Ceramic artist Gretchen Vaudt professed her intention to become an artist at an early age. “I was going through some of my old things and I found something I’d written when I was in first grade,”she says. “On the paper, it said I AM AN ARTIST.”
A trip to Greece inspired ceramic artist Marilyn Woods to begin sculpting the human form. “Eight years ago, my husband and I went to Greece on vacation, where I saw all these beautiful sculptures,” she says. “I’d never done figure work before, but after we came home, I started trying to make my first torso.”
Furniture designer Donny Faris got the idea for making geometrically shaped table legs when he was a student at Portland State University. “I had a job in the facilities department, and, one day, I accidentally knocked a bunch of signs off of a desk,” he says. “They fell into a twisty shape that intrigued me. After work, I went home and made my first table with a stack of picture frames that rotated off each other.”
The mountain of boxes. The rolls of BubbleWrap.® The weeks of winnowing down your earthly goods and packing up what you’ve decided to keep. If you’ve got a move in your near future, chances are you’re dreading the time suck that awaits you. Oregon Home talked with four movers about how to best move your household from here to there without damaging your art or losing your marbles.
Museum patrons and theatergoers know from the odd shop nestled in between arts institutions off the South Park blocks such as the Portland Art Museum, the Portland Center for the Performing Arts (think the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and the Newmark Theatre) and the Oregon Historical Society. Some of these specialty shops, though, merit a standing ovation of their own.
For metal artist John Xóchihua, creating a new piece usually leads to an entirely different product line in his always growing lineup of offerings. “I have a hard time staying in one category,” he says. “I made trellises, for example, which led me to an interest in stone slabs. Seeing how beautiful the stones looked when they were wet got me interested in doing water features.”
Glass artist Jolly Wahlstrom began his artistic career as a woodworker. “I grew up on a small farm in Northern Minnesota, in a family that didn’t have a lot of money,” he says. “When I was 19, I wanted a musical instrument, so I had to make it myself. I made an Appalachian dulcimer, and that was the beginning of my career as a craftsman.”
Growing up, fiber artist and painter Julie Simpson loved designing on graph paper. “I spent many, many hours coloring and drawing and making designs in the squares,” says the Olympia, Wash.-based artist. “I think all the time I spent doing that still influences my love of color and structure.”
In 1968, when she was 18 years old, Portland glass artist Linda Ethier learned her first glass techniques from a friend who taught her how to make stained glass. “I loved all the colors of the glass,” she says. “I made some small pieces and began selling them at crafts fairs. I’ve been working in glass ever since.”
Are you a foodie who craves the taste of a just-off-the-vine cherry tomato? Or maybe you’re thinking about growing your own veggies to slash your grocery tab during these penny-pinching times? Oregon Home asked a longtime victory gardener, two landscape designers and a professional backyard farmer to detail how you can transform a typical backyard into your own private farmer’s market.
