July / August 2009

Leah Wilson’s paintings are the result of the progression of her relationship with the places in which she has lived. They are slow explorations charting the creation of personal sense of place, developing an intimate acquaintance with the natural and human-induced patterns in the landscapes and their subtle features, changes and cycles.

The Ophelia series, consisting of four separate groupings of 3-4 paintings within each group, is derived from direct relationships with the rivers. Each grouping focuses on a specific ‘incident’ or place and object event. In this way I can incorporate the concept of time with the medium of painting instead of using a more common time-based medium such as film or video to refer to change. Each individual painting within a grouping represents a distinctive point in time, but grouped with its counterparts, the paintings begin to tell the story not only of the river, but also the shifting nature of light and water on a particular object in the river, but also the shifting nature of the focus of our own attention as we observe that object throughout a length of time.

Leah Wilson received her M.F.A. in 2003 from the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, California and received her B.F.A. in painting and drawing from the Art Institute of Southern California in Laguna Beach, California in 1995 where she was the recipient of the institute’s merit scholarship. She was born in Newport Beach, California in 1973 and currently resides in Eugene, Oregon.

Wilson’s work is in the Collections of eBay, Inc., Adobe Systems, Inc., Namco Inc., as well as other corporate and private collections, and her photography has been featured in Common Ground Magazine.
Her paintings have been exhibited at Julie Baker Fine Art and featured at the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival in Nevada City, California, Los Medanos College Art Gallery in Pittsburg, California and the Oakland Art Gallery in Oakland, California.

Over the last four years he has captured these snapshots by constructing miniature stage settings and then photographing them with a 4x5 view camera. The miniature stage sets are hand constructed from materials such as matt board, wire, clay, etc., the props being no larger than a few inches in height.
Places of the Mind is comprised of snapshots from Lewis Forquer’s subconscious. They stem from feelings of not belonging, not fitting in, of being scared while growing up. The lonely hallways, dark rooms and outcroppings are reflections of these thoughts and feelings.

Lewis Forquer is a born and raised Oregonian from Sweet Home, currently living in Lebanon. He first became interested in photography during his senior year in high school. He received his BFA in Photography at the University of Oregon in 2007.

In today’s consumer driven society, there are a growing number of people choosing to live more closely together to fulfill a common purpose. They often share a common social, political, or spiritual vision, and present an alternative to mainstream society. “Labor of Love” is a photo documentary of Alpha Farm, a community in rural western Oregon, active since 1972 and one of the oldest communes in the state. This project will be the first-ever documentation of Alpha Farm and marks the beginning of a long-term project entitled, “Pursuing Utopia: Intentional Communities in America.”

Kate Harnedy received her BA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago in 2005, where she also worked as a Teacher’s Assistant. After graduating, Harnedy worked freelance doing portrait, music and documentary photography.  Her recent move to Oregon inspired her to focus her attention back onto documentary projects and becoming part of the fine art community.

Inspired by his travels on the Greek isle of Lesvos, re-contextualizes Greek mythology, archeology, and discovery in this series that features a visual investigation of ancient Greek figures alongside beach stones and modern debris.

 

Geoffrey McCormack, born in Berkeley, California, received his MA in sculpture from San Jose State University in 1972. He is a realist
painter seeking a point of view of common objects to create a new context and meaning.