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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (March 3, 2022)
12 MIXED MEDIUM MARCH 2�9, 2022 THE ARTS AROUND EASTERN OREGON Fishtrap Fireside celebrates Women’s History Month Virtual event goes live on March 4 Go! staff E NTERPRISE — Fishtrap Fireside celebrates Women’s History Month with readings from three Wallowa County writ- ers: Debbie Carson, Talia Filipek and Toni Marie Jones. The episode goes live Friday, March 4, at fi shtrap.org and on Fishtrap’s YouTube channel. It may be viewed at any time. Fishtrap Fireside is a monthly reading series that features diverse voices from local and regional writers. “Every year Fishtrap Fireside makes a point to celebrate Wom- en’s History Month by featuring three women writers who have unique stories and life experi- ences to share,” said Mike Midlo, Fishtrap’s program director. The March episode of Fish- trap Fireside is sponsored by Alder Slope Nursery. DEBBIE CARSON Carson was born in Philadel- phia, where the science muse- um’s Giant Heart’s pulsating walls and cobwebs in its darker corners fascinated and terrifi ed her. It took Hosted by the Island City Lions Club Debbie Carson Talia Filipek Toni Marie Jones her until age 5 to fi nally muster up the nerve to walk through it by herself. That same year, her family moved to Connecticut, where sur- rounding dairy farms gave way to insurance company campuses. In the recession of 1973, her art degree netted her work as short order cook, an MIT temp, and as a transferrer of dead fi sh from old bottles to new at Har- vard’s Ichthyology Department. Clearly, it was time to head West. In Eugene, when an old friend asked, “Want to visit treeplanting camp?” she joined Hoedads Re- forestation Co-op, making lifelong friends while earning just about zilch planting trees. She fared better working as a USFS temp, but eventually returned to college. She’s now retired from school librarianship and teaching art. ogling at the mountains with a cup of cocoa in one hand and a baby in the other arm. Grow- ing up, she visited here with her Eastern Oregon-based family to camp and explore, and then re- turned as a young adult to work for the USFS as a ranger. Her professional career has taken her to Corvallis, Culver, Estacada, Bend and tall buildings for work in design, editorial, photography, outdoor ed and social sciences. Though she loves variety in her adventures, she always knew that near the Wallowas would be her base camp one day. By trade, she captures the delight of humanity, love, untold stories and local products with her camera. Beyond park ranger blogging and college literary zines, her writing has often been a practice of per- sonal refl ection, so this reading at Fishtrap Fireside will be a world premiere of some inner workings. Learn more at taliajean.com TONI MARIE JONES A Wallowa County native, Jones is of both European and Native American Heritage. Her Irish immigrant great-great- grandparents homesteaded in 1880 on what is now called the Zumwalt Prairie. Her direct Indian lineage includes Cayuse, Assiniboine, Northern Cree and Muskego Cree. Two of her third-great-grandfathers were interpreters for the Nez Perce and the Cayuse during the 1855 Treaty negotiations. She has fi ve great-grandfathers who were chief traders for the Hudson’s Bay Company. Two were posted at Fort Nez Perce. Jones is a mother of two adults, a fi ber and beadwork art- ist, and a wildfl ower enthusiast. She has a liberal studies degree with an anthropology minor spe- cializing in Oregon Indians. After a career working for the Oregon University System as a secretary, program manager andgraphic artist, and another working as a marketing director and consultant for nonprofi t air ambulance companies, she is happily retired. Jones is the co-editor of the Frenchtown Historical Founda- tion newsletter, a publication focusing on the Native Ameri- can, French-Canadian and Metis families’ history of the area. Her work has appeared in two Fishtrap Outpost chapbooks, and she is a member of the Write Women and Sheep Creek Word Herders, local writing groups headed up by Janie Tippett. TALIA FILIPEK Filipek resides in Enterprise, Locked & Loaded 2022 Gunshow La Grande La Grande Sat. March 12 • 9 to 5 & Sun. March 13 • 9 to 1 @ the Blue Mountain Conference Center • 404 12th Street Background checks will run and ATM on site. Breakfast and lunch to be served Saturday. In Memory of Shelia Evans who did so much for our community. Sponsors & Vendors call Kayla at 541.786.7210 11am-8pm Tuesday-Saturday