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