The nugget., January 31, 2018, Page 13, Image 13

Wednesday, January 31, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
AWARDS: Honors went
to a variety of artists
in a variety of media
Continued from page 3
pieces he entered in this year’s
library exhibit. The second is
named “Totem.”
Jackson entered “Blue
Hour Reflection at Broken
Top,” a photograph on metal
of Broken Top and No Name
Lake, shot in the “blue hour,”
that hour after sunset but
before it’s pitch dark.
The other two award-win-
ners are Mike Stasko and col-
laborators Wendy Birnbaum
and Susie Zeitner. All are
from Sisters.
Stasko’s winner, “Juniper
Flats,” is an original drawing
made with soft colored pencils
on rag board, and Birnbaum
and Zeitner collaborated on
“Morning Ride,” a photo-
graph on metal enhanced with
glass.
This is the first year that
Stasko and Jackson have
entered the annual exhibit,
sponsored by Friends of
the Sisters Library (FOSL).
Birnbaum and Mathews
have entered many times,
and Mathews is a previous
award-winner.
Jackson is a self-taught
landscape photographer, an
outdoor enthusiast for as long
as he can remember. His pas-
sion in photography came
about right after high school,
when he was gifted a cam-
era and began photographing
nature. He shot “Blue Hour”
on a chilly November camp-
ing trip with his girlfriend,
Haley Moor.
“It was about 20 degrees
with winds of 40 miles per
hour,” he said.
Cold? You bet! The moun-
tain seems to be floating on
a glassy mirror, set in a star-
spangled sky.
“It was right after the first
good snow of this winter,”
he said. “The lake is nor-
mally accessed from Todd
Lake Road near Bend, but in
winter, when that closes, you
can access it from a 13-mile
round-trip hike from Three
Creeks (sic) Lake. Normally,
the lake is pretty busy with
people, but in winter, it is
empty, so we had the lake to
ourselves. The light on the
mountain was provided by a
three-quarters moon.”
Jackson shot the same
scene at sunrise the next
morning, and that image can
be viewed on his website
www.austinjamesjackson.
com. His work is also avail-
able at Nature’s Bling in
Sisters.
“This (award) was totally
unexpected,” said Stasko.
“There are any number of
outstanding pieces that could
have won. I picked this one
because I’ve sold a lot of
reproductions, and because I
think it touches people.”
In his “Sunset Series,”
Stasko explores the changing
effect of light over distance,
particularly at sunset. The
locales are recognizable to
those who travel or fish the
Deschutes River.
Stasko has studied fine arts
with an emphasis on drawing
and intaglio and serigraphy
printmaking techniques. But
as a colored-pencil artist, he is
completely self-taught.
“Morning Ride” is one
of several photographs
Birnbaum created while
attending a photography
workshop called “Dust ‘n
Light,” in the hills near Paso
Robles, California. After
trying to present this series
on paper or on canvas, she
arrived at the ideal format
– metal prints in a golden
tone, off-center mounted on
distressed and rusted steel
plates. This photograph was
further enhanced with a three-
dimensional application of
glass rods and frit, and kiln-
fired. Birnbaum worked with
Sisters artist Susie Zeitner on
this technique.
“The creative collabora-
tion process is so enriching,”
Birnbaum said.
“This (award) was just
icing on the cake,” she said
of her honor. “This show,
in particular, is such a high-
light, because it is open to
anybody.”
Zeitner also has two works
of her own in the library
exhibit.
Mathews obtained his
undergraduate degree in art at
Montana State University, and
an education degree at Eastern
Washington University, fol-
lowed by a master’s from
Lewis & Clark College. After
teaching art for several years
in the Beaverton School
District, he went on to get a
doctorate in educational foun-
dations from Oregon State,
and then opened an alterna-
tive school for high-risk kids
called Merlo Station, within
the Beaverton District.
For the past 15 years, he’s
volunteered in all art classes
at Sisters High School.
His award-winner is a juni-
per slab finely planed to show
off its natural grain, complete
13
PHOTO BY HELEN SCHMIDLING
“Juniper Flats” by Mike Stasko (top), and “Morning Ride” by Wendy
Birnbaum, collaborating with Suzie Meitner, hang in the community room.
with knots and swirls. He
drew the image with felt-tip
pen, right down to the tiny
branch ends. He filled it in
with Prismacolor pencil.
Embedded within the tree
See AWARDS on page 31