hoodrivernews.com
Wednesday, March 18, 2020 B1
HOOD RIVER NEWS | Hood River, Ore.
‘Blue Miles Running Down’
Exquisite Gorge
STRETCHING across three walls and, like the river itself, bending in places, the mural fills the CCA gallery. Below, Jane Pagliarulo and (at right) Sorcha Meek, make final cuts before steamroller printing
day on Aug. 24. Also below, Pagliarulo’s native fisher, in 13-Mile Point to Rowena panel, meets Molly Gaston Johnson’s swirling section, which uses Columbia High students’ words in close-up, right.
By KIRBY NEUMANN-REA
NEWS EDITOR
The Exquisite Gorge Project,
designed to connect artists
and communities via a single
66-foot steamrolled print, is
now in Hood River. Columbia
Center for the Arts (CCA) is
displaying the work, created in
July and August 2019.
There’s an irony in the fact
that curators placed the work
in view of the gallery’s large
windows on Cascade Avenue.
The irony is that it is now
the only way to see Exquisite
Gorge: Though those windows.
CCA is closed until further
notice due to COVID-19 re-
strictions on public gatherings.
Hood River News presents
photos of the project on this
page and B10, as a virtual visit
to Exquisite Gorge, which is on
loan from Maryhill Museum in
Washington state.
Artists worked with commu-
nity groups along the river, in-
cluding Columbia High School
students who first met with
Portland artist Jane Pagliarulo
in May.
“The kids (had) grown up
on the river and they have ex-
cellent ideas about what it was
that formed their experiences
on the river, so that for me was
the journey, going up to White
Salmon totally blind and not
knowing what I was going to
come up with, and it evolved,
from the images the kids and
Kelsey (Lemon) created,” said
Pagliarulo, a former Hood
River artist who reconnected
with Lemon, a former col-
league now teaching at White
Salmon.
In the case of The Exquisite
Gorge Project, the river be-
came the “body” that unifies
the collaboration between art-
ists and communities, reveal-
ing a flowing work that tells
10 conceptual stories of the
Columbia River and its people,
according to Maryhill Curator
of Education Louise Palermo.
Artists worked with com-
munity members from their
assigned stretch of river and
carve images on 4-by-6 foot
wood panels. Each completed
panel was connected end-to-
end and printed using a steam-
roller, on Aug. 24 in the east
parking lot of Maryhill.
Partners involved are: Ma-
ryhill Museum of Art, Lewis
& Clark College, Arts in Ed-
ucation of the Gorge, The
Dalles-Wasco County Library,
The Gorge Veterans Museum,
The Dalles Art Center, Gold-
endale-Fort Vancouver Library
System, Whitman College, and
White Salmon Arts Council.
“The Columbia River weaves
lives together in the most
amazing ways,” Palermo said.
“The Exquisite Gorge Project
brings communities together
with artists to share their expe-
rience of home in the form of
a woodblock print, metaphor-
ically as big as the river itself.”
At a March 7 presentation
at CCA, Palermo recognized
Maryhill executive director
Colleen Schafroth for her sup-
port, and the creative guidance
of Artistic Director Dylan Mc-
Manus.
Story Gorge of Hood River
screened four-minute docu-
mentary on the project, and
Palermo and McManus spoke,
along with several of the artists.
McManus said, “It was an
absolutely amazing experience
that took about nine months,
and hopefully it will be a legacy
of the Gorge, I can see these
events in the future. Artists all
over the world are asking us to
do it again.
“My goal is to have a print
exhibition in the Gorge every
two years. We’ll be focused on
print-making in Gorge for the
foreseeable future.”
Palermo added, “Be ready
for Exquisite Gorge project,
part two, fiber. More about that
in the future.”
McManus said the idea
started when someone asked,
“Steamroller print — can you
do it?’”
He said, “That was pretty
much the extent of the plan-
ning and we sat down and
started figuring it out. I am re-
ally happy Maryhill was willing
to take a huge risk, on people
coming from around the coun-
try with very little idea of how
it would happen. Often times
people aren’t willing to take
these kind of risks. There were
times it felt like it wasn’t going
to work, there were so many
factors.
“It would not have hap-
pened if there weren’t so many
people every step of the way
willing to give their advice and
feedback, their thoughts, their
criticism, insight, knowledge,
their expertise, and it was
always, ‘What if we do it this
way? Can that make it work
more efficiently?’ and by that
willingness to see what would
happen, it turned into what’s
on the wall now.”
Exquisite Gorge part one
participating artists, selected
through a national call for art-
ists, and respective sections of
the Columbia River, and part-
ners, are as follows:
■ Greg Archuleta, The Con-
federated Tribes of Grand
Ronde, Section One (Wil-
lamette River to River Mile
110), students of Confederated
Tribes of the Grand Ronde
■ Michael Namkung/Lewis
& Clark College, Portland,
Section Two (River Mile 110 to
McGowans Light), Lewis and
Clark College
■ Molly Gaston Johnson,
Lake Cuomo, N.J., Section
Three (McGowans Light to 13
Mile Point), Arts in Education
of the Gorge
■ Jane Pagliarulo, Portland,
Section Four (13 Mile Point to
Rowena), Arts in Education
■ Neal Harrington, Russell-
ville, Ark., Section Five (Ro-
wena to Browns Island), The
Dalles Arts Center
■ Steven Muñoz, Washing-
ton, D.C., Section Six (Browns
Island to Miller Island), White
Salmon Arts Council
■ Roger Peet, Portland, Sec-
tion Seven (Miller Island to
John Day River), Goldendale
Community Library
■ Mike McGovern, Port-
land, Section Eight (John Day
River to Roosevelt), Little Bear
Hill gallery
■ Combat Paper/Drew F.
See MURAL, page B10