A longtime staple in the
local art scene, painter
Ellen Gabehart still
challenges, and delights,
with her work
GABEHART REVIEWS HER
WORK IN HER STUDIO
PHOTO: TRASK BEDORTHA
BY KELSEY ANNE RANKIN
E
ugene painter Ellen Gabehart’s home
is far from a Martha Stewart-esque
suburban rambler stocked with Ikea
purchases. Gabehart has art covering
every inch of her cozy space, furniture
included. She reminds me to check the
art in the bathroom before we sit down
in her studio.
Gabehart strikes me as the epitome of a Eugene artist
with a history of activist work, community building and a
mix of both trippy and political art pieces.
“Realism with impressionism,” she says of her style.
“I’m not photographic, but you’ll recognize my works.”
Gabehart’s workspace is a white-walled nook with
loads of old sketchbooks stacked in the corners. When
asked about her journey as an artist, or how she knew she
was destined to be creative, she replies with a soft, “Oh, I
just don’t think about that.”
Gabehart is an artist who simply creates — who shares
her creations and doesn’t question the pursuit itself.
A New Yorker who relocated to Eugene in her late 30s
after spending time in California, Gabehart has made
the Northwest her home now for some 45 years. She
had children and hit other life milestones, but she never
stopped making or sharing her art.
“When I was a little girl, I went to the School of Music
and Art in New York,” she laughs, “but my parents wanted
me to be a secretary.” She flunked every typing class.
Gabehart has the whole “give back to the community”
attitude down pat. She started teaching art in Eugene at
Maude Kerns Art Center and now teaches at Willamalane
Adult Activity Center in Springfield — a few of her
students have even become professional artists around the
country.
Cool, you might tell yourself, another story about the
life of an artist, right? That kind of attitude is exactly the
point: We aren’t caring about our artists, Eugene.
“They don’t idolize artists,” Gabehart says of the city’s
art scene over the past few decades. “They’re not really
giving to the artists.”
Gabehart mentions that The New Zone Gallery, which
is hosting some of her art, is closing downtown and moving
to a different location come August. Longtime local artists
who set up the downtown Second Friday Art Walk in
Springfield (of which Gabehart has been a consistent
member) receive minimal funding from the Springfield
Arts Committee, and have been actively looking for
sponsors to keep the event afloat.
“It’s awful,” Gabehart says. “[People] have worked so
hard to bring a lot more art into the community.”
The hiccups in Eugene’s art scene don’t stop Gabehart.
The work she produces continues to focus on the
community, reflecting issues of homelessness and corrupt
medical resources while also depicting in portraits the
familiar faces of local musicians around town.
Gabehart’s most recent piece on gun violence resonates
on an immediate level. “I cried while I painted this,” she
says as she pulls out the canvas, larger than herself. “I
woke up one night after reading so much in the paper about
this one and that one getting killed for no reason at all.”
She adds: “It came to me that I had to do this.”
“When Will It End?” is the gun violence piece Gabehart
created; she says the name was suggested by a commentator
on Facebook who had lost her own son to what Gabehart
recalls as senseless violence. The painting is on display at
New Zone through the end of July.
The piece shows an array of communities affected by
the increasingly commonplace tragedy of mass shootings.
People of varying creeds and colors lay dead in the face of
guns, which jut onto the canvas from multiple angles.
Gabehart sent a photo of the piece and a letter to President
Barack Obama, and to Democratic presidential nominee
Hillary Clinton, as well as to other politicians, writing:
“So many innocent people dying by someone shooting
them with a gun or rifle. Must these horrible events continue
to plague our nation?”
She says her letter “was a prediction” in light of the June
12 mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, a foretelling
“that these things will keep happening and happening.”
She called upon the politicians to eliminate the frequent
tragedies, but says she received no response.
Gabehart is teaching plein air classes this summer (all
mediums welcome; July 11-14, through the Willamalane
Adult Activity Center, $86-$103) and she also teaches at
Cascade Park twice a month to the residents. Her next show
is coming up in November at Washburne Café.
It’s pretty evident she’s not giving up on the local art
scene any time soon, which got me thinking: Is Eugene
caring about its artists as much as its artists care about
Eugene?
'I cried while I painted this. I woke up one night
after reading so much in the paper about this one
and that one getting killed for no reason at all.'
eugeneweekly.com • June 16, 2016
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