CONTENTS
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talent
THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2021 • THE BULLETIN
The Bulletin and Scalehouse, a collaborative for the arts, have joined together to raise
donations to help Central Oregon’s creative artists — musicians, visual artists, performers
and creative workers — by offering grants and a platform to bring attention to local
amazing talent. This is a crowdfunding effort with a first-round fundraising goal of $40,000.
To make a tax-deductible donation or apply for a grant, go to bendbulletin.com/talent
Muralist honors art instructors
BY DAVID JASPER • The Bulletin
B
end artist Douglas Robertson was happy to be out last week doing what he does: painting a mural in his trademark stencil style, this one a tribute to
seven Bend-La Pine Schools art instructors, enhancing the entire north-facing wall of Deschutes Brewery’s Bend Public House on Bond Street.
CO CARE s
Prior, it was “just a blank wall,” he said.
“And it’s been a blank wall for over 30
years.”
The founder of the High Desert Mu-
ral Festival and this week’s featured Cen-
tral Oregon Creative Artists Relief Effort
(CO CAREs) grant recipient, Robertson
specializes in using blank walls as a can-
vas.
You may have seen some of his other
murals around Bend, adorning such
places as the south wall of Substance can-
nabis dispensary’s south location and
Cascade Heating’s west-facing wall at
First Street and Olney Avenue.
In typical years, he’ll work on stencils
and do other prep work during the win-
ter months, painting commissioned mu-
rals May through about October.
As we all learned the hard way, 2020
was hardly a typical year.
Robertson was able to keep busy early
in the COVID-19 pandemic with a mu-
ral commissioned by Brooks Resources,
planned in 2019, with painting of the
mural begun in June 2020. However, af-
ter it was complete, the mural momen-
tum halted abruptly.
“Everything just stopped,” he said. “All
potential commissions stopped. Grants
— they froze a lot of grant processes. Ev-
erybody just went into lock down, and I
wasn’t in the category of artist that col-
lectors jump on. … There were a lot of
artists that had really successful years
because they did tons of commissions —
that wasn’t me.”
With no work on the horizon for
2021, Robertson met with local art
teachers and eventually approached De-
schutes Brewery about a mural celebrat-
ing educators — “something positive
to focus on as we hopefully come out
of COVID,” he said. “All my labor I did
and everything I did around it is volun-
teer. And then, it’s privately funded, and
Deschutes is hosting it — which is fan-
tastic. The fact that Deschutes wanted to
do this is huge.”
Working his way along the wall from
left to right, Robertson began the mural
with his portrait of Marcy Marne, retired
from a 31-year career at schools includ-
ing Marshall High School and High Des-
ert Middle School. She was on hand last
week while Robertson worked on the
mural.
Each portrait is accompanied by a
quote. Marne’s comes from Nelson Man-
dela, and reads: “Education is the most
powerful weapon which you can use to
change the world.”
“He had sent me the mock-up two
weeks ago,” Marne said. “I wrote him
back and said, ‘Thank you for making
me look beautiful. … I love this.’”
Last week, standing beneath his por-
trait of her, Marne told Robertson, “I’m
so glad you’re doing this. It’s so sweet.”
“You know, my art teachers were a big
deal to me,” he replied. “Plus, we needed
something positive.”
David Jasper: 541-383-0349,
djasper@bendbulletin.com
David Jasper/The Bulletin
Douglas Robertson stands outside of Deschutes Brewery last week, where he was at work on his
latest mural, an ode to arts educators.