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Kate Wilhelm, Getting Started
The keynote speaker at the February, 2004 South Coast Writers Conference (which I have coordinated since its inception) was Kate Wilhelm. I lost my voice to laryngitis on Thursday. By the beginning of the Saturday afternoon sessions everything was under control and I slipped into the back of library just in time to hear Wilhelm…
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Christo’s Valley Curtain, Celebrating Failure
Last summer, when Christo and Jeanne-Claude installed The Gates in Central Park, all New York was a twitter with the orange rustling fabric. I just smiled. I knew that they would never know how it felt to stand in what I consider Christo’s first gate, hearing, seeing a massive orange wave of fabric dance overhead…
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Elizabeth Layton, the Power of Self Reflection
Sometime in the 80’s, I clipped out a small article about Elizabeth Layton from the Sunday Parade. Several years later the traveling exhibition of her Through the Looking Glass show made it to Oregon. I was teaching a drawing class in a small coastal town. We decided we needed an art day, so off we…
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Deborah Butterfield, Becoming ‘Political’
I have followed Deborah Butterfield’s work for many years, and even had an opportunity to hear her speak in the early eighties when her star was just beginning to rise. A couple of years ago I bought Horses, The Art of Deborah Butterfield, and read her 1988 interview with Marcia Tucker. Tucker asked, "What do…
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Wes Magyar, Inspiration in Unexpected Places
I arrived at Denver International Airport last August hungry, cranky, and sleep-deprived after sitting on a plane with a malfunctioning computer for two hours in Oklahoma City. My connecting flight was long gone and the reward for my ridiculously early wake-up call – being able to arrive home (a 5.5 hour drive from Portland) before…
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I became a sculptor in the first place to say things I could not say with words, but more and more I find myself grappling to find the image and the words. Mulling over a concept visually and verbally helps move me past the blind spots, detours, and dead ends. Holding the Void by Alberto…
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John Berland, Sculptor & Teacher
Fortunately for me, Colorado State University art majors had to take four "samplers", in different genres of art before declaring a major. I entered college intent on becoming a painter, but John Berland was the sculpture teacher. Our first project in the sculpture sampler was a modeling, molding, and casting project. Watching the nearly 3…
