A photo-realistic rendering of a can of Royal brand baking powder sitting next to a stack of wicker baskets on a black background., Royal with Baskets, The paintings of Sally Haley are much loved in the Northwest, partly at least because she often (but not always) has painted familiar domestic objects-bread, eggs, bottles, fruit, dishes, the simple, reassuring, eternal things. And she paints them with mastery so admirable that our response is a combination of delight and awe. They appear in a variety of settings and con-formations: a loaf of bread may almost fill its small canvas; a stemmed glass containing, quite surprisingly, five eggs, and standing alone, with mysterious iconic overtones, in a vast dark space; or a group assembled on a table in Haley's own subtle version of the still life. But there is a great deal more to her art than the masterly rendition of familiar objects. Many of her canvases, entirely bare of objects, are seen from, as one might say, a much wider angle; they are interiors divided into austere geometric shapes which suggest corridors, walls, windows, doors. This artist is certainly drawn by the basic architectural features of interiors, and to their meanings: the universal vertical and horizontal planes of wall and floor, the advance of corridors, the promise of doorways, the rectangles of sky disclosed by windows. She makes her own perspective, often puzzling, sometimes disquieting. In most of her painting there is…a sense of something, withheld or barely suggested, of questions unanswered, though: everything in the painting exists under the most unequivocally revealing light. Yet the surreal hovers near, is waiting in the wings, so to speak, and is sometimes evoked. At any rate, on feels , http://www.laurarusso.com/artists/haley.html, The Oregon Arts Commission has ten Regional Arts Councils that provide delivery of art services and information. The Council for this location is: Mid-Valley Arts. You may view their website at: http://www.oregonlink.com/arts/index.html
