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lay artist Jen Wtxxly celebrates ordinary
people— so much so that she’s made them
all trophies.
“I was thinking about the everyday
person and the trophy for surviving everyday
life. T h a t’s where the scale and the general for
mat of what I do comes from,’’ she explains.
Woody’s clay figurines, featured at Gallery
Schmallery through Dec. 3, are like frozen
moments from the life of someone you’d see on
the bus or at a family reunion. They’re not
glamorous, yet somehow they’re elegant— like a
person who walks into a party and suddenly all
eyes are on her. It’s not so much whether she’s
pretty— it’s the way she carries herself in her
Kxly, the comfortable way she takes up space.
“People are really captivated by them ,”
WcxxJy says. “They say, ‘O h this looks like my
U ncle Bob.’ ”
Lael Easton o f Gallery Schm allery agrees.
“Her people are so real. You feel like you’re see
ing your grandpa.”
Easton says Wtxxly has a great sense of detail
and whimsy and obviously loves creating these
little people. T he artist’s last show had tine of
the best responses the gallery has ever seen.
Many of Woody's figures relate in pairs or
groups with a central element tying them together.
In “Encircled,” two older women sit engrossed in
conversation, the matching texture of their dresses
drawing them closer together, creating a circle.
Wtxxly said she spent a lot of time last spring
hunting thrift stores for the weirdest textures she
could find. “Betty Bubbles’ ” dress is made of a
mold from bubble wrap. Another character
wears a sweater cast from a woven tablecloth.
In “Windblown," three lean figures, arms in
the air, sway like trees in ? storm, their torsos rem
iniscent of birch bark. “I wanted to convey that
Tíre Imperiai Sovereign
0{ose Court
and
Miss Qay Oregon X X V lII
SlCycia (Day
invites one and a it
to
SASIH (BASiX
2002
All Net Proceeds to Benefit
"Our House of Portland"
To be held at
Darcelle XV 208 N W 3rd Avenue
November 20, 2002
Door at 7[>m * Show at 8 pm
$S Donation
Everyday people
by
K
Jen Woody sculpts figures
who could he y o u r mom
ath y
B
elg e
Jen Woody and a couple of little ladies at her Gallery' Schm allery opening
feeling of being windblown, like you can’t control
the elements around you— being at the mercy of
events that you can’t change," Woody explains.
The figures are, she adds, “ambiguous, gender-
wise and racially. A lot of my women end up look
ing kind of drag-queeny. A lot of times 1 make
someone who I would say is a woman, and the
general take from the public is that it’s a man.”
O ne of her customers this year was a lesbian
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who bought two of the most androgynous
sculptures. “She was very appreciative of that.”
rowing up in C onnecticut, Woody was
always interested in the arts. Although her
major at William Sm ith College in New
York state was geoscience, she found herself
spending a lot of time at the clay studio, even
tually helping run it and teaching lessons to
Cemetery
Sunnyside Chimes
Memorial Gardens
11667 SE Stevens Rd. • Portland, OR 97266
503-659-1184
www.dignitymemorial.com
C lay figures by J en WOODY are on display through
D ec. 3 at G allery Schm allery, 2132 S .E . Division
St. She is also featu red in the fall issue o f the art
m agazine Wordsmith Collection.
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other students. A fter a few years, she left
school to apprentice in pottery at the
Rochester Folk A rt Guild.
Woody describes the guild as a commune with
potters, glass blowers, furniture builders, weavers
and a sheep farm. She worked to pay her room
and board. “1 did all the grunt work in pottery,
like mixing clay, loading kilns, making glazes.”
She developed her skills spending many
hours churning out pots. After about six months,
she returned to school to finish her degree.
Upon graduation, Woody searched national
ly for pottery jobs. She picked Portland over
Arkansas and Tennessee, working five years as a
production thrower (forming pots on the wheel)
for another potter, further honing her skills.
T h e 29-year-old started her own business in
1997 and sold pottery at Portland Saturday
Market until just last month, stopping to focus
more on clay art and less on pottery. “It’s taken
me a while to com e to a place in my clay work
where I feel like my work is really authentic
and true to myself. T h e pots were so influenced
by working for other people,” she shares.
Now Woody makes half her living as an
artist and the other half as a gardener. She lives
with her partner o f seven years in a Northeast
Portland house, where she will soon move her
studio. To Woody, art is part of everyday life for
everyday people.
“O ne of my idealist things is that I feel like
art should be accessible. I don’t feel like it’s a
luxury. I think our society treats it like a luxury,
but I think its pretty essential.” J H
Portland, OS
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Ruppcrt Blaize
and the Swingline Cubs
Danceable Concert
Friday Nov. 22 8pm
at First Unitarian Church
Sway to the Caribbean
influenced sounds of Ruppcrt
Biaize and the Swingline Cubs
Tickets available through Fastixx
5 0 3 -2 2 4 -T IX X
$ 1 0 * service charge
$ 12 at the door
Doors open at 7 :15pm
Dessert to follow the concert
The concert will benefit
the Unitarian church choir
tour to Cuba
First Unitarian Church
Portland
1211 SW Mam Street, Portland O R
r