon Arts Commission, Portland Art Museum, and Oregon’s Regional Arts and Culture Council, among others.
Represented by Elizabeth Leach Gallery in Portland, Oregon, Boas is a professor emerita in the School of Art + Design at Portland State University.
Pat Boas
Jay Ponteri directs the Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing program at PNCA where he also serves as the Associate Dean of the Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies & Professional Learning Programs.
Someone Told Me was published by Widow+Orphan House in fall 2020.
His memoir, Wedlocked, was published by Hawthorne Books, April 2013, and it received the 2014 Oregon Book Award in Creative Nonfiction.
His chapbook of short prose, Darkmouth Strikes Again, was published by Future Tense Books, summer 2014. His essay “Listen to this” was mentioned as a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2010, and more recently,
“On Navel Gazing” was mentioned as a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2015.
He has published prose in Knee-Jerk, Essay Daily, Ghost Proposal, Seattle Review, Salamander, and Forklift, Ohio, among others.
Jay Ponteri
Joseph Witt
Joseph Witt is a bookseller and owner of Belmont Books
Harry Ainsworth is an attorney primarily representing tenants who are facing eviction. Because he is not always successful at trial, Harry has a thriving appellate practice and has represented numerous tenants at the Oregon Court of Appeals and Oregon Supreme Court.
Law and Art represent both the structure and the need for creativity and emotion to provide a truly human society.
Harry Ainsworth
Will Spray has been at various points in time and with varying degrees of acclaim, a cartoonist, jazz pianist, punk musician, playwright, photographer, diarist, and a waiter. He is currently a bookshop clerk and bon vivant.
Will Spray
Elizabeth Haidle
Elizabeth Haidle lives in Portland, Oregon and specializes in nonfiction comics—topics range from history to poetry, illustrated book reviews, and memoir. She is the art & editorial director at Illustoria magazine, published by McSweeney’s.
A lifelong art educator, she also leads workshops exploring personal art practice, experimental comics and the tarot.
Marcia Stanley Cuendet
Marcia Stanley Cuendet is an industrial designer who built her career in Switzerland, working in interior design and packaging development for luxury watchmakers, jewelry brands, champagne and spirits brands.
In parallel with her design work, she developed Sooishi. This food-related project included recipe writing, events, and food products, which have been featured in publications such as Vogue Paris and Wallpaper*. She co-founded and led an independent food brand distributed across Switzerland, France, and Spain. Production was overseen by a Swiss foundation offering training and adapted work opportunities for people facing physical, psychological, or social challenges.
After moving to Portland, Oregon, in 2020, she stepped away from the design industry to care for her family. She now volunteers at Mother Foucault’s Bookshop, managing social media and assisting with event coordination.
She will curate the café set to open at Mother Foucault’s Bookshop in 2026.
Clara-Julia Peru: Born in Marseille, France, and based in Oregon since 2017, Clara-Julia is a poet, analog photographer, collage artist, and French instructor whose work bridges language, art, culture and natural cycles. She holds advanced academic credentials from La Sorbonne Nouvelle in Art History, Art Criticism, and Comparative Literature, including a master’s thesis on J.-K. Huysmans published in 2021.
Alongside her artistic practice, she teaches French language, art, and culture to university students and private learners, and works as a professional French interpreter in Oregon and FEMA. Her interdisciplinary background—spanning environmental education, gastronomy, cultural management, and higher education—informs a pedagogy rooted in the seasons, attention, and embodied learning.
Her creative workshops and French classes integrate literature, conversation, writing, and creative practices inspired by seasonal cycles and cultural highlights. Trained in healing-centered and trauma-informed approaches (EFT, MHFA, PFA, Wilderness First Aid), she guides participants with care, trust, and empowerment. www.cijipi.com
Clara-Julia Peru
Wesley Anne Cook
Pleased to support the arts, I have been involved with a wide range of organizations with that goal in mind. As president of an all-women’s art group of over 100 individuals with 3 shows a year to participating in community groups seeking to beautify their town and environment through civic outreach. I owned a graphic design business for some years, did landscape design, traveled the world some and on moving to Portland, opened a small art gallery in St. Johns.
I work in my studio on a daily basis, mostly making books these days. I look forward to contributing to l’ecole buissonniere’s growth and future endeavors.