Artists demonstrate work at Caldera

Caldera presented the art and artists participating in the Caldera Artist Residency Program last Saturday.

Through the program, artists can escape their daily routine for one month in the peaceful surrounds of Blue Lake and immerse themselves in their art, free from distractions.

"They have been creating in three weeks of uninterrupted work, work, work, hard work," said Executive Director Tricia Snell. "A lot of collaborations are born here, and some of their work ends up going into museums and schools."

Anna Marie Rockwell is a visual artist from Eugene. She has been working on a series of paintings depicting human isolation. Using her brother who has schizophrenia as a model, she captures his isolation from - and being isolated by - the world around him, on canvas.

"I like to have layers," she said.

Working in her oil medium, she may even scrape away the layers to get at what lies underneath.

Composers and musical performers Courtney Von Drehle and Joe Janiga have been playing together for 10 years. They have done film work including the 2008 Oscar-nominated film, "The Final Inch," and commercials. Recently they have been performing for modern dance classes in Portland.

They demonstrated using a loop pedal, which builds one sound upon another in layers by adding a new sound or instrument and repeating the sequence.

"We are exploring up here, doing vocals in our own way and experimenting with a variety of styles," Drehle said.

Husband and wife, artist Liz Neilson and composer Duncan Neilson, of Portland, are collaborating on a re-telling of "Frankenstein" from the monster's perspective, for the Portland Chamber Orchestra.

"I paint for music," said Liz Neilson, who did work for "Sleeping Beauty" and "Beauty and the Beast," to be performed in New York.

Duncan, who is using animal sounds in his composition for "The Monster," explained that birds hear five times faster than we do, and demonstrated how a bird's singing sounds to us and how the bird hears it.

Author and poet Sandy Florian has spent her time at Caldera working on re-writing her master's thesis and read from her work in progress, "Boxing the Compass."

Erin Elder is an independent curator and writer from Colorado, who is bringing together art and land through Practicing Liberating Art, an off-the-grid residency program. She worked on fire and shelter during her stay at Caldera.

During February and March a new group of artists will be in residency, and the public is invited to hear their presentations on February 20 and March 20. Visit http://www.calderaarts.org for more information.