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
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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