IN MEMORY: David Falconer, artist, photographer, father and WCOS first sponsor.

Educational Memorial Fund

By Peg Falconer Weber

Early this spring, one of our Washington County Open Studio artists passed from this world. My father David Falconer was our very first sponsor and participated in two of our tours, enthusiastically sharing his love of photography from my home in Aloha. His photo career spanned decades, beginning in a high school photo club, and his passion never wavered. He landed a job right out of Jefferson High at The Oregonian, eventually becoming the chief photographer, and worked there for 25 years.

Clients over the NEXT 25 years included National Geographic, Time, People, Boys' Life, NW Airline, Sunset and World. Whether on assignment or taking a "posed candid," he was notorious for cheerfully insisting on "just one more" shot. Family members, neighbors and friends were his favorite models, followed close behind by mountains, wildflowers, and cats.

 David and Bob Cato, lifelong friends, met in the camera club.

 This one of daughter Wendy become a billboard.

 A gaggle of daughters offered many photo ops

 A classic “posed candid” with granddaughter Rachel

and dog Patches.

He traveled around the world, but this was his favorite place.

Service to others was always part of his life. He was more than a photography instructor: he was a mentor and friend.  As he got older, he turned his volunteer efforts to tutoring new immigrants, reading with kindergarteners for SMART, chauffeuring elderly neighbors to doctor's appointments and volunteering to support children through CASA. Even approaching 80, he continued to teach photography classes through PCC and Chemeketa Community College, show his work at galleries, sell photos through stock agencies and take pictures. Always taking pictures.

  

 

When he lost mobility, he took photos from his wheelchair of flowers that friends would bring him, or of the cats that lived at the adult foster care home where he spent the last two years of his life.

I can’t think of a better way to honor such a talented, kind and generous man than to begin a Education Fund for the Washington CountyOpen Studios tours. He never missed an opportunity to take a photo, this is true; but more importantly is that he never missed the chance to engage others, to share his knowledge, and to make friends. That was his true art.

Donations of any amount can be made on our website Washington County Open Studios.

By mail to: Washington County Art Alliance at 1819 SW 5th Ave. #110, Portland, OR 97201. 

Funds will be used to promote art education and opportunities via the

Washington County Open Studios tours.

I miss him, and I am proud to be his daughter. Thank you for your support.

Peg Falconer Weber

Founder, Washington County Art Alliance

 photo by Washington County artist Mike Teegarden

June 21,2014: “Crag Rat” shirts all around; celebrating Daddy

Meet Pam Nichols: Encaustic Painter.

Pam Nichols is Washington County Open Studios Sponsorship chair.  For the past two years, Pam has coordinated and collected the funds to make our tour and full-color catalog a reality.  In addition to making art, Pam has helped our group make the money needed to keep our tour alive.

For Pam, art and creativity started at an early age because she was born into a creative family.

“I grew up in a family that was very artistic. My mom was a painter, jewelry maker and her passion was stained glass,” says Pam. “She had a studio/store when I was 12 until I was in my 30's.  My older brother painted, was a builder of incredible forts as a kid and dabbled in stained glass, and then he found his passion in glass blowing. He was a collector of marbles in his youth and decided to make his own, taught himself and made his own equipment. He is a true inspiration to me. He does what he loves and by his example, gave me the courage to be a full time artist, to reach out and go for what I was passionate about, encaustic painting. I tried all different mediums, but nothing really fit me, until I painted with hot liquid encaustic paint (beeswax, resin and pigment).”

Pam loves her work as an artist and her medium for many different reasons. “I love being in the process of making something, figuring out how it will work and look. Creating something out of nothing. My medium allows me to be me and allows me to touch people’s lives through the art I make. Encaustic painting can go in so many directions, you can paint realism or abstract, you can use it sculpturally, create collages and more. I love the variety it has.”

Her favorite part of the process, according to Pam, “is being in the zone and just letting the creative juices flow.”

Encaustic uses a wide range of art materials from the expected to the exotic.  “I use a variety of materials,” explains Pam, “such as the normal things as papers, inks, oil pastels all the way to dried coffee grounds, glass frit, shaved metal, the spice cloves, my dried passion tea leaves, metal objects and my most favorite thing ferric oxide (rust)!! I transfer rust from metal objects to paper which I incorporate into my painting or I will rust right to my encaustic paint.”

When people come to Pam’s studio, they’ll see a variety of techniques.

“Folks will get to experience my passion for what I do, by watching me paint, demonstrating different techniques,” says Pam. “ Most people are fascinated watching me use a torch to move around the encaustic paint (beeswax, resin & pigment), how it can swirl and blend together creating some incredible designs/patterns.”

To see more of Pam’s work, visit her website at www.pamlnichols.com

Two to Raku: Karen and Susan share a thunder, lightning, hail and horsehair.

Karen French is a potter living up on Bull Mountain in Tigard.  I work in clay, too and also live in Tigard.  Karen has a great studio behind her home complete with a raku kiln.  I love the raku process, especially horsehair, but I don’t have a raku kiln in my studio.  When Karen invited me to raku with her, I jumped at the chance. 

Raku is a Japanese process originally used for producing traditional tea bowls for the Japanese Tea Ceremony.  Hand-shaped vessels were removed from the kiln while still hot and allowed to cool in the open air resulting in black bowls.  The way I learned to raku is slightly different.  The thrown or hand built pieces were bisque fired in an electric kiln.  Raku glazes were applied and the pieces were reheated in a kiln.  When they reached the right temperature, they were removed and put in a metal trash can filled with shredded paper which caused oxidation turning the uncovered clay, black.

Horsehair raku involves some of the same steps.  But, I like it more than using glazes.  It has an element of surprise and whimsy.  It all happens so fast, I have no time to think.  It forces me to be in the moment, creating.  Luckily for me, Karen likes it, too.

We set a date on our calendars.  I made a bowl and small cup.  Karen had several small vases.  They were bisque fired, packed up and ready to go.  Just then, the rain started pouring down in sheets.  Karen and I were on the phone trying to figure out what to do, when all of a sudden, it stopped.  The sun came out and raku was a go, again. 

We loaded up the raku kiln and fired it up.  Waiting for the pots to get hot enough, raindrops started to fall again.  Karen and I just dragged the kiln under her studio eves and kept going.  Then, it poured.  Thundered.  Hailed.  We saw lightning in the distance but it didn’t stop us. 

Nope.  With hot pots ready for the horsehair, we were on a mission.  

Karen lifted the raku kiln top and I pulled out a pot with tongs.  We grabbed the horsehair, placed it carefully around the hot pot and watched the miracle happen.  Horsehair twists, twirls and curls with a beautiful abandon when it hits the hot pot.  The smoky areas and black scribbly lines surrounding the pieces were just amazing. 

When I signed up for my first open studios tour, I made many surprising and wonderful connections.  One of the best, so far, was playing with hot pots, horsehair and my new clay buddy, Karen French.  In spite of the hail, all went well.  Of course, after we were done, the sun came out.

A Chat With Manuela Kalestiantz, Encaustic Artist.

Today, we’re chatting with our 2014 Sneak Preview Exhibit Chair, Manuela.  In addition to organizing our Sneak Preview exhibit opening August 6^th at the Washington County Museum, Manuela is president of the International Encaustic Artists, PDX Chapter as well as a member of the Three Rivers Art Guild and Oregon Society of Artists. 

Grab a cup of coffee or tea, sit down as we chat with Manuela about her art journey.

Manuela, How did you get interesting in art?

 I was born interested in art, in Covilha, Central Portugal. I moved to Lisbon, the capital and Cultural Center when I was 9 years old.  I started drawing objects at the age of 2, my Mother tells me. My paternal Grandmother was an oil Painter however, she died right after I was born when I was 3 months old. I remember looking at her paintings as I grew up and feeling so proud of her! I always wished I'd had the opportunity to get to know her and talk with her about art and share what she felt as she worked. I guess there is truth to us inheriting certain genes or tendencies that predicate the path we chose in life. I am grateful to her for having given birth to my father even though she might have perished doing it, and to my father and mother in turn giving life to me. My surroundings, I believe influenced me in becoming and artists by being brought up around doctors and philosophers, being allowed not only to listen in on their dissertations but actually ask questions and make my own observations regarding the conversation topics. This along with my fascination with all images around me, and always trying to figure out the lines; visible and abstract, that gave life to the actual figure as lines intercepted each other at different points.

I studied Art – combination of Painting, Sculpture, Life Drawing, Anatomy, Art History, and Spatial Geometry at the Superior Academy of Fine Arts, and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

I later moved to the United States and once here I started working with Photography, Digital Photography and Applied Arts.

Why do you love what you do? What is your inspiration?

My “obsession”, has been the idea to spot what really isn’t visible to the naked eye and translate it to my artwork via my muses. My “Muses” come from different origins they might be based on people who raised me and helped me become who I am, or myself – the different facets of being- or it could be a “pebble” on the ground during the morning walk that made me think of something I didn’t see right way, or that made think of a possibility I had not considered before or that maybe helped me shed light into a personal journey. 

                                                      

*My “human muses” symbolize the different aspects of one’s personality, for example: the loving person within, the dancer passionately flowing on the dance floor, the sensuous woman within, the little prankster, the shy observer, etc. They all emerge from within the spirit and make themselves visible and known as they feel ready to. Others are the helpers that appear to prepare me and introduce the “human muses” to me. It is a self- emerging process that I must experience and allow to be experienced by others in order to become a fully realized being.

 Why you love what you do?

Encaustic truly encompasses all of my senses simultaneously as I work. The scent of the wax and resin in the Studio as it melts in the warming pot, the sounds generated as they melt and become Medium. The sensuality and feel of the Medium as my hands touch it as I carve. The pliability, challenge and creative journey the Medium allows me to experience as I pour, layer, fuse, scrape and carve over and over until the desired image emerges.

What’s you favorite part of the process?

My favorite part of this process is the layering and carving of the Medium. I love getting my hands in it and feel it come to "life"!

Do you use a weird or different technique?                                                                  

I use "Thread" which I previously prepare with Medium, in contouring certain areas of an image to enhance that area or give it fluidity and movement. I also use "Tape", Poured Medium and Twigs in the same way to accentuate specific aspects of my design. This method or process is usually complimented by the use of colored pigments which are fused in with the original surface painting to create depth and bring attention to certain elements.

What people will see at your studio?                                                         

As people visit my Studio they can expect to have a "sensory experience". They will have the opportunity to observe layering and fusing with both a torch as well as a heat gun, pigments, image transfer and imbedding as well as carving. I will be working on my "Muse" series, so they might be able to witness how I use thread and poured Medium to enhance image contouring as well.

To see more of Manuela’s work, visit her website at ManuelaKalenstianz.com