1 p. Barbara Gilson's 1991 biography and artist statement., (1991) Barbara Gilson received a BA in French Literature and in Film Studies from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. She has studied photography at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York, where she coordinated the film program. During the tenure of her MFA Program in Photography at Arizona State University, she was a graduate research assistant to Mark Klett for the Photography Collaborative Facility, Visual Arts Research Institute. She also organized Editions and Additions: International Bookworks at Northlight Gallery. Awarded a Graduate Student Research Development Program Grant, Barbara and two colleagues have been involved in a collaborative project with the Navajo to document their sacred land and sites in northwestern New Mexico. The Arizona Commission on the Arts awarded this project, Hajiinei Dine'tah, a Visual Arts Travelling Exhibitions Grant. In addition to being selected as a recipient of the Contemporary Forum Artist's Material Fund, Phoenix Art Museum; a finalist in the Ferguson Grant Award, Friends of Photography; and awarded First place in the Tucson Weekly Annual Fiction and Photography Competition, Barbara has shown her work nationally in one person and in group exhibitions, and is represented in many public and private collections. She has also been a co-director of Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, Oregon, and is an Artist-in-Education in the greater Portland area., The Oregon Arts Commission has ten Regional Arts Councils that provide delivery of art services and information. The Council for this location is: Regional Arts & Culture. You may view their website at http://www.racc.org/
1 p. Ruza Erceg's 1991 biography., Ruza Erceg In 1961, Ruza Erceg said to her daughter, Helen, "If I have paint brush, I start to make painting." Helen relayed this message to her brother Joseph, a graphic designer, who, that same day, bought her watercolors, brushes and paper. She immediately began to produce delightful, colorful images. Ruza was born in the fanning village of Imotski, Yugoslavia in 1898 and came to this country in 1922. She and her husband first settled in Pennsylvania then moved to Oregon. Ruza Erceg paints images of her past in Yugoslavia. They are soft and colorful images of rural scenes (farms, fields and farm houses), villages, white buildings with red tile roofs and an occasional painting of a sailboat or of a larger city. Her images are of no particular site but rather of a collective spirit of the land she left so long ago. Numerous paintings are surrounded with delightful painted borders which suggest a painted frame to contain the image., The Oregon Arts Commission has ten Regional Arts Councils that provide delivery of art services and information. The Council for this location is: Regional Arts & Culture. You may view their website at http://www.racc.org/
The Oregon Arts Commission has ten Regional Arts Councils that provide delivery of art services and information. The Council for this location is: Regional Arts & Culture. You may view their website at http://www.racc.org/
1 p. Stan Peterson's 1991 artist statement., The Oregon Arts Commission has ten Regional Arts Councils that provide delivery of art services and information. The Council for this location is: Regional Arts & Culture. You may view their website at http://www.racc.org/
1 p. Bonnie Bronson's biography., Bonnie Bronson was born in Portland, Oregon in 1940. She attended the University of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest College of Art. She received an Oregon Arts Commission Fellowship in 1978. She was one of the first artists to develop an industrial enamel, The Oregon Arts Commission has ten Regional Arts Councils that provide delivery of art services and information. The Council for this location is: Regional Arts & Culture. You may view their website at http://www.racc.org/
2 p. Russell Childers' 1991 biography., In 1970 Childers had a one man show that opened in the University Of Oregon Museum Of Art and has toured colleges, galleries and libraries in the Northwest including a very successful exhibit in Sapporo, Japan. His wood carvings are being purchased by museums and private collectors who gladly pay up to $2,000.00 for his pieces. Russell has truly gained recognition as a gifted artist. This was not always the case. On January 11, 1926 at the age at 10 has was committed to Fairview State Home for the Feeble Minded because of "fits" that quite possibly could have been epileptic seizures stemming from early childhood falls and several bouts with extremely high fevers. Records show that his first- and second- grade teachers regarded him as incorrigible. In those days that was enough reason to have a child institutionalized. While at Fairview he received several diagnoses including autism. Perhaps because of deafness he found it difficult to communicate so he was labeled as being retarded. As a former superintendent of Fairview, Merry McGee said, "When a person was labeled as retarded, all services ceased." Patients were fed and clothed but received no training. Russell spent the next forty years in silence. Russell is not sure when he started to carve but thinks it was during World War II. While thumbing through an issue of Life Magazine, he saw an illustration of a woodcarver at work and this triggered something in him. Woodcarving was Childers' only significant activity for most of the forty years he spent there. He was not allowed to have a knife for many years, so he sharpened bits of metal and with donated wood he eagerly created wooden cowboys, bartenders and bears for the ward attendants. He charged 50 cents for his work. In 1965, Pauline Lindell, one of the founders of Willamette Valley Rehabilitation Center felt that Russell was capable of "leading a more useful life" and helped in obtaining his release. Russell moved to Lebanon to reside in a foster home. At Willamette Valley Rehabilitation Center he was given a set of hearing aids, extensive reading and writing classes and a place to continue his carving. In his new open environment, Russell has thrived. He is paid a salary at the center, with which he shares the proceeds from his carvings. As he works at his bench, Russell will occasionally chat with workers who pass by, but his thoughts stay with the steady strokes of his coping saw as he shapes a piece of maple or oak into a delicate figure. His self-portraits and the poignant pre-Fairview family scenes are works of art. One of the most acclaimed is of Childers, a brother and an aunt who are sitting together on a bench the day before he was committed. As Jan Zach, retired professor of sculpture at the University of Oregon and a good friend of Russell, said a few years ago, "Russell's work is beautiful, it's absolutely astonishing." When asked, Russell thinks he does good work, but calls it a hobby -- one that he has pursued eight hours a day for a good part of his 73 years., The Oregon Arts Commission has ten Regional Arts Councils that provide delivery of art services and information. The Council for this location is: Regional Arts & Culture. You may view their website at http://www.racc.org/
2 p. Cody Bustamante's exhibition list., The Oregon Arts Commission has ten Regional Arts Councils that provide delivery of art services and information. The Council for this location is: Regional Arts & Culture. You may view their website at http://www.racc.org/
