Kelly Saxton, Lily  59"w x 30"h x 6"d, 2010)

Selections have been made for the 2010 alumni exhibition. This year's show, I Found This, This That Had Already Been Found, will open November 1 and continue through November 24, 2010 in the Autzen Gallery on the PSU campus. The artists' reception is scheduled for Saturday, November 6, from 6 to 9 p.m. All alumni and the public are invited to attend.

The exhibition was juried by artist Chris Johanson, a recent transplant to Portland from the San Francisco Bay Area who has a national and international reputation for using recycled materials and found objects in his work. The focus of the exhibition is "reclaimed, recycled, and sustainable." Artists represented are Steven Beatty (MFA '06), Gary Boswell ('80), Rita deKelaita ('06), Jana Demartini ('82),  Ally Drozd ('10), Ralph Gilliam ('70), Tobias Greiner (MFA '06), Harry Groth ('96), Grant Keltner ('83), Michelle Mckay ('07), Jamie Newton ('89), James Raglione ('79), Marlie Ranslam ('77), Kelly Saxton ('81), Chris Tymoshuk ('91), and Jerry Vanderlinde ('62).

The Autzen Gallery is located at 724 SW Harrison Street, Neuberger Hall, 2nd Floor, Room 205. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. November 1-24. For the reception you may only enter the building from the Harrison Street side. For a map click here. 

Bill Plympton ('68)

Bill Plympton ('68) is about to receive a lot of attention nationally and internationally. A successful illustrator and filmmaker, he has produced a new animated feature film, Idiots and Angels, scheduled for release across the country in November and December. In April of next year, Rizzoli Books will release a lavish book about Bill's long career, Independently Animated, Bill Plympton. It will include a chapter devoted to his early years at PSU (1964-1968). Also coming in 2011 is Alexia Anastasio's documentary Adventures in Plymptoons.

Born in Portland to Don and Wilda Plympton, Bill grew up in a large family. For the six children, it was often too wet to play outside; Bill credits Oregon's rainy climate for nurturing his drawing skills and imagination. Still, he was active as a cub scout and, when weather permitted, played Little League baseball. In 1964, he graduated from Oregon City High School where he had joined the art club. At PSU, he edited the yearbook and was a member of the film society. Here he picked up his obsession for film, creating posters and first experimenting with animation for the society, but the promo he made was accidentally shot upside-down, rendering it useless.  

From Idiots and Angels

To avoid being drafted for Vietnam, Bill served in the National Guard from 1967 to 1972. In 1968, he moved to New York and began a year of study at the School of Visual Arts. Between toting his portfolio and catching cheap matinees, he designed for Cinéaste, Filmmakers Newsletter, and Film Society Review, and produced illustrations for the New York Times, Vogue, House Beautiful, Village Voice, Screw, and Vanity Fair. His cartoons appeared in Viva, Penthouse, Rolling Stone, National Lampoon, and Glamour. In 1975, he began "Plympton," a political cartoon strip in the Soho Weekly News. By 1981, the strip was syndicated in over twenty papers.

It wasn't until 1983 that he got his first real chance at animation, when producer Valeria Wasilewski asked him to direct and animate a film based on Jules Feiffer's song "Boomtown." Connie D'Antuono, another of the film's producers, "sort of held my hand through the whole process," Bill says. "It was a great way to learn to make a film." Immediately following Boomtown, Bill began his own animated film, Drawing Lesson # 2. Because production of the live-action scenes was slow, he decided to start on another film in the meantime. He contacted Maureen McElheron, an old friend from a country-western band (Bill had played pedal steel guitar), and she agreed to score Your Face. Her voice in the film, eerily decelerated to sound masculine, combined with a fantastically contorting visage, helped garner the film a 1988 Oscar nomination for best animated short.

Ralph Pugay (MFA '10), before graduating, received the Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award from the International Sculpture Center (ISC). Ralph was one of 445 students nominated for this award from over 176 university, college, and art-school sculpture programs in sixteen countries. The inspiration for his submission to the competition came from his experience undergoing physical therapy for chronic back pain; the 45-minute video, titled Saddle Soap, showed him navigating an obstacle course. "I think the piece ultimately talks about the contemporary artist as a multi-tasker-having to manage a day job as well as a career, making ends meet, on top of having to make artwork," Ralph explains. A distinguished panel made up of artist/educator Creighton Michael, curator Rocio Aranda-Alvarado, and artist Oliver Herring selected twenty winners and fifteen honorable mentions. The winners will participate in the Grounds for Sculpture's fall/winter exhibition, on view from October 10, 2010 through January 2, 2011 in Hamilton, New Jersey, adjacent to the ISC headquarters. The artists' work will be included in the exhibition catalogue and featured in the October 2010 issue of ISC's award-winning Sculpture magazine and at www.sculpture.org.

Corser Du Pont (BA in art history, '07) recently received his MA in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management in a collaborative program between Ryerson University in Toronto and the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, N.Y. Corser wrote his thesis on early twentieth-century photographer Nickolas Muray's "environmental portraits" published in Vanity Fair.

Michael Sammler

Michael Sammler ('07) has been teaching English in Japan since he graduated. He lives in rural Japan and has a large apartment with an extra room for a studio space. He illustrates a local English magazine and just put togetherhis first exhibition in Japan including six oil paintings. Occasionally he teaches art to elementary school students and participates in the local Junior High Art Club. Michael's website is www.michaelsammler.com.

Nishiki Tayui, Treasure Hunt, oil on linen, 68 x 48 inches, 2010

Nishiki Tayui ('05), who recently completed her MFA in painting at Indiana University, started working this fall at University of Toledo as a visiting assistant professor. She teaches courses in 2-D foundations and oil painting.  "My challenge now," she says, "is to have a balance in my time between my art and teaching."

Vicki Lynn Wilson (MFA '05)) and John Larsen (Wilson and Larsen Studio) have made a successful bid for a public project in Scottsdale, Arizona. Their hanging, plantlike sculpture, Succulent Shower, will be installed in December 2010 at the Belle Art Tower.

Sarah Wolf Newlands ('03) recently led a workshop on "Engaging Conversations in Portland Art Museum Galleries" as part of "pARTicipate" the Oregon Art Education Association's fall conference on October 8 and 9 at the museum. She also taught an encaustic painting workshop in August at the Creative Arts Community at  Menucha, in the Columbia River Gorge.

Elise Wagner ('95) will have a one-person show at Hallway Gallery in Bellevue, Washington in November 2010. She gave a talk about her work in a recent show at Butters Gallery in Portland, available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWwRYlQ--78. A review in Art Ltd. By critic Richard Speer can be seen at http://www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1283536014&archive&start_from&ucat=32. Elise's website is www.elisewagner.com.

Anna (Harris) Fort ('92) has been working as an apparel product developer for the fifteen years at InSport, Castelli, Nike, Norm Thompson, and now Sebago/Wolverine World Wide in Portland. She taught art literacy for six years as her kids went through elementary schools in Beaverton and Hillsboro. She also taught sewing classes at Joann Superstore. Her current project is coordinating Fine Arts Week at Glencoe High School in Hillsboro, scheduled for February 2011. Anyone interested in helping as a volunteer can contact Anna at (503) 314-5871 or anna.fort@yahoo.com.

Grant Keltner, Duke Ellington, created while attending PSU.

Grant Keltner ('83) After graduating from PSU with a BS in graphic design, Grant received a second degree in computer graphics from the University of Oregon ('85). Since then he has worked with Pihas, Schmidt, Westerdahl Advertising Inc., Wy'east Photography, and the Northwest Examiner newspaper. He has also worked as an assistant in computer graphics at Pacific Northwest College of Art, and as an instructor at Portland Community College, teaching website technology and computer software. Grant's work has been exhibited at Blue Sky Gallery, PSU, University of Oregon, and Portland Community College.

Clay Hoffman with the "art cart" he uses to help him teach his cartooning and sculpture classes.

Clay Hoffman ('82) has recently been creating videos for Youtube that feature his interactive kinetic sculptures. One of these, created for the Guggenheim Youtube video competition, can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/user/artbyclay#p/a/u/0/3fC9FX8JPUo His website is www.ArtByClay.com.

John Monti ('81) has been living, working, and exhibiting in New York since graduating from PSU.  For the past nine years he has been Professor and Area Head of Sculpture at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Currently John is on sabbatical, working on "The March Project," which, he says, "speaks to our hopes, dreams, and failures." The work will include sculpture, photographs, and possibly an animation or two. See www.johnmonti.com.

Detail of a sculpture by John Monti

Ken Butler's studio in Brooklyn

Ken Butler (MFA '78) has created a new body of work with the assistance of a Pollock-Krasner grant. He invites you to an open studio and/or one of three live performances in the new exhibition area of his enlarged loft. On Saturdays and Sundays-October 30 and 31, November 13 and 14, and November 27 and 28- Ken will have an open studio from 2 to 6 p.m. with a half-hour performance on Sundays at 4 o'clock sharp, and a surprise guest on November 14 and 28. Ken's studio/loft is located at 427 Manhattan Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, phone  (718) 782-4383.

Carolyn Cole ('77) will have a one-person show at Butters Gallery in Portland in November. Last March, her works were featured in Architectural Digest, right after the screening of her "Oregon Artbeat" segment on Oregon Public Broadcasting. This summer, her work was shown at the William and Joseph Gallery, Santa Fe, as well as in Seattle, at Gallery IMA. Her work was included in Ping-Pong, the art and literary journal of the Henry Miller Memorial Library. She is scheduled for a solo show this spring in Chicago at Gallery KH, and is now represented in Boston at Boston Art, Inc.

James Minden ('77) had solo shows this year at the William and Joseph Gallery in Santa Fe, Aberson Exhibits in Tulsa, and Print Arts Northwest's gallery at the Washington County Museum in Hillsboro. In April of 2011 he will have a one-person exhibition at Augen Gallery in Portland. Jim also currently serves as president of the PSU Art Alumni and Friends committee and as president of the Contemporary Art Council of the Portland Art Museum.

Scott McIntire, Beckett Sunrise, enamel on canvas, 36 x 7 inches, 2010

Scott McIntire ('71) will show new paintings and drawings at the Art Sites Gallery in Riverhead, N.Y. "Altered Realities" will open October 30, 2010. See www.scottmcintire.com or www.artsitesgallery.com.

Judy Hoiness, Impressions of the Columbia River Country, acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12 inches.

Judy Hoiness ('65) is showing paintings at the White Sturgeon Gallery in Vancouver, Washington, through October 31, 2010. Judy will also have a retrospective of her work since 1963, "An Incredible Journey with Paint," at the gallery on the campus of Central Oregon Community College, Bend, with a reception on October 28 from 4 to 6 p.m. The exhibition continues until December 10. Judy's work is also included in a new DVD, "A Walk into Abstracts," by Sue St. John.