OCTOBER 6, 2016 // 5
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teasing apart something
that doesn’t come easily.”
His view of his envi-
ronment may have been
kindled by his parents
and Cannon Beach resi-
dents, Bonny and Richard
Gorsuch. Bonny is a fabric
artist and Richard is a
painter — he once painted
images of Haystack Rock
every day for a year.
“They didn’t try to
force me to be an artist;
they encouraged me. Be-
ing around working artists
forces you to look at the
world differently,” Gor-
such said. “It was a great
upbringing.”
He attended Cannon
Beach Elementary School
and, later, Clatsop Commu-
nity College. He was one
of the last students to study
under the late painter and
printmaker Royal Nebeker,
who Gorsuch called “an
amazing artist.”
After receiving the
honor of “Student of the
Year” in the college’s art
department and graduating
in 2013, Gorsuch went on
to Oregon State Universi-
ty, where he studied with
Japanese printmaker Yuji
Hiratsuka and became his
teaching assistant.
Gorsuch graduated
summa cum laude with a
fine arts degree from OSU
last year.
He works at Gamblin
Artists Colors in Portland,
which manufactures the
inks he has worked with
for years. Gorsuch had
always been curious about
how the inks were made.
His job, he said, “is like
scratching my own itch.”
The exhibit at the
Cannon Beach History
Center & Museum is one
of several exhibits he has
had locally and in Astoria,
Portland, Corvallis and
Bend.
“I remember going on a
field trip there when I was
in Cannon Beach Elemen-
tary School,” he said. “It’s
a venue dear to my heart.”
Elaine Murdy-Trucke,
the history center’s execu-
tive director, said she met
Gorsuch when he began
displaying his art at the
Cannon Beach Gallery. His
work, she added is a “great
fit for the museum.”
“I know that he comes
from a family of artists,
but Stirling clearly has his
own voice and vision,”
Murdy-Trucke said.
“As an avid hiker and
lover of Oregon’s natural
world, his work speaks to
me. It reminds me of all of
the trails I’ve walked, all
the trails I’ve yet to walk.
It reminds me of all of our
beautiful places, the for-
ests, our beaches; it truly is
Oregon. The Oregon that I
love,” she added.
‘OREGON VISIONS’ RECEPTION
Stirling Gorsuch’s exhibit, “Oregon Visions” at the
Oregon History Center & Museum begins with a
reception for the artist at 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8. The
exhibit will be on display through November.
In addition to Gorsuch, more local artists will be
invited to exhibit at the center in the future, said the
center’s executive director, Elaine Murdy-Trucke.
“I want visitors to the museum to learn the history
of our town and hopefully get to know some of the
artists that live here,” Murdy-Trucke said.
The museum, 1387 S. Spruce St., is open from 1 to 5
p.m. Wednesday through Monday and is donation
based. For more information, call 503-436-9301 or
visit the Cannon Beach History Center’s website.
How are the liberal arts important to STEM?
CCC president
to deliver irst Ales
& Ideas lecture
ASTORIA — Clatsop Com-
munity College and Fort
George Brewery announce
the kickoff event in the
2016-17 Ales & Ideas com-
munity lecture series. On
Thursday, Oct. 6, CCC’s
new president, Chris Breit-
meyer, will present the talk
“STEAM Rising: Why A
Science Guy is Not Worried
About His Daughter Major-
ing in Poetry.”
Doors open with food and
beverage service at 6 p.m.,
and the lecture will begin at 7
p.m. The Fort George Lovell
Showroom is located at 14th
and Duane streets. Minors
are welcome.
CCC’s new President
will discuss the importance
of a liberal arts education
to those pursuing degrees
in science, technology,
engineering and math. The
acronym “STEAM” takes the
standard STEM formulation
(science, technology, engi-
neering and math) and adds
an A for arts.
Nationwide, colleges and
universities are re-embracing
the value of the liberal arts
education, not only for its own
sake, but because they recog-
nize the ways in which the cur-
riculum supports the creative
thinking and design skills that
allow students to apply STEM
skills in the workplace.
Breitmeyer’s talk will dis-
cuss the similarities between
the scientiic method and the
creative process. Although
the swing of the educational
pendulum is currently on the
side of skill acquisition and
“hard” sciences and career
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Chris Breitmeyer is the pres-
ident of Clatsop Community
College.
focus, Breitmeyer’s an advo-
cate for the value of “soft”
subjects. As a passionate ad-
vocate for the truth science
seeks, he also believes those
who experience a liberal arts
education are best prepared
to discover the truth about
our world.
Breitmeyer assumed his
role as president of Clatsop
Community College in July.
Prior to moving to Astoria,
he served at Saint Charles
Community College in St.
Louis, Missouri, irst as dean
of math, science and health
and then as the vice president
for academic and student
affairs. He started his ca-
reer in education as a high
school science teacher in
Bloomington, Illinois and
then completed a master’s
degree program in zoology at
Arizona State University,
completing Ph.D. research
in ecological genetics before
accepting a position on the
biology faculty at Yavapai
Community College in
Clarksdale, Arizona. He will
defend his dissertation for
the Educational Leadership
Doctoral Program at the
University of Nebraska this
November.
Cannon Beach Library starts up NW Author Series
CANNON BEACH — The Can-
non Beach Library will kick
off its 2016-17 Northwest
Author Series by hosting
Portland author Jack Estes.
He will speak at 2 p.m. Sat-
urday, Oct. 8 at the library,
located at 131 N. Hemlock
St. The event is free and
open to the public.
Estes is a U.S. Marine
Corps veteran who served in
Vietnam in l968 and 1969,
the bloodiest years of the long
war. His newest book, “A
Soldier’s Son,” presents the
effect of war on families both
in the moment and decades
later. His characters are rich
and complex; battle scenes are
vividly drawn. A novel set in
the past and the future, it tells
of fathers and sons, war and
redemption, and the devas-
tating impact of large-scale
violence on both the perpetra-
tors and the victims.
“A Soldier’s Son”
follows Estes’ critically
acclaimed memoir “Field of
Innocence,” which recounts
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Author Jack Estes will talk
about his books Oct. 8 at the
Cannon Beach Library.
his experiences as an 18 year
old who signs up to ight in
a war he couldn’t even ind
on a map. He was a kid,
married, broke, lunking out
of college and about to be-
come a father. The Marines
seemed like a good alter-
native — he igured Nam
couldn’t be any worse than
home. He was wrong. The
memoir tells how a young-
ster from Oregon matured in
the crucible of combat.
The Northwest Authors
Series is a free series offered
by the Cannon Beach Li-
brary on the second Sat-
urday of each month from
October to May (excepting
December). This year’s
series will include:
• Nov. 12: Carolyn
Wood, author of the memoir
“Tough Girl: An Olympi-
an’s Journey,” will speak
about how she won a gold
medal at the Rome summer
Olympics when she was a
high school freshman, her
teaching career encourag-
ing others to write, and of
her other journey, in Spain,
to reclaim the 14-year-old
tough girl of her youth.
• Jan. 14: World famous
fantasy writer and Cannon
Beach’s own Terry Brooks
will speak about “The
Shannara Chronicles” — the
books and the TV show.
• Feb. 11: Barbara Drake,
author of “Morning Light,”
will talk about life in west-
ern Oregon’s Yamhill Valley
and lessons learned from her
long stint of country living.
• March 11: Ellen Urbani
is the author of “Landfall,”
a nuanced interpretation of
events around Hurricane
Katrina. Urbani has also
written “When I was Elena,”
documentiang her life in
Guatemala during that coun-
try’s civil war.
• April 8: Portland mys-
tery writer Warren Easley
will speak about his books.
He is the author of the Cal
Claxton Mysteries: “Matter
of Doubt,” “Dead Float” and
his newest, “Never Look
Down.”
• May 13: Mindy Hard-
wick, author of “Sweetheart
Wedding,” focuses on teen
and tween books but also
writes sweet contemporary
romances. Hardwick also
facilitates poetry workshops
for teens at the Denny Youth
Juvenile Justice Center and
is the co-author of four an-
thologies of their writing.
