Emily Browne is graduating with a Masters of Fine Arts from Montana State University in May 2011.  Her Thesis Exhibition titled here we are. will be on display at the Helen E. Copeland Gallery in Bozeman, Montana April 4-8, 2011.  Artists Reception is April 7 from 7-9pm.  Emily was accepted into the Nes Artist Residency in Skagastrond, Iceland, and will be attending for the month of June, 2011.
updates and images can be viewed at http://www.emilybrowne.com (images from MFA exhibition will be up after the show opens).

Hilary Pfeifer will be included in an exhibition in April at Tante Netty Gallery in Eindhoven, Netherlands. She will be speaking at the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG) conference this May as part of the Professional Development Seminar. Her new work epiphytes|epaulet will also be included in a dance performance for SNAG’s Exhibition in Motion at the Bellevue Arts Museum. 

Faith Hagenhofer has a piece in an upcoming show at The Textile Museum in Washington DC.  The show is called Green: A Color and a Cause, and it opens on April 15th. 

Saskia Moes & Piotr Orloff introduce, Beatrice Lee Moes, born January 25th at 9:18 am, 8 pounds 8 Ounces & 19.5 inches.

Casey Judy, OCAC studio manager in drawing/Painting dept. is also now part of the official crew at Gamblin Artist Colors and will have a painting in the Cap auction April 30th at the Memorial Coliseum.

Sara Young, ‘00 is following up her social experiment, 20 Dates in 20 Weekends,http://20dates20weekends.blogspot.com/, with a new project in which she interviews 25 people in cities all over the country, (25 people per city), and writes about it in her blog,http://25peopleforacity.blogspot.com/. She is starting in Portland, Oregon, and will go to the city blog readers vote for next. Her theory is that the unique and interesting people in each city define it. She hopes to go to 6 to 8 cities a year, and eventually, expand this project so that is international in scope.

Catherine Chandler will have work in two exhibitions in Seattle during April and May.  Nine of her rings will be part of the Ring A Day exhibition at Punch Gallery (119 Prefontaine Place South, Seattle, WA 98104) May 5 - May 29, 2011.  Three of her “Thorn Brooches” will be part of the COUNTERFLUX: DEFENSIVE ORNAMENT: A group exhibit curated by Suzanne Ramljak in conjunction with the 2011 SNAG Conference at G. Gibson Gallery (300 South Washington Street, Seattle, Washington 98104) April 21 - May 31, 2011.

Courtney Murphy (Ceramics 04) was chosen as one of Ceramics Monthly’s Emerging Artists for 2011, to appear in the May 2011 issue.

Image: Jeffrey Baker
In preparation for his upcoming show at the Oregon College of Art & Craft, Jeffrey T. Baker will be showing work-in-progress at his SE Portland studio as well as discussing some of the mixed media techniques used to realize this work. Refreshments will be provided. Friday, April 1st, 2011 from 5pm - 9pm at Troy Laundry Building (Studio 10 on the 3rd Floor) at 221 SE 11th Ave, Portland, OR.
http://www.jeffreytbaker.com

Image: Ryan Pierce
Ryan Pierce
March 25th is Asshole Sunset, a solo exhibition at Sight School in Oakland, CA. It’s a rough-n-tumble new batch of sculptures and a few paintings, inspired by the sentiment of wishing that ‘The Rapture’ would hurry up and happen so that the fundamentalists would go away and let us talk sensibly about the future of the Earth. Expect bread, barbed wire blackberries, burnt things. Sight School is a fantastic alternative space run by my art hero Michelle Blade and the opening will be Saturday night. Asshole Sunset!

Signal Fire is accepting applications until April 1st for the three best weeks of my summer: two sessions of the Outpost Residency, and one action-packed backpacking trip through my favorite patch of Mount Hood National Forest. I do hope you can join us in the forest.

Image: Jennifer Anable
Jennifer Anable is showing her MFA Thesis Exhibition, “Everybody is an Astronaut,“ March 30-April 21 at Katherine Nash Gallery Regis Center for Art at University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. “My experience in Graduate school has been a battle between logic and uncertainty. A push and pull relationship between old beliefs and new discoveries. The work in this show represents my reaches into the unknown, where we find no answers only comfort in our own search.“

Janice Green 2003 alumni will have booth at the O.P.A. showcase this year and recently was in the Celebration of creativity Art Show.

Mary Wells (‘03) is showing work in “New Artists Group Show” at Viridian Artists, 530 West 25th #407 in New York through January 15, 2011.
Viridian Artists presented new work by new Viridian Artists. Each of the eight artists in this exhibit was given about 10 linear feet of wall space for a mini solo of their recent art. Mary Wells’ work will be featured in a solo exhibit next season. Mary was also featured in “Group Exhibition: New Works by Northwest Artists” at Augen Gallery, 716 SNW Davis Street in Portland, OR January 6–29, 2011. Wells has just returned from a short residency gathering images and soaking up the winter environment at La Macina di San Cresci in Greve-in-Chianti, Italy in preparation for work on the third (winter) of a quartet of seasonal paper mosaics. She plans to return for the month of July to begin work on the final piece—summer—of this lengthy project.
 

Kristin Mitsu Shiga (‘01) has received a Professional Development Grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC – www.racc.org) to attend CollaboratioNZ 2011 in Whangarei, New Zealand as a Resource Artist.  She has launched a campaign on Kickstarter to complete funding for this project. To learn more or participate, visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kristinmitsushiga/co-lab-an-artists-adventure-in-collaborative-makin.

 
Sam MacKenzie (‘06) has stepped down as president of non-profit MOSAIC Arts Alliance after 3 1/2 years of service. Sam was the second president to lead MOSAIC Arts Alliance and has brought MOSAIC and its co-op Sixth Street Gallery through many milestones. Her leadership role culminated with the successful move of the gallery to its new location (and, consequently, new name) - Gallery 360, 111 W Ninth Street, Vancouver WA

Book Arts Department Head Barb Tetenbaum and book arts faculty Marilyn Zornado screened their letterpress-printed animation short “Old-Time Film” in December at IPRC in Portland. It was followed by a discussion of the process of making the film which they have dubbed “Vander-mation”. The project is supported by a grant from Regional Arts and Culture Council.

OCAC staff member Lena Welker recently had an exhibition of her newest work at North Dakota Museum of Art. Click the link to see the interview with her in conjunction with the show.
http://studio1.und.edu/video/12-09-10/stories12-09-10.html.

Image: Christine Clark
Christine Clark, Metals Department Head, is showing “Collective Object: An Installation by Christine Clark,“ February 3-27, 2011 at Nine Gallery in Portland. An opening reception will take place on February 3 from 6:00-9:00pm at the gallery space, 122 NW 8th Ave.

“Collective Object” is an abstract account of objects in our lives. Objects encircle us daily, tangible elements that make up our homes, which hold an importance that varies with each individual. We collect objects for fun, investment, relaxation, social interaction, nostalgia, control and a host of other reasons reaching back to basic human instinct and the will to survive. The notion of ownership gives us a sense of power and compels us to hold on to those objects. They often serve as markers of time reminding us of something significant that takes precedence in our minds. Even as these objects shift importance from some heightened significance to something forgotten, our desire to hang on to that object still prevails.

As an abstract idea, the objects in the installation transcend from something specific to a generic representation of who we are and why we collect. Each of the 65 hand-made objects that course around the walls of the gallery is white, on white shelves against white walls.

“I want to represent a commonality in people that removes us from the specifics of being an individual transforming us into a collective whole. None of the objects in this exhibition are meant to represent anything specific. The objects transform in shape from one thing into another suggesting the transformation of meaning objects hold in our lives. As a whole, it creates a singular experience of suspended meaning. It resounds with latent memories of things or ideas once felt but become intangible with time. It is a narrative that is no longer yours.“

Image: Michael deForest
Wood faculty Michael deForest will lecture about his recent apprenticeship as a fantasy coffin-maker in Ghana on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 at 7:30pm in the Catlin Gabel Cabell Center at 8825 SW Barnes Rd in Portland.

Michael de Forest spent two and a half months in Ghana in the summer of 2009 with Eric Adjetey Anang, grandson of the originator of fantasy coffin making in the Ga community. These wooden coffins are assembled, carved, and painted in many fantastic shapes meaningful to their intended recipient—including fish, trucks, bottles of beer, pens, and boats. While in Ghana de Forest learned to appreciate not only his mentors’ practical techniques, but also the way they make creative choices collaboratively.

In addition to talking about his experience, illustrated by many images, he will speak about how practical knowledge and creative thinking work together in the making of art.

Four OCAC faculty- Anna Fidler, Cynthia Lahti, Michelle Ross, and Heidi Schwegler- and OCAC alumni Ryan Pierce were chosen out of nearly 300 nomination as finalists for the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards presented by the Portland Art Museum. Read more at
http://www.oregonlive.com/art/index.ssf/2011/01/portland_art_museum_announces_1.html
http://www.oregonlive.com/art/index.ssf/2011/01/analysis_the_finalists_for_the.html

Image: Karl Burkheimer
Karl Burkheimer, Wood Department Head, is showing new work at Disjecta gallery in Portland February 26-March 26, 2011. Burkheimer writes, “My work, the creative endeavor, lives in the making, the act and art of transforming materials into form and meaning. I challenge myself to create work that addresses explicit functions without adhering to doctrines of performance, suggesting unknown or esoteric use—the contemplative object. While space cannot be created though direct physical acts of making (e.g. cutting, folding, welding, hammering, painting, etc.), it, or the illusion of it, is manipulated through the creation of objects and images. Following the trajectory of my recent work and inspired by vernacular/purposeful architecture this constructed object is aspiring to inhabit and alter Disjecta’s 3500 square feet of exhibition space. The piece, will exists as a sculptural/artistic image, yet it will elicit and rely on a haptic experience from the viewer/user to reach its full potential.“
http://www.disjecta.org

Karl Burkheimer, wood department head, will have his review of Museum of Contemporary Craft’s Ai Weiwei exhibition,“Dropping the Urn 5000 BCE–2010 CE” in the December issue of Ceramic Monthly magazine.

Image: Bill Will
Bill Will, foundations faculty, is showing a new public art installation, “US,“ in downtown Portland. The project is part of The Regional Arts & Culture Council’s Portland Storefronts– a pilot program in collaboration with Travel Portland’s Downtown Marketing Initiative, The Portland Business Alliance, downtown’s Clean & Safe District and the Portland Development Commission.

On display for the next three months are four installations in storefront windows at 731 SW Morrison– the building formerly occupied by Carl Greve Jewelry. Portland artists Damien Gilley, Sean Healy, Bill Will and the team of Crystal Schenk and Shelby Davis created site-specific works responding to the physical features of the building and the surrounding retail area and activities. Visible around the clock, the installations coincide with the opening of five “pop-up shops” that are showcasing local independent design talent this holiday season.

OCAC faculty member Bill Will is showcasing his installation titled “US” of acrylic mirrors, plywood, pine board. The reflective image of our country is captured in 50 mirrors shaped to form a complete large scale map of the United States.  Each state can be a mirror of our individual choices and actions, suggesting we consider who we are as individuals and as a nation. Bill Will is a sculptor and installation artist who has exhibited extensively for more than 25 years. He is a member of Nine Gallery in Portland. In 2005, The Art Gym at Marylhurst University featured a mid-career retrospective of his work and in 2006 he was awarded the 15th annual Bonnie Bronson Fellowship. In addition to sculpture and installation art, Bill has also completed more than 30 public art commissions, including several in Portland and at stations along the Westside Light Rail line.
http://www.billwillstudio.com

Image: Helen Hiebert
Helen Hiebert, fibers faculty, has a solo show, “String Theory,“ at 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland through December 18, 2010. Interested in the threads that bind us all, particularly knots, she unveils her unique compositions. Hiebert arranges loosely tied knots on a sheet of translucent handmade paper, manipulating the loops and ends to create the drawing, trapping the threads in time with the addition a top layer of translucent paper. Inspired by historical knot illustrations, Hiebert’s contemporary interpretations serve as metaphors for the physical and emotional connections and junctures in our lives.

Helen Hiebert is a Portland, Oregon artist who constructs installations, sculptures, and artist books using handmade paper, thread and light. She exhibits and lectures internationally, and serves as an adjunct faculty member at Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland. Hiebert is the author of the several papermaking books and is a regular contributor to Hand Papermaking Newsletter. She received the 2010 Regional Arts & Culture Council Project Grant, which partially funded String Theory.
View a full online catalog of Helen’s show here: http://www.23sandy.com/hiebert/catalog.html

On next Wednesday (11/10) at 4pm, Ricardo Dominguez will be giving a lecture entitled “Digital Zapatismo: From Electronic Civil Disobedience to the Transborder Immigrant Tool.” Ricardo Dominguez is an Associate Professor of Visual Arts at UC San Diego and a co-founder of The Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT), a group that developed Virtual-Sit-In technologies in 1998 in solidarity with the Zapatista communities in Chiapas, Mexico. His recent Electronic Disturbance Theater project with Brett Stabaum, Micha Cardenas, and Amy Sara Carroll is the Transborder Immigrant Tool, a GPS cellphone safety net tool for crossing the Mexico/U.S border.
On Thursday (11/11) at 3:30pm, there will be a panel presentation entitled “The Art of Remembering: Artistic Landscapes of Public Memory” which will feature sculptor/artist Alison Saar as well as local poet Kaia Sand.
Both of these events will be held on the Lewis & Clark College campus. If you would like more information on these and other symposium events and a map of our campus, please visit http://go.lclark.edu/warrensymp .

Image: Beth Robinson
Beth Robinson (Book Arts ‘08) will be showing “ Boundaries Between” a solo exhibition at The Voyeur Gallery, 547 Blair St. in Eugene, OR. The opening will be included in the last Friday Artwalk in the Whiteaker Neighborhood on November 26 from 5:30 - 9:30. Robinson will give an artist talk on December 17 at 6:00. For more information check out the news link @ http://www.robinpress.com.

Mary Wells (’03) will be participating in a number exhibits over the next three months. November 12-14 she will have work at the 2010 Sitka Art Invitational Art Exhibit and Sale located at the World Forestry Center’s Miller Hall, Portland, Oregon. The sale benefits the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology located on the Oregon coast at Cascade Head. The Sitka Art Invitational is an important source of support for Sitka Center’s Workshop and Residency Programs. The Workshop Program provides opportunities for artists to teach and study in workshops from late spring through early fall. The Residency Program offers opportunities for artists to pursue individual research projects from late fall through early spring. Ryan Pierce (’03) held the Jordan Schnitzer Printmaking Residency at the center this October.
Between Mid-November, 2010 and mid-January, 2011 Wells paper mosaic work will be shown in three separate exhibits at the Viridian Artists Gallery in the Chelsea district in New York City. Art from Detritus, an international juried competition curated by Vernita Nemic, will show from November 16 – December 4 with an artists’ reception on Saturday, November 20, 4-7. Viridian Artists & Friends Holiday Show will be December 7 – 24 with an artists’ reception on Saturday, December 7, 4-7. New Viridian Artists & Affiliates will be shown from December 28 – January 15 with an Artists’ reception on Saturday, January 8, 4-7. Wells be present for the artists’ receptions November 20 and January 8.
Wells will also participate in the workshop Exploring Music and Musical Scores that will be taught by OCAC’s head of Book Arts, Barb Tetenbaum, at the New York Center for Book Arts in New York City November 19-21.

Image: Pat Krishnamurthy
Pat Krishnamurthy (09) will be showing a selection from her ongoing body of work, Story Quilt I: Texture, Text, and Time, at the Walters Cultural Center located at 527 E. Main Street in Hillsboro, Oregon.  The juried exhibition, entitled Elements: Multiple Parts/Singular Art will run from December 7th, 2010 – January 26, 2011.  An opening reception will be held at the Walters Center on Tuesday, December 7, 2010 from 6:00 - 8:00pm. Pat also recently launched her website: http://www.patkstudio.com

Artists: Call for Entries
Call for entries to show artwork at Pastrygirl located at 7919 SE Stark Street, Portland, OR 97215. Send five digital images of work made within the last two years and an exhibition resume to Devon Simpson at Artists selected will be able to display their work for two-month long shows.  Pastrygirl participates in the Montavilla First Friday Event.

Hilary Pfeifer (Metals ‘99) has a new installation at the Portland Building Installation Space titled “The Beauty of Life.“ Portland Building Installation Space through November 12, 2010.
1120 SW 5th Avenue. Building Hours: Monday-Friday 7am-6pm (sponsored by the Regional Arts and Culture Council)

Ariane (Dixon) Hopman (’05) has begun a new chapter at the Oregon Food Bank as Special Events Coordinator where she will be the logistical lead for the Waterfront Blues Festival. She will also be working with local businesses to facilitate large food drives.

Ryan Pierce (‘03) has a solo exhibition, Fear of Dogs and Water, opening November 15 at University of Nevada Reno’s Sheppard Gallery. Signal Fire will exhibit the work of summer residents in Dead Roads Make Nice Meadows, at PNCA’s Manuel Izquierdo Gallery in the month of November. Opening reception and performances November 4, 6-9pm. Ryan will talk about his work and the Signal Fire project for Portland State University’s MFA Monday Night Lecture Series at 7:30pm on November 15 at Shattuck Hall Annex. http://www.ryapierce.net and http://www.signalfirearts.org

Image: Sara Young
Sara Young (00), has a show opening and business launch entitled: articulations at Maas Gallery, 1314 NW Irving St. #609, on November 4th, 5th from 5 pm to 8 pm and on the 6th by appointment only. Articulations describes the haunting utility of the human anatomy.
Website for a limited visual list of pieces: http://articulation.imagekind.com/store/default.aspx
Blog: http://articulationsanddisections.blogspot.com/
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Articulations/144038425640122

Amanda Wall-Graf
NW Modern Art and Design Exhibition

Image: Courtesy of Museum of Contemporary Craft

Barb Tetenbaum, book arts department head, recently curated “Object Focus: The Book” at Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland with Gerri Ondrizek of Reed College and Namita Gupta Wiggers of MCC. The show runs November 18, 2010 – February 26, 2011. The artist’s book is an object that extends work beyond the boundaries of a gallery setting. Through selections from the significant 20th century modern and contemporary artists’ books in Reed College’s Special Collections, this exhibition explores the book as an object which defies the boundaries between art, craft and design, and moves along a spectrum from a recognizable to a deconstructed form.
http://mocc.pnca.edu/exhibitions/1245/

Heidi Schwegler, metals faculty, is showing her new installation “Hold,“ at Disjecta in Portland. The work is an installation of sculpture, audio and projection, which together speak of a moment of anguish. In conventional warfare two opponents confront one another and inflict damage until one side is defeated. Personal struggle, however, is a battle in which the enemy is not external; the enemy is the self. Situated in the mind, it manifests physically within the body and is particularly insidious; it is unnecessary and the opponent does not exist. Outside the mind and body, inner angst is mostly unseen.

Colt Toombs (mixed martial artist and son of the famous World Wrestling Entertainer “Rowdy” Roddy Piper) will stand in as the oppositional force. Filmed with green screen, Colt will put the artist Heidi Schwegler in a variety of defensive holds as she fervently tries to free herself. Each of these moments will discordantly contain moments of humor and futility.

A gate that rhythmically slams shut on a magenta chain link dog run, a jump rope cast in bronze, and a wool blanket suspended in frozen gesture are a few of the pieces to be presented alongside multiple video projections: the artist experiencing a catastrophic moment, Colt reciting text from Rudolf Arnheim’s text “Entropy and Art: An Essay on Disorder and Order,“ and a triptych of monitors that offer “The Perfect Experience.”
http://disjecta.org/events/heidischwegler.php

Image: Lena Welker
Lena Welker, library staff, is showing Navigation [chime] at North Dakota Museum of Art in November. She will be giving an informal talk the evening of the opening reception.

Image: Maggie Sasso
Maggie Sasso, wood department faculty, is showing “Chapter 1: In which Strange finds a tool and adopts a new aesthetic along the way,“ at Doppler PDX in Portland November 4 - 13, 2010 and by appointment. Opening Reception: November 4th 5:30 - 9:00 p.m. Gallery Hours: Saturdays (November 6th & 13th) 1-4 pm
 
In her previous work, Sasso has explored ideas about material culture, museum as institution, artist as anthropologist, and narrative through object making.  For her newest work she allows these themes to informed her material choices, while also allowing a new fantastical nature to generate the installation’s narrative based on Sasso’s alter ego, ‘Strange.’
 
Strange can “see the world with a sense of wonder, just as a child does” and thus begins to collect objects and create drawings which illustrate her journey. The result is a new (or rather a very old) aesthetic based on sea charts, repetitive patterns and antique tools.

Maggie Sasso is currently an Adjunct Lecturer / Visiting Artist for the wood department at the Oregon College of Art and Craft.  She received her BFA from Murray State University (2006) and her MFA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison (2010). She was the first Student Representative on the Board of Trustees for the Furniture Society in 2004. Sasso recently finished designing and building an installation for the new Madison Children’s Museum (with collaborator Kara Ginther).

Jennifer J MacLean is now being represented by the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery in New York. The gallery is located in the Chelsea art district.
http://Www.Amsterdamwhitneygallery.com. 

Image: Carla Klinker Cope

Carla Klinker Cope (‘03) is having a show opening titled Landed at Fireweed Gallery, 475 E. Pioneer Ave, Homer, AK on Friday October 1st from 5:00-8:00pm. Landed is a series of paintings about home and features the patterns and colors of life at the shore. Carla’s art blog is http://www.carlaklinker.com

In October Ryan Pierce will be at Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, participating in the Jordan Schnitzer Printmaking Residency. For two weeks he will live at the Oregon coast and work with Master Printer Julia D’Amario (formerly of Pace Editions).

Fear of Dogs and Water, his next solo show, will be at University of Nevada in Reno’s Sheppard Gallery. This ‘two-year retrospective’ will feature works from the NGHTMRBLVR series, and a catalog with a new essay by Pierce. Stop by the opening night reception and artist lecture November 18 at 5:30 pm if you happen to be, well, anywhere near Nevada.

The best thing about Ryan’summer was seeing Signal Fire grow to a new level. Amy and Ryan, the founders, held two sessions of the Outpost Residency on Mt. Hood for eight residents, and then Renee Jenkinson and Ryan led a backpacking trip for five more artists in the Wallowa Mountains of Eastern Oregon. In November we’ll celebrate with an exhibition called Dead Roads Make Nice Meadows, at Pacific Northwest College of the Arts’ Manuel Izquierdo Gallery, with work from the Outpost residents. The opening is November 4 from 6-9, and there will be some performances and video work to enjoy.

This will also be the release of Leaf Litter, a collection of writing and artwork by Signal Fire residents and friends. We are currently raising money to print Leaf Litter on Kickstarter, and we are almost there. Thanks to those of you who have generously donated already. Five bucks or more gets you a copy of the publication in the mail, and fifty or more gets you something extra special.

-Lastly, I am thrilled to share that my art heroine/ friend/ co-conspirator Ellen Lesperance just won the Betty Bowen award, for being the most amazing artist in the rainy part of the country. Big props.

Lisa Onstad and Suzy Root are having an art opening on October 14th from 6-9 at 1315 SE 9th. Go to Lisa’s blog for more info!
http://lisaonstad.blogspot.com/2010/10/art-opening.html

Image: Courtesy of Barb Tetenbaum

Barb Tetenbaum, OCAC Book Arts Department Head, was awarded the 2010 Sally R. Bishop Master Faculty Fellow to teach a master class and give a lecture at the Center for Book Arts in New York. Barb is the recipient of two Fulbright awards to teach in Leipzig, Germany and in Usti nad Labem in the Czech Republic, and has received other awards of support for her artwork and research. Her books are held in public collections in the U.S., Canada, England, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Image: Phil Harris

OCAC General Studies Department Head Phil Harris is showing “See For Yourself: Experiential Prototypes” at Doppler PDX October 7-October 16, 2010. Opening Reception October 7 from 5:30-9:00pm at 625 NW Everett Street #109 in Portland. Gallery Hours: Saturdays 1-4pm.

“See For Yourself: Experiential Prototypes” is in every sense a group of prototypes: they lack polish. They are intended to draw attention away from themselves as objects, and toward their function, which is the direct experience of perception itself. Thus, the pieces can’t fulfill their promise unless they’re physically engaged by the audience allowing the separation between the seer and the seen to waver, perhaps becoming momentarily irrelevant. What do you see? How do you understand it? How do you share your experience?

Phil Harris is a Portland-based artist and photographer. His photographic work was published a retrospective monograph in 2000 and is housed in many collections, public and private, in the US and Europe. “See For Yourself: Experiential Prototypes” is the first exhibition of a new direction in Harris’ work.

Beth Robinson (‘08) has had work accepted in the 8th Issue Autumn 2010 Bailliwik. This is a self-published, periodical book (and website) of work made by an ever-changing roster of members from around the world. Each year since 2004, we have come together to publish and distribute ongoing projects, new pieces, and limited-edition art works. All of the work in the book, some additional material, and past issues are available for viewing @ http://www.bailliwik.org .

Pam Gibson is showing “Bearing Witness: Tapestries, Paintings, Encaustics” at The Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder, CO August 6-September 17, 2010.
www.pamelagibsonartist.com

Image: Nicole Gibbs
Nicole Gibbs (’06) has a new website at http://www.nicolegibbsart.com. She will be teaching this year at Columbus College of Art & Design in Columbus, Ohio.

Katie Behel (07’) was part of a group show opening titled Wearable at Worksound Gallery, 820 SE Alder, Portland, OR in August.  Her Work takes a fresh rubbery look at 3 familiar forms: the collar, the cuff and the tie. 

Hilary Pfeifer (‘99) is working on an installation for RACC’s Portland Building Installation Space in October. The project, titled “The Beauty of Life,“ which is based on a William Morris wallpaper pattern, will be composed of hundreds of pieces of jewelry. Follow along on her blog http://www.hilarypfeifer.blogspot.com to watch this project evolve, and through September 20, you can pre-purchase a piece from the show and help Hilary pay for production costs.  See a video that tells more about the project on Kickstarter at http://kck.st/dldIA8.  Hilary is also having an open studio day to showcase the project in progress on Saturday, September 11, where there also will also be a sale of art, art supplies, and music to make art by. The studio is located at 4634 NE 19th Avenue and the event will run from 10am throughout the day. 

Lori Mason (‘95) has quilts made from her own collection of printed fabrics featured in the following publications: Quilter’s Home June/July 2010, McCall’s Quilting July/August 2010, Quilts and More Fall 2010, Fabric Trends Magazine Fall 2010, Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting January 2011. Preview her new Fall fabric line, the Woodland Collection on her website: http://www.lorimasondesign.com/ 


Ellen Goldschmidt’s (’00) show at Blackfish Gallery, Drawing Frames, was reviewed in the Oregonian. Click on this link to read the review. http://www.oregonlive.com/art/index.ssf/2010/08/review_ellen_goldschmidt_at_bl.html.  Goldschmidt participated in an August group show at Gallery 110 in Seattle. She will be represented in Eugene by Opus VII gallery starting in September.

Liv Rainey-Smith (‘08) is part of the September 3-27 “Black & White” group show at North Bank Artists Gallery, 1005 Main Street, Vancouver, WA 98660. http://www.northbankartistsgallery.com/

Liv will be demonstrating her woodcut printmaking technique at the Print Arts Northwest (PAN) tent during Art in the Pearl from 1-5pm Monday September 6th. http://www.artinthepearl.com

Liv will also be hosting Ink & Drink at Atelier Meridian, 665 N Tillamook Avenue, Portland, OR 97227. 6-9pm Friday October 8th. A good print studio runs on comraderie as much as its fine presses. One Friday a month everyone is invited to relax, snack, and enjoy a glimpse into the techniques of our featured artist. http://www.ateliermeridian.com 

October 9-10 & 16-17 from 10am-5pm, Liv’s studio is #62 on the Portland Open Studios Tour. The tour features a diverse group of 100 artists working in their chosen media. You will meet emerging artists in their 20s and 30s as well as mid-career and well-established artists from all over the United States and the world who have chosen to live and work in the Portland metro area. http://www.portlandopenstudios.com/

Jennifer J MacLean is now being represented by the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery in New York. The gallery is located in the Chelsea art district.  http://www.Amsterdamwhitneygallery.com.   





Image: Barb Tetenbaum

A Close Read: My Antonia, a new text-based installation by OCAC faculty Barb Tetenbaum, is on view at Reed College September 3-18. This month-long project began in early August, has the artist listening to a recording and reading the written text of Willa Cather’s My Antonia. She maps out her understanding of the novel, indulging her curiosity, questions and reactions as the story unfolds. An opening reception will be held on Friday, September 3 from 5:00-8:00pm at Reed College’s Edith Feldenheimer Gallery at 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd in Portland.

I am working on an installation inspired by the wallpaper and fabric patterns of Arts and Crafts designer William Morris, especially his most famous work titled “The Strawberry Thief.” I will individually sculpt thousands of leaf, flower, fruit and bird forms, which will be connected into an interlocking three dimensional wallpaper pattern that will span over 100 square feet. The plant elements will be made of the same materials as my previous work: reclaimed wood from deconstructed homes, or ornate picture frames, rulers, decorative fruit, toys, and cooking utensils. No found object will be easily recognizable. The pieces in the center of this installation will be harmonious, but as your eye moves towards the edges and to the parts growing onto the adjacent wall and floor, the flora and fauna will become more wild and unusual in form and behavior. These elements will break from their patterned routines, craning towards the light coming from the open ceiling above. A bird might now turn its head to peer at the viewer, a provocative object held in its beak.

A monochromatic carpet will fill much of the floor space of the gallery, and it will be apparent that some of the vines coming from the main wall have been covered by this surface, similar to the black ground cloth we use to smother unruly growth on an urban plot of land. These vines have traveled beneath the surface, however, sprouting up in far corners again. Like the edges of the wall installation, these plants are slightly changed when they re-emerge. This not only is a nod to the long running themes in my own artwork, but also a nod to Morris, whose outspoken political views made him a controversial figure in his time.

One of Morris’ most famous quotes is: “Have nothing in your houses which you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” As an homage to this concept, the components of this installation are actually wall-mounted brooches and tie-tacks. Eight pieces that extend from the wall to the floor are neckpieces.

Most of the funding levels for this project will reward Kickstarter backers with one or more brooches or necklaces from this installation. All work will be signed and numbered on the back, and then collected in an online flickr album, so supporters can choose their piece before the general public.

Please note that most of the work you see in this video is still unfinished. The brooch that you see coming off the wall and pinning to my sweater is an example of a finished piece. But never fear: I will update the page here with links to my blog, where I’m chronicling the creation of this complex project and will show finished pieces as they emerge. Visit my blog at http://www.hilarypfeifer.blogspot.com or see other projects from the past decade at my website http://www.hilarypfeifer.com

This will be my most intricate installation yet, so I will use Kickstarter funding to hire a team of professional jewelers and craftspeople to help me with the detailed construction work that this project requires. http://kck.st/dldIA8

Image: Travis Townsend

Travis Townsend, current OCAC Artist-in-Residence, is showing NEW THINGS + DRAWINGS @ DOPPLER PDX, 625 NW Everett Street #109 in Portland, Oregon. The show runs August 5-14, 2010 and by appointment. Opening Reception:  August 5th 5:30-9:00pm. Gallery Hours:  Saturdays (August 7th & 14h) 1-4pm
 

Doppler PDX presents Travis Townsend’s newest work: NEW THINGS + DRAWINGS. There is something refreshing and invigorating for an artist to break-away from their typical creating process and reworking of final pieces. Townsend takes on takes on and exhibits the results of his two week residency at Oregon College of Art and Craft.  For Townsend the two week period was a chance to put aside his lengthy process of making, looking, thinking, reworking months later, and then exhibiting a year (or more) later, and instead is creating a body of work in a two week period with minimal reworking time.
 

NEW THINGS + DRAWINGS are works created with using a mixture of plywood, reclaimed building materials, art student wood scraps, and other hardware store materials. Townsend’s works are idiosyncratic sculptures that play off the forms and function of tools, toys, and military equipment and include Townsend’s usual cast of characters (tanks, dead birds, flower bombs, and targets). While Townsend built, altered, and adapted his pieces, he also embraced the unplanned and oddly familiar into nearly useful-looking  sculptures that are imbued with human characteristics and gestures.
 

Travis Townsend studied at Kutztown University (BS 1996) and Virginia Commonwealth University (MFA 2000), has recently presented solo exhibitions at the Southwest School of Art and Craft (San Antonio), Weston Gallery (Cincinnati), Georgetown College (KY), and the New Arts Program (PA), and been included in group exhibitions at the University of Hawaii, Cedarhurst Center for the Arts (IL), Kendall College (MI); Spaces Gallery (Cleveland); Lehigh University (PA); and Zone: Chelsea (New York).  Images of his artwork have been published in The Penland Book of Woodworking, New American Paintings, and the Manifest National Drawing Annual.  His awards include an Emerging Artist Grant from the American Craft Council, a Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council, three grants from the Virginia A. Groot Foundation, and a National Young Sculptors Award from Miami University. He lives in Lexington, KY, teaches drawing, design, and concepts at Eastern Kentucky University. Travis recently curated an exhibition titled Generously Odd for the Lexington Art League.
  

For more information or to schedule an appointment, please visit: http://www.dopplerpdx.com

Elizabeth Mickle Holloway (‘07) received her Masters in Elementary Education from Marylhurst University (‘10) and will be teaching Kindergarten at M.I.T.C.H. Chart School, a public school in Tigard/Tualatin focusing on writing and art. Come August 13th, she is marrying Shane Michael Fisher, a fellow artist and teacher.

Image: Lucy Bergen
Lucy Bergen (’08) had a piece selected for Sleight of Hand 2: A National Juried Craft Competition at Gallery 5 in Richmond, VA this past spring.  As of June 2010, she is a married woman (!), and she is currently working on a body of painted work exploring the growing divide between man-made and the natural world. 

Ellen Goldschmidt‘s (’00) show, titled Drawing Frames opens at Blackfish Gallery, 420 NW Ninth Ave, Portland, OR on First Thursday, August 5 from 6 – 9 pm. She is offering an artist talk on Sunday, August 15 at 11 am at the gallery. Goldschmidt challenges traditional norms of painting by hanging her contemporary still life paintings in frames drawn directly onto the wall. The unusual installation subtly emphasizes the objecthood of the paintings over the images they present. http://www.blackfish.com

Image: VonTundra
Von Tundra, comprised of OCAC alumni Dan Anderson, Chris Held, and Brian Pietrowski, & The Renegade Dinner Club have been offered an opportunity to create an installation and a series of events at Specific Merchandise, a storefront gallery in Los Angeles. VonTundra will fill a gallery space with hand-made furniture (a family table, chairs, lighting, even hand-crafted tableware), spread the table with local home cooked fixings, and they invite you to come by to join them at the table!  


Von Tundra is a grassroots American design house and artist collective based in Portland, Oregon. Our mission is to create well-crafted contemporary furniture, objects, and spaces that express our dedication to longevity and simplicity.


Chef Colleen French is the creator of the Renegade Dinner Club, a social conceptual art piece using food as the medium. Renegade transforms a simple dinner into a full sensory experience that can take place anywhere—the roof of your apartment building, the grassy lot down the street, anywhere that is—except in a restaurant! 



Image: VonTundra
The goal is pleasingly simple: to share our craft-based practices with the community and create tangible connections between Slow Food and Slow Design.  We hope this collaboration between design, art, food, and community will continue to grow—eventually traveling the country. 
We are currently raising funds on Kickstarter and offering donor’s incentives to help us reach our goal. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/610122538/a-marriage-of-crafts-design-dinner

In June 2010 Blue Mitchell (‘05) has work in the “Plastic Fantastic” juried exhibition at LightBox Gallery in Astoria as well as the Texas Photo Society’s 24th Members’ Only Show exhibiting at the Martin Museum of Art at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Blue also curated “Diffusion; An Unconventional Photography Exhibition” at Springbox Gallery opening July 9th 2010. The show celebrates the release of Diffusion, Volume II, (http://www.diffusionmag.com) and features the artists and contributors from the photographic annual.

Andrew Buckland (’06) has a solo show titled ”Artificial” opening in August at OCAC in the Centrum gallery.  He will also be a senior Artist-in-Residence at OCAC in the Photography Department this summer.  As part of the residence he will be teaching a workshop call “Archival Digital Printing in Wide-Format” and it runs from July 14th -18th. 

Image: Kimo Nelson
Kimo Nelson (‘09) has been accepted to the MFA in painting program at the Rhode Island School of Design. He is part of the class of 2012 and will begin studies this September.


Image: Mary Blankenburg and Christine Clark
Mary Blankenburg (‘05) and OCAC faculty member Christine Clark had a show titled Light + Shadow at Nine Gallery, 122 NW 8th Ave in Portland in June.  Light + Shadow is a collaborative installation that studies Clark’s trademark wire forms and their dynamic relationship with light.

Image: Colleen Flanigan
Colleen Flanigan is very excited to complete 3 large-scale interactive slider puzzles. The 150+ original pen and ink drawings on ceramic tiles will also be exhibited with the fresh-off-the-laser engraved wood puzzles for you to play with! Reception:
 July 2, 2010
7-10 PM @ good: a gallery  (there will be fireworks) located at 
4325 n mississippi ave
portland, OR 97227
. 

Gallery hours: sat 12-7
 / sun 1-6.  http://www.goodpdx.com