The abstract paintings of Elaine Dunham are just what we need to banish the dark of winter. Her playful, bright canvases are very welcome as the nights draw in. Using movement and color, patterns shift and dance in the energetic exchange that is Dunham’s speciality. Works like “Around Ashland” evoke a joyful response while the muted palette of “Swing Time Menagerie” creates a more thoughtful encounter. But taking in all of these paintings is a delightful experience.

Bandon High School art teacher Jen Ells showed her paintings earlier this year, and now fills the cases with her ceramic pots, bowls, and mugs in earth tones and soft colors.

All works are available for purchase.

Please join us for a reception for both artists on Sunday, December 3rd, at 2 pm in the Sprague Room. Refreshments will be served, and all are welcome.

Photo credits: “Around Ashland” and “Swing Time Menagerie” by Elaine Dunham; honey pots by Jen Ells.

The gallery is open during regular library hours, 1204 11th St. SW, in Bandon City Park. For more information about the gallery, visit the Bandon Library Friends and Foundation website, Bandonlff.org.

The joy of discovery is the experience of these paintings. Geri’s gift is the depth and complexity of her work. There is musicality to these paintings are hung; the violets and blues carry you from one painting to the next. Move in close to be pulled deeper into the many small moments happening within the larger canvas. Interplays of contrasting color create small eddies in the wide stream of each image, and mysterious darkness contains surprising saturations of pure color. And there is texture, created by layers of fibrous papers and sinuations of pure paint. Some of these are made of paper alone, torn sheets overlapping to build up pieces that float within the rectangle of the frame, making a nice change from a rectilinear discipline of the others. In all of these, a spirit of exploration is evoked, and the viewer is asked to take the time required to really see what is there, and to return again and again with fresh eyes. These paintings hold rich rewards for such efforts.

In the cases, Jane Újházi’s jewels reflect the inspiration she also gets from the natural world. Graceful butterfly wing and Autumn leaf porcelain mix with glass beads to make unique earrings. Some necklaces are chunky, some delicate, but all are made with semi-precious stones, pearls, and gold or silver. These exquisite elements she uses are handmade and were made by artisans from around the world. Her work has elements of both the familiar and the exotic, and all of it delights.

There will be a reception for the artists on Sunday, January 15th, from 2 – 4 pm, in the Sprague Room at Bandon Public Library. Refreshments will be served.

The gallery is open during regular library hours, 1204 11th St. SW, in Bandon City Park. For more information about the gallery, visit the Bandon Library Friends and Foundation website, bandonlff.org.

Article courtesy of Tracy Hodson. Art images, “Bright Idea” by Geralyn Inokuchi, Butterfly earrings by Jane Újházi

Painter and collage artist Susan Lehman is a master of subtlety, whose work pushes the edge of what is possible in a two-dimensional medium. Using fabrics, fibers, mesh, paper, and sculpting paste, Susan creates an undulating surface, pocked with craters or rising up into wrinkles before she paints. She then applies acrylic paint, inks, and metallics, and may further manipulate the surface by scratching or otherwise distressing the paint. The result is a complex painting with sculptural effects that takes time to fully absorb.

The main series of works on display, “A Delicate Balance,” made during the last 14 months, is a direct response to the challenges of lockdown: isolation, fear of what’s outside, feelings of being lost and cut off, memories of the beauty of nature, and trying to find hope and a way back into the world. Using a limited but dynamic pallette of black, white, grey, and metallic golds and coppers, Susan summons feelings we all experienced during this period of forced isolation: that of being stuck inside, looking out at a world drained of color and life, our loneliness at separation from other people, dislocation as our usual routines came to a sudden halt. These works are delicate and precise, invoking both the inner storms and quiet lulls that marked this stressful time. But Susan doesn’t leave us there; she then takes us outside and into light and color with the three newest paintings, including “Looking Towards Shore,” with its lovely turquoise seawater and misty sky. She tells us it’s not over yet, but we’re on our way home.

Janice Horne’s “A Murder of Crows” is assemblage at its most whimsical and fun. Riffing on the noted intelligence of crows and ravens, as well as their reputation for being tricksters, Janice playfully assembles collages and sculptures to celebrate these fascinating birds. With a wide variety of materials and both a sense of humor and a great respect for her subject, she creates scenarios in which crows are messengers, carriers of the seed of life, or gatekeepers of Time itself. She imbues her crows with mystic power, yet Janice’s mini stories are grounded in the real activities of corvids. It is a pleasure to have these delightful pieces in the cases.

The gallery is open during regular library hours, Tuesday through Saturday, at the Bandon Public Library, 1204 11th St. SW, in Bandon City Park. For more information about the gallery, visit the Bandon Library Friends and Foundation website, bandonlff.org.

Article courtesy of Tracy Hodson. Art images “Looking Towards Shore” by Susan Lehman; “Tricksters of Time” by Janice Horn.

Meet at the gazebo in Bandon City Park, 11th St. SW. Volunteers should be prepared to get messy! Gloves, tools, paint brushes, mulch and all other materials will be provided, as well as masks and hand sanitizer to ensure a safe and successful morning. Other than masks and gloves, personal equipment and power tools will not be permitted.

The Parks and Recreation Commission has partnered with the Planning and Public Works departments to host the spring cleanup. Participants will help clean, green, and beautify the northwest quadrant of the 11th Street park. Upon check-in at the gazebo, volunteers will be split into three project teams: painting and cleaning, weeding and planting, and trail maintenance.

The Lions Club has graciously offered to provide volunteers with water and snacks throughout the event and the city will have coffee at check-in. Volunteers who stay the whole morning will also receive a thank you gift from The Rolling Pin Bake & Brew (while supplies last).

City Park is a Bandon treasure. With disc golf, baseball, playgrounds, walking trails and more, we know that all citizens of Bandon benefit from having a vibrant, clean, and maintained park. As a small organization, the City of Bandon relies on the generosity of volunteers to help keep our parks clean and tidy and community cleanup days make a difference. We thank you for your help and look forward to seeing you on June 4th.

For more information about the event or the Parks & Recreation Commission, please contact Dana Nichols at dnichols@cityofbandon.org or 541-347-7922. Those who are unable to attend the volunteer cleanup day but want to donate to our Parks and Recreation fund please contact the Planning Department.

Human beings have been telling and retelling stories since the beginning of time, stories whose function is to untangle the mysteries and describe the truths of our world. Out of these stories grew symbolic figures so pervasive as to become iconic and universally understood, allowing cultures to communicate across time. Angela Passalacqua draws upon such iconography, creating paintings whose stories we recognize, even as we puzzle out their specifics. The technological world vies with nature in ‘The Sextant and the Apple;’ the implacable Oracle speaks, Hermes delivers her message; the Zodiac tells its tale of human and cosmic evolution; the calm innocence of the cherub reminds us of the need for simplicity in a complex world and, always, dreams—our own, private oracles—thrust themselves into our consciousness. There is much more to life than what we experience awake, and more to know than what we can deliberately learn.

Painting with oils on wood, Angela creates surfaces that are textured, fresco-like. They feel old, their colors glowing softly as though mellowed with time. Birds, maidens, moons, ships, clouds, musical instruments, float through these images that are both Classical and entirely contemporary and original. The multiplicity of these images reflects the depths of understanding available to us; they tell stories we already know, yet need to hear again and again.

Certainly no world has so thoroughly understood and harnessed the power of storytelling through iconography as the world of advertising. Images that bypass the analytical process to speak directly to, and manipulate, human needs and desires is the goal of advertising, and these images work to great effect, as we often know to our cost! But through the lens of nostalgia, and with admiration for the imagination and talent of the artists of yesterday, we can appreciate this collection of vintage tins, shared by Dawn Vonderlin. Look beyond the surfaces to find the hidden treasures here: take note of the surrealistic image on a can of Colgate’s Baby Talc: the baby holds a can of talc, which baby holds a can of talc, and so on and so on, presumably to infinity. The charm of this collection lies in such cleverness, as well as the callback to that impossibly perfect place where we never lived, the past.

The gallery is open during regular library hours, Tuesday through Saturday, at the Bandon Public Library, 1204 11th St. SW, in Bandon City Park. For more information about the gallery, visit the Bandon Library Friends and Foundation, bandonlff.org.

Article by Tracy Hodson. Art images “The Sextant and the Apple” by A. Passalacqua; Vintage Colgate Baby Talc tin, courtesy of D. Vonderlin.

Painters Jon Leach and Merv Cole bring a collection of abstracts to Bandon Library Art Gallery in August. Working in both acrylic and watercolors, they are well-matched in their aesthetic, and equally strong in the execution of their ideas.

In this collection, Merv Cole’s colors are vivid, the brush strokes bold. His canvases crackle with energy. Jon Leach’s paint is liquid; deep tones swim in pools from which brighter colors dreamily rise and recede. The work of both artists is brilliantly alive.

In the display cases are works from Humbug Mountain Weavers and Spinners, who hand spin, dye, and weave textiles into wearable and wall art. Their group includes felters, knitters and other workers in fiber.

The library gallery is open during regular hours Tuesday through Saturday at the Bandon Public Library, 1204 11th St. SW, in Bandon City Park. For more information about the gallery, visit the Bandon Library Friends and Foundation, bandonlff.org.

Article by Tracy Hodson. Painting detail: “The Discovery” by Jon Leach