Ingrid Aubry is the featured artist in West Linn Library‘s Community Room Art Gallery through October. More info can be found at https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/westlinnpubliclibrary. Artist interview regarding the show on YouTube at https://youtu.be/WU77eFihL6A.
I’m having a free mini workshop for making Christmas ornaments. I will provide the materials and my time if you would donate something to the Oregon Food Bank. I will have a box to put the donation in at the time of making the ornaments.
Up to a group of six at one time.
Only one needs to sign up for the group and how tell me how many others will be coming.
I will send out a video about the process.
This is for a one-hour mini workshop – one per person.
I have time slots all different times.
Please contact me at; mitzikart@gmail.com and I will send you dates and times available.
If anyone has a blood borne disease or are on blood thinners, you may come and watch the fun. Yes, glass can cut. I take all precautions, but accidents do happen.
Come and have fun!
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2022 AT 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Ages: 18 and Up (Due to the 450-500+ heat of the soldering iron and molten metal)
$65.00 (all soldering materials included)
Learn the art of soldering with Art-O-Maddic artist, Sue Woodworth.
In this workshop, you will learn some of the basic techniques, tricks, and safety in working with 500-degree solder. The solder Sue uses is not your “plumber’s solder” but a solder with a kick of “Silver” in it. A hot soldering gun and we are off. We are going to melt solder to a lovely molten state and make it flat and shiny. Then make puddles of hot solder and stamp designs with red rubber stamps. All soldering materials will be supplied.
We will create dots and connect fun metal charms and maybe some rhinestones to it. These will be easy simple projects that will “WOW” your friends and you’ll want to make more. You will go home with some soldered earrings that have been jazzed up by you!
Please bring: An old cookie sheet tin to have as your work mat. Wear an old shirt, jeans and maybe bring an apron. Occasionally a small spat of solder wants to jump ship.
In the spirit of Halloween we will be learning all about insects that wear disguises to blend in or stand out. Did you know that some insects actually cover themselves with leaves, twigs or even poop to hide from predators?
After learning about these creative creatures we will decorate Halloween masks. We will have all kinds of supplies, so let your creativity run free! Students will also receive several beautiful illustrations that they will get to take home and decorate.
Cost: $40
Date and time: 6:30-8pm Wednesday October 26
This class is for ages 6 and up
We will have 13 spots available, and parents are welcome to join their children.
Please follow this link to sign up for the class: https://www.artomaddic.com/events
About the instructor: Heather Andrews is a research entomologist at Oregon State University. She works at a university extension office in Aurora where she studies growing practices in orchard crops that minimize their negative impact on the environment while maximizing yield. In her free time Heather makes jewelry, draws and also plays the harp.
Arch Bridge Celebration on October 1st
Community Art Project
The Arch Bridge Celebration takes place on October 1st. One of the events is a Community Art Project which TRAG members Trieste Andrews and Cathy Rowe are involved in. Carrie Gilbert from the West Linn Art Commission and Brian Krehbiel from the Confederated Tribes, who painted the mural funded by TRAG on the White Rabbit Cafe in Oregon City, completes the Team. Watch the video below for more information about the project and the Arch Bridge Celebration Event!
The bridge will be shut down from 7 – 3pm with festivities all day including live music, a community art project with TRAG members participating, and a program of events. Volunteers are needed from 8:30am – 2:30pm to help out at the SWAG tables, Information Tables and as docents at the Old West Linn City Hall. Pitch in for 2 hours and then enjoy the celebration!
For sign up opportunities go to https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E45A8AF22A2FCC07-arch.
By Lynda Orzen, OCFOTA Coordinator
Wow, just wow! What an amazing event this year! We had well over 3,000 visitors during the weekend. The parking lot was always full all weekend! Saturday morning we saw a constant stream of people entering the festival! Our artists gave the festival an average of 8.8 appreciation rating. Many said this festival had the best sales they’ve seen in years!
I’ll let them speak for themselves:
Well done everyone!! A great show, well organized and lots of visitors. This show continues to be a delight. We have enjoyed this event every year. Our thanks to you all for all your hard work and friendly faces
This was an amazing event and the anticipation for next year is already an exciting seed in my mind. Kudos to all of you wonderful folks and all your hard work.
Wow! I so appreciate the work of the OC Festival of the Arts Committee! You are super organized, your volunteers are the greatest, and your publicity is amazing!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thanks so much for the awesome show!!!! I had the best sales I’ve ever had at the event. So nice to see you and everybody again. I had a lot of my clients come and a lot of annual regulars who stopped in to buy bling.
You, the committee and all the volunteers were so very terrific! This is why I love this event. I hope you all get to take a well-deserved break.
Much Appreciation ~
Just a small example of the feedback from our artists. Truly heartwarming!
As the event coordinator, I would like to give kudos to our committee members who put in hours of planning to make this happen! Several members like Melody Bush were behind the scenes posting on Social Media daily. Yelena Shabrova kept all the applications and communications current. Ingrid Aubry used her magic creating our postcards, posters, banners, programs, and billboards for the event. Nancy Graham kept the financial information current along with those boring insurance details! Susan Woodworth signed up the music and food vendors, while being a vendor in the event and a television personality for our KATU commercial. Cathy Rowe manned the Silent Auction again this year and did her magic with the online bidding and gathering the auction items. Thank you to Tima Carlson and Soul Flags for hosting the Children’s Art activities. Lynne Collum created the artist booth signs and badges this year. Tamara Scott was the keeper of the key for the Storage Unit and always ready to help move supplies. Last but one of the most important committee chairs was Kerry Edwards who set up the volunteers for the festival. Kerry was invaluable and worked with me coordinating this event. She went above and beyond setting the volunteer schedules, she was my right hand in organizing the event! She always had a smile on her face even when trying to go in 2 directions at the same time!
Special thanks to our sponsors this year, World Heart, Citizens Bank and Double J Construction. If you have a chance to visit our sponsors, please thank them for their support.
Can’t forget to thank our Oregon City Tourism Department and Daniel Gehring for his support and getting us on KATU television for our interviews. The interview went out to the wider Portland community, and I believe increased our visitor count during the weekend.
Now the process begins for planning our 2023 Premier Art Event!
Lynda Orzen
OCFOTA Coordinator
Updated September 1st, 2022: Oregon City Festival of the Arts got Silver in the Best Festival in Oregon City from Readers Choice Awards through the Pamplin press!
By Lynda Orzen, OCFOTA Coordinator
The community mural Friends on a Shelf is now official! We had the grand ribbon cutting ceremony on July 23. Thank you to our Chamber of Commerce for letting us borrow their scissors! There was a small group of our friends that attended the ceremony. Lynda said a few words about how the mural idea came about and Lucas talked about his process. This was his first mural on the outside of a building which presented quite a few challenges including him being afraid of heights. Lucas conquered all his fears and finished the mural between rain storms!
The height of the ceremony was when Quinn read her poem “Friends on a Shelf”. She did get a little help from her Dada she confessed! It’s hard to believe the poem was written by a 6-year-old. More like 6 years going on 15! It was such a pleasure getting to know Lucas and his wonderful family during the mural installation! We really enjoyed seeing his artwork in the bookstore for several months.
In the coming months, we are going to be photographing the mural for a closer look at the book titles. We will make it available so our Friends can get a close up of their books way up on the shelves
Now on to the next project! Would you like to see the mural on a bookbag or maybe a mug?
Friends on a Shelf
By Quinn Amara Nickerson and Dada
Fairies and magic and books about space
Are found on the shelves of your favorite bookcase.
My world is expanding, the more that I Learn,
My eyes become wide with every page
That I turn.
Enchanted forests and bubbling brooks,
Adventure awaits inside of your books.
At the end of the day, when you want
To unwind,
Go to your shelf and a book you will find,
To inspire and spark new ideas that take seed.
Creative energy flowing, after every
Book that you read.
There’s no better friends to find for yourself,
Then the books you can pull down from a shelf.
By Trieste Andrews,
The Board of Directors for the Downtown Oregon City Association has nominated TRAG for outstanding partnership. A draft of the nomination written by Liz Hannum the Director of DOCA is attached. The nomination is for 2021-22. It focuses on our work in reinstituting the mural code and the Restoration mural of the Trolley car and the new mural at White Rabbit.
By Liz Hannum the Director of DOCA
Brief Project Description
DOCA has spent 3 years working with the Three Rivers Artist Guild to help bring vibrancy to downtown Oregon City through the creation of the mural code, restoration of a historic mural, and a brand new mural.
Describe the person, project, or activity you are nominating. Refer to the category description for additional questions to include.
Three Rivers Artist Guild is an inclusive organization providing mutual support, encouragement, services, and education for the enrichment of artists and their communities.
This joint project advocated for a mural code at the City, found funding for a mural restoration depicting a historic scene from when the trolley used to run through Oregon City, and a new mural created by an indigenous artist at the gateway entrance to downtown. It also faces the Falls site now owned by the Grand Ronde Tribe so the mural tells the story of the beginning of the falls from the Grand Ronde perspective and bridges the divide between old Main Street and what will be a restored Main Street once the Falls site is redeveloped.
Describe the impact the person, project, or activity has had on improving your downtown or neighborhood commercial district and the businesses located there. If a project or activity, are there secondary or spin off effects? For instance, did the rehab of a particular building spur additional investment downtown or have an effect on a nearby business?
In early 2019, a representative from TRAG and DOCA and the City of Oregon City sat down to talk about how we could change the city code to allow murals back in Oregon City. This ended up as a multi year effort to build support among the business and property owners, the artists in the community, the general public, and more to petition the City to institute a mural code. After several iterations and lots of discussion over years, the City was poised to change the code. The original code included an Arts Commission as the permitting body that had dissolved more than 15 years earlier. TRAG and DOCA came together to get the word out to individuals to help rebuild that commission. So not only did we restore the mural code together and support each other to find funding to restore an historic mural and create a new one, but we also helped to bring the Arts Commission back at the City level to start working on more ways to bring art to our community.
As mentioned in the description, the connection that the indigenous mural has made with the Falls site is going to make downtown more welcoming to all.
Please tell us why this person, project, or activity should be considered for an Excellence on Main award. What lessons were learned and what can be taken away from your experience?
These two murals and the partnership that they created were years in the making. Perseverance and dogged determination, especially on the part of TRAG who collected 70% of the 150 letters of support for the mural code restoration, are the only way to get things done. This idea was fairly well received and it still took years to get it through the commission and included the creation of a new iteration of a city arts commission that had been dormant for years. The final viewing for the indigenous mural was last weekend and the amount of foot traffic that this brought to the business was absolutely amazing.
We also helped each other out constantly. The best example of this was when the TRAG volunteer scheduled to power wash the wall so the mural could get started a few days later was taken away with a family issue, DOCA stepped in and 4 of our volunteers offered to do it so that the schedule didn’t need to be pushed back.
By Lucas Nickerson, TRAG’s very own muralist
“A muralist? Me? Not really.”, I told Lynda when she approached me with the idea of creating a piece to adorn the entrance of her bookstore. I’ve been wrong too often. After the dust has settled, and the varnish dried, I can finally be at ease with some of my insecurities at painting something so daunting. Would you believe that I thought it was possible, at the start, that I was afraid of heights? I opted to use a ladder because I wasn’t sure about the weather holding back the rain long enough for a few days of work at a time, so I’d have to be a guerrilla painter. When I first climbed to the top to test it out, a sudden fear gripped me. I can’t possibly do the whole thing up here on a twiny ladder! Was my thought, as I stood there, looking down. Wrong again!
Doubt and insecurities are the plague of most artists, so overcoming my own ‘mind traps’ is something I’m learning to better cope with. No doubt, we’ve all overcome some personal barriers to get the job done.
In the end, I am happy, humbled, and proud of the work I’ve done. I’m honored to have helped create some beauty for the community I was raised in. Creating a work that I hope my family is proud of is one of the sparks that drive me as an artist. I hope I have also created a design that both captures the spirit of the responses from the community, and also one that showed a personal connection to the world of books.
I hope the design of the mural gives the sense that not only is literature elevating to our understanding of the world and ourselves, but that it is a friendly, natural environment; full of wonderful friends of the wild. In an excerpt from a press release, I wrote:
“The last few years have brought us more isolation than many of us are comfortable with, especially our children. While they may not be a true substitution for constant contact with friends and other people in our lives, a little gentle escapism offered by a book carries us smoothly many miles over any rough road. I am thankful every day that our little one knows how to read and is able to open her world a bit more with the help of her friends on a shelf.
And so our title was ‘Friends on a Shelf’.
To help fund the mural, we took sponsorship from the community. Each sponsor could pay to have a book spine personalized within reason. This was the most challenging aspect of the mural. Placing over 50 sponsors on randomly sized and various colors of books was no easy task. I knew that not every person would be thrilled to have their personalized book at the top of the shelf where it is harder to read. In the end, though, I believe the look created in the amount of time (and between rainy days) gives the sense of an old library with wonderful antique books- books with intriguing titles like, ‘Bob, I Want That’ and ‘The History of Love’.
The work is a figurative mountain to me. A mountain I’ve climbed by going up and down a 20 foot ladder for days on end. A marathon climb with a deadline. I’ve finally reached the summit and the view’s not too bad!
I hope all who get a chance to drive or walk bye will take a look and maybe even enjoy it. I know at least 53 folks who will be squinting to read the titles, scanning for their own sponsorship on my shelf of dusty old books.
