March 2022 Newsletter

Display Your Work at Oregon Society of Artists

OSA Outdoor Sculpture Display Guidelines

PNWS has installed a concrete sculpture display pad in the garden at OSA to feature individual sculptures for 3-month intervals.

The pad measures 24”H x 30”W x 30”D. A steel pipe is centered in the concrete pad. If additional anchors are necessary, details should be part of your application. We want to limit the number of anchors drilled into the pad.

Sculpture Requirements:

— Sculpture submissions must be by active member of PNWS.

— Art must be suitable for outdoor exhibition in a public space.

— Art must be a minimum of 2’ and no taller than 8’.

— Art will be installed and removed at the artist’s expense in coordination with OSA groundskeeper.

— Art will remain on display for the entire 3-month period.

— Art must be installed with sufficient anchoring to prevent the sculpture from being removed, tipped, broken or overturned.

— Art must be maintenance free for the duration of the exhibition period.

— All art must be an original creation by the artist.

— Works of art shall not create inordinate safety problems or liability problems for OSA visitors.

— OSA is located in a residential area. Sound or light components are discouraged.

— Appropriateness of kinetic elements will be at the discretion of the jurors.

Jury process: Jury will consist of the PNWS Show Committee Chair and at least one additional PNWS Board member plus one representative of OSA. The Gallery reserves the right to reject artwork that fails to meet the above requirements or crosses acceptable boundaries. This would include misogynistic and/or racist imagery, depiction of extreme violence or graphic sexuality, and objectionable political or religious imagery.

Insurance: Insurance for artwork while on OSA property will be the responsibility of the artist.

Sale/Commission: Works in the exhibit may be offered for sale, but it is not a requirement. OSA’s commission rate is 30 percent of all sales. Funds will be collected by OSA from buyers and then dispersed to artists within 30 days of the end of the exhibition. The artist and buyer must arrange artwork delivery and shipping costs.

Artist identification: OSA will display a one-page description of the artist/artwork near the entrance to the gallery. Information will be gleaned from the submission documentation.

Submission process:

— Submissions are due 30 days before the end of each calendar quarter. Reminders will be included in the PNWS newsletters.

— Submission shall include artist name, art title, date created, material, size, (height, width, depth), weight, special installation considerations, selling price, and an artist’s statement (300 character limit).

— Images and information will be submitted via email to president@pnwsculptors.org.

Who’s Doing What: March 2022

Here’s a short list of what our members are doing this month.

Rick Crawford’s “Port-Hole Slab Series #20”, repurposed Douglas fir, steel, patina. This is one of Rick’s pieces in an upcoming show at the Hoffman Center for the Arts in Manzanita.

Lindsay Bodanza is one of seventy five artists selected for the 2021 Best of Tennessee Craft Biennial including “Pillar” by Lindsay Bodanza Dawley. The exhibit was held at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville from October 29th – February 20, 2022.

From Katie Sallos, work in progress is of a bird and her chick. It began with a drawing and though not part of any planned series, it represents a theme of life creating new life that is often repeated in my work. Creating expressions of life renewing itself gives me a sense of harmony and hope.”

From Chas Martin, masks and a few sculptures are on exhibit through the end of March at PDX Commons, 4262 SE Belmont, Portland.

Two pieces from Jessica Bodner. First a work in progress. Second, a recently installed piece for a client in Malibu “Blue Ellipse” 5′ x 2′ Stainless steel with powder coating. “I am also honored to announce my commission of a new public art sculpture for the University of Hawaii West on Oahu, to be installed sometime in 2024.”

“Tease” is one of a series of cast glass figures that express varying positions of an active human body. Besides being cast in different positions, each figure is unique in color, or transparency, or texture and any combination of these and other features. This is part of three developing series of cast glass figures designed to show the versatility of glass as a sculptural medium.

Carole Murphy Recognized by PNWS Board

Carole Murphy, President Emeritus

At the February meeting of our Board, Carole Murphy was honored with the title of President Emeritus. She is only the second member to receive this honor. The Board gives this recognition for her long commitment and inspiration. It is long overdue. Emeritus status provides all the recognition and respect for past contributions without the responsibilities. Carole joins George Heath (honored with the same title last month) for their incredible and generous gifts of time, wisdom, energy and commitment to PNWS. Thank you!

An interview with Carole Murphy by Patrick Gracewood.

When I visited Carole this week to share the news with her, she was, as usual, humble and gracious. Those are two of the many qualities that make her such an exceptional instructor.

Carole is one of our greatest champions of sculpture and creativity. She has been an active member for several decades. Her accomplishments include organizing our annual participation in Art in the Pearl. This is a task she has managed every year until last year. Our presence in this major regional event has raised visibility for our group, individual members, resulted in sales of artwork, classes, and commissions. It has also helped us fulfill our mission of education and increasing public understanding and appreciation of sculpture. Carole also served as President of our organization for several years, managing possibly our greatest growth period. Under her leadership, we also established a public gallery which remained open for several years.

One of Carole’s earlier sculptures currently installed in the Garden at Oregon Society of Artists.

An interview with Carole Murphy

Pacific Northwest Sculptors member Carole Murphy at Art in the Pearl 2018 — Carole Murphy at Art in the Pearl 2018

Artist Carole Murphy has been a major influence on PNWS. Over the years she has served on the Board as President, Vice President and Treasurer, and directed the PNWS Gallery. Patrick Gracewood, a long-time member and long-time friend of Carole Murphy conducted this interview. Carole was honored this past month as President Emeritus by the Board of PNWS.

PG: Carole, I’d like to learn about how your life has influenced your art and artmaking practice.What were early influences on your creativity?

CM: I think that people need to teach children to figure out who they admire most, what gifts they admire most. It might be an easier way to help them find their way. From a very early age I revered a farmer who was also a sculptor. He was a close family friend and I looked at him as if he was a god because of what he could create. Everything he touched was creative, from the fences he made to keep the animals out of his garden or the door handle he fashioned out of wood to fix the oven, to his art. I am still finding out how much influence he had on me. He and his children were some of the most creative people that I have ever known. His name was Tony Jurkiewicz.

PG: How have you come to understand your sculpture and its role in your life?

CM: My understanding of my art is that it follows my personal development. I notice doors that I’ve closed, not noticed, a staunchness in a way of thinking, or a righteousness that I have held. As soon I let go of them, I flow more easily and freely in my art. So many things I would not have thought of putting together in particular ways, I find I open to them. Sometimes it is the other way around. If I open to new creative things, I am freer in my thinking and in my heart. Sculpting is simply something that I do, it feeds me.

I came to the conclusion a number of years ago that it does not matter if anyone else knows my work or how powerful it is for me. It is just something that I do for my own personal growth and movement forward. I don’t do commissions; I only create what moves me. If it happens to move someone else, that is delightful, as it is wonderful to share art. But it is not necessary.

Carole’s studio is a study in creativity. Materials, ideas and works in progress abound.

To quote Steven Jobs, you cannot connect the dots until afterwards. Working with children, raising my own as a single parent, building my own log cabin in the wilderness of Canada, running my own moving business, playing with real estate, running various other businesses, even directing the PNWS gallery and being on the board and president for so many years, all of these taught me more about what was possible and helped to heal me from a broken childhood. I listen to what I know to be true much more clearly. I have come to know how little I know, which I find to be a strength. I have also come to know how little really matters, most of it is a story in our minds. What really matters is loving. The rest is mostly noise. Art is my way of loving, loving the world, appreciation for its possibilities. It’s an alignment with the truth that is within us all.

PG: You work in a variety of media; do you feel differently about carving vs fabricating work?

Does the medium suggest the art or does what you want to say choose what you say it with?

CM: I keep expanding to different mediums and stretching their known uses. In doing so, I am offered the same by broadening my vision. Sometimes I begin a piece from something I saw in a dream. Or I drive by an object and catch something from the corner of my eye, then turn and realize it was only a trashcan. But the vision of what I saw was captured. Other times I just pick up pieces and start playing with them. I might start 6 to 8 pieces at a time and then hone it down to 1 or 4 as I continue working with them. Normally I have somewhere around 25 pieces going at a time in my studio, a good number of them I’ll finish. Some I take apart, using the pieces later in other works.

I can get lost in the detail of a particular aspect and make several of that artifact such as crocheted wire or the nature pieces to which I add paper clay. Then I’ll have quite a few of them to choose from when working on larger mixed media sculpture. So there are sculptures within the sculptures. Some are things I’ve created separately or found, an object or a bone I’ve sliced, or an encaustic I’ve created as a background. It all works and comes together, either for me or for my students.

PG: How do you hold making art vs teaching art?

CM: I’ve found over the years that my love of sculpture can be expressed as completely by supporting others to create something from their own vision. There is a saying that “Those that can’t create, teach.” My experience is, if teaching is done to truly work for another’s view of what is, it is as powerful and extraordinary as creating my own. I love doing both.

I can’t claim to know what it is I am trying to say many times until I am well into the sculpture, or I am finished and stand back and take a look. Art is not for the mind. It is up to the mind afterwards to make sense of it, if that is needed at all. Many times, it is just art for itself and needs no mind understanding or words.

PG: Can you say a little more about working with your students?

CM: When students begin taking my classes, I have them sign up for 6 to 8 weeks. Even though the classes are ongoing and people can pay by the week, paying ahead is a down payment on their own art. I tell them that when students first begin, the possibilities are so great, the creative door opens so widely that they are truly vulnerable. There is a part of them that will try to close up, to stay away from classes so they can hide from the fear that arises and remain closed to it, as it is more comfortable. I warn them that they will have a million excuses not to come again, even if they are passionate about it. I tell them that it happens to me too, if I have been away from my art for a while, but I am accustomed to the tricks and I simply tell myself I don’t have to make anything, but I do have to spend a certain number of hours in the studio doing whatever. It isn’t long before I find a piece or two to just play with and on I go. The commitment to the process makes the magic happen.

PG: Thank you, Carole, for taking the time to talk with me. I appreciate your perspective on creativity,

vulnerability, and process. I think many members will relate to that.