Wood you like to see some art?
By Rick Crawford
The Hoffman Gallery in Manzanita asks, wood you rather stay home, or enjoy the March show, featuring the works of Alana Garrigues, Susan Walsh and Rick Crawford.
Susan Walsh creates “Reliquaries” from repurposed wood.
“Two things inspired me to do this work,” she said. “First and foremost, working with master cabinetmaker James Krenov. The second inspiration was reading the book ‘Overstory’ by Richard Powers. One of the main characters in the book is a majestic Redwood tree.”
When Walsh came into possession of three old-growth redwood boards from a sign maker’s estate sale, she turned them into signs for local places like Nehalem City Hall, the Manzanita Visitors Center and Elk Creek Park. But she had half of one board left that was languishing in her shop.
“After reading ‘Overstory’ I decided to honor this wood by making these beautiful little cabinets,” she said. “COVID granted me all the time in the shop I needed to make them and most feature my treasured collection of bird skulls found on our Manzanita beach.”
Rick Crawford is a wood sculptor and jeweler based in Astoria. He uses as many repurposed materials in his pieces as possible. His influences range from interests in the natural world, ancient history and archaeology.
Crawford’s “Neolithic Abstractions” is a series of sculptures representing abstract interpretations that are informed by Neolithic port-hole slabs, found at the entrances to ancient burial barrows at archaeological sites throughout Europe, Ireland and the British Isles.
“Typically, the markers would have been shaped from available stone,” he said. “But I decided to interpret them using various species of repurposed wood found during my frequent scroungings and wanderings in various locales globally.”
Garrigues is an intuitive artist, poet and co-host of {within} community, an online collective of female artists and makers. Her artwork is deeply informed by the nature of the Pacific Northwest and a sense of innate relationship between human story, memory and art itself. Working primarily in pen and water-based paints, she is in love with the magical relationship that occurs between pigment and water when nudged and then left to reveal its natural patterns and inclinations.
Her work was included in the Siren Nation 2019 juried show “Radical Revolution” at Portland City Hall. She has been an art docent with the Redondo Beach Hands on Art program and Beaverton Art Literacy and has created art lessons for CHAP PDX and Portland Sunday Parkways.
The Hoffman Center for the Arts is located at 594 Laneda Avenue in Manzanita and is open Friday through Sunday from 1 to 5 pm. For more information, go to hoffmanarts.org