Jerry Williams: What You Probably Didn't Know

50 Artists: 50 Years of Art in Springfield
Celebrating arts and culture in our community

Featured in The Springfield Beacon (December 26, 2007)


Jerry Williams: What you probably didn’t know

By Austin Berger
For the Beacon

If you’ve gone into the Springfield’s Public Library, you’ve seen his work -- a gymnast performing a handstand on a rhino while an owl lands on the gymnast’s foot. Even if you haven’t gone, you may have already heard about it.

Decried by Springfield City Councilors as everything under the sun -- from an endorsement of Satanism to a social commentary about the forest industry -- Jerry William’s ‘Balancing Act’ met with much skepticism (to say the least) when it won a commission from City Hall.

While it was a victory for this 65-year-old, it also bears a mark of shame: it has eclipsed his reputable career in theater design, costume design, and ceramics that has spanned four decades. It’s frighteningly surprising to find such a well-established man laying low in the hills of Eugene, only to be remembered as the guy who made the rhino and the gymnast. So if you don’t know his story yet, here it comes.

Inspiration to begin: Jerry went to class alongside James Cromwell (the farmer from the movie ‘Babe’) and others at the Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh to study set design – a school with classes so voracious it made going to graduate school at University of Washington almost breezy. “The classes they taught in graduate school were the classes I took back there (at Carnegie Mellon).” He’s had a spectacularly respectable career since then; being published in magazines and textbooks at age 24, teaching at Rutgers, Purdue, the Alley Theatre of Houston Texas and doing set and costume pieces for over 300 productions, earning him kudos from Eugene-Springfield to Taiwan.

In 1973, a job at Villard Hall at the University of Oregon enticed him out to Oregon country. “The first time I came here, it felt like Jurassic Park- so green and wet.” says Jerry. “I was expecting to see a Tyrannosaurus jump out.” He found no dinosaurs, but he remained, teaching students for 27 years, training set designers, and also having the distinct credit for designing the sets of the Hult Center for the first 10 years.

Mentors: That which inspired Jerry came to him very early. The best term to describe it might be: instantaneous reaction. Somewhere, back in the 40’s, Jerry’s older sister Janice brought home a crayon drawing, for which she got a gold star. His response: “I can do that.” From there, the spark turned into wildfire. His mother recognized his talent early, and thus nurtured him by enrolling the young artist into a private tutorship with a puppetry class at age 12. A class he was teaching to other children by his high school years eventually developed into a local puppet show on Kansas City television.

It’s rare that one finds mentorship in a building, but to hear Jerry talking about the Rockhill Nelson Museum of Art in Kansas City, it certainly made a dent in him. “It was like the Greek Parthenon times three,” he says, fondly remembering the days where he would get led through the employee door, bypassing security cameras, like a tiny mobster in the art world.

Art and Quality of life: Jerry considers himself an advocate of the arts. “It’s been in my life ever since I could do it." He should be living it up in his retired life, but still stays busy with a new form of advocacy – The Jerry Williams Quarterly, a home-based arts magazine that can be found in 110 galleries across the state. “It’s my baby.”

When asked if it adds a quality to his life, it’s almost akin to asking, “how does food nourish you?” It simply is a given for Jerry: art nourishes life. “In stage design, you have unity, color, contrast, variety,” he says. “These components of set and stage design are also the components necessary in life…without it, all you have is a higgildy- piggildy series of accidents.”

Jerry Williams goes further to say that art is connected with the higher power. He views it as no coincidence that the amount of design in elegance with cathedrals and temples worldwide were scaled back at the advent of art galleries. "God and art are inextricably linked; ergo when you embrace art, you embrace God as well."

His legacy as an artist: “Everybody’s ego wants them to survive their own mortality,” says Jerry, comparing his work to the greats but in a way that he feels his work is not at a level worth surviving his own life. “Being in set design, it was my job to produce a spectacle on a small budget, to be practical.” But it would be no risky gamble to bet on his work, like the Greek potters and sculptors of old with their urns and bas relief found among the ruins, it will be no less memorable. It’s like Jerry says, “Ceramics are as eternal as any steel.”

You can see ‘Balancing Act’ at Springfield City Hall, and his crucifix can be seen at St. Alice’s Church on the Corner of 15th and E Street in Springfield.

For more information on Jerry Williams Quarterly, visit his website at: http://www.quarterly-online.com.

"Balancing Act" by Jerry Williams

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About The Artist

Hometown: Independence, Missouri

Media of Choice: Ceramics (Clay)

Favorite Subjects: People

Favorite Place to do Art: At home

Arts Organizations: Emerald Art Center

Awards: Numerous awards, grants, commissions and fellowships

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B.J. Burnett: From Scotland with love

50 Artists: 50 Years of Art in Springfield
Celebrating arts and culture in our community

Featured in the Springfield Beacon (December 19, 2007)

By Austin Berger
For the Beacon

B.J. Burnett
From Scotland with love

Her backyard studio is a small Tudor-like cottage adorned with brass regalia and other nostalgic knick-knacks as though it were plucked up from the British countryside itself. It makes the perfect getaway for Betty Jean (B.J.) Burnett, and knowing her art, it makes perfect sense. Among the universal truths like water being wet, fire being hot, and wind being windy, this 69-year-old Springfield resident has Scottish blood flowing through her veins. Blood which calls her back to the home of her ancestors, and also has guided her hand through her immaculate pen-and-ink depictions of the English and Scottish countryside in her new exhibit: “Castles, Landscapes, Botanicals, and Architecture of Scotland and England.”

Inspiration to begin

Despite having the skills of an artist, B.J. is eternally a historian. “I love history,” she says proudly. Her bedside reading material consisted of a large album of books entitled Durant’s History of the World. B.J. says her children eventually learned not to ask her a question, lest they wanted to get a heaping earful of knowledge. All of this started at the age of 9, when she was able to get into the basement of a history museum in Grand Island, Nebraska. “I remember everything smelled of formaldehyde.” says B.J., recollecting the Native American burial site that ignited a spark. “And when I saw that, I said to myself -- I have to know, I have to know everything about this.”

After raising a family, she went back to school, earning a degree in Anthropology and began a career in archaeology, working with several native California tribes and publishing a book for C.F.D. Her love of history later transpired into running antique shops and eventually her own Scottish import store in California. It was during these trips to Scotland and England that she got interested in taking the pen-and-ink skills she acquired as an archaeologist and employing them towards something more near and dear to her heart: Scotland and England.

Moving to Oregon in 2004, she ultimately closed the doors to her Scottish imports shop, Rose Hall Manor, but is now selling her collection online. At the coaxing of her mom and daughter, she finally entered into the Emerald Art Center a few years ago. “It was a blessing for me.” On one of her month-long trips to the British Isles, she saw a colored placemat. “I looked at it and said to myself, "that’s pen-and-ink. I can do that!” Thus B.J. decided to broaden her repertoire by adding watercolor to her castles.

Her Mentors

B.J. a lefty, and a second born. If her family history was any determinant, she was destined for a creative life, as all second-born lefties in her family (and there are quite a few) have led creative lives. But her family being a determinant as to her fate was far more involved than just on the genetic level. As a young child, she got her start drawing stories and horses. Her Uncle Walter helped her sharpen her skills in drawing her equestrian friends. Her grandmother, living a no-less-extraordinary life, was the first to get B.J. interested in history. “She would tell me, I’m gonna tell you a story, and pay attention because there will be a quiz on it,” says B.J. “She made sure we knew where we came from.”

Most of her skill as an artist is something more left to craft than art. She picked it up as an archaeologist, sketching artifacts, thus, with no individual input welcomed, the goal was to draw as accurately as possible. To get the proper texture, B.J. needs the ability to feel the object, thereby making castles a perfect subject. Combining her history lust with her ability to transfer its artifacts from touch to paper, she literally draws inspiration from the areas she chooses. She’s one of those people that hears ancient battle cries or feels the presence of monarchs walking the ancient castle halls. “I’m kind of funny like that because when I draw, I’m there. I really am there.”

Arts influence on her quality of life

B.J has lived so many different lives; there are some that only she knows about. Mother, model, archaeologist, antique dealer, Scottish imports shop; and yet while her history is an inextricable given with everyone of them, so too is art. In fact, art has come not to compete with her love of history, but compliment it -- to amplify it. “Historians always have something to offer, and it fills that void for me.” says B.J.. She also relishes every bit of the fact that her art is another tool to pass “the gift of heritage” down to her family.

Her Artist's Legacy

The legacy B.J. leaves is not her own: it’s a legacy that has gone back thousands of years, and she's but one link in the chain. But her link is strong. And not only is she a strong one for her own clan, but for many. Hopefully she can toast a glass of Macallan (her favorite Scotch) and rest well knowing that she has filled many hearts with gift of their heritage; for she shows no sign of stopping, knowing full well the score. “There are thousands of castles. And I’m at, maybe, 52; so I’ve got my work ahead of me.”

B.J. Burnett’s “Castles, Landscapes, Botanicals, and Architecture of Scotland and England” are on display at the Emerald Art Center, located at Fifth and Main Streets in Springfield, until Dec. 28. You can visit her online store at: www.rosehallmanor.com

"Tudor Cottage" by B.J. Burnett

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About the Artist

Hometown: San Diego

Media of Choice: Pen and Ink

Favorite subjects to paint: Scottish Castles

Favorite place to do art: Backyard Studio

Awards: Third Place - Springfield Mayors Art Show

Arts Organizations: Emerald Empire Arts Association

Current Show: Springfield Library - City Hall (February, 2008)

Website: www.rosehallmanor.com
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"Tudor" by B.J. Burnett

"Snow" by B.J. Burnett

Mel Vincent: Painting Another Time in Oregon's Life

50 Artists: 50 Years of Art in Springfield
Celebrating arts and culture in our community

Featured in The Springfield Beacon (December 19, 2008)


Mel Vincent: An artistic testament to an era

By Austin Berger
For the Beacon

As the story goes, there was a simpler time in America and in Oregon. A time when you knew the people that lived in your town. A time when you knew who worked at the gas stations and country stores. And they knew you by your first name.

Regretfully those times have long since passed, crumbled to ashes and whisked away by an autumn wind. Usually the only testament of that era are country stores, old relic post offices, or mechanics garages that somehow…someway… stood the test of time.

And for Mel Vincent, an 82-year-old Lane County resident, capturing what little remains of this sanguine rural existence that once was has turned into a great body of work for this local watercolorist.

Inspiration to Begin: Like budding artists who copy the works of masters, Mel was copying sketches out of magazines during his junior high years in Nampa, Idaho. That led to being the cartoonist for the school newspaper. At age 21, after three years of managing a bombsight in the Navy Air Corps during World War II, he went to the Minneapolis School of Art on a G.I. Bill.

While going to school, Mel also worked part-time doing advertising sketches for Breuners, a local Minneapolis furniture company. Unfortunately, the art school wouldn’t allow him to split his time between being a student and a worker. In the end, he chose work and within five years, he had his own art studio. “Times were different back then,” says Vincent. “Back then you could make a decent living without a college education.”

Soon enough, work took him back to the West coast, which in turn eventually led him to Eugene-Springfield. That ultimately led to the development of his favorite subject -- the Oregon scene. From oceans to high deserts, all within a hundred mile radius, Mel found the terrain easy to capture with watercolors. “It’s a transparent medium … it depicts the atmosphere of Oregon landscape quite well," he says.

Perhaps it’s his small-time Nampa roots that drove Mel to choosing country stores, a subject frequent enough to have been developed into an entire book. It could also be his empathy for small businesses. Truth be told, he says, “I don’t know why we’re drawn to what we’re drawn to.”

Mentors: Given that Mel spent a lot of time cutting his artistic teeth during his school years, it makes sense that a teacher would have served as one of his most important mentors. He credits Sylvia Stone, his high school art teacher as a crucial influence. “She taught me more about drawing than anybody else has in my life.” He also credits Edward Hopper, whose similar artistic depictions of New England serve as an inspiration.

Quality of art in life: Art has given Mel quite a lot in his life thus far. It gave him the necessary skills to make living with a job in a field that’s somewhere in the ballpark of what he likes to do as a hobby -- a situation seldom found in the real world. It also helped him as a bachelor in wooing his wife. On their first date, at the United Services Organization New Year’s party he sketched a drawing of her.

The debate still continues over when exactly Mel drew the sketch that night, but nevertheless, his wife still has the drawing. But most of all Mel says his art has always served as a creative outlet to express how he feels about Oregon and a simpler time therein.

His legacy as an artist: Any kind of art is a tough game, according to Mel, so his lasting piece of advice to budding artists is to not quit your day job. He’s very quick to dismiss the assumption that he made a living off his watercolors. “I didn’t make my money doing this…it’d be impossible for me,” he says. “Some people can do it, but I don’t know who they are.”

Hopefully, Mel's drawings will remind younger generations of a time in where everything wasn’t a Safeway or a Wal-Mart. Some of the country stores he has drawn have already been condemned and/or demolished. But he’s not too concerned about buildings, or his legacy as an artist. At the end of the day (followed with a hearty laugh), Vincent says his biggest concern is what are his kids going to do with all his pictures when he’s gone.

Copies of Mel Vincent’s book on Oregon Country Stores is for sale at the Emerald Art Center Gift Shop. More photos of his art are found at .....

"Remote Post Office" by Mel Vincent

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About the Artist

Birthplace: Nampa, Idaho

Media of choice: Watercolors

Favorite subjects to paint: Oregon (particularly old country stores)

Favorite place to paint: In his home studio

Favorite awards: Best of Show - Watercolor Society of Oregon

Arts Organizations: Emerald Art Center (member 6-7 years)

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All art images and photos of the art are copyright by the artist.



"Wildcat Covered Bridge" by Mel Vincent



"Finn Rock Store" by Mel Vincent



"Lighthouse Keepers House" by Mel Vincent

Sylvia Casillas: Of Masks and Muses

50 Artists: 50 Years of Art in Springfield
Celebrating arts and culture in our community

Featured in The Springfield Beacon (December 12, 2007)

By Austin Berger
For the Beacon

Sylvia Casillas
Of Masks and Muses

At Nationalgeographic.com, they offer a service through their “Genographic Project.” For $99, they will trace your genetic lineage. This isn’t the genealogy type family tree thing. No, this service traces your ancestors back to the advent of civilizations. Ultimately, their [national geographic] data suggests that we all ultimately came from a group of African ancestors some 60,000 years back. Their data argues the point that there is some, even if only rudimentary, genetic link between all of us on the planet.

That may not be what some people like to hear, but for Sylvia Casillas, a 53-year-old from Springfield, it is an idea whose smell is redolent in her multi-media, which debuted last week at the Emerald Art Center. It begs the essential question: What mask are you wearing?

Inspiration to begin: One of her first ever memories was playing in the mud, very apropos considering her fondness for using clay. Her mother was an early influence for this Chicago native. Primarily a piano player, she would also break out the colored pencils for drawings. “She was good at drawing,” says Sylvia. “When she drew a face, they always had a persona to them.” Another of her first memories from an early age was being intrigued by the uncanny things in the world that could come to life; masks, statues, busts etc.. “I did always like puppets…they could take on a persona of their own.” Unlike many artists, she has a physical description of the wrestling opponent known as her muse. It looks like one of those tiny wooden mannequins.

Along with her husband, she went on vacations out to the Rogue Valley from time to time. Taking to the abundant mountains to hike, they moved out to Oregon after 20 years in Florida. She kept in touch with the arts: painting, singing, theater, sculptures, through classes at Lane Community College and University of Oregon. She would often take classes multiple times so she could keep working with the models. “The teacher finally came up to me and said that I didn’t have to take the classes…that I could just take it as independent study,” says Sylvia with a laugh.

Her Mentors: To list the number of people and classes she’s taken are countless, as are the numerous greats that have inspired her throughout her artistic career. But what has nurtured her inspiration for this particular show has been seven years in the making. In Fall of 2000, she and her husband were on vacation in Spain, set to embark on a day-trip to Morocco. This was a tense time with the USS Cole having just been attacked by a suicide bomber in Yemen. There were some concerns about going into the largely Muslim kingdom. But the tour guides knew the ropes, and they had planned this for a long time. They went and now the fruits of her trip are on display, showing the daily life of Moroccan people.

Quality of life in art: The benefits of art in Sylvia’s life goes far beyond the usual expressing of one’s self. "I like to stir the pot and make people think.” Her show at Emerald Art Center is aimed at what she has viewed as a universal commonality between humans that transcend time and substance. No matter where you come from or what religion you belong to, there is at least one thing we all have in common: “We all have souls,” says Sylvia, “Souls with borrowed bodies.” This, with the influence of her genographic test results, and the frequent wrestling with her muse has given her the insight to say with much vigor that we are more alike than we are different. In every society, the people conform to norms and behaviors.

“Everyone wears a mask,” according to Sylvia, “and the sooner we stop this worldwide masquerade ball and start approaching people with open minds as opposed to narrow ones, the better.”

Legacy as an artist: Quoting an old adage, Sylvia advises to “do what you love and the money will follow.” Sylvia says that anyone can do art if you have an interest in doing it, although it may take 20-30 years get somewhere. “Nobody tells you that,” laughs Sylvia. But her legacy is not to get other people into art. If that works, that’s fine. But what she really wants is people to start approaching things with open eyes, hearts, and minds -- to take off your mask.

What Mask Are You Wearing?” by Sylvia Casillas along with Carol Plaia’s “Origin, Mapping, and the Game of Life” and B.J. Burnett’s “Castles, Landscapes, Botanicals, and Architecture of Scotland and England” are on display at the Emerald Art Center, located at 5th and Main in Springfield, until December 28. A reception for the exhibits will take place this Friday from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Bronze by Sylvia Casillas

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About The Artist

Hometown: Chicago

Favorite subjects: People (faces in particular)

Favorite media: Clay, Pastels, Oil, Photography

Favorite place to do art: At home

Arts 0rganizations: Emerald Empire Arts Association
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"Dance of Rhythmic Solitude" by Sylvia Casillas

Don Burgess: Combining hot rods and watercolors

50 Artists: 50 Years of Art in Springfield
Celebrating arts and culture in our community

Featured in The Springfield Beacon (November 21, 2007)


Don Burgess: Combining hot rods and watercolors

ByAustin Berger
For the Beacon

“I’m a car guy … they’ve fascinated me since the day I was able to see them.” says Don Burgess. With early memories of racing his ’36 Ford Coupe (his first car) through the streets of Medford and the surrounding Rogue Valley, it’s easy to understand the fascination -- a fascination that comprises the bulk of this 72-year Northwest native’s painting portfolio.

With a tenacity to plan his realistic watercolors with diligence, Don has found a joyous lifelong hobby which, like his hobby for cars, he finds endless time for tuning up to keep things running smoothly.

Inspiration to Begin: Don answers in the language of "maybes". No turning point or single defining moment exists for him. Art has been a part of his life from a very early age. As he puts it, it “probably” started with his parent’s best friend, an art teacher at a local private school. He fondly remembers the opportunities’ he was granted in grade school; a local program selected him for an arts workshop at the University of Washington. “They would go around the grade schools, and they would take 50 kids from every school. I went two years in a row” says Don, who fondly remembers the freedom he experienced, being allowed to use any media they choose and paint whatever they wished. “They never told you ‘here, you must paint this.’”

Soon enough though, paints were traded in for petrol, as he had entered his hot-rod phase. And soon enough, he had a long respectable career in retail. For decades, art was put on the back burner, until “probably” 25 years ago. “I was probably at a car show and I got inspired.” says Don. No matter how he got back into the fray, he has done so with a full-heart, taking an active role in the activities of the Emerald Art Center, organizing gallery functions and workshops.

Mentors: Don remembers words of wisdom from an artist from Eastern Oregon: “Watercolor is the hardest to learn, but the easiest to do after you’ve learned it." "I kind of agreed with that," he says. While the art teachers of his childhood appear mostly forgotten, he credits two watercolorists as his mentors: Jeanne Hammond Elliot, and workshop leader and fellow Rogue Valley artist, Judy Morris. Both of these teachers helped teach him an invaluable lesson for all watercolor artists and perhaps all artists in general: plan your drawing before even picking up a brush. “A lot of artists will start painting, and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work,” says Don. “With this, you can the image out ahead of time, and then you can say this will work.”

Art and Quality of Life: “I find it fascinating to take a white piece of paper and just have something appear on it.” says Don. With numerous workshops and events at the gallery, which in turn feeds his hobby, art has certainly livened up his retirement. Never one to waste his days watching daytime TV, Don enjoys taking life by the wheel and going for a nice Sunday cruise. Fully restored, with a creme paint job and a gold interior, his ’67 Chevelle Super Sport has been the winner in the second largest all-Chevelle car show two years in a row for “best ’67 Chevelle” (as well as 45 other trophies). Being the road tripper that he is, he makes an annual pilgrimage out to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, a proverbial Mecca for automotive enthusiasts. The trip combines his two favorite subjects to paint: hot rods and Red Rock desert.

His legacy as an artist: Don admits unapologetically that he has not put much thought into his legacy as an artist, and he couldn’t be happier. “I paint things that please me. Cars and deserts. I paint for myself, it’s not a business to me.” He brings along his prints to the Salt Flats, selling them to kindred spirits coming as far away as Texas, Missouri, Maine, and New Zealand. He also plans on producing a small book as well as a calendar for his most recent batch of prints from his 50th anniversary road trip with his wife.

Don also thinks that art is a great thing to get your kids into at an early age, which can blossom into a lifelong hobby. “Eventually your body will tell you ‘I don’t want to work anymore.’” he says. But like his Chevelle, art has the ability, provided a few tune-ups, to last through the ages.

"No Glare Rusty" by Don Burgess

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About The Artist:

Birthplace: Seattle

Media of choice: Watercolor

Favorite place to do art: Home studio

Favorite subjects to paint: Hot Rods and Desert Landscapes (Red Rock Country)

Arts Organizations: Emerald Art Center (Member - Board of Directors); Watercolor Society of Oregon
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All art images and photos of the art are copyright of the artist.



"Red Roadster" by Don Burgess



"Storm Over the Steens" by Don Burgess


"Jacksonville Pit Stop" by Don Burgess

Lorraine Austin: Resilient spirit

50 Artists: 50 Years of Art in Springfield
Celebrating arts and culture in our community

Featured in The Springfield Beacon (November 14, 2007)


Lorraine Austin: A living testament to the strength of the human spirit.

By Austin Berger
For the Beacon

The word “resilient” may not do enough to describe Lorraine Austin. But you will be hard pressed to find another word to describe this 33-year-old Eugene resident.

An old-schooler at heart, Lorraine doesn’t tell her age. Whatever it may be, she seems to have youth and vigor in abundance, making a constant triumph in the face of daunting circumstances.

Inspiration to begin: Lorraine found her muse back East, working as a secretary in her 20’s. Her boss seemed to have an attention span that left a lot to be desired, wandering off at the slightest action happening outside his window. “Whenever I had to take down a letter for him, it would take so long…so I drew eyes,” says Lorraine.

Her doodles soon became a full-blown hobby, trading in eye sketches for oil paintings.
Oils turned to watercolors when she moved out to Lane County in the mid ‘70s, having bartered watercolor lessons in exchange for organ lessons.

Lorraine says she enjoys the unpredictability of watercolors, in where “mistakes” dry up and can turn into something beautiful. A longtime member, Lorraine fondly remembers the Emerald Art Center back at its tinier, humbler beginnings. “It was so cozy, so small…It was like a home away from home.”

Ten years ago, her art, as well as the rest of her suffered a devastating setback. Getting ready for work, she suffered an ischemic stroke on the left side of her brain. “I couldn’t talk. I understood what I said, but nobody else could… I was like a baby.”

Lorraine says that the stroke left her “laughing,” and instead of being “morbid” about her situation, she approached it with a light heart. She has spent the last ten years steadily making an astonishing recovery. She threw away her cane and eventually learned how to walk on her own, despite a fall that shattered her confidence for a time a few years back. After that, she fought tooth and nail to get her drivers license back. Soon enough, she was back to painting watercolors with the same diligence as she once before, if not better.

Mentors: The stroke did take an irreversible toll on Lorraine. Although she regained many of the functions of the right side of her body, she lost function of her drawing hand. “One day I was in physical therapy, and they gave me a paint set…I thought it was all over for me.”

Barbara Nechis, a renowned watercolor painter and instructor, encouraged her to do something she never thought possible – to paint with her left hand. Five to six years later, she’s finally felt comfortable in doing watercolors again, all with her left hand. She also credits Rebecca Mann, another renowned watercolor artist for her loose style of beauty, a style Lorraine aspires to.

Art and Quality of Life: Lorraine's art has left her quite busy. After painting watercolors for the past twenty years, she has been sharing her knowledge for the past one and a half years, teaching watercolor classes at both the Emerald Art Center and the River Road Parks and Recreation Center. “I’ve met so many people…it’s been great,” she said.

Although finding her niche in watercolors, Lorraine is also pursuing different styles such as "negative" painting where you essentially paint everything, but the thing that you are painting. She also plans on selling her individually hand-painted cards, humorously titled “trash” -- but they could be anything but.

Her legacy as an artist: Lorraine's legacy, in a sense, has already been made by adding her own fully copyrighted 3-color wheel system. By utilizing the basic red, blue and yellow, she is able to generate palettes for certain tones: delicate palette, standard palette, opaque palette, etc.

She’d like future artists to plan ahead as far as their finances. “It’ll cost you a fortune,” Lorraine warns, but the benefits are great.

Lorraine Austin's legacy, if anything, is by her own life experience -- a living testament to the strength of the human body and spirit.

Prints of Lorraine’s Austin work, and soon her handmade cards, are for sale in the Emerald Art Center Gift Shop.

"Before" by Lorraine Austin

"After" by Lorraine Austin

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About the Artist:

Hometown: Malden, Mass.

Media of Choice: Watercolors

Favorite Place to do art: At home

Favorite Subjects to paint: Flowers

Arts Organizations: Emerald Art Center (member/teacher)

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Bonnie Sandland: Serendipitous Talent for Nature Painting

50 Artists: 50 Years of Art in Springfield
Celebrating arts and culture in our community

Featured in The Springfield Beacon (November 7, 2007)


Bonnie Sandland: Jasper native stumbled upon a talent she never knew she had.

By Austin Berger
For the Beacon

It would seem that an ostrich doesn’t take kindly to having his or her picture taken. “I took its picture, and then he tried to eat my camera,” says Bonnie Sandland regarding her most recent piece, “Balderdash,” inspired by an Ostrich at the Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon. One could guess it comes with the territory, and it’s definitely worth it.

With her photorealistic shots of nature, this 60-year old Jasper native may appear like a seasoned veteran; but looks can deceiving. Truth be told, her talent is something of a serendipitous affair.

Inspiration to begin: Bonnie's inspiration didn’t derive so much from a desire to draw, but of what she had a desire to draw. She’s always had a loving relationship with nature. Growing up in California, she found a serene appreciation for it on the fishing trips she took with her dad in the reservoirs near Modesto. The car trips alone always had her looking out the window, looking for the bird on a telephone pole. Proverbially speaking, she still looks for that bird, having her weekly scenic drive to church in Blue River serving as a constant well for inspiration.

Despite her longtime love of nature, and a longstanding dexterity with sewing and stitching, Bonnie never picked up a paintbrush until 2001. Paul, her husband of 35 years, had a voucher from the Emerald Art Center for a day long oil painting class. But, having to take a business trip, Bonnie went instead.

“Seven hours later, I had a painting.” says Bonnie, whose newfound talent took the notice of the teacher, Shirley Reade. “Shirley came up to me and asked me how long I’ve been painting. I told her ‘for seven hours.’… I had a talent that I didn’t even know I had.”

Mentors: Being exclusively a nature painter, Bonnie regards Terry Isaac, a world-renowned nature painter from the Northwest as a mentor with great reverence. This kindred spirit of sorts was teaching classes in Salem. Bonnie and Shirley Reade, whom Bonnie also credits as a mentor from the beginning, would often trek up the I-5 corridor for 65 miles to catch his class. “Oh, we’d pick his brain,” says Bonnie laughingly. “We didn’t go to learn to draw. We went there to be taught.” She also credits her husband for being her “resident critic,” and thus helping her make a better picture.

Art and Quality of life: When one learns how to be trained in anything, the logic he or she possesses can either become a weight that anchors them in one place or wings that take them anywhere. In Bonnie’s case, it appears to be a latter, with art showing her that within the serenity of nature, there is also complexity. “You see everything differently: the birds flying by, the colors, textures, faces…It’s almost like you took the blinders off and became aware of your surroundings.”

In addition to her newfound perspective, Bonnie also gets to hone her baking skills about twice a month. Having earned the affectionate title of “cookie lady,” she bakes six dozen chocolate chip, peanut butter, and raisin cookies; all of which find their way to the trays and bowls of the Emerald Art Center Gallery.

Her legacy as an artist: Like many people involved in the Emerald Art Center, and perhaps artists in general, family comes first to Bonnie. Having five children and 14 grandchildren, she wants every one of them to have something of hers. For everyone else, she simply hopes that her paintings will do a good enough job in helping the viewer appreciate nature as much as she does. If people viewing her art could learn one thing, in her own words is this: “It’s a beautiful world we live in.”

You can see Bonnie Sandland’s paintings at the Willamalane Adult Activity Center at 215 West C St. in Springfield. Also, beginning Nov. 28, 2007, her art will be on display at the Oregon Community Credit Union in Thurston.

"Balderdash" by Bonnie Sandland

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About the Artist:

Birthplace: Modesto, California

Favorite type of media: Acrylics

Favorite subjects: Animals and landscapes (anything that’s nature)

Arts organizations: Emerald Art Center

Awards: Various ribbons at Mayor's Art Show in Springfield; 2nd place 2004 North Light Book Club award.

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Marion Mitchell: Finding Art & Love Together

50 Artists: 50 Years of Art in Springfield
Celebrating arts and culture in our community

Featured in The Springfield Beacon (October 31, 2007)


Marion Mitchell: Finding art and love the second time around

By Austin Berger
For the Beacon

It appears that on occasion, cupid will trade in his bow-and-arrow for something a little more practical. For Marion Mitchell, 74, of Springfield, it just so happened to be a paintbrush. In so doing, it confirms that age-old adage: it’s never too late for love.

Inspiration to begin: Like many people, art began as “something to do,” for Marion -- something to make friends with. In her earlier years, her main concern was dealing with something more serious than a muse. “I was born with cerebral palsy … the biggest thing for me was to learn how to walk.”

As a child, she was often shuttled between her home in Idaho to the Shriner’s Hospital in Portland. Eventually, Marion's family moved out to Eugene. While growing up, a local art teacher, Naomi Nelson, approached her and invited her to one of her classes. “I told her I couldn’t draw,” says Marion, but Nelson told her to come to her class anyway. Even today, her oil paintings from that time (which go back at least 35 years) still line her living room.

Busy with family, she put the oil painting down. One thing came up after the other, and soon there was no time at all for it. For 35 years, her painting faded into the background, uncertain of its reemergence.

Mentors: Fast forward to 2002. Marion’s first husband had just died. “I got very lonely…so I started going to the senior center.” Again, it was “something to do.” There, among other people, she met Bruce Mitchell, a local art teacher from the Emerald Art Center.

Although Marion regards him as her mentor, originally he didn’t teach her art, he taught her pinochle. That led, in turn, to Bruce doing some yard work for her; which led in turn to him installing fans in her house; which finally led him to seeing her oil paintings in her living room. He took notice of her skill and invited her to come to the gallery. That sewed the seeds for the rediscovering of her art, as well as something more.

At the art center, Bruce served as a guide for breaking her in to the world of acrylics and watercolors. “She’s a little bit more advanced in her ability to pick up on techniques than my other students.” he says. “Certain things she’s not receptive to, but others, she becomes a ball of fire.”

Art and Quality of life: Marion found two beginnings in two ways by following Bruce back to the art center. She rediscovered art, as well as found a new husband. “I married my art teacher,” says Marion with a hearty laugh. While painting a rose at the gallery, with Bruce teaching her, “I thought to myself “oh oh, I think I’m in love with him.” They married nearly three years ago. “When you get to be as old as we are, that’s a big decision to make.”

Her legacy as an artist: Marion is not too concerned, given that even at 74, she has just begun in a way. She looks perfectly contented taking lessons from her husband and painting. One thing, however, is that she makes it a point to never sell her originals, only prints. “Painting comes hard to me,” admits Marion, so she keeps all of her originals. If they fare like her oil paintings from 35 years ago, they will surely be around for a very long time.

"Roses" by Marion Mitchell

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About The Artist

Hometown: Pender, Nebraska

Media of Choice: Acrylics and Watercolors

Arts Education: Various Art Classes

Favorite place to do art: Emerald Art Center

Awards: Cash Awards from Mayor's Arts shows

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Janelle McMahon: Gemini sensibilities lend intrigue

50 Artists: 50 Years of Art in Springfield
Celebrating arts and culture in our community

Featured in The Springfield Beacon (October 24, 2007)


Janelle McMahon: Gemini sensibilities lend intrigue

By Austin Berger
For the Beacon

“Faces are interesting,” says Janelle McMahon (pronounced Mack-Mahan). “You can tell a lot from them. Good or bad vibes…and they come in all shapes.”

Her love of faces is evident right past the threshold of the door; masks from all over the world adorn their walls. It may be due in fact that she has two faces herself, in the astrological sense. She’s a Gemini.

The astrological sign of the twins, Janelle's Gemini sensibilities may also contribute to her love of the number two, for many things come in pairs at the McMahon house. Two Hemingway Estate cats (as distinguished by their number of toes), two Porsches, two spindles, two magazine articles of her work in the magazine for the National Knitters guild (you heard right, knitters have a guild.); as well as a two-step stairway that leads to her studio. “Two steps up. Two steps down,” she jokes when talking about her commute from her studio to her kiln, which is in the garage.

Her Gemini sensibilities may also lend intrigue towards the dichotomous characteristics of her favorite medium -- glass: a medium to which the 55-year-old Springfield native has been able to fashion into something so straightforward as beads and plates, or to the intricacy of knitted fabric.

Inspiration to begin: “It was a slow grow,” says McMahon when asked about her immersion into the art world. She’s tried her hand at many things, working in health institutions and running her own bookkeeping secretarial service, teaching, and being a mother. She picked up art again when her friend enticed her to come to a knitting class. “We were redoing the house, I had no job…it immediately clicked.” Although she can paint, knit, as well as sculpt, she found her true love in glass -- first in beads, saying that it has “ a warmth, yet a coldness” to it, not to mention it’s ability to catch energy reflected off of it’s surface.

Mentors: Some people would credit Picasso or Da Vinci, or some type of artists in their respective field. McMahon credits her troop leader. Before working with glass, Janelle was a knitter, something she attributes to her long stay in the Girl Scouts, and rightly attributes her longtime troop leader Dottie Venchura as an inspiration. Also, the lion to her twins, she also credits her husband and best friend Michael. And Leone Hanson, who Janelle ranked as a second mother in her life, was a person who would pull no punches about her opinion of what she did. “She was one of those people who’d tell me if I was screwing up…she was the kind of people you could call on.”

Art and the quality of life: Any random horoscope will describe a Gemini as a flighty type, whose dual personality leaves them prone to wandering, lacking a center. Whether this is true or not for people born in late May or early June is anyone’s guess. What is known is that Janelle became a moon of sorts to the art world, in that she found that it could be her center to revolve around. “I learned all different types of art. All different types of people, their reactions to art…it opened that world I didn’t have.”

Art serves as Janelle’s anchor, her center; something she acquired when her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. “I was always running to the coast…I needed to feel and create. I needed to be able to have something work.” In this trying time she found her soul being fed through her glass work. After winning a blue ribbon for one of her earliest glass works, “it was something where I could say: “Okay, this works.”

Her legacy as an artist: If there is one thing that Janelle loves most, it would be her family. Most of her family still remains in around the Eugene-Springfield area. Sooner or later, she plans on giving everyone of her family members a piece of her work. “I want them to have something of mine. It’s part of who I am.” As for the rest of her work, which ranges from jewelry to sushi sets to vases, whoever they go to, she expects some wear and tear. “I make functional art. It’s usable. I want it used.”

You can find her glass works and jewelry for sale at the Emerald Art Center and at the New Zone Gallery in Eugene.

"The Flower" by Janelle McMahon

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About The Artist

Hometown: Springfield, Oregon

Media of choice: Glass

Favorite place to do art: Her downstairs studio (a.k.a. “the eclectic dive”)

Awards: Several prizes -- Mayor's Art Shows in Springfield and Eugene

Favorite subjects: None (penchant for masks however)

Hobbies: Porsche Club

Art Organizations: Emerald Art Center, Springfield Arts Commission, New Zone Artists Collective
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Scott Wylie: Of two minds

50 Artists: 50 Years of Art in Springfield
Celebrating arts and culture in our community

Featured in The Springfield Beacon (October 17, 2007)


Scott Wylie: Of two minds

By Austin Berger
For the Beacon

Some call it symbiosis, or yin and yang, or balance. Anyway you cut it, it’s the making of distinct elements working together. It’s a task that gets added to someone working in the field of designing architecture. It’s doubly daunting to not only pull something out of the creative mists and put it to paper or canvas, but to also make it work in the real world, and give it function. Furthermore, one must balance the function to meet the individual’s needs. It requires a very humanistic touch.

From the Science Walk at the University of Oregon, to the brick work of the corner of Broadway and Willamette, to a house on High Street in Eugene, to parts of Bruce Berg’s photography studio on D Street, Scott Wylie, 61, of Springfield, pulls off the balancing act between form and function with great diligence.

Inspiration to begin:

“I always loved to draw,” says Wylie. A skill given to him by his parents; a father who found an artistic outlet through special effects lighting as a lighting engineer, and his aesthete mother who saw to it that he visited all the museums that the Boston area had to offer.

Growing up in an area which blended architecture from the modern times to the 1700’s, New England proved a great place to be inspired by architecture, prompting Scott to go to Rhode Island, and later to Rome to study. “It really had a powerful influence on my outlook on art and design from that point on…I had ideas awakening.”

With ideas still awakened after his year in Rome, he followed an old professor to the University of Oregon, a part of the country he often romanticized. Scott remembers riding in the back of a pickup truck around the Fall Creek area and how the air suddenly changed from dry firs that surrounded the outside of the Willamette wilderness. “The air went moist and sweet. Palpable as going into a curtain,” he said. After that, he became “very Oregonian.”

Up until 1998, he did all of his sketches by hand, until he was “liberated” by an Auto CAD class given to him by his wife as a gift. “It did everything I expected it to do.” Now the seemingly impossibly long designs, every individual brick and rock can be laid by a digital representation.

Mentors: Scoot Wylie's mentors in crafting his skill are also masters at the balancing act of different concepts. He cites Leonardo da Vinci, a man of science as well as a man of art, along with Pablo Picasso, who traversed between the figurative and the abstract. As for designers, he credits Frank Lloyd Wright, whose organic approach balanced the needs of the client and the natural environment surrounding the home. He also credits the Greene Brothers, whose bungalow style blended, along with architecture and landscape, the Arts and Crafts Movement with Asian design.

Art and quality of life: The contribution of the arts to quality of life has been great to Wylie. He says that he found his center in the art world, but there’s something more to it. It is within art itself that one can take multiple contradicting objects, theories, concepts, and make them work together. It is the art that is, as Wylie puts it, “the great unifier.” He feels a connection to other artists. “I like to think of them as my kin.” Oddly enough, art also turned him into a bit of a football fan. “It’s like an art … I love watching it being done really well. I love watching athletes enjoying it.”

His Legacy as an artist: Scott's legacy has been left in stone and brick for many of his works. While he wishes his legacy to be specific and clear, “something that somebody can take with them,” he wants his legacy to be something, in a word -- mathematical. Wylie knows a bit about math: graphical expressions of 4th and 5th and 6th dimensions, algorithms, the Fibonacci sequence, all sorts of things. Most importantly, he wishes that the next generation will see it in a “fractal” kind of way, that even at the very farthest and the very closest points, there’s something happening. “There's always something new to see.”

"Science Walk" by Scott Wylie

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About The Artist

Hometown: Danvers, Mass.

Favorite place to do art: Anywhere, for one can find seeds of inspiration “in the most Spartan of places.”

Favorite medium: “Anything I can draw with.”

Favorite Subjects: No job too big, no job too small.

Arts Organizations: Emerald Art Center; Springfield Arts Commission.

Awards: Six public commissions.
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DeVon Tanton: Nourishing the Inner Child

50 Artists: 50 Years of Art in Springfield
Celebrating arts and culture in our community

Featured in the Springfield Beacon (October 10, 2007)


DeVon Tanton
Nourishing the Inner Child

By Austin Berger
For the Beacon

Her work makes one think what would happen if Norman Rockwell moved out to Eastern Oregon during his prime; a plethora of cowboys, snuck kisses, curious kids, animals, and images of the Old West. Showcasing a Bull Elk at this years Mayor’s Art Show at the Emerald Art Center, DeVon Tanton of Jasper has honed her portraiture skills to precision with a near lackadaisical drive in the best way possible.

Inspiration to Begin

DeVon is the first to admit that her mind is the farthest thing from a business mindset. She’s won awards, but can’t really name any. She has mentors but has trouble remembering their names. Her answer to her art is simply this: “I love to draw.”

It’s reasonable to argue that DeVon's inclinations to art are encoded somewhere in her DNA; lying somewhere in the autonomous nervous system somewhere near the areas which tell her to breathe, and to keep a heartbeat, and all the things that our brain handles for us and never really give thought to.

DeVon's art skills came naturally as a child. No defining moment, no turning point; it simply was, and still simply is. Ever the conservationist, many of her earlier drawings as a child were done on ripped up brown paper bags from the grocery store. Many resulted from her anger because whenever she would do something good in her eyes she would later wish she had done it on appropriate drawing paper. For the Nevada native, it appears her art doesn’t require much conscious thought -- a practice that becomes so natural and constant to her as brushing teeth comes to others.

Important Mentors

The similarities between the nostalgia showcased in her work and Rockwell is no coincidence. Coming out of the era that he depicted, DeVon always had an affinity for Norman. “He made stories out of his pictures and he depicted humans when things were simple.” She also notes his love of painting children, a favorite of hers as well.

Value of Art in life

DeVon's art is her therapy, a muse born out of dream world imagery that sometimes borders on the macabre. It is her core, her release, her treat and her pastime.

“I used to have these dreams…where I hid a tiny baby in a cigar box.” These dreams went on for years, where she would come back to the box to find the baby dead and shriveled. One day she told a doctor about this dream. “He told me that the child was my talent and that I was hiding my talent.” She then went “off the deep end” as she put it, into the realm of portraiture, and in doing so fully exposed her “child” and kept the dreams at bay, so long as she was doing art.

Her artist’s legacy

Even at 69 she still finds herself the student, seeking to perfect her skills as a portrait artist, wishing to leave her mark with them. “I want to learn to do portraits (of people) so well that people are waiting for them to come alive. I want to put their soul into them.” Everything from life’s joys to its hardships, are written on a face, according to DeVon. She intends to capture it all.

"Bull Elk" By DeVon Tanton

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About The Artist

Birthplace: Elko, Nevada

Arts Education: Fashion Design, Modeling, various classes at Emerald Art Center

Media of choice: Oils, China Paints, Pastels, Acrylics

Favorite place to do art: Her work station in her living room, which has a view of the Willamette River and the Pleasant Hill area.

Favorite subjects to paint: Portraits, especially children

Arts organizations: Emerald Art Center

Currently Showing: Mayors Art Show (October, 2007) at Emerald Art Center

Nada Zawodny: Caricature artist turns hobby into retirement career

Featured in the Springfield Beacon (October 3, 2007)

50 Artists: 50 Years of Art in Springfield
Celebrating arts and culture in our community

Nada Zawodny

Caricature artist turns hobby into retirement career

By Austin Berger
Springfield Beacon

If you were at the Lane County Fair this summer, you probably saw Zada Zawodny's one dollar portraits under the arm of some kid -- probably one of the best deals found at a fair. Or you may have seen her full-scale portraits of other authors and painters. With a dollar and a few minutes, she can paint your portrait without hesitation. Even Lane County commissioner Peter Sorensen got one. What began as a small gig at a fair has now generated some buzz for the 81-year-old Springfield native.

Inspiration to begin: Her caricature drawings began in her words as, “one of those goofy things.” After graduating from the oldest accredited art college in the country, her quick draw caricatures became something of a hobby for her over the past 40-50 years, doing them whenever she was asked. Zawodny retired in the late ‘80s after a very respectable career in advertising design in the Eugene/Springfield area; working along the entire spectrum, from freelancer to art director.

After retirement, she became a director at the Emerald Art Center. After awhile, she decided she was much happier simply being a member and enjoying the classes. Last summer she was approached to set up shop at the Lane County Fair. It was her first time ever doing something like that. A local newspaper article generated a buzz for her, and now she’s taking her pencils and paper to golf courses, retirement homes, and to anyone who has got a buck or two and a few minutes of time.

Important mentor: Her mentor and inspiration to become an artist came to her at a very early age -- three to be exact. Visiting family on vacation in Louisiana, young Nada met her great aunt Norada Bond, a professional artist who would sketch her family while sitting down at the table. While Norada would watch the family, Nada would be watching her. “And I knew…I said ‘when I grow up’ I want to be an artist.” Much to her enjoyment, she made good on it.

Value of art in life: After making that agreement at age three, and following through on that promise for the better part of 78 years, it comes as no shock that Nada finds life without art as something existing in the realm of impossibility. “It’s our history. It is color, it is line, it is shadow. Without it, there wouldn’t be anything really.”

Her Legacy: As far as leaving a legacy, Zawodny hasn’t given much thought to it. She has two children who’ve done remarkably well. While her daughter has three degrees and works as a controller for a large non-profit, her son carries the artistic torch, making a name for himself as an architect. Her own drawings may go to her family and friends, but her drawings are like photographs -- capturing moments in time and pinned down onto paper -- awaiting the next generation of viewers.
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About The Artist

Birthplace: Rose Point, Montana

Arts education: Bachelor of Fine Arts in Advertising Design: Art Institute of Maryland; numerous classes from local art schools

Media of choice: Pen and Ink or Pastel

Favorite place to do art: A studio her son built for her at home.

Favorite subjects to paint: “If there are no people in it, the picture’s not a finished painting to me.”

Arts organizations: EEAA, Springfield Arts Commission
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