In the Gallery June 4th – 26th, 2021

Molly Holmlund is an artist and mom of two living with her family in White Salmon, Washington. With nature as her muse she collaborates with and incorporates natural materials every chance she gets. Discovering the world of making ink four years ago was an obvious path to follow, part science, part art, she feels making ink is a beautiful exploration of nature. Molly enjoys sharing this love of nature and art, and teaches painting and ink making to all ages. Molly has done several murals around the Gorge, involving kids and community members when the project allows. 

Chas Martin; E pluribus unum. Out of many, one. Maintaining the balance between community and individuality is our ongoing challenge. I use abstract figurative sculpture to amplify that challenge.

My characters are multicolored, genderless, politically and religiously neutral archetypal personalities. These simple, dynamic forms are nuanced storytellers whose gestures communicate primal qualities, emotions and situations.

I produce pages of sketches as I investigate each character’s spirit. When a unique voice emerges, I move into three dimensions. Then, as a director guides an actor, I reshape the armature to best express each character’s subtleties. The position of fingers, tilt of the head, or rotation of the shoulders all impact how the form occupies its space.

In theater, each scene ends with an unanswered question. The suspense engages you. I use negative space to pose questions. This initiates a rapport between the sculpture and eventually reveals the archetype to the observer. Embracing these archetypes strengthens understanding of ourselves as individuals and our role as humanists.

Chloë Hight; Chloe Hight (she/her/hers) was raised by the flow of the Columbia River and twisting white oak trees in the small town of Hood River, Oregon. Her first memories grew from spending endless hours immersed in the local landscape that have blossomed into a lifelong thread of creative inspiration. Chloë was called to study pottery and printmaking at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver British, Columbia, Canada and has been guided by many mentors along her journey. Her studies lead her to the small village of Teotitlan del Valle in Oaxaca, México to learn from Horacio Guitiérez, a woolen textile weaver and natural dyer. He generously shared his knowledge of cloth and how each plant, hand spun skein of wool, and steaming dye pot was an expression of the story of his people and their deeply rooted relationship with place. This experience influenced Chloë’s work profoundly and she began searching for ways to deepen her connection with the origin story of the creative materials she was using. Chloë returned to Vancouver, BC and began an apprenticeship with the EartHand Gleaners Society studying under Sharon Kallis and Rebecca Graham to learn ways of growing and processing local plants for textile fiber, plant dyes, and basket weaving material. Chloë now lives in Portland, Oregon and is a visual and teaching artist. She works with local organizations to create opportunities for children and adults to build a deeper relationship with place through visual art and traditional hand technologies such as, weaving, pottery, plant dyeing, paper making, earth pigments, and more.

The Art a Day Show has created an opportunity for Chloë  to explore the slow process of quilting in a 30 day practice. Each piece of fabric was carefully hand dyed with natural pigments and sewn together, forming a harmonious spectrum of plant dyed color. Chloë comes from a lineage of quilters in her family,  though had never had the opportunity to learn from her Grandmother and Great Grandmother. Quilts are vessels that  hold our bodies, stories of place, community, family lineage, material ingenuity, and creative resilience. These pieces embody a desire to reconnect with the hands and knowledge of women in her family and carry forth the thread of folk craft.

Mark Nilsson; The inspiration from the Gorge is endless, and while I’m generally  known for my paintings of the local landscape, I sometimes love to break away from that style and just play with paint and mixed media. 

My painting-a-day project involves “tools of the trade”, as in my brushes being an actual part of each painting. Each block has at least one of my brushes attached along with the paint design which was very spontaneous. I also did a nod to pride month with the rows of blocks mimicking colors of the rainbow. 

I think original art has the power to make one think and to smile, please enjoy. 

Seddon Wylde; What a joy to visit the same place many time a month! It enables me to see things in a different light and notice details I missed before. Sitting in a folding chair with a shade top, my dog at my feet, Tacos and Jamaica juice, the natural garden helps me enjoy what is. Sometimes I just draw in a notebook, other times I bring watercolors. 

Studying Chinese painting teaches one to see what’s really important and to “believe your eyes not your brain”. When I was drawing in The Natural Gardens in Hood River, I felt part of the landscape. 

In the studio, I work from my drawings and photos and create many studies after each site visit before I paint the final work. These Ink paintings represent my life’s artistic adventures including printmaking, weaving, realistic oil paintings as well as being outside in a garden all of which helps me see patterns and negative spaces.

Stump One – George Winn I’m a California native, was born and raised in Monterey, CA. I loved growing up and California and you can see many parts of California portrayed in my art. I started drawing at a young age as a way to distract myself from my boredom at church. I would squirm and complain and get in trouble by my father who was and still is a deacon in that same church. One day, my mother pulled out a piece of paper and a pen to keep me occupied, and as a seven year old boy, sitting in a hot pew, in a southern Baptist church the artist inside me was released.

At a young age, I drew stick figures, drew battle scenes, and acted out what I saw in my head on paper. As I got older I became entrenched in hip hop, and skateboarding and developed a love for spray paint. All of my work is inspired by two things, hip hop, and nature. What I love most about being an artist is the ability to show the world the images I carry around in my head everyday. Currently I’m really drawing inspiration from KAWS, Scribe, and Saber. Besides being an artist, Iam co-owner of a skate store (Childhood Recreation) located just outside Boston, MA and I’m creative decorator and co-owner of a clothing store (Bosque Ink).

Rebecca Bashara Rebecca’s Jewelry is defined by an enduring interest in naturalism and an aesthetic that blends metalsmithing with the organic forms of stone. Her designs reverberate with the peace, freedom and spontaneity of experiences we all have in nature, whether deep in the mountains or at home in the urban woodland.

As a child in Iowa, Rebecca could be found meandering along the river or the railroad tracks looking for stones, pieces of glass, or natural objects. She was fascinated by the miniature and spent hours looking at grasshoppers and other tiny flora, fauna and innumerable objects. This interest led her into the art of jewelry design and metalsmithing. Her talent was discovered early and Rebecca began selling her creations when she was just a teenager. She refined and honed her craft at the DesMoines Art Center on a Talented and Gifted Scholarship; the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, Tennessee; and at the Penland School of Arts and Crafts, Asheville, North Carolina. Later she earned a degree in Metalsmithing at the University of Kansas and received two scholarships while there.

She spent half a year wandering in Hawaii “carrying her studio in a suitcase” while creating and selling jewelry made from ocean glass and other found objects. Ever since, Rebecca has made her living as a metalsmith and jewelry maker. She continues to develop her skills through the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts and relevant workshops. Rebecca lives and works  in rural Klickitat, Washington, surrounded by the wild beauty of the Columbia River Gorge.

The fact that her creativity springs from her everyday life is apparent if you visit her. Her house is her studio: smooth shimmering stones lie drying in her bathtub and sink; her kitchen table is a rotating mosaic of shapes, colors and textures; stones and metal gather in heaps and mounds stirring for Rebecca to cut and work them into artistic pieces of adornment.