10
community
february14
2012
Vernonia Artist’s Work on Display at Columbia County
Courthouse
Local Vernonia artist Nathan Bower currently
has several painting on display at the Columbia County
Courthouse Gallery in St. Helens.
Bower is a self-taught painter who recently
moved to Vernonia with wife and three children.
Originally from Happy Valley, Bower grew
up surrounded by farms and rolling countryside. “I
started painting in 1994 after watching a show on OPB
about a former fry cook that was an amazing and once
unknown painter,” says Bower. “ My first painting
was a tribal warrior, some friends came over and told
me, ‘you could easily sell that.’ I’ve been painting ever
Nathan Bower at work on one of his paintings.
since.”
Bower says he enjoys creating colorful
and uplifting pieces that can dazzle the eye and
give people a deeper appreciation for the beauty
around them.
“Rather than trying to label my paint-
ing with a style I would encourage people to
instead look,” says Bower. “ A signature of
mine is I do use a lot of color and distort facial
features. What I try to achieve when I paint is
fluid color placement, humor, and some distor-
tion to entertain the eye.
Apparently Bower’s work struck a
chord while on display at the Courthouse Gal-
lery—he sold two painting on the first day.
“I would also recommend that parents
encourage their children who have an interest
in art,” says Bower. “It may never blos-
som into a career for the child, but it could
help them find their place in this world.”
You can see more of Bower’s work at
his website at www.bowerart.com. And of
course you can some of his work at the
Columbia County Courthouse Gallery.
Bower’s work is also currently on dis-
play at JCafe in NE Portland, and he is
excited to announce his work will be part
of a show called Activate, on February
16th in Portland. The show is sponsored
by RAWartists.org, a nationwide organi-
zation that promotes up and coming art-
ists.
Playing Games and Getting Paid
Jordan Harrison took a chance and it’s paying off
Jordan Harrison, a Vernonia na-
tive, may have found the perfect job.
Harrison currently works for
Warner Brothers Entertainment as a
video game tester, which means he gets
to play video games all day before they
are released to the public and try to find
ways to “break” them. In fact Harrison
was so good at this job that he now su-
pervises a team of testers.
Harrison has worked on several
games that you, or more likely your kids,
will have heard of—games like Mass Ef-
fect, F.E.A.R 2, Scribblenauts, and the
newest Mortal Kombat.
Most recently Harrison has been
working on Batman Arkham City. In
fact, Harrison had the privilege last sum-
mer of demonstrating Batman Arkham
City at E3 (Electronic Entertainment
Expo), the annual video game confer-
ence and show held at the Los Angeles
Convention Center.
Harrison, aged twenty-five, at-
tended Vernonia High School and re-
ceived his GED through Portland Com-
munity College. He got his start in the
gaming industry
through a tip from
a long time Verno-
nia friend, Charles
DuPont, who was
working in the
Seattle area. Har-
rison packed his
bags and headed
for what is turning
out to be his “big
break.”
H a r r i s o n
originally
inter-
viewed and worked
under a contract
with
Microsoft
Game Studios, living with DuPont while
he got on his feet.
He moved from Microsoft Game
Studios to Microsoft Zune, (an MP3
Phone (503) 429.2617
Kitchen Countertops
Fax (503) 429.0941
Fireplace & Furniture
ABSOLUTE@AGALIS.NET
Tubs & Vanities
www.absolutemarbleandgraniteinc.net
player) still working as a tester. “People
think I just get to play video games all
day—well actually, I break games all
day,” says Harri-
son. “I have to find
things that are bro-
ken in the software
and then I write a
report that tells the
developers where
to find the problem
and how to make
it break. And then
they fix it, send the
report back and I
have to check to
see if the problem
is fixed.”
When his con-
tract with Zune
ended Harrison accepted a contract with
Warner Brothers. When that contract
ended, Harrison was hired to work full-
time at WB, where he now supervises a
team of game testers. “Now I create test
plans and delegate the work to my team
and make sure they are doing the testing
correctly,”says Harrison. “If you don’t
do it right you don’t find the big bugs
and the things that break.”
Harrison says that after a game
has been released his job still isn’t fin-
ished. “I have to keep checking the fo-
rums to make sure players aren’t find-
ing bugs, because we can do patches to
fix problems that are uncovered,” says
Harrison. “And there is downloadable
content like new skins and new lev-
els—things people can download after
they’ve beaten the game and they want
more.”
Harrison thinks his success in
the video game industry sends a mes-
sage to kids in Vernonia. “There are op-
portunities outside of Vernonia--some-
times you just have to be willing to take
a chance.”
