RIP Janice Morlan
“Janice Marie Morlan passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by her family July 28 2025. She was born March 16 1954 to Dennis & Ann Morlan in Portland, OR.
Janice graduated from Tigard High School in 1972. She was extremely talented and graduated from the Museum Art School with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1977. She was married to Brad Gooch from 1994-2002. They reconnected years later and remained good friends. She worked for PNW Bell/US West/Quest. After her retirement she went to work for the Multnomah County Library.
Last summer (while going thru her chemo treatments) Janice was one of the main curators of the "Pioneers of Portland Punk '77-'84" held at the Portland Library. With years in the making and her career at the library, she was able (with help) to put together an incredible display. Her cultural presence in the Portland punk rock scene in the 70's was a passion of hers. Her photography, design of posters, fliers and album covers will live on forever. “
I was lucky enough to meet Janice at the opening of the PIoneers of Portland Punk exhibit at the library. We’d corresponded while working on the book version of It Did Happen Here. She took the Poison Idea photo on the back of their second EP “Record Collectors are Pretentious Assholes”. I wrote Jerry A to ask him for permission to use it, and he game me Janice’s email, which had “janarchyst” in the text. She was sweet, sent me a whole contact sheet of PI photos, and we used this one and paid her $50. She didn’t tell me her address, so at the opening I brought her a book, and she was a little taken aback, and very thankful. It was sweet. It was an overwhelming room to be in, so I left.
I went back to the exhibit later in the week, and was so proud to find I was included in the exhibit! Not exactly but the cover of the Alien Boy zine that Icky and I did (as a memorial to James “Jim -Jim” Chasse who was killed by the Portland police) was posted on the “telephone poles” of flyers that were in the exhibit. They did a good job, and I had an idea to interview Janice about it, and get her to walk me through the exhibit and tell me all the stories. I got busy, and didn’t reach out, and then forgot about it. What a missed opportunity. RIP Janice, thanks for being part of the scene and modeling a rich and full life.
From the Wilamette Week article on the exhibition:
“She arrived on the scene via her then-boyfriend Dave Corboy who, at the time, played guitar in Sado-Nation, which performed a particularly slashing brand of hardcore. Inspired by the energy and volume of the music, but with little interest in starting a band of her own, she opted to document the scene through her camera even though, she says, “I knew nothing about photography.”
“I got a book from the library and figured it out,” she continued. “We had a little darkroom up in [punk venue] Clockwork Joe’s, and [all-female punk quartet] Neo Boys had a real rudimentary enlarger. I just used the heck out of that stuff and learned how to do it.”
