FRIDAYEXTRA !
The Daily Astorian
Friday, May 20, 2016
Weekend Edition
Lyra Fontaine/The Daily Astorian
“At Play in Cannon Beach” is a 54-foot-long painting located
in an archway adjacent to White Bird Gallery.
CAPTURING
CANNON BEACH
Meet the artist behind
a new public painting
A variety of faces
By LYRA FONTAINE
The Daily Astorian
ANNON BEACH — Joining Cannon
Beach’s public art displays is a 54-foot-
long panel painting that combines the
city’s familiar scenery and well-loved
places with colorful details and imagi-
native creatures.
The painting by Rumi Tsuda, “At Play in Cannon
Beach,” was permanently installed in April in a new
cedar pergola adjacent to White Bird Gallery.
The artwork, which serves as an entrance to Garret
Sea Building businesses, depicts a world both whim-
sical and recognizable.
There are glimpses of everyday life, such as peo-
ple playing and surfi ng on the beach, birds on Hay-
stack Rock, live music enjoyed at a bar, bonfi res, gal-
leries and shops like Bruce’s Candy Kitchen.
Meanwhile, chickens play in a band, a cat-
fi sh smokes and a Dr. Seuss-like creature makes an
appearance at the Fourth of July parade.
Tsuda painted animals both real — elk, horses,
rabbits, salmon, puffi ns, eagles, seagulls, intertidal
creatures — and imagined.
“Some of it is my imagination,” she said.
C
Studied nature
Tsuda, a professional artist since the 1980s, also
studied nature, learned about different types of fi sh
and “watched the waves and the color of the ocean.”
She added Native American elements to the paint-
ing, including the canoe at the Cannon Beach Ele-
mentary school site.
Every day for two months, Tsuda walked on the
beach to her small studio downtown in the bike shop.
She worked for nine to 10 hours a day, with food
and wine breaks . Before painting, she made sketches
using a calligraphy technique.
Lyra Fontaine/The Daily Astorian
Artist Rumi Tsuda, who painted “At Play in Can-
non Beach,” at her family’s Cannon Beach home
with another piece of art she created.
Many faces in the painting are people Tsuda
observed and sketched in Portland and Cannon
Beach, at places like Bill’s Tavern. She also painted
her 14-year-old son Maurice holding a fi sh.
Lyra Fontaine/The Daily Astorian
Haystack Rock is one of the inspirations.
Tsuda lives with her artist husband Daniel Georges,
whose family owns White Bird Gallery, in Brooklyn,
New York. She works in her Williamsburg studio and
enjoys sketching the variety of faces she sees.
Tsuda was born in Wakayama, a small coastal city
in Japan. She moved to California in the 1970s to
study fashion design, then went on to earn her bach-
elor’s and master’s in fi ne arts from the School of
Visual Arts in New York City. She visits Japan and
Cannon Beach several times a year.
Tsuda works in a variety of mediums, including
ceramics, sculpture and fashion design.
For a 2007 art project, she painted Barbie dolls
white and put Japanese clothing on them, combining
her American and Japanese identities.
Tsuda and Georges organized 250 participants
from around the world for a 2008 passport art project,
“Your Document Please,” that went to Hungary, Ger-
many, Slovakia, Mexico and Japan.
During college, Tsuda started using public perfor-
mances as an outlet for frustrations with working at
a Japanese restaurant and overcoming the language
barrier she experienced.
“I could express myself,” she said. “Lots of my
performances focus on women.”
Her hourlong performances would involve wear-
ing colors that represented emotions, yelling and
breaking items like mirrors. “I’m like a resting vol-
cano,” she joked.
‘A resting volcano’
She has also created a dress using New York Times
newspapers for a recycled fashion show.
Tsuda, who currently has a group show in Mexico,
recently unveiled new work at White Bird Gallery
and participated in Cannon Beach Gallery’s “Com-
pendium of Beasts” show.
Lyra Fontaine/The Daily Astorian
One of several panels depicts a beach scene.