Art class explores art exhibition

Mike Baynes and his new student teacher, Abigail Merickel (see related story, page 6) took students from the Sisters High School advanced art class to the Contemporary Art Exhibition on Printmaking and to the Sunbird and Mockingbird galleries in Bend on Tuesday, December 6. Merickel was in charge of planning and organizing the field trip.

AG Edwards sponsored the Exhibition on Printmaking which was held at the rotunda in the library at Central Oregon Community College (COCC). The event showcased exhibits of contemporary prints from the St. Louis-based financial services company’s corporate art collection. The collection consisted of approximately two dozen distinct pieces and included a wide array of con-temporary and visual images.

Students admired work from famous artists such as Andy Warhol, Robert Motherwell, Jim Dine, Helen Frankenthaler, Christo (Javacheff) and more.

One of the students’ favorite artists was Christo. In the U.S. he is best known for The Gates in Central Park, which went on display earlier this year, and Running Fence, a project that entailed running an 18-foot-high fabric fence 24.5 miles westward over the rolling hills of 59 ranchers’ private properties down into the Pacific Ocean at Bodega Bay in California.

At the exhibition students viewed Christo’s print entitled Wrapped Building (Project for #1 Times Square Allied Chemical Tower; New York City) which depicts the city skyscraper completely wrapped in paper.

At the Sunbird Gallery students saw red cedar sculptures by 84-year-old artist John Hoover. Hoover was born of Aleut and European heritage and creates art that uses stories, legends and myths of Native American cultures and almost always uses some representation of the human form. Hoover prefers to carve red cedar of the Pacific Northwest and uses ancient Eskimo tools.

Mockingbird featured two landscape paintings of the West by artists Robert Moore and Steven Lee Adams.

Student Jamie Kemp’s favorite piece of art at the printmaking exhibition was artist Sabina Ott’s “Green Point Not to Red but to Point Again.” The piece was a 1997 ink, paint and machine transfer on paper.

Kemp said, “It was an abstract piece. The letters came out and showed the artist was into words that expressed feelings. I love looking at different artists’ works. It gives you a feeling of what kind of emotions are expressed through the color and shapes. Every time I look at an artist’s work it inspires me to try and create a piece with the same feelings.”

Nagel enjoyed visiting the Sunbird Gallery and said, “It was very warm and accepting. The artists were all from Oregon and the quality of their work was just outstanding.”

Merickel said, “The exhibition at COCC was a rare and wonderful opportunity to view original hand pulled prints by master printmakers in such a beautiful, inspiring space. Normally, you’d have to go to Portland to see this caliber of work.”