Maryhill Arts Festival

The Oregon Glass Guild was featured at Maryhill Arts Festival because the museum’s focus is glass this year.  My friend Charlene is the current president of OGG and combined with the fact that Maryhill has been very good to me I went along for the fun of it, even though I don’t usually take part in outdoor shows anymore.  My first outdoor show was the Rose Bowl in Pasadena where I sold my tie-dyed macrame’ every weekend when I was sixteen years old.

Setting up tents; sharing space with Leila; 'Glass Row' at Maryhill Arts Festival

We OGG artists had a bank of tents in line with one another.  Most of us arrived to set up on Friday, even though essentially we set up every day.  And broke down every night.  Peacock Protection, we called it!  Yes, the inquisitive peacocks can get into zipped up tents!

Saturday morning arrived cloudy with a bit of sun beaming on Mt. Hood.  Good portend or not?  Turned out to be very hot!  Breezy in the afternoon!

Steider Studios at Maryhill Arts Festival

What to bring & what to leave home…these are the questions that haunt me when there’s little space.  As usual, I fit as much as I possibly could on my tables.  I like giving you a choice after all!

The road to Maryhill.

If you made the drive to Maryhill Museum along Hwy 14 in the morning, you would have seen bright skies with puffy clouds scattered about.  It’s an arid landscape contrasting with the adjacent river.

Sun sparkling on the Columbia River.

Large vistas of distant mountains and the Columbia River separating Oregon and Washington.

Maryhill Museum perched above the Columbia.

Arriving at Sam Hill‘s castle, Maryhill Museum is a surprising oasis amidst the dusty brown landscape.

Artists ready for the festival to awaken.

Sunday morning dawned a bit breezier than Saturday so a couple of us bungied together and hung on.

We love a crowd!

Not as many shoppers on Sunday, but we always have a good time together.

Thanks Andy, for purchasing the Peacock Coasters!

Andy, Maryhill’s caretaker purchases coasters with gold line drawings of a Peacock made especially for this venue.  Thanks for the photo, Colleen!

Peacock coaster on Turquoise, 4" x 4".

Andy chose a green set; pictured above is turquoise with an iridescent cap for sparkle.

Baby peacocks

As usual, I cannot post about Maryhill Museum without including peacocks!  This time, I found some babies!  Aren’t they sweet?!!

Thank You Maryhill Museum for…

Telling Our Stories in Glass

….yet another fun adventure!  We had incredible students at Maryhill Museum’s Summer Art Institute, “Telling Our Stories in Glass” course.  Everyone made a fantastic tile in such a short amount of time!  These educators will go back to their classrooms inspired and ready to bring more art to their students.

Selecting Bullseye Glass

After learning about the types of glass available, participants selected what they wanted to work with from an assortment of Bullseye glass frit, stringer, confetti and sheet glass.  Thank you Bullseye Glass for discounting glass for these wonderful teachers, some of whom will offer a glass project in their own art programs.

Educators creating glass tiles.

Students then began building their tiles.

Building their tiles.

Tiles were made based on the stories participants wanted to share about their lives.

Design Decisions

Making design decisions…. Thank you Oregon Glass Guild for loaning us tools to use!

Layering the backgrounds, and building glass tiles that will be heated to tack and full fuse temperatures.

Maryhill Museum Summer Art Institute: Telling Our Stories in Glass

Finished glass tiles:  vertically, the left 3 rows were heated to 1385º, a tack fuse for texture; and the right 2 rows plus the bottom amber tile were heated to 1485º, a full fuse for a flat surface.

After class students toured my freshly scoured studio to see where and how I work.  Intrigued by all the samples lying around that I keep on hand for inspiration and instruction, they asked excellent questions about various processes.  Maryhill’s Executive Director, Colleen Schafroth brought a gift for me, “Maryhill Museum of Art” by Linda Brady Tesner, a book I’d been planning to buy about Maryhill’s history.  Thank you Colleen!

The day ended with a great meal at Everybody’s Brewing, downtown White Salmon!

Peacock at Maryhill Museum

A post about Maryhill Museum wouldn’t be complete without another peacock picture!  I love these birds!!

Next stop, Palmer Alaska where I’ll be teaching at Half Moon Creek!  Ready or not, here I come!!  Watch my upcoming class section for updates:  I’ll be coming to The Dalles and Portland Oregon as well as Austin Texas this fall; and contracts are already in for Las Vegas and Maui next spring!

William Morris Exhibit at Maryhill Museum

While waiting for the finishing touches of my new Glass Medium to be finished up so I can start distributing, life goes on….I was hoping my next post would be ‘Available NOW’, but alas, it’s not…but it is almost….almost ready!

In the meantime… If you haven’t seen it yet, you MUST go see the ‘Native Species’ exhibit by William Morris at Maryhill Museum in Goldendale Washington.  It runs through September 6th, then I believe it’s traveling to Colorado next.

Last night Maryhill Museum put on yet another sumptuous evening with great food catered by Nora’s Table and entertainment by the Mobile Hot Shop from Tacoma’s Museum of Glass.  The afternoon began with a Gallery Walk led by Linda Tesner, curator of the George R. Stroemple Collection, then a wonderful lecture by William Warmus on Émile Gallé and William Morris whose work we were all there to see.

It was the opening reception for ‘Native Species’ and a few glass artists were lucky enough to be on the invitation list.   A highlight was visiting with William Warmus and having him sign our copies of ‘William Morris – Native Species‘, a gorgeous hardcover catalog of the collection.

Heralding our departure and the evening finale, a choir of peacocks on the museum grounds.  Thank you so much Maryhill for another fabulous evening!

Epilogue of the Fence Project….

Maryhill Museum threw a great party last night for the opening of their 70th season!

This is the epilogue of my fence project, but not the last of Maryhill for me.  With their focus on glass this year, I’ve been invited to participate in a tour of glass studios.  My studio is too tiny to fit a busload of people, but my friend Terri has offered her studio and we are already working on some great plans for those taking the tour.  More about that in a future post.

The bronze plaque, now in place, is a beautifully crafted testament to all involved in this project.  I am so grateful to the donors and sponsors, who made this opportunity possible.  David and Roseangela Capobianco, the Arthur G. Dunn Guild of Seattle, Cannon Power Group, Gunkel Construction, and of course, Tom Herrera for including my glass!

I can’t wait to see the William Morris exhibit this summer, and Tacoma’s Museum of Glass is bringing it’s mobile hot shop in June.  Not to mention the spotlight on local glass artists with the Oregon Glass Guild at Maryhill’s Arts Festival in August.

In addition to the incredible art and fascinating history this great museum holds, the surrounding views of the Columbia River are incredible.

The grounds at Maryhill host a plethora of peacocks that you can’t help falling in love with.

I’ve tried capturing them with my camera, with pastels, fiber and glass……

None of my renditions reflect their iridescence, personalities or regality as the birds themselves.  The perfect feathered friends of Maryhill.

Join me at these events and more at Maryhill Museum.  There’s a nominal admission fee or better yet, become a member.