About the founders:

2025 marks five years since Elise and Ren joined forces, bringing their talents for community building, creativity, and business management together to live the life they have always dreamed of living. Beginning in Times Square in March of 2020, as the city shut down, they drove West together toward carving a destiny for dreams yet to be realized. Now, they are living that dream and welcome you to be a part of it.

In November 2022, Elise Wagner & Ren Allen relocated to Astoria, Oregon. Elise from 38 years in Portland via Jersey and Ren from Portland via 49 years in West Virginia. Both were ready to embark on a unique partnership in business and property that rejected normal tradition. Forging partnerships and communities among friends is something becoming increasingly common for the older set, given the increased costs of housing and other basics. So, instead of waiting for a white knight to appear, Elise and Ren blazed their own trail by pooling their assets to purchase a home together.

Ren Allen

On the verge of turning 50, Ren Allen drove across the country during a global pandemic with all of her possessions in and strapped on top of her little red station wagon. As a trainer mental health counselor, non-profit director of disaster relief services and military liaison working directly with service members and leadership to address the health and well-being of military members and their families, Ren was looking for a change and a new challenge, focused on helping people heal through creativity and stoking her curiosity about the world.

With an understanding of what it takes to balance creativity with the other demands of daily living, Ren empathized with Elise’s struggle to guard studio time while also teaching workshops and managing a website and social media accounts, and so she stepped in to assist. Assisting an artist to reach their marketing, web, and growth goals was a walk in the park compared to what her role was in her last position. Ren is also a talented musician who has released several records and toured extensively. She plays locally with an experimental rock duo, Stunning Rayguns.

Elise Wagner

After twenty-one years in her North Portland studio and home and 38 years in Portland, Elise Wagner relocated to Astoria. Facing urban growth and development encroachment, it was time to make a move but to where? With a soft spot for Astoria since the early 90’s, Elise chose to live along the Columbia River, forgoing returning back east to the Hudson River Valley. Both places were, and still are, enjoying an insurgence of the creative class. Moving to Astoria made sense, the pandemic revealed that Elise could work and teach anywhere. Upon arriving, she made fast friends with local and former Portland artists who had also made the move.

In just two years, the two have settled into an optimistic momentum, a vibrant community of artists and tapped into the creative buzz in the air in the small coastal town of Astoria, Oregon. Their plan was to have a studio for Elise to work in while also offering workshops to the local and tourist community. The plan has now come to fruition out of a need for work space while Elise’s studio is being built at home. The ultimate goal of the Pier 11 Studio founders is to fulfill the desire for collaboration that will further strengthen and engage the creative community here.