A12
News
wallowa.com
March 15, 2017
Art show beats weather
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
More than 100 people
braved high winds and rain
to attend the opening of the
fourth annual Women’s Art
Show on March 4 at the Jose-
phy Center.
The exhibition runs March
4-28.
Josephy Center executive
director Cheryl Coughlan
wasn’t surprised at the crowd
size.
“This is really the most
popular event of the year for
us,” she said.
It is also Coughlan’s fa-
vorite and she is the one who
originally floated the idea.
The show, which was juried
by local artist and Wallowa
Valley Arts Council presi-
dent Shelley Curtiss, featured
more than 50 works by about
two dozen mostly-local art-
ists.
“A lot of works were
turned away,” Coughlan said
Many mediums of art are
represented at the show in-
cluding painting, drawing,
photography and sculpture.
Also included for the month
are Tuesday brown bag talks
SALMON
Continued from Page A1
According to tribal esti-
mates, the number of coho that
used to return to the Grande
Ronde exceeded 20,000 adults
in the late 1800s. Most of
those fish would migrate into
the Lostine and Wallowa riv-
ers, but by the 1980s a com-
bination of factors drove the
local population to extinction.
Those factors included over-
fishing, changes in the habi-
tat and introduction of hydro
dams on the main stem of the
Columbia and Snake rivers.
Becky Johnson, who over-
sees tribal hatcheries for the
Nez Perce fisheries depart-
ment, said they received fund-
ing from the Bonneville Pow-
er Administration in 1988 to
study how they could reintro-
Steve Tool/Chieftain
Just a few of the more than 100 people who attended the
opening of the fourth annual Josephy Center’s Women’s Art
Month exhibition. The event featured the work of more than
two dozen artists. It is also the center’s most popular event.
focusing on women in the
arts. Other features for the
month include music by Janis
Carper and the movie “The
Suffragette.”
Jennifer Connolly, art
teacher at Joseph Charter
School, had three pieces of
work in the exhibition in-
cluding an unusual woolen
sculpture that could serve as
a standing piece or as head-
wear.
“It’s a felted hedgehog
with natural dyes from the
cochineal bug. It’s a red dye
that’s been used for centu-
ries,” Connolly said. She
added that the hedgehog is
a symbol for the coming
spring.
Surprisingly, the piece
was originally intended as a
sculpture. It wasn’t intend-
ed as a hat until Connolly
brought it to school and she
saw her students immediately
adapted it for a hat.
“I wasn’t sure if I was go-
ing to wear it, but I felt espe-
duce coho to the basin.
“Now, we’re in the process
of putting fish back to where
they used to be,” Johnson said.
Once the adults return,
Johnson said they will collect
some to use as broodstock
to raise future generations of
hatchery-reared coho. Some
may return to spawn naturally
in the river.
The tribe, which co-manag-
es the fishery with ODFW, first
broached the subject in 1996.
But Bruce Eddy, East Region
manager for ODFW, said the
agency was simply too over-
whelmed trying to preserve
chinook salmon and steel-
head, which had been listed as
threatened under the Endan-
gered Species Act.
Thursday’s reintroduction
of coho is not only a huge ac-
complishment in its own right,
Eddy said, but goes to show
how far fish conservation has
come in recent decades.
“We’re finally getting our
head above water,” Eddy said.
“It’s nice to be able to spend
time on something other than
chinook and summer steel-
head.”
Bringing coho back to the
Grande Ronde is just the latest
in a series of projects carried
out by Northwest tribes across
the Columbia Basin. The Nez
Perce also maintains a coho
program on the Clearwater
River in Idaho, while the Ya-
kama Nation is working to re-
store the species on the upper
Columbia.
Both programs have suc-
cessfully rebuilt naturally
spawning coho populations,
which is what Johnson said
they ultimately hope to do on
the Lostine.
Aaron Penney, hatchery
complex manager for the Nez
Perce on the Clearwater River,
Steve Tool/Chieftain
Joseph Charter School art
teacher Jennifer Hawkins-
Connolly poses next to her
entirely unique worsted wool
sculpture, which can also
serve as headwear, at the
Josephy Center’s Women’s
Art Month opening on March
4. Connolly also was co-
winner of the best costume
award at the event.
cially bold tonight,” she said
with a laugh.
Ellen Bishop’s photograph
“Dragons” won the Women’s
Juror Choice for the show.
The People’s Choice will be
awarded at the end of the ex-
hibit.
said he joined the program as
a college intern to help restore
lost fisheries. Fishing is a big
part of the Nez Perce culture, he
said, and ties them to the land.
“Over the past 100 years,
we’ve seen places like the Los-
tine where the populations have
declined or gone extinct,” Pen-
ney said. “It’s like losing part of
your soul.”
Chuck Axtell, a tribal el-
der and member of the Seven
Drums religion, led a series of
prayers and songs to bless the
fish on their way to the ocean
and back. As an elder, he said
it is a blessing to see those fish
come back.
“The animals, they are us.
They are our people,” Axtell
said. “We take care of each oth-
er.”
———
Contact George Plaven at
gplaven@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0825.
COLLETT
Continued from Page A1
“She was a beautiful charcoal artist.
I always enjoyed her art work. I always
look at it, it’s all over our house. She start-
ed doing jewelry. We used to do our shows
together, but it was pretty obvious I wasn’t
selling anything, or not that much, and she
was doing better with her jewelry. She’d
worked for me for about five years when I
painted full-time after we sold the cabins,
and I owed her time, so that’s when I went
to work at the hospital as a CNA to help
support her.”
Rather than feeling like competitors,
Collett and his wife supported and helped
one another with their artistic efforts. One
of the things Collett misses is having Sue’s
appraisals of his work. “She was honest if
she saw problems, and she would have me
do the same thing. We trusted each other
and respected each other’s abilities. It was
a real important interaction that we had ...
you can get too close to your creation and
lose your perspective,” he said.
“I See You” an unusual self-portrait by local artist Sam Collett.
scheduled breaks or lunchtimes, it works
out so everyone gets about an hour off per
shift.
“A lot of people go into a room to
sleep, but I go out to my car. I need to get
out. I’ve drawn and painted enough over
the years, that if I get a chance to sit down,
I can get in that zone in about 10 minutes.
I drift right into there,” he said. “Especial-
ly this last year after Susan’s death, it’s the
thing that’s kept me sane. It’s the only time
I’m not thinking of her, the past, that sort
of thing.”
Art philosophy
“Since I’ve lived in Wallowa County,
my interest was to paint my environment.
Seascapes are interesting, but it’s not
where I live. It’s not always applicable,
but as a general rule if you’re doing some-
thing inside your environment, you have a
visual connection with it. You see it every
day, you interact with it at one level or an-
other, so you bring some kind of validity,”
Collett said.
Although he has been painting and
drawing Wallowa County for 17 years, the
area still inspires him.
“I’ve been looking at these mountains
since I’ve been here, painted them hun-
dreds of times and still don’t have a clear
idea about them,” he said. “It’s a compli-
cated form. I don’t get connected that fast,
it takes me awhile.”
Collett personalizes his art, something
one of his instructors criticized him for.
“That’s just me,” he said with a smile.
“Sometimes people would say: ‘We like
your artwork, but it’s too personal.’ There
you are, too personal to make money at
art, but isn’t that what you’re trying to do,
put your vision or stamp on it?”
Other arts
Collett has experimented with other
mediums.
“I love to do sculpture and water color,
but I don’t feel comfortable enough with
my painting and drawing to focus on an-
other medium. Those are the only devia-
tions,” he said with a laugh. “In Salt Lake
I was known more as a pastelist than an oil
painter. I was the top pastelist in the area.”
Other arts also play a role in Collett’s
life. “I play guitar. Old-time Flamenco
from the ‘50s and ‘60s. I played (harmon-
ica) for about two-and-a-half years, and
I’ve got a great blues collection and jazz
collection as well as classical. The last
year I’ve been listening to a lot of opera.
It influences my art in a subtle way. It cre-
ates an ambiance, and every painting has
an ambiance. The music is a part of the
environment that painting’s in.”
Work versus art
To earn his bread, Collett works at
Wallowa Memorial Hospital as a certified
nursing assistant. Unlike many artists, the
daily grind doesn’t deter his artistic vision.
“That’s what drawing does. I always
take my little sketchbook,” he said. Al-
though his job doesn’t include regularly
Portrait work
Collett is as well-known as a portrait
artist as anything. The artist always carries
paper and constantly finds himself sketch-
ing portraits.
“I’m always drawn to a portrait of the
model, not just the figure. If I have time,
I go to the head and work my way down.
It’s strong in me.”
Collett has since developed confidence
about his skill as a portraitist and recog-
nizes his rare gift.
“It doesn’t happen often; it’s pretty
rare: draw a likeness, have the painting
skills and those kind of things to do por-
trait work, and I can do that. When I go
to Portland or Seattle or someplace, I feel
like I can hold my own.”
Assessing his work
Collett doesn’t have a particular fa-
vorite piece, although he favors his recent
work.
“The new paintings are always the best
whether they are or not,” he said. “That
just what I think.” He added that he par-
ticularly enjoyed painting Gail Swart and
Tom Hutchinson. The latter painting was
difficult for Collett. The subject was in
the hospital dying at the time and Collett
procrastinated because he didn’t have a
clear vision for the painting. He brought
some photographs of Hutchinson to the
hospital and let him select what he liked,
which included different aspects of differ-
ent photos.
“I started it more than five times, and I
couldn’t get it to work. I don’t force it. If
it’s flawed, I go back again. I finally got it
right,” Collett said.
The future
“I can’t retire, I have a mortgage pay-
ment to make,” Collett said with a laugh.
Nonetheless, the future looks bright as
far as Collett’s artwork. The “Goodbye
Old Friend” painting mentioned above
and the centerpiece photo in the first in-
stallment of this feature was recently se-
lected by the Oil Painters of America for
national exhibition. The painting current-
ly hangs in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Wallowa County Chieftain