CURRENT EXHIBITION | Mysite

Wilsonville arts & culture council

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION: As many of us struggle through this time of isolation and limitation of “normal” activity, what do we long for? Artists have considered some of these leading questions:

What do we wish we could do?

Whom do we want to see?

Where do we long to go?

What do we wish to experience?

How do we hope the world will have changed?

How do we hope WE will have changed?

What are the silver linings, the positives that have arisen during this time?

Are there things we now appreciate & reflect upon more deeply, observe more fully?
How has COVID changed us, forced us to grow?

Each artwork is accompanied by an artist statement, to give our viewers context and meaning. Most of the artworks are for sale -- nearly all works $150 or less -- and may be purchased here through PayPal. Artists receive 80% of a sale. WACC's 20% commission will cover any necessary shipping costs, the rest of the commission will go to support WACC's future programming, as we strive to bring arts & culture to our community.

Thank You to Regional Arts & Culture Council,

Clackamas County Cultural Coalition, and

Oregon Cultural Trust for making this exhibition

and all of our programming for 2021 possible.

PURCHASE ORIGINAL ART!

DREAM BEYOND COVID

Wisdom of the Woods

Wisdom of the Woods

Donna Nuccitelli
Wisdom of the Woods
photograph of mixed-media installation
24" x 36"
NFS

Nature is my place to experience abundance.
The slower I walk determines the fullness of all my senses.
Quiet becomes peace.
Creativity becomes all present.
Hope begins to feel possible.
Connections of love abound.

These “gatherings” of my paintings, photographs, natural objects and written words were found along my path.
Balance, depth, and serenity are my intentions.

These are a Few of My Favorite Things

The Weight of Water

The Weight of Water

Benjamin Mefford
The Weight of Water
pigment print, signed artist proof
16" x 12"
$60 (unframed)

I have steadily become increasingly reliant on technology to cope with the isolation of the pandemic. Now, coming out of a severe winter storm, three days without power in frigid temperatures during a pandemic felt surreal... there was no escape. Now, warm again, connected again, technology at my disposal, all of my thoughts are looking forward to a transition to something better. The thawing of an icy winter, and the warm rebirth of spring. A melting, a fluidity to daily life, an accelerated elemental metamorphosis.

The Lonely Table

The Lonely Table

Susan Reep
The Lonely Table
Photograph on canvas, pigment ink, 1.5” gallery wrap
20” x 14”
$150

Every one of us has experienced loneliness during this pandemic. I’m looking forward to being able to freely associate, expecting we will have a new appreciation of people, and rancor will diminish. When we can go out for a cocktail, play pool or billiards with strangers as well as friends, send a drink to the folks celebrating a special occasion across the room, tensions will begin to ease. I so dream of that day.

The Box Office Opens at 8-00

The Box Office Opens at 8-00

Susan Reep
The Box Office Opens at 8:00
Photography, pigment print
Image 10” x 20”, framed in grey wood frame 12”x 22”
$140

I think one of the most important messages of this last year, the Year of Covid, is that we need people. We’ve all watched and streamed videos and movies on television and other devices. But at best we’ve watched alone or with our immediate family. Is going to the theater to watch movies dead? I don’t think so. I think we gain from the excitement of shared experience, watching and reacting to the same event at the same time – together, and will flock to the theater, concerts, art exhibits – whatever brings us in contact with people who want to be there also - when it feels safe. Now, even the buildings look lonely. I think we all dream of filling them up.

Tilt-a-Whirl

Susan Reep
Tilt-a-Whirl
Photograph on canvas, pigment ink, 1.5” gallery wrap
18” x 12”
$130

I think we have all missed eagerly-awaited events – the yearly traditions like the fair, anticipating the rides and games on the arcade, the food, the fun. I think even those of us who don’t particularly like the fair may be giving it a fresh view. We can ride alone on the Tilt-a-Whirl and enjoy it, but how much richer the experience is with laughing, screaming, squealing children – AND adults – to share it with. I dream of post-Covid life, when we can freely return to group activities. I think we will see these events with new eyes. I hope the freshness will last.

Between a Rock anda Hard Place

When The Wind Winds

Champs du Lavande

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Eric Lanciault
Untitled
acrylic & NuPastel on watercolor paper
14" x 25"
$250

During this pandemic, we've seen the elimination of Black bodies followed by loud voices, oppostion and earnest hope. The loud voices stake their ground, but we often cannot understand the lay of their lands. Perhaps, when a new normal is found, the loudness will become real conversation staking territories for a better place to dwell.

Untitled (Gold)

Lotus Small

Eric Lanciault
Lotus Small
acrylic & NuPastel on watercolor paper
8.5" x 17"
$250

For some friends, the pandemic has incapacitated them. My 70-plus-year-old friends have experienced unparalleled isoation. I have not seen my mother for almost a year now. She has held none of her grandkids nor hugged any of her own children. Arms and legs removed; immobility as she's never yet experienced in her 80-plus years. One dose down, another scheduled for March 1. Then life begins again!

Picture Window

Ladies in Waiting

Ladies in Waiting

Allison McClay
Ladies in Waiting
acrylic on cardboard
18" x 24"
NFS

Though the intent of this piece was never to capture a real life experience, I am struck now by how carelessly all these dream characters share space. The image provokes a sense of wistful longing in me now, as if they are living in a world of casual touch that is no longer accesible to me.

As a painter, I have been drawn to creating works like this that involve a lot of time-consuming detail but don't take up a lor of mental or emotional energy.

Fishbowl

In the Middle of Mongolia

In the Middle of Mongolia

Charlie Hyman
In the Middle of Mongolia
digital photograph, archival inkjet print
11" x 14" in a 16" X 20" frame, matted
$120

Mongolia was probably the last place on earth we would have considered visiting, but after an incredible horse-trekking experience there in 2017, we yearn to go back there, or to other out of the way places. Travel of this kind will have to wait until after COVID has subsided, but it's always in our dreams. This is the Ursa Major ger (the Mongolian word for yurts) camp in central Mongolia. We stayed here for two nights before embarking on a three-day horse trek across the vast and wide open Steppes. Someday, after COVID, we'll do that again.

Ruby Beach Sunset

Ruby Beach Sunset

Charlie Hyman
Ruby Beach Sunset
digital photograph, archival inkjet print, matted
$120

The COVID pandemic put a temporary end to all photography workshops and group field expeditions. One of the best ways to learn the art of landscape photography is to spend time in natural areas with expert photographers and other like-minded people. This photo was taken on Ruby Beach on the Olympic Peninsula during a weeklong workshop with photographers Jerry Dodrill and David Muench. One of the keys to successful landscape photography is being in the right place at the right time. Professional photographer-instructors know how to make this happen. I dream of being able to do this again.

Mongolia Sunset

Mongolia Sunset

Charlie Hyman
Mongolia Sunset
digital photograph, archival inkjet print
11" x 14" in a 16" x 20" frame, matted
$120

In 2017 we were invited to join an expedition to ride horses in Mongolia. We spent three weeks there and fell in love with the place and the people. And the horses. We've been wanting to travel, but that's not possible until COVID subsides, but we think frequently about Mongolia and other places we've been to. This picture was taken from our campsite on the first night of a three-day horse trek. We were enjoying the last light of evening with our fellow travelers and Mongolian guides when these horses walked across the ridge behind the camp. Horses are everywhere in Mongolia, having been a hugely important part of its history, and still today play an important role in the livelihood of the nomads. After COVID, perhaps we'll return.

Pizza by the Slice

Friday Night in Sellwood

Snowy Egret

Brad Beach
Snowy Egret
wood sculpture
15" x 7.5" x 3.5"
NFS

During this COVID quarantine I enjoy watching birds fly through my backyard, pausing to nibble seed, take a sip or splash in the birdbath. I dream of flying high where the birds can go, to travel far and wide above and beyond the restriction of the pandemic. Fly through the forest, over the seashore, high above the city, free to go wherever I want. Oh, to be free as a bird!

Sheltered

Beate Scheller
“Sheltered”
Acrylic painting with real leaves on wood board
12” x 12”
$150

It's been a year now when I was in Germany getting the News about Covit 19.
My flight back home was scheduled for two days before the travel shut down, March 13.2020.

My paintings reflect the situations from over the last twelve months. We are all tangled in one way or another during this pandemic. Staying home for so long most of the time let us feel cut off from the world out there.
But I feel sheltered in my little bubble of family and a few friends. In person, but mostly through video chats I am happy to be able to have, I can see my family, who lives around the world, literally.
And now, after these twelve month I am ready setting off to the new normal. I am still reserved, but getting excited about a healthier future for all.

There are real leaves in my paintings on wooden board, one painted in silver or gold to show rays of hope. I am still looking forward to better times after all of this pandemic and it's costs.

Tangled

Beate Scheller
“Tangled”
Acrylic painting with real leaves on wood board
12” x 12”
$150

It's been a year now when I was in Germany getting the News about Covit 19.
My flight back home was scheduled for two days before the travel shut down, March 13.2020.

My paintings reflect the situations from over the last twelve months. We are all tangled in one way or another during this pandemic. Staying home for so long most of the time let us feel cut off from the world out there.
But I feel sheltered in my little bubble of family and a few friends. In person, but mostly through video chats I am happy to be able to have, I can see my family, who lives around the world, literally.
And now, after these twelve month I am ready setting off to the new normal. I am still reserved, but getting excited about a healthier future for all.

There are real leaves in my paintings on wooden board, one painted in silver or gold to show rays of hope. I am still looking forward to better times after all of this pandemic and itss costs.

Setting Off

Beate Scheller
“Setting Off”
Acrylic painting with real leaves on wood board
12” x 12”
$150

It's been a year now when I was in Germany getting the News about Covit 19.
My flight back home was scheduled for two days before the travel shut down, March 13.2020.

My paintings reflect the situations from over the last twelve months. We are all tangled in one way or another during this pandemic. Staying home for so long most of the time let us feel cut off from the world out there.
But I feel sheltered in my little bubble of family and a few friends. In person, but mostly through video chats I am happy to be able to have, I can see my family, who lives around the world, literally.
And now, after these twelve month I am ready setting off to the new normal. I am still reserved, but getting excited about a healthier future for all.

There are real leaves in my paintings on wooden board, one painted in silver or gold to show rays of hope. I am still looking forward to better times after all of this pandemic and its costs.

Plantas Mi Amigos

Bubble Man

Piecing It All Together II

Piecing It All Together II

Yelena Shabrova
Piecing It All Together II
mixed-media
12" x 12"
$150

Piecing It All Together" is my response to the sense of a fragmented connection to the world as it was before the pandemic. Nothing is the same anymore, not even the wilderness that used to be a place to relax and forget about daily problems. The virus reminds about itself here too, getting in the way of taking it all in as a wonderful indivisible whole. The nature is still amazingly beautiful in all its forms, big and small, and there will be the day when walking among trees and birds will be just about the joy of hiking.

Eno Weather Pattern

Castle Cavendish

Stained

Wonders of Nature

Grandma's View

Changes

Uyen-thi Nguyen
Changes
oil on canvas
8" x 8"
$100

There is a state in which one can see the 10,000 things around us spiralling through changes while one is still, like the eye of a hurricane. If you focus on one of those myriad things, you could find it a delightful transgression, a story unfolding, sometimes to disappointment sometimes not. More often it becomes overwhelming, that unending ebb and flow, inexorably moving. A sense of motion sickness pushes one to fall from this state and return to the day to day of stuff and things. COVID forced change into our lives, itself a force of nature. In the wake of this tide, can we stand in that eye, the calm stillness, the light?

New Conversation

New Conversation

Eric Lanciault
New Conversation
acrylic, oil stick, NuPastel
92" x 92"
$500

The pandemic lockdowns brought us talking heads in the form of teleconferencing, replacing the traditional television news versions of pundits, and reinforcing the strength of social media platforms to feed what is good and bad in us all. It is not surprising during this period of isolation that social anger, often drawn along racial lines, fomented and boiled over into the public space. As a father of a multi-racial family, I watched in anger, horror and disgust as I thought about my Black sons exposed to a world where loud voices and violence framed what has been a long-standing challenge in our American society: bringing charity for others along with personal ambition. This painting captures portraits of two of our neighbors, both good friends, linked together by a slim, non-linear line that binds us all. Though feeble now, it can only strengthen. Or else...

White Rose

We Move Again

Susan Reep
We Move Again
pigment ink canvas print with 3/4" gallery wrap
8" x 8"
$150

Looking beyond COVID, we dream about moving freely, unafraid of our fellow riders whom we are forced to interact with unmasked. We dream about being able to engage as disparate companions united in our pursuits of work, play, travel, the exciting and the mundane, finding a sense of community in these shared pursuits.

Happy Hour

Neurons

Ashleigh Pearl
Neurons
acrylic meia
14" x 14"
$140

When one is not allowed to leave the confines of their home, instead they must explore the expanse of the mind. The mind is an every changing, every growing wilderness full of color and light. During COVID one might seek out new knowledge, a new story, or a new frontier of imagination. The tendrils of our growing neurons reach for the edges of our mind. The light reflects off the wrinkles in our brain matter, to create a world of our own.

Piecing It All Together I

Piecing It All Together I

Yelena Shabrova
Piecing It All Together I
mixed-media
12" x 12"
$150

Piecing It All Together" is my response to the sense of a fragmented connection to the world as it was before the pandemic. Nothing is the same anymore, not even the wilderness that used to be a place to relax and forget about daily problems. The virus reminds about itself here too, getting in the way of taking it all in as a wonderful indivisible whole. The nature is still amazingly beautiful in all its forms, big and small, and there will be the day when walking among trees and birds will be just about the joy of hiking.

Singing with Strangers

Singing with Strangers

Daryne Rockett
Singing with Strangers
acrylic on wood
10" x 10" x 1/2"
$110

Making music with others is a combination of listening and playing/singing at the same time. Video conference technology is limited by lag, so that by the time I hear the notes another has sung and join my voice to theirs, it is already too late. We can never be in sync. I dream about the beautiful music we will make when we are able to sit in a circle once again and hear our voice as it joins the chorus of those around us. This painting reflects the many varied textures of sounds gathered together at one time and unified by the miracle of hearing and creating in the same moment.

Embrace

Daryne Rockett
Embrace
acrylic on wood
10" x 10"
$110

I never knew how much I would long for the freedom to share an embrace. My grandchildren moved away in the midst of the lockdown and I was only able to wave my goodbyes. May we all be healed by the hugs of our loved ones. May our hearts be filled beyond measure when we may once again feel arms around necks and shoulders and backs - breathing in the joy of connection.

Grace

Daryne Rockett
Grace
acrylic on wood
10" x 10"
$140

In order to continue to communicate and work through this period of lockdown, it has been necessary to develop a host of new skills and systems. All the while, people are experiencing profound losses and doing the very best they can in a time of crisis. Mistakes are made. Important tasks fall through the cracks. The best way to stay healthy through this period of difficulty is to offer grace to those around me and, just as importantly, to myself. The warm colors reflect the fire of fever and the hot pressures of change. The green and gold tendrils are the growth of patience, compassion, and grace.

Circle of Life

Linda Bourne
Circle of Life
white stoneware
10" 9" x 3"
$75

This pottery pitcher was made with white stoneware and hand built from clay slabs. The white clay was colored with high fire colorants to decorate the piece. It is functional and will hold liquid. The circular feel of the piece gives me a feeling of turning inward.
During this time of Covid, we are asked to shelter in place. As stressful as this time is, it has given me a chance to slow down, declutter my house, and learning new coping skills

Higher Ground

Coming Together

Coming Together

Linda Bourne
Coming Together
white stoneware
12" x 11" x 4"
$75

This vase was created out of white stoneware and hand built from clay slabs. High fire colorants have been added to the clay body to decorate the piece. It is functional and holds water. It is meant to show two sides coming together and meeting in the middle. What I wish we could do is put aside our differences to solve the contentiousness that has taken over our country. Once we can meet again, we need to get to know people who are not like us and find ways to come together. Healing needs to happen in multiple ways.

Nest with Diana Butterfly

Nest with Diana Butterfly

Susan Schenk
Nest with Diana Butterfly
mixed-media
5" x 5" (9"x9" framed)
$45

During COVID isolation, I discovered a new sense of the passage of time and its personal value to me. I discovered that I had all the time in the world. No external demands. No rushing hither and yon. At some point during my isolation, however, I came to resent that others were inviting me to Zoom meetings and sending me emails about commitments I had set aside until the great “after.” My post-COVID dream is that I retain my sense of personal time and space. Just as the stay at home time helped me shed unwanted goods, unwanted weight and unwanted external commitments, my dream is to gradually welcome back people in my life yet keep my time and space precious.

Pandemic Series

Pandemic Series

Rosalyn Kliot
Pandemic Series
mixed-media
16" x 20"
$150

At the start of the Pandemic, I began a series of paintings in which the uninvited COVID continued to 'bomb' each collage; at the same time, Spring was breathing itself into existence, as a reminder that there is beauty even in the midst of crisis.

"I admit to being an optimist but also a realist. Inside every crisis there is opportunity. This is a time to discover yourself, to go inward, and find the great companion and friend to yourself....you. Rediscover your childhood passions....they are still within you. If you don't play music or do art, then listen to music and look at art. These simple acts have almost the same positive effects on the brain. Exercise, meditate, read, connect with friends and family in healthful ways, eat well....and take good care of your mental state. Stress and anxiety lower resistance, and impact the immune system. Nothing lasts forever...keeping a joyful attitude will get us through this crazy time somewhat less scathed. We are resilient. Attitude is Everything."

Wisdom

Through

Joy Full

Also currently on exhibit:

Corona Portrait Project

Curated by artist and WACC board member

Benjamin Mefford, the Corona Portrait Project

is an international exhibition that includes

hundreds of artists, reaching viewers in more than

90 countries around the world. The challenge was for artists to create a self-portrait in response to the

self-isolation brought on by the global pandemic.

To learn more and view the exhibit, visit:

https://www.coronaportrait.com/

Sofonisba Anguissola.jpg

Sofonisba Anguissola

Self-Portrait, 1556