REGION
Thursday, December 16, 2021
East Oregonian
A3
Taking a seat on the state ag board
Morrow County farmer joins
State Board of Agriculture
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
HEPPNER — Eric Orem of Heppner said
he hopes his experiences and personal story
will prove to be a boon as he joins the State
Board of Agriculture.
“I felt that with the board experience that
I have,” he said, “having served on co-op and
commodity group boards, that I can bring
something, maybe a different perspective to
the board of ag.”
Orem owns and operates a diversified
dryland wheat, hay and cattle farming oper-
ation in Heppner. Gov. Kate Brown recently
appointed him to the board. His four-year term
began immediately, according to a press release
Wednesday, Dec. 8, from the governor’s office.
The state ag board advises the Oregon
Department of Agriculture on policy issues,
develops recommendations on key agricultural
issues and provides advocacy of the state’s agri-
culture industry in general. Orem, who grew up
in Morrow County, said he is excited for these
challenges and enthusiastic about joining this
12-member board.
He is a past president of the Oregon Wheat
Growers League and said people from the
league encouraged him to “throw his name
Eric Orem/Contributed Photo
Brandi and Eric Orem of Heppner pose in spring of 2021 in one of their fields north of Lexing-
ton. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown recently appointed Eric Orem to the State Board of Agriculture.
into the hat” for the agriculture board appoint-
ment. He applied for the position, and he said
he was a little surprised to be selected. He also
expressed feeling humbled as a result.
Born in Oregon City but raised in Ione,
Orem was no stranger to agricultural work.
His grandfather had a small farm and his father
worked for a wheat and cattle ranch. As he got
older, he graduated high school, having worked
for farmers all through high school.
“From a young age, I had a passion for agri-
culture, but I never thought I would get to be a
part of it or own my own operation,” he said.
“It just wasn’t in the cards.”
He was told that farmer owners had to either
inherit their farms or marry into them, he said.
“I don’t know if that is true, but it is tough,”
Orem said.
After his high school graduation, he
attended and graduated from Blue Mountain
Community College in Pendleton. Then he
started working for Les Schwab Tire Center,
and “moved around in management,” he said.
After being away from the area for nine
years, an old employer contacted him. One of
his old bosses, who had no children of his own,
told Orem he was getting ready to retire, he
said, and he offered Orem the chance to lease
his farm.
It was 2001, and Orem said he was thrilled
for the opportunity to become the farmer he
had always dreamed of being. He took the offer
and he relocated his young family.
“From there, we’ve grown,” Orem said.
He picked up other leases, started doing
custom seeding and spraying for neighboring
farms.
Orem grows hay to feed his cows and sells
hay to others. He farms 7,000 acres of dryland
wheat in the Lexington area and has 100 head
of cattle.
“Oregon agriculture has been good to me,”
he said.
He said he thinks by sharing his personal
success story and networking he was able to
gain the attention of the state board. In becom-
ing a part of the board, he said he hopes he can
do good work. He said he wanted to give back
to the industry that has given much to him
during the past 20 years.
“I am not going into it with a set agenda,” he
said. “I’m hoping to help guide agriculture, not
significantly change it.”
Painter loves tricking the eye
Pendleton artist
wins commission
for art installation
in La Grande
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Most
all of us have experienced
looking at something and
seeing only a jumble, then
marveling when everything
suddenly resolves into crys-
tal clarity.
Pendleton artist Jason
Hogge cultivates those
moments in the art he
creates. He loves optical
illusions, three-dimensional
pieces and anything that
tricks the viewer’s eye.
Last month, the La
G rande Cit y Cou ncil
approved Hogge’s idea for a
large public art installation to
sit in front of Cook Memorial
Library. The La Grande Arts
Commission earlier selected
the artist and his concept and
needed a go-ahead from the
city council.
Hogge envisions about
25 concrete panels that will
become pieces of several
murals, viewable from four
spots.
“It’ll be partly sculp-
ture and partly mural using
concrete panels that look
randomly spaced and turned
at different angles,” Hogge
said. “When you stand
directly in front of it, it looks
jumbled.”
Viewers will gaze at each
from separate designated
spots at eye level, though the
last is meant to be viewed
from a child’s height.
“Adults will have to get
down on their hands and
knees to be low enough to
see it,” Hogge said.
The first mural will
depict two Native Ameri-
can women gathering camas
backdropped by a wide
expanse of the Grande Ronde
Valley. Hogge modeled the
John Lauck/Contributed Photo
City of La Grande/Contributed Image
A rendering shows a potential new public project Pendleton artist Jason Hogge is work-
ing on for outside the Cook Memorial Library in downtown La Grande.
scene after a
photo of one
of his wife’s
ancestors
and another
w o m a n
digging for
Hogge
camas root.
His wife,
Ethel Hogge, and her niece,
Irene Jackson, modeled for
a newer photo, which Hogge
will paint.
He bases the second
mural on an old photo of a
Black logger named Lafay-
ette “Lucky” Trice who
logged in Wallowa County
and later was a well-known
businessman in La Grande.
Hogge’s mockup of the
mural also includes an old
bridge, a water wheel, the
historic staircase leading to
Eastern Oregon University
and four railroad workers
— two of them Chinese —
operating a handcar.
The third mural will high-
light La Grande as a place of
recreation, education and
the arts. In the mockup, a
salmon swims toward a fish-
ing lure. Bear prints and the
footprint of a hiking boot
mark the soil. A paintbrush
and a graduation tassel float
midair. Like the others, this
mural is still developing in
Hogge’s fertile imagination.
The last mural, the most
surreal and colorful of the
four, speaks to the future and
may include a hidden image
for children to find.
Northeastern Oregonians
who don’t recognize Hogge’s
name might have seen his
art without knowing it. He
painted the huge wolf that
adorns the gymnasium wall
at Blue Mountain Commu-
nity College. He created
art and logos on display
at numerous local venues,
including one that honors
veterans at Helix School
and two in the hallways of
Sunridge Middle School.
Hogge doesn’t remember
a time when he didn’t want
to be an artist. He spent his
boyhood in Pendleton draw-
ing and inventing things and
studying with artist Antoi-
nette Kennedy, who taught
art privately. He dreamed of
a career as an artist.
“As a kid, my family
wasn’t really fond of the idea
of me jumping into art to
make a living,” Hogge said,
grinning. “But while I wasn’t
as encouraged to go into art
as a profession, they always
entertained my ideas. They
let me dream.”
Hogge hung on to his
ambition of being a full-time
artist as he grew up, married
and started a family. He
established a fine art/graphic
design business, but took
other jobs to pay the bills.
Hogge, now 50, is a
patient man. He did custodial
and maintenance work while
building his artistic resume
over the years. Early on, he
favored watercolor painting,
but these days prefers oils
and the interesting way the
colors blend. He also sculpts
and carves.
With his personal proj-
ects, Hogge can be pains-
taking and indefatigable. He
started one painting 15 years
ago that he is still perfecting.
The piece features a Celtic
knot made from one line that
weaves in and out.
In 2017, Hogge enrolled
at Pacific Northwest College
of Art and later finished his
degree at Blue Mountain. He
continues to take classes at
Eastern Oregon University.
These days, Hogge is
finally the full-time artist
he dreamed of being in his
boyhood. He said he looks
forward to turning his
mockups of the La Grande
art installation into reality.
The artist said after funding
comes in he expects the work
to take four-to-six months
and to be in place by the end
of next summer.
NWS forecasting light snow later this week
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — East-
ern Oregon is set to get some
snow this week, but how
much each community gets
depends on the elevation.
The National Weather
Service is forecasting wet
conditions throughout the
week, but as temperatures
begin to drop, the agency
anticipates some snowfall
across the region.
Matt Callihan, a fore-
caster at the ser vice’s
Pendleton off ice, said
communities in the lower
Columbia Basin likely
won’t get cold enough to
see a significant amount
of snow. But cities near the
foothills of the Blue Moun-
tains, including Pendle-
ton and Milton-Freewater,
could see up to a half-inch
of snow.
“It’s going to be very
minimal,” Callihan said.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
An Oregon Department of Transportation snowplow clears
snow Friday, Dec. 10, 2021, along the Old Oregon Trail Road
near Meacham. The National Weather Service is forecast-
ing snowfall across the region, with higher elevations in
the Blue Mountains getting as much as 10 inches.
The higher the elevation,
the more snow predicted in
the service’s forecast. Calli-
han said higher elevations
in the Blues could see as
much as 10 inches of snow.
While most communities in
Umatilla and Morrow coun-
ties shouldn’t see too much
snow come there way, Calli-
han said locals may want to
proceed with caution when
traveling east as heavier
snow combined with strong
winds could make condi-
tions hazardous.
Earlier this year, the
weather service reported
there was a good chance this
year could see a La Nina, an
atmospheric phenomenon
in the Pacific Ocean that
usually portends wet weather
in the Northwest. Callihan
said winter conditions have
been slow to develop in the
region this year, but signs
still point to La Nina condi-
tions this year, meaning
January could bring more
snow to Eastern Oregon.
Meanwhile, the snowy
conditions in the Blue Moun-
tains aren’t waiting until
January to wreak havoc on
roads. On Sunday, Dec. 5,
the Oregon Department of
Transportation closed Inter-
state 84 east of Pendleton
after some semitrailers spun
out on the highway.
“Winter is here and more
mountain snow is expected
this week,” an ODOT press
release stated after the
department reopened the
highway.
Before heading out,
check highway conditions at
TripCheck.com or call 511
or 800-977-6368.
Hermiston High School students Dillon Herron, Joey Gerguson
and Gavin Doherty pose for a photo on Nov. 17, 2021, during
a Knowledge Bowl meet at Echo High School. Ferguson, the
team captain, is a senior, as is Doherty. Herron is a junior.
Hermiston knowledge
bowl tests their mettle
Team has upcoming
competitions
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Take
the number of legs on Santa’s
reindeer from the number
of geese a-laying in the
entire song “The 12 Days
of Christmas,” and what is
the answer? If you answered
six, you might be a good fit
for Hermiston High School’s
Knowledge Bowl team.
Of course, you would also
have to be a HHS student.
Big things are happen-
ing for Hermiston’s Knowl-
edge Bowl bunch, according
to John Lauck. Lauck, a
retired HHS teacher, is the
school’s Knowledge Bowl
team co-advisor. He works
with Maggie Hughes-Boyd,
fellow co-advisor and high
school counselor.
Their team competes
against teams from Umatilla,
Echo, Helix and Stanfield in
a local Oregon league. Pilot
Rock and a few Washington
schools soon may be compet-
ing against Hermiston, too.
The big news, Lauck said,
is this year’s team is large.
The team boasts at least 17
students who appear at prac-
tices, he said. He said this
is enough students to form
four teams and is the largest
group he can remember.
Schools will convene
for a competition Jan. 12,
2022, at 4 p.m. at Herm-
iston High School, 600 S.
First St., Hermiston. At the
competition, there will be
three rounds of 50 questions.
Teams, each with three to
five members, will answer
questions. When they have
an answer, they will hit a
buzzer and respond.
Questions are difficult,
he said, and they can be on
many topics, including math,
current events, art and biol-
ogy.
A dinner break is sched-
uled for the students after
round two. After dinner, the
teams compete for a third
round, then a final for the top
three teams.
He said the students
seemed to enjoy the last
meet, which took place
Nov. 17 in Echo. Hermiston
teams took first and third
at that meet, which was the
school’s first Knowledge
Bowl competition of 2021.
It was nice to have this
meet, the advisor said, as the
last meet was in 2020. The
2020 meet was the only meet
that year, a small competi-
tion in Echo that included
one Hermiston team and two
Echo teams.
This year’s team includes
exper ienced and new
competitors, he said. Among
the competitors are three
seniors and a handful of
promising young freshmen.
He said he expects them to
do well, depending on the
other teams that appear at
future meets.
Lauck said he is hope-
ful his students can face off
against bigger schools in
Washington.
“Some of them are just
outstanding,” he said of
the Washington teams, but
he added the Hermiston
students are good, too, and
the competition should be
interesting.
Historically, he said,
Hermiston High performs
well at local Knowledge
Bowl meets. This is the way
it should be, Lauck said, as
Hermiston is a compara-
tively large school. Echo,
though, is a competitive
team that “should be hard
to beat.” Helix, too, has had
good teams.
“You’d be amazed what
these kids know,” Lauck
said, “especially when they
work as a group.”
12/17-12/23
Cineplex Show Times
Theater seating will adhere to social distancing protocols
Every showing $7.50 per person (ages 0-3 still free)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (PG13)
Dec. 17-19
1:00p 2:00p 4:20p 5:20p 7:40p 8:40p
Dec. 20-21
4:20p 5:20p 7:40p 8:40p
Dec. 22-23
1:00p 4:20p 7:40p
The Matrix Resurrections (R)
Dec. 22 & 23 • 1:30p 4:50p 8:10p
Sing 2 (PG)
Dec. 22 & 23 • 1:10p 3:50p 6:30p 9:10p
The King's Man (R)
Dec. 22 & 23
12:50p 3:40p 6:40p 9:30p
West Side Story (PG13)
1:40p 5:00p 8:20p
Encanto (PG)
1:20p 4:00p 6:40p 9:20p
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (PG13)
12:40p 3:30p 6:20p 9:10p
wildhorseresort.com • 541-966-1850
Pendleton, OR I-84 - Exit 216