LOCAL
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
A9
Young artists make art for skate park Woodlands and
Freestanding
skateboard
replicas to greet
park users
Progress on the park
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — Young
artists are preparing their
work to adorn the revamped
skateboard park in Enter-
prise, which is scheduled to
see work begin in August.
While art found at skate-
board parks often comes
in the form of graffi ti, the
works of 17-year-olds Lanie
Huwe and Devin Coulson is
anything but that.
“I hope we can, with this
art, push that stereotype to
the side and come up with
a beautiful representation
of what this park is going
to become,” Ron Pickens
said Friday, June 11. He’s
the alternative high school
teacher spearheading the
park refurbishing.
Indeed, the girls have
come up with unique
works. Their works will be
mounted on metal cut in the
shape of a skateboard.
“It’ll be a freestanding
piece of art to welcome
those who come,” said Jill
Dougherty, an artist Pick-
ens recruited as a liaison to
work with the girls.
“I’m just a person who
likes art and I like kids,”
Dougherty said. “Ron Pick-
ens asked me if I would
help with this art project.
I have a background in art
and I love working with
kids. I think they’re so tal-
ented. My favorite thing in
the world is to see kids of
all ages create.”
She found a way to dis-
play the art.
“I took their art to the
graphic designer, Crystal
Newton, and she was an
instrumental part of making
this come to life,” Dough-
erty said. “She scanned all
their work and put it on the
design of the skateboards,
which will then be erected
in metal.”
Types of art
Huwe does traditional
art, working in watercolors
and acrylics. She showed
some of her watercolors
during a June 10 interview.
Coulson does digital art.
“I connect my computer
to a tablet and I can do all
this with a pen” on the tab-
let, she said, adding that it
still requires artistic skills.
“This is very diff er-
ent from traditional art,”
she said. “The diff erence
between digital art and tra-
ditional art is with digi-
tal, you have many diff er-
ent layers and you can build
upon each layer, whereas
with traditional art you
build it all on one layer.
There are a lot of diff erent
things you can play with
in digital art. You can, for
instance, do transparency
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Wallowa County Alternative School students are preparing
artwork to adorn the revamped skateboard park in Enterprise.
From left are liaison Jill Dougherty, graphic artist Devin
Coulson, painter Lanie Huwe and Xavier Dougherty, who
helped provide ideas for the students to turn into art.
Devin Coulson/Contributed Photo
This is an example of the digital art created by 17-year-old
Devin Coulson that will be used to decorate the revamped
Enterprise skateboard park this summer.
and a lot of stuff like that.”
Both girls have attended
the Alternative High School
since November and are
going into their senior year.
Dougherty is impressed
with their skills.
“When you look at all
the art they have created, it
just kind of oozes out from
the girls,” she said.
Plans for the future
In fact, the girls’ artwork
is likely to follow them
beyond high school.
“I’m going to a two-year
community college and
then I’m going to a diff erent
college afterward,” Coul-
son said, adding that she’ll
continue to focus on art
in her studies. “Art’s defi -
nitely going to be an aspect
of it, even on the side, if not
the main focus.”
Huwe has a recipe for
a more defi nite plan in the
oven.
“I kind of want to be a
baker, but you still have to
do a lot of art in the bak-
ing stuff , like the pastry art
and decorating cookies and
things like that,” she said.
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“I love doing that stuff . I
just made my sister’s birth-
day cake.”
While the girls concep-
tualized most of the artwork
for the park, some designs
came from another source
— Dougherty’s 8-year-old
son, Xavier.
“My ideas were a jel-
lyfi sh and, you know
how skating makes you
dizzy?” he asked, show-
ing one painted by Huwe
as a facsimile of an Oregon
license plate with the word
“Dizzy.”
For several months,
Pickens has been mak-
ing plans to revitalize the
skateboard park. Earlier
this year, he sought fund-
ing from around town —
including the Enterprise
City Council — to upgrade
the park, primarily aim-
ing at adding a half-pipe.
Then, on April 14, he told
the council a community
member stepped up with a
donation of $51,500. That
brought the project to a
$60,000 value to totally
revamp the park that would
involve replacing every-
thing there.
With the recent dona-
tion,
another
$5,000
already pledged by Build-
ing Healthy Families, the
project was just $3,500
short of its goal, which the
council agreed in April to
provide.
That left the question of
what to do with the current
skatepark ramps. Pickens
hopes — once the Enter-
prise park work is done
— to see them moved to
Wallowa, where he lives.
He said the current ramps
may be 20 years old, but
they still have much life in
them.
“I’d love to see them
moved to Wallowa,” he
told the council in April. “I
live in Wallowa and I see a
lack of opportunity for the
kids there and it breaks my
heart that we’re not actu-
ally doing this project for
those kids in Wallowa. I
feel like they’re so under-
served there.”
Moving the ramps to
Wallowa is still in the
hope stage. Pickens said
last week he’s putting any
such plans on hold until the
work at Enterprise is com-
plete. However, Mayor
Gary Hulse expressed con-
cern June 10 that the city’s
liability insurance may not
cover such a feature. But,
he said, that remains to be
seen.
Pickens said work on
the Enterprise park is
slated to begin Aug. 2
and he’s appreciative that
Dougherty stepped up to
help with the artwork.
“I wanted her to lead
the charge on it,” he said.
“I was so thankful Jill was
able to take the reins on
this project.”
Watersheds Fest
is ‘to-go’ again
Chieftain staff
WALLOWA COUNTY
— For the second year in
a row, Wallowa County’s
Woodlands and Watersheds
Festival is being conducted
in a “to-go” format as guid-
ance surrounding the coro-
navirus pandemic continues
to evolve, according to the
event’s website.
“As we continue to nav-
igate our way back to host-
ing large gatherings, we have
made the hard decision” for
the to-go format, the website
stated. “We just felt like a
large gathering in June could
still put our community and
families at risk.”
From noon to 5 p.m. Fri-
day, June 25, bag pickup
locations full of family-re-
lated activities will be at
three sites in the county.
They include the Maxville
Heritage Interpretive Center
at 103 N. Main St. in Joseph,
at the Wallowa County
Courthouse Gazebo at 101 S.
River St. in Enterprise and at
the Wallowa Public Library
at 201 E. 1st St. in Wallowa.
There also will be a raf-
fl e families can enter when
picking up the to-go bags
that will off er local prizes.
The Woodlands and
Watersheds Festival is a
combined eff ort to celebrate,
play, listen and learn about
what makes our little corner
of Oregon a wonderful place
to live. Wallowa Resources
and Maxville Heritage Inter-
pretive Center are combining
eff orts once to again to bring
the festival to the commu-
nity. The goal is to enhance
the experience our commu-
nity loves so much and make
the day even more enjoyable.
For more information, go
online to https://tinyurl.com/
WandWFest.
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Ad copy is due on Friday at 10am.
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