Library prepares for annual art exhibit

Artists are invited to get their art in now for the Sisters Library's annual art exhibit.

The sixth annual Friends of the Sisters Library (FOSL) Art Exhibit will begin on January 13 and run though February 17. There'll be art pieces on display throughout the library - from the walls and cabinets in the foyer and hallways, main room and stacks, children's library to the computer and community rooms.

Artists from throughout Central Oregon bring their works to the library for everyone throughout Sisters Country to "oooh" and "aaahh" over. Each artist is asked to bring three pieces that best illustrate their talents.

New this year will be three "People's Choice Awards," sponsored by FOSL Art Committee. The awards will be presented the evening of January 18 at 7 p.m., at the artist's reception in the library community room.

The public is welcome to vote for their three favorite pieces of artwork, no matter the category.

Suzi Bradley Sheward, of Tumalo, will be one of the new exhibitors this year. Viewers will recall Suzi's Sisters Rodeo for years 2003, 2004, and 2005.

As it seems to be with most artists, the talents they are born with often surface in one form or another when they are young. With Suzi, it popped up when she was a little over 5 years old, when she began making pen-and-ink sketches of her mom on table napkins. Not stick people, but renderings that looked like her mom, and that started Suzi rolling along the trail of art in the varied forms she practices today.

Along that exciting trail she did free-form art in high school, and went on to art college Long Beach State in California. While in high school she did commercial work for Sears-Roebuck, and while attending art college won 13th place in a big art contest that allowed her to go to New Jersey to study commercial art.

In addition to traditional pen and ink, water colors and oils, Suzi expanded her art experiences into woodworking, furniture design, bronze casting, and leather tooling. It was in the medium of leather that she found an area she really enjoyed. "I lay awake at night thinking about how wonderful leather smelled, how beautiful it is, how much fun it is to work with, and I was hooked," she recalls. The efforts of her work have been featured in the prestigious Cowboys and Indians magazine.

In the photo above she is finishing a piece of leather art which she calls, "Olive;" a form of creating distinctive mirrors and lamps - no two of which are alike. Rubbing her hands over the smooth, beautifully tooled leather, she says, "I use leather with flaws, like tick bites or barbed-wire scars; I like the character it reveals."

For more information on Suzi's work, visit www.blue-wingedolive.com.

To submit art for the show, contact FOSL Art Committee Chair Zeta Sieple at 541-459-6157 or contact her by email: [email protected]