Eugene weekly., May 31, 2012, Page 12, Image 12

JENNA JOHNSON, 2006, ACRYLIC
Tough
by Nature
E U G E N E A R T I S T LY N D A L A N K E R P O R T R AY S
THE WOMEN OF THE WEST
by Camilla Mortensen
“I
try not to paint eyelashes, unless they are really important,” says artist
Lynda Lanker, whose portraits of women of the West are as intimate and
forthright as the flesh-and-blood women they depict. Though some of
Lanker’s work is so detailed that for a moment the portraits appear to be
photographs, even her more abstract pieces capture a sense, a feeling, of
these generations of ranch women and cowgirls.
“Tough by Nature” represents almost 20 years’ worth of painting,
sketching and interviewing 49 women in 13 western states. It captures not just a moment in time,
but also a spirit. The exhibit, which is accompanied by a book featuring the portraits and
interviews with the women, presents Lanker’s work in pencil and charcoal, oil pastel, egg
tempera, plate and stone lithography, engraving and drypoint. “Tough by Nature” opens at the
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (JSMA) at the University of Oregon on July 1.
“Tough by Nature: Portraits of Cowgirls and Ranch Women”
goes on display at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art from July 1 to September 9, 2012
F R E E O P E N I N G R E C E P T I O N , 6 P M S AT U R D AY, J U N E 3 0 .
12 MAY 31, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
Lanker explains what she means when she says her work
seeks to evoke the feeling of these women and their lives:
“They can have their head turned just so you can see the tip
of their nose and the edge of their face, but you can evoke
that person.”
She asks, “Have you ever had a dream where on the
outside someone looks like your neighbor, but you think
‘Oh no, that’s my sister’?” You sense who that person is.
Lanker has a long history of creating portraits and
evoking a sense of the people in them. In the course of her
career she has painted five commissioned portraits of UO
presidents — all male, all dressed formally.
In contrast, the women of “Tough by Nature” are for the
most part in their everyday ranch wear. “Most of us aren’t
at our most authentic, dressed up for the camera,” she says.
“That’s a mask.” Though, Lanker muses, perhaps those UO
presidents, who spent so much of their time in suit and tie,
felt most themselves when dressed that way.
Unlike many of her portraits, the artwork of “Tough by
Nature” wasn’t commissioned, which gave Lanker more
freedom. And as for the women: “They didn’t have a façade,
which made them so delightful to work with,” Lanker says.
“They were just who they were, right from the beginning.”
In his introduction to the exhibit’s book, also titled
Tough by Nature, James McMurtry, author of novels of the
American West such as Lonesome Dove, writes: “… you
can tell a ranch woman by the wrinkles — shallow at first
but deepening into arroyos, gullies, little canyons as the
wind and sun work on them. And it’s not just their cheeks
that are tanned: the depths of the wrinkles are tanned too.”
Lanker uses the tiniest of paintbrushes, a 00000 (five
aught), for her detailed, intimate egg tempera works such as
the rug that hangs behind Elladean Hayes Bittner of the
“Quien Sabe” Outfit ranch. And Bittner, who died in 2008
in her late 80s, bears those classic wrinkles proudly as she
stands holding a lasso and wearing a belt buckle that reads
“BOSS.”
That painting took Lanker two years to complete. “I’m
kind of an obsessive painter, you might say,” she laughs.
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM