Artists collaborate on ‘Yello Dog’ works

Contemporary watercolor artist Kathy Deggendorfer of Sisters and master quilter Tonye Belinda Phillips from Camp Sherman have been busy this spring working on a unique series of collaborative works entitled “Miss Dotty and Yello Dog Summer in Sisters.”

Those works will be on display July 1-8 at Sisters Art Works, 204 W. Adams Ave. and artists will be on hand during the Around the Block Fiber Arts Stroll on Saturday, July 1.

Deggendorfer’s watercolors are often referred to as “a painter’s quilt” — lots of pattern and form in each colorful piece. She shows her work at High Desert Gallery in Sisters and Redmond. Phillips has long been known as a talented and gifted designer. Her “contemporary folk art” style is unique, with lots of color and dots, each hand appliqued and quilted. Phillips’ work can be found in her studio at Sisters Art Works and also at the Stitchin’ Post and Bedouin in Sisters.

Both artists have studios in the new Sisters Art Works building. The doors are never closed as they bounce back and forth between studios to compare notes and try new combinations. Laughter appears to be the common denominator as they joke about the titles and new ideas zing around like pinballs.

The premise behind the development of Sisters Art Works is to bring local artists together. The series that Tonye and Kathy have created is the embodiment of that premise, Deggendorfer said.

“It has been so much fun to work together,” she said. “Tonye’s sense of color and design appeals to my own sense of style. Her appliqué technique with repeated series of circles and graphic shapes reminds me so much of how I see the world. It has been a real pleasure to bounce ideas off one another… I paint a piece and she comes back with an ‘outtake’ that she has developed and quilted — that just spurs me on to do another painting to frame it!”

The fun began when Kathy and Tonye decided to work together this spring on a piece for the My Own Two Hands Art Auction to support the Sisters Folk Festival Americana Project and art and music education in the Sisters schools and community.

Deggendorfer painted an image of the Metolius River from her cabin and sought out Phillips, a Camp Sherman resident, to add her magic to the piece “Coming Home” by adding a red cinder road and an old blue pickup with Yello the dog riding in the back on his way home to Camp Sherman. The colorful and unique piece was a huge success and the two artists decided they were on to something good.

Several other artists are participating.

Shannon Weber of Cottage Grove is a contemporary basket artist whose work has been featured in national and regional magazines.

Jean Wells Keenan is the founder of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show and owner of the Stitchin’ Post. She is a leader in the quilting industry and an accomplished artist in her own right. She is showing some of her new work which is full of color and bold comtemporary lines.

Keenan took a class last year that emphasized line and pattern. That class struck a chord with her and she has just “taken off” from there. With several pieces in various state of construction around her studio, she admits to having “more ideas than time.”

Joyce Kinney is an accomplished basket maker from Port Orford. Her current work has been inspired by the environment that she inhabits on the southern Oregon coast.