4A • November 3, 2017 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Views from the Rock
Finding art in
a coff ee cup
A
R.J. MARX/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Encaustic artwork in the gallery at the Hoff man Center.
A PLACE FOR THE ARTS
A
fter a 25-year career in bank
marketing, most recently in
executive management, Vera
Wildauer moved to Manzanita full
time in 2006. In 2008 she co-founded
the Manzanita Writers’ Series,
bringing regional authors to the coast
for readings and workshops and
encouraging local writers to share
their work during open mic.
In 2009, Wildauer joined the Hoff-
man Center board of directors, work-
ing to expand the Hoffman Center’s
marketing efforts and managed the
Hoffman Center’s blog site. She also
generated press releases and fl yers for
literary and other events. She served
as president beginning in 2014.
Her board experience includes
eight years with a mental health non-
profi t in Everett, Washington, where
she served as board president for four
years.
In 2012, she cofounded the North
Coast Squid, a journal of local writing
and art, to further develop the writing
community in North Tillamook County.
She lives with her husband and cat
in what had been her family’s beach
house since 1975.
CANNON SHOTS
R.J. MARX
Q: Who were the Hoffmans? Were
they the inspiration for the center?
Wildauer: Oh, yes. Lloyd Hoffman
was a painter. And Myrtle Hoffman
was a musician. They were extremely
welcoming to artists of all sorts.
Q: Did they live here full-time?
Wildauer: Yes, for many years.
Their house was across the street from
where we are now. They had a trust
specifi cally to create a cultural center.
Their house really wasn’t a very
good venue, so in 2007 the founding
board bought this building, which was
kind of like an antiques mall.
Over the years it evolved and we
refurbished it, making it more suitable
for the kinds of programming we do.
Q: Did you have a model for the
arts center when you started?
Wildauer: I think it was defi nitely
original from the start. The fi rst board
went around and looked at a few arts
centers and also had community meet-
ings. As time has gone on, we’ve really
developed the programming out of the
interests of the community.
Q: What were the fi rst activities?
Wildauer: The clay program was
started in 2004 when they got a kiln,
and it’s evolved a lot since. The clay
studio is in existence because there
is a strong group of people who are
focused and excited about that. In fact,
we are the only publicly accessible
clay studio between Astoria down to
Lincoln City.
Q: Tell me about the center’s orga-
nization.
Wildauer: We have a nine-member
board composed of local community
members.
Q: Do you have any paid staff?
Wildauer: No. We have contract
employees — a bookkeeper and a
cleaning service. Basically all the pro-
gram staff and the board are unpaid.
Q: What is your title?
Wildauer: I am board president.
My origin is through the Manzanita
Writers’ Series. Kathie Hightower and
I started that in 2008. I write poetry
and short fi ction.
Interim Publisher
Heidi Wright
Editor
R.J. Marx
Circulation
Manager
Jeremy Feldman
Production
Manager
John D. Bruijn
R.J. MARX/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Vera Wildauer, president of the
Hoff man Center board of directors.
Q: What type of programs do you
bring in for writers?
Wildauer: The main thing is the
writers’ series. We bring in authors.
Usually those folks do a workshop
of some sort, with some sort of craft
element or publishing.
Q: Are there a lot of writers in
town?
Wildauer: Yes, all levels. And
Gary Seelig is really working the
music scene.
Q: There seem to be a lot of artistic
people in Manzanita.
Wildauer: It’s a historical legacy.
There always was. Manzanita was
an enclave for writers and artists of
all sorts, a place to get away. In fact,
several of our featured authors ended
up moving here.
Q: So they come in, give a lecture
and then they go back and decide they
want to settle here full-time?
Wildauer: Yes, at least as sec-
ond-home owners and frequent
visitors. We are more a retirement-age
kind of place.
Q: Are younger artists coming here
as well?
Wildauer: The clay studio has
attracted a younger set, which is
cool. We just had young adult author
April Henry spend a full day at the
(Tillamook) middle school and high
school talking about writing and
what inspired her. Another part of our
writing program is the publication
of the North Coast Squid. We have a
young writers category where we try
and encourage young people to submit
as well.
Q: Sounds like there is no shortage
of creative input.
Wildauer: We probably have
100 volunteers for all of the different
programs.
Q: What are your challenges?
Wildauer: Well, funding. We are
defi nitely moving toward more stable
funding sources, growing our donor
base.
Q: More stable than what?
Wildauer: About half of our reve-
nue is earned income — admissions,
tuition sales and proceeds from gallery
sales. But we still have to rely on
donations.
Q: Do you rent the building out for
events?
Wildauer: We have a lot of meet-
ings here, presentations. The local
emergency response team meets here.
Q: Any new programs?
Wildauer: Our “Art of Dying” pro-
gram is going gangbusters. It can be
anything from green burials to setting
your priorities later in life, to setting
up a network of people to help you.
Certainly everybody is very engaged
and interested in making their lives
rich with experience. Those kinds of
things really help people stay young,
vital and active.
Q: How important is the Hoffman
Center to the artistic core of Manza-
nita?
Wildauer: Well, it’s hugely
important — of course I would say
that! What we offer is not just people
being involved with the arts, but that
creative expression that comes from
doing things with people. It’s really
important to the well-being of the
community.
Q: Is there a downside to this?
Wildauer: No! This is a happy
spot.
Q: Do you get people from outside
of the area?
Wildauer: Typically we get people
from Astoria down to Pacifi c City. For
our writers’ workshop we got two peo-
ple from Alabama. They looked online
and found two workshops. There was
one here and one in Pennsylvania, and
they decided to come here.
Mystery author comes to Hoff man Center
certifi cate program at the
Ingrid Thoft will read from
University of Washington.
her latest book, “Duplicity,” at
Thoft’s fi rst book, “Loyalty,”
the Hoff man Center for the
was followed by “Brutality,”
Arts in Manzanita on Satur-
which was awarded the Sha-
day, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m.
mus Award for best P.I. novel
“Duplicity” is the fourth
by the Private Eye Writers of
in Thoft’s series with Bos-
America.
ton-based private investiga-
Author
Thoft lives in Seattle with
tor Fina Ludlow.
Ingrid Th oft
her husband.
Thoft was born in Boston
Thoft will teach a workshop, “Mas-
and is a graduate of Wellesley Col-
lege. Although always wanting to be tering Murder,” from 10 a.m. to 12:30
an author, her fi rst real-life job was at p.m. at the Hoff man Center for the
a radio station in coastal Massachu- Arts and tuition is $40. Register at
setts, ripping wires and running the http://hoff manblog.org.
Following Thoft’s reading and
board for a Sunday talk show. She’s
worked in human resources at Har- Q&A, the center presents an open mic
vard, and did a stint with an interac- where up to nine local or visiting writ-
ers will read fi ve minutes of their orig-
tive software company.
Thoft wrote two novels about inal work. The suggested theme for
an amateur sleuth that did not sell. the evening is “Mystery and Murder.“
Admission for the evening reading
When she decided an amateur sleuth
character led to limitations, she de- is $7. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
The Manzanita Writers’ Series is a
cided to focus on a professional pri-
vate investigator instead. In order program of the Hoff man Center for
to create a believable character, she the Arts, across from Manzanita Li-
enrolled in the private investigation brary at 594 Laneda Ave.
Classifi ed Sales
Jamie Ramsdell
Advertising Sales
Holly Larkins
Staff writer
Brenna Visser
lifetime ago, September 1977, in New York City, I
moved the fi ve boxes of everything I owned from
a cockroach-ridden furnished summer sublet on
Jones Street around the corner to my fi rst leased apartment
on Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village. It was a studio,
about 400 square feet; there was
no basin in the bathroom so
I brushed my teeth in the
kitchen sink. Cornelia
is a picturesque one
block long street one
block west of Sixth
Avenue between
Bleecker and West
4th. The West Village
was a hip ‘hood. You
never knew whom you
might encounter. Gerome
Ragni, one of the creators of
the Broadway musical “Hair”
EVE MARX/FOR CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
lived there; I learned not
An artfully designed cup
to gawk at the model
of coff ee at Sea Level.
Lauren Hutton in front
of me at the
bank. I’d landed
a nice, polite job
VIEW FROM
with a scientifi c
THE PORCH
book publisher
EVE MARX
that covered my
$180-a-month rent,
but the job didn’t
interest me half as much as my second gig, waitressing at
the Cornelia Street Café.
I worked Sunday mornings (the actor Anthony Perkins
was a regular), and Wednesday nights when they hosted a
songwriter’s workshop. The workshop was headed up by
Steve Forbert who was from Mississippi and just my age.
He was already being called “the new Dylan.”
It was at the Cornelia Street Café I learned about Italian
coffee drinks. Before the café owners, Robin Hirsch,
Charles McKenna, and a perpetually angry Italian beauty
called Raffaella took me under their wing, the only coffee
I was familiar with was Folgers Instant and the pale swill
they served at the Greek coffee shops proliferating the city.
Raffaella was the Sunday barista and she schooled me to
the nuances of espresso, cappuccino, Americano, macchia-
to, and café latte, which she said was a breakfast drink.
In 1977, in America, there was no “latte art.” Latte art
— specifi cally those lovely heart designs created by a deft
rendering of milk foam — are presumed to have started
in Italy, but their actual provenance is unclear. Latte art
is a mixture of crema and microfoam. The techniques
to create them are called free pouring and etching. It’s a
tricky business to get the crema and the microfoam to a
particular temperature and consistency to create distinct
patterns. In the U.S., latte art is believed to have started
in Seattle during the late ’80s when a man named David
Schomer championed a rosette pattern off a photograph
he’d seen. Raffaella’s artistic expertise at the De’Longhi
machine was creating the perfect high hat of foam to cap
her cappuccino. Along with her artist’s model fi gure, Ital-
ian accent, and signature scowl, her talent for creating the
perfect foam no doubt contributed in no small part to the
success of the café.
These days I love wandering around Cannon Beach
sampling coffee. In between gallery hops, I might grab
an Americano at Insomnia, or nurse a cappuccino on the
porch at Sleepy Monk. I love seeing Rachel and Rebec-
ca behind the counter. They are a terrifi c sister act. In
my humble opinion, there isn’t a better place for people
watching anywhere on the North Coast than Sleepy Monk.
Last week I introduced a Gearhart friend to the won-
ders of Sea Level Bakery and Café. I urged her to buy a
couple of demi baguettes to take home for the dinner party
she was planning. We sat outside in the sun, marveling at
the glorious weather. I ordered a 12-ounce latte to stay in
a china cup. I confess I dislike coffee in paper cups. When
mine came up, the design on it was so lovely, I felt moved
to take a photograph. For a moment I wished I could travel
back in time to show it to Raffaella. I know she would
have appreciated it.
LETTERS
Thompson responds
I’m writing to reconfi rm my commitment to serving as
the elected representative of District 5 on the board of the
Clatsop County Commissioners.
No one said it would be easy to serve. No one prom-
ised that a closed system would be open to change, that
entrenched powers would not push back, or that personal
attacks would never supplant honest debate. Certainly, I
never expected such a political panacea. To see it play out
in real life, however, can either be disheartening or moti-
vating. I choose motivation.
My motivation is to serve the great people of Clatsop
County, especially those in my home District 5. I have
little interest or patience with those few people who would
fi nd validation in power, or who like to see themselves as
big fi sh in small ponds.
I do not understand those who would pass on the op-
portunity to use the board’s authority to make policy that
improves lives. The people I serve are those who struggle
in our county, who have real needs, aspirations and ideas,
and who desperately need a politician to hear them and a
voice to speak for them. These are the people who moti-
vate me.
You may have seen the chairman’s opinion that I
should resign (“Lee calls for Thompson’s resignation,”
The Daily Astorian, Oct. 26). You may have read his
letter accusing me of hateful things that an unnecessary,
expensive investigation by a Portland attorney could not
confi rm. I will address those issues publicly, and in detail,
at the next board meeting.
See Letters, Page 5A
Contributing
writers
Rebecca Herren
Katherine Lacaze
Eve Marx
Nancy McCarthy
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