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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 6, 2020)
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL Art | AUGUST 6, 2020 | 11A from A1 grants for artists in this area. You have to be affili- ated with a nonprofit, so it was really exciting to apply for something just as a per- son.” The Artist Grant pro- gram was launched by Lane Arts Council this year, giving out $9,120 in all. The program is fund- ed by the City of Eugene Cultural Services Division, Banner Bank and individ- ual donors and provides fi- nancial support to individ- ual artists to move forward a new project or creative endeavor that promises to advance their career or ar- tistic development. With the grant money, Nguyen is primed to devel- op her project, “A Portrait of Cottage Grove,” which will include solo art exhib- DAMIEN SHERWOOD/COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL its and a published artbook While Nguyen’s art is on view this month in the Axe and Fiddle, she hopes to exhibit “A Portrait of Cottage of her oil portraits and Grove” next spring in local museums, galleries, libraries or other public spaces. landscapes. “It was just really unique. “It’s a project I’ve wanted increase in affection for dency for people to smile youngsters. Her nexus point in the I had never seen that be- to do, but it’s big,” she said. Cottage Grove over her 15 as they walked down the street or passed her by, heart of downtown opened fore,” she said. “That’s one The project endeavors years in the area. “I really like Cottage which she initially found to the door for interactions of the things I like about to piece together a mosaic with a variety of people. this town — people are of the community through Grove,” she said. “I’m actu- be somewhat off-putting. “But after a couple weeks, “It’s a neat community very approachable and re- portraits of local people. ally surprised how much I I was like, ‘I think they’re because there’s all kinds of ally down to earth regard- Nguyen hopes people will like Cottage Grove.” Things didn’t begin this just nice,’” she laughed. “I people,” she said. “There’s less of what their jobs are.” walk away from the expe- With the town’s own rience feeling they’ve con- way, however. Growing up had also lived in big cities, hippies and there’s people in a small New Jersey town so maybe I just had a dif- who have lived here their character acting as inspi- nected with someone. whole lives and there’s log- ration, Nguyen hopes to “A city is not solely its of 10,000 people, Nguyen ferent viewpoint.” Since then, her relation- gers and there are people reproduce the experience architecture, landscapes or was at first apprehensive of residences. The heart of fully engaging the commu- ship with Cottage Grove who shoot their dinner. … through her project. has blossomed. And they talk to each oth- “What I want, when you any city lies in its commu- nity after moving here. “I kind of assumed peo- Eight years ago, Nguy- er.” see the art show or the art- nities,” she said. The openness to root out book, is you can walk away In all, she anticipates ple would do a lot of gos- en established what would producing between 60-85 siping because I saw that become the local landmark deeper connections with and think, ‘This is what it’s before and I was just very game store Delight down- community members was like to be another human portraits for the project. town and also developed a characteristic that stuck living in the community.’ The concept was in- cautious,” she said. Then she noticed a ten- an afterschool program for with Nguyen. And maybe we can learn spired by Nguyen’s steady something about ourselves through it,” she said. “I think it’s really perfect tim- ing because people feel so divided and I don’t think they need to feel that way. I think that we’re just so fo- cused on those one or two aspects where we’re not re- ally seeing eye to eye. But there’s so much more about a person that goes beyond that and it would be nice to have something like that to feel reinvigorated as a com- munity.” Though much of the project is conceptually there, Nguyen is still in an exploratory mode. “I want to approach it like an experiment in a sense,” she said. “I want to be a natural process so I’m not forcing ideas on it.” To accomplish the task, Nguyen plans to enlist the help of community members to volunteer as subjects through her pub- lic Facebook page “Art by UTN.” With dozens of art pieces ahead of her, she anticipates the portrait production to last through December and hopes to culminate the project with exhibitions next spring in local muse- ums, galleries, libraries or other public spaces. Nguyen’s art is on view this month in the “Around Oregon Annual” at The Arts Center in Corvallis and at The Axe and Fiddle in Cottage Grove. A Virtual Awards Cer- emony will be held Tues- day, Aug. 18, beginning at 4 p.m. and streaming on Lane Arts Council Face- book page. S entinel C ottage G rove SUBSCRIBE. DONATE. ADVERTISE. During times of crisis, crucial information about your community comes from local report ers. Access to high quality information is essential. Especially local information. And especially now. What’s happening in our communities? What’s the impact? How are our local leaders responding? For answers to these questions, we rely on the hard work of our local report ers. As a result, readership of local news outlets has reached record highs. This message support ed by But due to COVID-19, most local news publications are losing money, fast. Advert ising has plummeted during the crisis and readers aren’t subscribing fast enough to fill the void. This has led to thousands of local report ers being laid off . Just as our society faces numerous, urgent challenges. 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