8 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Enter the cook-of, Astoria artist Linden brings ‘The Tao of
or just taste the chili An: A Journey to Peace’ to Imogen Gallery
OYSTERVILLE, Wash. — The
eighth annual Surfside Chili
Cook-Off, Crafts Fair and
Bake Sale is set for 11 a.m.
Saturday, Oct. 8 at the Oys-
terville Schoolhouse, located
at 3322 School Road.
This event runs rain or
shine and includes live mu-
sic, crafts and goodies. The
bake sale and crafts items
will be available from 11
a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
If you have a great
recipe, or just want to come,
taste and vote for your fa-
vorite chili, entry is free.
Chili entries will be ac-
cepted from 11 a.m. to noon,
and the tasting and judging
will take place from 12:15 to
1:30 p.m.
Winners of the chili
cook-off will be announced
at 2 p.m., and there are
prizes for irst, second and
third place.
There is a $5 fee per
table for craft vendors by
reservation only; space is
limited. Contact the Surfside
Homeowners Association at
360-665-4171 for informa-
tion and to register.
Any event proceeds for
the Food4Kids Backpack
Program. This event is
sponsored by the Surfside
Community Relations Com-
mittee.
s
t
n
e
E v
Oct. 14 * 8 pm
Jesse Lee
Falls
Band
Port Call Bistro Bar
of
OCT. 15 * 7 pm
K LEVERKILL
Astoria Event Center
&
Free
@ ALL
OF C R
P ORT TRO & B A
IS
B
Funk/Punk/Rock
Music samples on
reverbnation.com
Tickets $ 8
october
o
c t o b e r 8 * 8 pm
E Enter
nte
n the silent
a auction
u uct for this
33
33-year old
d drawing!
D
Doors
Open at 7 PM
$ 5
SUGGESTED
SU
DONATION
DO
& Bar
894 Commercial Street
503*325*4356
ASTORIA — Known for
her evocative abstraction,
native-born Astoria artist
Linden brings a new col-
lection of paintings cele-
brating the life of her close
friend and artistic mentor,
An Marie, a longtime
resident of Astoria. Along
with her own paintings,
Linden is sharing the work
of An Marie, who was a
gifted artist, quietly creat-
ing but seldom sharing her
renderings of the human
form. This will be the first
and only time the work
of these two women will
be exhibited together. Pro-
ceeds from sales of An
Marie’s work will go to As-
toria Visual Arts, a local
nonprofit group supporting
visual arts of which An
was a founding member in
1989.
The exhibition opens
during Astoria’s Second
Saturday Art Walk from 5
to 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8
and will remain on display
through Nov. 8. Linden
will be present and avail-
able to talk about her work,
and all are invited to join
in this tribute of friendship
shared through creativity.
For many artists,
months, even years can go
into preparing for a single
exhibition. Most give care-
ful thought to what they
want to convey through a
body of work, whether it’s
technical ability to capture
light and form, mastering
the beauty of landscape, or
a message about humanity.
For Linden, her focus for
this series took a sharp turn
at the death of her longtime
friend An Marie. As anyone
who has lost someone close
knows, there is a process
of coming to terms with
something so definite.
For Linden, who is an
intuitive painter, the loss
had a profound impact on
her creative process. She
SUBMITTED PHOTO
“Reclining Male” by An Marie at Imogen Gallery.
eventually realized the only
way to move forward was
to incorporate her struggle
of loss through painting.
This series of work is a
celebration of life as well
as a physical manifestation
of transition and stages of
grief.
Linden usually conveys
thought and idea through
abstraction, allowing her
the freedom to thoroughly
explore the visual language
by reducing known forms
to suggestion of content.
For this series she incorpo-
rates memory and meta-
phor to provide a window
of who An was. About
An and her work, Linden
states, “An’s art was rarely
seen by the public. I was
amazed at the quality and
quantity of the drawings
she had saved in the flat
files I inherited at her pass-
ing — this body of work,
just her drawings, took me
three days to go through
and reintroduced me to her
vast talent as an artist. The
work chosen to share with
you here is what I consider
to be an inclusive retro-
spective of her evolving
style over the years.”
About her own body of
work, Linden says: “The
death of my close friend
and artistic mentor, An
Marie, focused the ener-
SUBMITTED PHOTO
“Dancer” by An Marie at Imo-
gen Gallery.
gy of the paintings in this
collection on the journey of
an artist in transition. My
profound sense of loss is re-
lected in these works, both
in grief and in the memory
of the Tao of friendship.”
Within this series is the
reflection of an individual’s
life and travels, spiritual
beliefs and interests that
were cultivated over a life
time. With a marked path
of process, intentional by
the artist, there is clear
and poignant evidence of
evolution from dark to
light. This is a loving and
personal tribute of passing
and/or transition: “The Tao
of An: A Journey to Peace.”
Beginning her studies at
Clatsop Community Col-
lege, Linden sites instruc-
tors the late Royal Nebeker
and Roy Garrison as
instrumental in her devel-
opment as a fine artist. She
continued her studies at
Pacific Northwest College
of Art where she earned
a Bachelor of Fine Arts,
focusing both on painting
and sculpture. Relocating
to the Bay Area in the late
’90s, Linden continued her
career while also teaching.
In Benicia, California she
founded a school dedicated
to the education of all fine
art practices for all ages.
Linden opened the school
under the premise that “the
innate creativity that we
have as children isn’t ever
really lost. It just needs to
be fed so it can blossom.”
The Linden Tree is still in
operation today with the
same mission.
She has exhibited
throughout the Northwest
as well as further locales,
including Chicago. She
began her local exhibition
career at the former Ric-
ciardi Art Gallery in 1996.
Some of her accomplish-
ments include a Juror’s
Award for sculpture created
for the 2003 Journey’s End
International Art Exhibi-
tion held at Clatsop County
Heritage Museum. Her
work has also been juried
into the “Around Oregon”
annual exhibition, in both
2014 and 2015, held at
the Art Center in Corval-
lis. She is also proud to
have her work included in
the permanent collection
of Clatsop Community
College, Pacific Northwest
College of Art and the
Astoria Public Library.
Imogen Gallery is locat-
ed at 240 11th St. For more
information, call 503-468-
0620 or visit www.imogen
gallery.com