News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Kit Stafford and Brad Tisdel told Erica Lowry that her image of bluesmen will be the signature image of this year’s My Own Two Hands arts celebration, representing the “Deep Roots” of American music.
Erica Lowry wasn't so sure about her submission to My Own Two Hands.
The Sisters High School senior wanted to approach the theme of "Deep Roots" indirectly, so she decided to do a painting depicting bluesmen that evoke the 1920s-30s blues foundations of much of American music. And while she used some vintage photographs for inspiration and reference, she painted more impressionistically than she usually does.
The result didn't satisfy the artist.
"I didn't like it," she told The Nugget. "I didn't want to submit it. It was one of the more difficult painting processes. I think I looked at it too much, to be honest."
So often, though, the artist is not the best judge of her own work.
Whatever Lowry herself thought of the painting, it made a big impression on the artists and jurors for the My Own Two Hands art stroll and auction, set for next month. Her painting was chosen to be the representative image of the show.
The Sisters Folk Festival made the announcement to Lowry at a meeting at Sisters Art Works last Friday. Lowry was surprised and honored.
"I'm really happy people responded to it that way," she said. "I thought that was one of the best rewards ever."
Lowry painted through middle school.
"In high school I got really serious about it, and thought about doing it as a career," she said.
Right now, her plans are oriented toward a career in education.
"Ideally, I would like to be an art teacher, but we'll see," she said.
Lowry moved to Sisters from Seattle when she was nine. She is convinced that she would not have pursued art the way she has if she was not part of a nurturing community like Sisters. For her, My Own Two Hands, Sisters Folk Festival's major fundraising event of the year, represents the virtues of the arts community in Sisters.
Visual artists donate their work for auction, and the funds raised support the programs of Sisters Folk Festival, including the educational outreach program The Americana Project and visual arts programs in the schools.
"It's just such a great time for our community to come together," Lowry said. "Not a lot of communities have this overwhelming support for art."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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