Artist's Statement
As an artist, I’ve devoted my life to the practice of drawing and painting. My personal pursuit of happiness has actually been the pursuit of beauty. It took me a while to realize it, but it’s what I’ve been designed to do. The time I feel the most alive is when I’m creating. It’s when I feel most connected to my inner being.
As a visual artist, I can’t help but notice small everyday things that others miss. I recognize and appreciate beauty in these overlooked gems. I often try to include them in my work, and strive to give the viewer glimpses of the word as I see it. I encourage people to slow down a little and enjoy our world. It’s something that needs to be expressed and shared. It brings me joy as I attempt to elevate the mundane and ordinary to the extraordinary so that others are able to see the world as an artist does. This sharing is everything to me.
My favorite subjects for paintings and drawings are from nature. I work both from life, and from photos. My two favorite mediums right now are acrylic, for its speed and ease of application (instant gratification!), and hand embroidery for the calm and meditative motion of the stitches, boldness of colors, wonderful texture. I love the way I can take it everywhere I go. From a rough sketch, to a finished tapestry that literally develops and changes over time, it is truly a “process based” rather than “product based” medium.
My other favorite activity is anything to do with working the soil and planting a garden. When speaking of a garden in his book “The View from the Studio Door, Ted Orland writes, “Gardens create content-meaning-by using physical space to define an aesthetic, emotional and social relationship with the land.” I take it a step further and declare that to create a garden is a spiritual experience. Making art is the same for me. As Orland puts it, “The common ground shared by artists who make continuing progress in their work is that they have committed themselves to working on the things that really matter to them.” I couldn’t agree more.
Carolyn's Story Continued
Having learned the importance of healthy food and being concerned that many people have no idea where their food comes from, she began putting together the concept for an artist’s group called “How We Grow Our Food”, and painting pieces of her own to present to the project. Before she could really get it going, her husband decided he wanted to get out of the crowds and traffic of the city and move to a smaller town. So in late 2016, they found a place to the south of Portland, and relocated to the state capitol of Salem,
Oregon.
Intending to retire from the industry, she began working on building a permaculture-based garden on the half-acre property that she and her husband purchased. Still, the idea of doing a project with other artists refused to die. It nagged at her until she finally began putting in time and energy to bring it to fruition. Located within a predominantly agricultural area of the Willamette valley, it turns out that Salem was fertile ground for just such a project. Within a few months after joining several art associations and groups, she began assembling the members. In the winter of 2018, the group artist’s group “How We Grow Our Food” was born.
Since then, Carolyn has made it her personal mission to bring like-minded Artists together to help enlighten and inspire people from all walks of life to enjoy the process of growing and depicting how food is grown. Being a part of this small close-knit group was just the inspiration and support she needed to jump-start her own creativity and she began producing her own fine art at an increased pace. Under her leadership, this small group of eleven artists has created a wonderful body of food-based work and has had various showings in the Salem area. They have had two successful fundraisers and donate a part of whatever proceeds they make to help feed the hungry. Recipients of their generosity have been the Meals on Wheels People, and the Marion County Food Share Program. Featuring Willamette Valley artists from Milwaukie, OR to the north, and Albany, OR to the south, they meet monthly to plan new ways of getting their message out to the public. Their debut show in 2018 was at the Elsinore Fine Art and Framing Gallery in downtown Salem, and they have been asked to come back in 2019 expanded to include such diverse venues as the Oregon’s State Capital in Salem; Kings Farm to Table Farm Store in Wilsonville, to the Salem Health’s Cancer Institute Survivor Showcase in the Salem Hospital’s building C, and they have shown in Silverton, Oregon, and at The Oregon State Fair. With a bit of a break during Covid, they are now back to showing again. This year's venues included The Civic Center in the City of Keizer, Oregon, The Art Department Supply Store, and LifeSource Natural Food Grocery store. HWGOF continues to grow and expand their reach with plans to show in Philomath in 2023.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HOW WE GROW OUR FOOD PLEASE VIEW OR DOWNLOAD OUR NOTEBOOK HERE: Artist Member Notebook
