Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 2009)
8 schools august 2009 VERNONIANS: Pass the Bond, Not the Buck! Every month from June thru November you will see an article on the school bond issue produced by the Vernonia School Bond Committee—a group of your neighbors and friends working to make sure you have all the information you need to vote YES in November – YES for our children and grandchildren and YES for the future and prosperity of our entire community. This month our interview is with our very own Ax Man, Mike Pihl Question: Why is a new school campus important to you personally? Answer: I have young kids and grandkids that will go to the new school and even if I did not, I would support the bond because it makes a solid community. Question: As a business owner, how do you think new schools will impact Vernonia? Answer: When we have the new school built, it will keep responsible family people in Vernonia which make for good employees for our businesses. Question: As a resident and taxpayer who will help pay the school bond bill, do you think it is necessary to build a super energy efficient, “green” building? Answer: Energy efficient only makes dollar sense. What I know about the “green” building is that it is the wave of the future. So to answer your question, YES! Question: As a property owner, a school bond will increase your annual taxes by about $1.90 Question: What do you think will happen to per thousand of assessed value. In a weak Vernonia if this bond does not pass? economy, why are you in support of higher Answer: I believe many parents of school taxes? age children will leave the district because Answer: My answer to this question is my they believe that their children deserve to be slogan “NO SCHOOL/NO VERNONIA” educated in a safe building that the children it’s that simple! can be proud of. It is a subject that has been brought up at my house and I love Vernonia so PLEASE VOTE YES! What Led Dave Anderson to Create To Break A Buttefly? By Brandy Fosdick and that sort of art. His main studies were graphic design and he took classes At the end of July, I had the in things like typography and design pleasure of interviewing Dave Anderson. layout. We all know Dave as the creator of Out of school, he got to Portland the moving Holocaust art exhibit he with about five dollars in his pocket calls To Break and started looking a Butterfly. But for work. In the what motivated meantime, he took Dave to create night classes in art. this wonderful And that’s when exhibit? That’s he caught his big the story I had break and got into him tell me as we advertising, where sat down at The he stayed for more Black Bear and than twenty years. drank our coffee. He started out in It turns grocery stores out Anderson and then went to actually started Payless drug stores off in music at and became their ad around two and manager. After that, even had his own he went to work for band, The Suedes, Fred Meyer and by the time he eventually became was fifteen, in their creative which he played director. He worked An example of Dave Anderson’s art from the drums. Out his exhibit To Break A Butterfly. in TV, radio and of school, he print while with traveled all over playing in his band. He Fred Meyer, before he got an offer to do even played in Las Vegas. But he started a really big job for TG&Y in Oklahoma. to realize that music just wasn’t really Unfortunately, just when the company where his heart was and decided to give started doing well they shut down, so he college a try. called his old boss and got his job at Fred He thought about studying Meyer back. music, but then decided he liked art Soon after that, he decided that better. In his second year, he had to he wanted to go out on his own. He and a start specializing and decided to go partner opened up their own design firm, into commercial art, rather than fine art, Anderson McConaughy, and it’s still which involves painting and sculpture running today. That was about the same Birkenfeld Store and Café NEWLY REMODELED BACK YARD DECK udl y Pr o s e n t s Pre Live Music every First Friday starting at 7:00 PM Featuring “Lock, Stock & Barrel” Good, Southern, Country Music Also serving dinner Grocery & Liquor Store: Mon. - Sat. 8am - 6pm Sun. 9am - 5pm Café open daily 9am - 4pm 11139 Highway 202 (503) 755-2722 time he took more night art classes, this time on papermaking and that’s when he started making books. Making the books is how he got into the Holocaust art. He made a series of books for a family that later donated them to Pacific University. When they were appraised at the beginning of 2000, an art dealer from New York called him and asked if he was still doing any Holocaust art. Dave told him no, that there wasn’t much of a market for something like that in Portland. The say it is amazing. He takes old cabinets and pieces of metal and paper and any other old piece of junk he can find and puts it together. He then uses pen and ink to draw images and quotes from the Holocaust. He has an innate ability to make pieces of art that just draw pure raw emotion from the people who view it. He has two personal favorites, one being a violin set inside a sort of frame made from old, old metal. The other is a flat pen and ink drawing. It has woman and children lined up along a wall and has a big, circular quote on it. Most of his pieces have a kind of antique and rustic look to them. The paper in them is frayed and yellow and the colors he uses tend to circle around browns, maroons, and navy blues. When he first got into college he was told that he was on his way to Dave Anderson’s exhibit To Break A Butterfly is a tribute developing his own to children of the Holocaust. style. He told me that at the time he dealer offered to help him get his work didn’t have a clue what that was, but into New York, but that didn’t pan out. now that’s the only way his work turns He was, however, encouraged to keep out. Well, I would have to agree. If doing the Holocaust pieces, which were there’s anything Dave Anderson has, it’s shown at the Learning Center last month. definitely style. If you’ve never seen any of his work, then please believe me when I