I’m tardy in urging you to go see an amazing textile art project out at Maude Kerns Art Center. It closes on the 24th, but if you can make it, you won’t be sorry.
It has the unfortunate title of “Lady Corona,” which makes you assume coronavirus, but actually it has nothing to do with that. The principal female figure in the series – “Lady Corona” – is often represented with a crown, gloves, and a lace mask, but again, she isn’t the coronavirus. Rather, she is more of a saint who is a comforting presence offering respite and hope to the victims of social injustice.
These are very large wall hangings made by Jo-Ann Morgan using traditional quilting techniques. Each one is a brightly colored, very dynamic and graphic image of a moment of social injustice. One was called “Ukrainian Bomb Squad” and shows three soldiers with a wonderful beagle in his bomb sniffing vest. A favorite is Lady Corona comforting five children to highlight the “children in cages” policies of the Trump administration. This tapestry is so beautiful that it belongs in the antechamber of a children’s help facility. Such a great show–see it if you can.
On another note, local teacher and commercial photographer Jon Meyers has a show right now at Emerald Art Center sponsored by Photography at Oregon. He has some eye-popping landscapes he took on an 800 mile trek with his son from the Washington Border north into the Canadian wilderness. These are mountains and lakes bathed in such glorious light that you wish you could have been there, until he tells you the mosquitoes were so furious he could barely poke a lens out the zipper of his tent.
My favorites are owls and other raptors he photographed while working with the Cascade Raptor Center. The birds were brought into his studio and photographed flying directly at the camera–one with a dramatic six foot wingspan, which you’ll see at the top of the stairs.
It’s spring! Let’s get out there and appreciate some art!
This is Sandy Brown Jensen for KLCC.
