Donna Clark
fine art, 2013

As a Northwest painter, I love to share the joy and beauty of the natural landscape with others. My colorful and sensuous oil paintings are designed to offer the viewer a “rest-bit” from the hectic pace and distractions of our urban life; to connect to a deeper spiritual sense and celebrate the natural world in which we live … the great Northwest!

I grew up in Corvallis where art and education were a priority. While my artistic tendencies were encouraged, true development came later. After a formal education in nursing, I went on to pursue a long career in public health, holding a number of key leadership positions in Oregon. My teachers in the arts, starting in the early ’70s with Eunice Carol and Sharon Engle, went on to include more recent teachers, including Roberta St. Louis, Richard McKinley from Art in the Mountains, and special workshops with Eric Jacobsen, Marla Baggetta, and Craig Srebnik. Over time, my artwork included watercolors, tole painting, colored pencils, craft painting, and pastels, with oils becoming my primary medium. The luminosity and rich colors of oil paints are too fantastic!

Although I’ve painted for more than 35 years, only in the last 10 have I come to appreciate the gift of creating art. It not only brings me pleasure, but also provides the opportunity to connect with and create joy for others. The creative process is life embracing. It’s rich with learning, filled with fun moments and woven with magic poetry for the spirit. For me, being an artist means knowing yourself, living with integrity and purpose, while sharing your visual voice. If our lives are a canvas, each stroke of paint represents our emotions and experiences, whether they are cold and dark or warm and light. When they are filled with hills, valleys, rivers or tall mountains, eventually a picture will emerge representing the “wholeness” of our life.

As I painter, I too am reaching for that wholeness that often can be illusive. Beauty matters in all our lives and I hope my contribution will help enhance our human experience. There is beauty in everyday life if we can only see it.

As a native Oregonian, I have travelled the backcountry experiencing firsthand the unique ruggedness, solitude and grace of nature. These adventures have become part of my paintings. I paint both from my own photos in my studio, as well as “en plein air” (painting outside) in the High Cascades, Columbia Gorge and local areas. En plein air is my favorite way to capture the real essence of my subject matter. Like everything we love, it’s about developing a deep relationship. Nothing can compare with painting a field of lavender in the evening light while the wafts of fragrance embrace you. Every time I see one of my lavender paintings I seem to smell it too! My paintings are often created with palette knife in an impressionistic style. They are as much about emotions and feelings as about place.

While my local travels are the foundation of my original Northwest landscapes, I satisfy my curiosity, sense of adventure and thirst to understand the world around me by worldwide travel. From camel riding in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, to safari in Africa or boating down the Yangtze River, I continue to seek and enjoy the rich cultures and diversity of geography and people from around the world. From these experiences, I also create paintings and plan to offer more in the future.

When not travelling, tending my garden and country home provides a wonderful backdrop for creativity. My dear friends are the birds, flowers and animals that grace the landscape. Without them I would be lost. The moments of quiet pause, reflection and observation are healing and central to my creative process. For this I am very grateful.

Kris Preslan
watercolor, 2013

Watercolorist Kris Preslan did not attend art school. In fact, during an art class in college one art instructor told her she should quit painting. And she did for 40 years.

But after she tried an art class in painting at Michael’s craft store that all changed. From that first class, Kris went out into the world of art and found the information she needed to improve her art. She created her own art school by consuming books and magazines and workshops.

Today Kris is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society, a signature and life member of the Transparent Watercolor Society of America, and member of The American Watercolor Society, Watercolor West and other national and state organizations.

Her favorite subjects are landscapes and urban scenes, but more importantly, she strives to paint with strong pigments and a wide range of values. She often captures – through vibrant realism – the memories of places she has been and to which she hopes to return.

Kris says that “Challenges are fun for me. I look at a subject and the words ‘I wonder if I could paint that’ pops into my head. Some workshops I’ve taken were just to broaden my abilities, to go ‘outside the box.’ That was my way to find out where I belong. I decided I need to paint subjects that I would be proud to hang in my home. That often means recreating a memory bank of places I’ve traveled and enjoyed.

She used to think that watercolors were all “wishy-washy mid-tones.” Through her eyes now, “colors are usually bold and definite.” “

I love taking a photo or photos that make me smile and then painting from them the way I remember the place … the people I’ve encountered, the culture, the sounds, etc., and to see if I can combine all of it on a piece of watercolor paper.

In her “passion statement” she says, “My veins have pigments in them instead of blood, so let me tell you what I see in a typical day.

“I see clouds that are darker along the bottoms. I see trees that are at least four shades of mixed greens in the summer and browns and lavenders in the winter — with holes in them for birds to fly through. “I see blades of grasses that point all different angles and sometimes umber tufts of moss.

“I see people seven or eight “heads” tall with their tiny hands hidden inside their jackets. These are not people I know … they don’t go into albums but become photo references for “someday.”

“When I travel, my Canon camera lives on my shoulder ready to go to work for those shots which will be translated from my brain to my hand so the viewer of my finished product will see what I had to express and why.

“The hardest part of learning to paint is to summon the courage to try when you’re not sure of yourself and your abilities. This is where workshops teach us that we have to start at the beginning, there are no shortcuts for anyone, that criticism makes us stronger and better, and that with patience, perseverance and passion we can achieve our goals. After all, it’s just shapes, right?”

 

Vicki Joslyn
kiln-formed glass, 2013

Vicki says, “Design and color are always on my mind. Working with glass – its brilliance, its ‘attitude,’ the perfect imperfection of handmade glass – has opened the door to my creativity!”

Raised in Seattle, she attended high school in Portland.

Vicki returned to Seattle to receive art and teaching degrees from the University of Washington and has lived in eight different states, but “Oregon,” she says, “is my home.”

In 2004 she began exploring fused glass, served on the state board of the Oregon Glass Guild, and was president of the Portland Chapter in 2006. She continues to take an active part in the glass world and enjoys teaching small classes in her studio. Outside of glass, she enjoys music, baking, basket weaving and any excuse for sharing time with family and friends.

Her colorful designs are one-of-a-kind or part of a related group. Vicki moves glass shapes around and stacks them up. Two to four firings may be needed depending on the surface she is trying to achieve. The amazing colors of a finished piece “brighten the grayest of days and make me smile,” she says.

Her sandblasted designs are crisp and clean, black on gold, silver or rainbow iridized glass. (Iridized glass is made by spraying flat or blown glass with a vapor deposit of metal oxides for an iridescent finish. It may resemble an oil slick.) The shapes in nature are often the inspiration for my designs. Sometimes she finds that what she blasts away is just as important as what she leaves in. It’s the balance between the positive and negative. Each sandblasted piece is also a limited edition or one-of-a-kind.

Vicki’s glass mobiles are unique, fun and magical – a combination of color, balance and whimsy. Made to move with the breeze, they are happily displayed hanging in a garden or on a deck where there is enough room to twirl. They are also decorative “at rest” indoors where their reflective colors dance with the changing light.

All of the functional fused glass pieces she makes are food-safe; plates and bowls “long to be enjoyed with food.” However, hand-washing is recommended. Large or small, functional or decorative, Vicki loves to make pieces that can be enjoyed for years to come.

George Harrison Wright (1917-2012)

George Wright passed away peacefully on November 14, 2012 at 95 years of age at the family home in Manning, Oregon.

He and his wife Pearl have been founders of Valley Art since its beginning in 1967 but his great laugh, grin, and friendship, will be so missed from our lives.

George was always involved in clay, but he was never really a potter. After being discharged from the Army at the end of World War II, he and a friend bought a brickyard in Mollala, Oregon. George remained in the brick business until the 1960s. During that time, his wife, Pearl, who was a gifted artist, began to work with clay. When George discovered that the clay she was using came from Los Angeles, he looked at his brickyard and realized that his pugmill could be used to make pottery clay. So George began a clay-making business and soon supplied schools and potters all over Oregon.

During this time when Valley Art was also young, Pearl and George lived in Forest Grove on Sunset Drive by the Swimming Pool. Pearl was sharing her clay studio with emerging clay students at the emerging Valley Art. For many of us (Marcia Alajoki, Judy Teufel, Merrie French, Janet Buskirk) it was the beginning of a long and wonderful friendship.

It was also in the 60s, that George began to work for a young high tech company, Tektronix. He worked in the ceramics department producing state of the art cathode ray tubes (“the easiest job I ever had, just walked around turning switches on kilns all day”).

After leaving Tektronix, George and Pearl bought 30 acres in Manning, Oregon, where they invited young artists to come and live in cottages and work in clay on their property.

George continued to make clay, and also began to design and build a variety of kilns. Pearl painted and worked with clay, and together they opened the Pearl Wright Gallery. Many young potters worked on their property through the 1970s and 80s, and George helped people build and fire a variety of propane, wood, and salt kilns on the property.

In the 1980s, George developed a clay for making large sculptures. This clay, which contained (among other things) a lot of nylon fiber, looked pretty hairy when you cut through it with a wire. So it became “Hair of the Dog Clay” and is used by sculptors throughout the Northwest.

George was a devout Christian, but was extraordinarily tolerant of the motley crew of artists and friends he met and with whom he shared his clay, his knowledge, his kilns, his life. We are all remembering his kindness and support, his laugh and friendship, and his time in our lives.

George is survived by his wife Pearl, his 10 children and step children, his 26 grandchildren, 28 great grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild. The family suggests donations in the name of George Wright be made to Valley Art Association, www.valleyart.org/, 2022 Main St., PO Box 333, Forest Grove Or 97116.

The Annual Artist Event: "A Classy Affair"
November 10-18, 2012

New Education Chairperson

Charlotte Lumae is an experienced educator who has recently consented to work with our Valley Art Education Board.

A licensed early childhood and elementary teacher, Charlotte is also an experienced art teacher and holds an endorsement for teaching English to speakers of other languages. She enjoys teaching people of all ages and abilities, and has worked with local and international students from preschool through college. In addition to coordinating the Lumae Learning Library, Charlotte works as a substitute teacher, volunteers with Camp Fire USA, provides workshops and tutoring services, and facilitates the online community resources Forest Grove Youth Enrichment Bulletinand Community Coalition for Youth (Coalición Comunitaria para la Juventud).

Charlotte completed her BA in Art at UC Berkeley, prepared for her teaching credential in Early Childhood & Elementary Education at Humboldt State University, and received her Master of Education and Cultural Competency Certificate from Pacific University. She has been working in the field of education since 1993.

News from Charlotte Lumae

Elf Workshop

The Elf Workshop went very well this year, thanks to Jennifer Hargis and the other teachers from Amazing Kidz World! It was very kind of them to volunteer their time and materials. They set a friendly, well-organized tone, shared fun craft projects for the little kids, and left the place spotless! I enjoyed helping out with the older kids and keeping the crowd flowing. Thank you to EJ Baeza for arranging this partnership, and thank you to the gallery host for her patience with schedule changes and early-bird elves. We needed to start a little later than was originally advertised. In the future we will make sure to communicate any schedule changes more promptly to gallery staff.

Education Chair Orientation

I am starting to get a sense of how art education works at Valley Art. It is definitely too big of a job for me to do alone as a volunteer, but I am happy to do my best to organize a team to keep the program going. (Any volunteers out there?) Many thanks to Merrie French, Mary Welch and Pat Truax for helping me get oriented to the Valley Art work spaces and traditions.

Enrollment in Art Classes

Good news: There are several classes and/or studios that are well established, self-sufficient and successful. For right now, I am going to hold off on recruiting new instructors. The gallery hosts (sitters) can refer to the newsletter when answering questions about art classes, and we will ask people to enroll in classes directly through the instructors, rather than enrolling at the front desk. Besides, the instructors are the ones who know best about class openings, and we do not want to burden the gallery hosts.

Sincerely Charlotte Lumae