A6 • Friday, February 8, 2019 | Cannon Beach Gazette | CannonBeachGazette.com
Views from the Rock
An artist’s process
Emilio Lobato aims to capture ‘that moment of bliss’
Is Cannon Beach a getaway or a place to
tune in? For many of us it’s a little of both.
Emilio Lobato III came to the coast
in January from his home in Denver. The
painter and his family have returned to Can-
non Beach almost every year since their fi rst
getaway in 1987. Lobato’s wife, Darlene Sis-
neros, a prominent Denver attorney, died six
years ago.
This winter, Emilio Lobato returned alone
for an immersive artistic experience. Loba-
to’s work can also be found Wiliam Havu
Gallery in Denver and the Elizabeth Leach
Gallery in Portland. He has exhibited in
Denver’s Kirkland Museum, the Denver Art
Museum and galleries nationally.
CANNON SHOTS
R.J. MARX
Q: What was it that drew you here?
Lobato: Cannon Beach has always been
a good place for hunkering down, cocoon-
ing, working on projects. I loaded up my car
with supplies and I’ve been here a month
painting.
Q: Why mid-winter?
Lobato: I was a little bit worried about
coming to such a small town for an extended
period.
I have found that I love it. I absolutely
love it. It seems like a place where writers
live. It’s an incredible place to visit when
there’s no one around. There have been days
I’ve taken walks and I’ve got the beach to
myself. It feels like it’s mine.
Q: Tell me about your paintings.
Lobato: Painting is a misnomer in this
case. I’m an abstract painter, but this time
I’m doing collages. Collecting antique
books, papers, physical materials and gluing
them down to a surface.
Q: Like some of Picasso’s work?
Lobato: Picasso was famous for tak-
ing the daily newspaper and gluing it into
his compositions and painting on top of it.
His (collages) were political, mine are not.
They’re very, very personal.
I was trying to think what could I create
that would describe this region. And more
importantly, my experience with it.
Q: Has it been a productive period?
Lobato: I’ve fi nished 16 pieces while
I’m here, 24-by-24 inches, all collages. I
brought the panels, then scoured the coast-
line for materials that would speak of this
area. I found some beautiful old merchant
ledgers in Astoria from the 1800s. I found
a big antique map of Tillamook Bay. I love
books as art pieces.
Q: How do the collages fi t thematically
with your paintings?
Lobato: My work is typically a little
more dark, geometric, with harder edges.
This is much lighter, and playful, hopefully
capturing a sense of childhood and nostal-
gia, a quality in the air, pleasant memories.
Q: How does the coastal environment
infl uence your work?
Lobato: When I’m here the rest of the
world disappears. The ocean, I’m fi nding, is
sort of hydrating my soul.
I grew up in such an isolated part of Col-
orado that the nearest neighbor was half a
mile away. So my work of the last 20-plus
years has been about isolation and solitude.
I’ve worked that into my themes. That land-
scape always lent itself to my process: to
imagine, to wander, to create, to experiment.
The ocean affords me that too.
Q: What do you look for when approach-
ing the canvas?
Lobato: The world doesn’t need another
painting of the ocean. Don’t get me wrong,
it’s beautiful, but there are plenty that exist.
What can I do to bring a different perspec-
tive to that experience?
My wife was an avid kite-fl yer. She
A safe place to land
in Cannon Beach
M
ichele Duncan
King is a licensed
massage thera-
pist, registered yoga teacher
and personal development
coach; she is the owner of
Sea Spell Massage in Can-
non Beach. She enjoys
travel, in particular to spiri-
tual-based retreats; recently
she returned from just such
a sojourn in the French West
Indies.
“Re-immersion shouldn’t
have to be so hard,” Dun-
can King said. Which is
why she created “A Safe
Place to Land,” a series of
workshops meeting the fi rst
Thursday of every month to
help herself and others hold
on to that healing, restor-
ative energy and wisdom
one gains on a retreat.
“Access your inner wis-
dom and fi nd your voice
using fun and highly effec-
tive tools and processes,”
Duncan King said. “For
each gathering, we’ll pick a
project or topic to explore,
but mostly we’ll be letting
the places that need to come
up to the light just do that.”
Before becoming a
licensed massage thera-
pist, Duncan King toiled in
the law fi eld for 20 years.
“Then my mom was diag-
nosed with Lou Gehrig’s
disease at the age of 53,”
she said. “I had an immedi-
ate realization that I needed
to do work that brought
myself and others more
joy.” She later expanded
her goal to educating peo-
ple how to better care for
their bodies, including after
they left the massage table,
developing a practice of
alignment based yoga, or
what she described as kine-
sio yoga.
“Something really spe-
cial and powerful shows up
when women sit together
in a safe place, authen-
tically sharing of them-
selves,” Duncan King said.
Publisher
Kari Borgen
Editor
R.J. Marx
Circulation
Manager
Jeremy Feldman
Production
Manager
John D. Bruijn
VIEW FROM
THE PORCH
EVE MARX
Sea Shell Massage
“Connection, clarity, sup-
port, laughter, solutions, and
ease appear effortlessly.”
She said she’ll be spark-
ing the muse with creative
projects and thought-pro-
voking topics to inspire in a
non-judgmental atmosphere
of self-expression and trans-
formative personal growth.
“Together we can cre-
ate a safe, warm, and caring
place where we can share
from our heart, have fun,
and learn new life skills,”
she said. “And there will be
chocolate at every meeting.”
A Safe Place to Land
meets the fi rst Thursday of
every month at Sea Spell
Massage, located at 115
W. Nelchena St. in Can-
non Beach. The group meets
from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. A
$10 donation is requested,
although an item with a per-
sonal value is OK if cash
fl ow is a challenge. Even
granola or avocados as pay-
ment are welcome. For
more information or to reg-
ister, call or text.
To register call or text
541-819-0579 or log on
to www.cannonbeach.org/
event/a-soft-place-to-land.
Advertising
Sales
Holly Larkins
Staff writer
Brenna Visser
Contributing writers
Joseph Bernt
Eve Marx
Bob Dietsche
Nancy McCarthy
Dave Fisher
Cara Mico
Rita Goldfarb
Rain Jordan
Emilio Lobato during his visit to Cannon Beach.
adored stunt kites. She discovered them
here. She bought very expensive, super-
fast ones, and we traveled with them. She’d
bring them here every year, and fl y them.
She never felt such bliss. One of my inspi-
rations on this trip was to capture that
moment.
Q: Describe Cannon Beach from an art-
ist’s perspective.
Lobato: There’s beauty in everything.
The coastline is beautiful. The quality of
light is exquisite.
You don’t know where the ocean ends
and the sky begins. The earth seems to meet
the waters.
It’s like the edge of the earth. I can’t
imagine what that looked like to ancient
explorers — no wonder they thought they
were going to fall off the edge.
Q: Tell me your impressions of Cannon
Beach today.
Lobato: I love the mom-and-pop feel-
ing. I love that automobiles are not allowed
on the beach.
Cannon Beach is very clean. It’s retained
that rugged, pristine look.
Q: How are you handling the isolation?
Lobato: This is the most I have talked in
three weeks. I’m a somewhat social guy, but
I’m surprised how easy it is to shut down.
I think my next step might be a monas-
tery where people don’t speak for a week —
I wonder if I’m up for the challenge.
Q: When did you feel you made it as an
artist?
Lobato: I feel I have arrived as an art-
ist at many times in my career. I’ve had exhi-
bitions, for example. When you get one of
those, it’s validation. But you never really
quite arrive as an artist. There’s always some-
thing else to aspire to. I’ve learned I’ve been
lucky to paint full time for almost 26 years.
Do good, have fun, make money
D
o you have a personal oper-
ating philosophy? I do.
Mine is “Do good, have fun,
make money, because we have to
pay the bills.” Let me explain a lit-
tle. Doing good is what motivates
me. I’m an elected public offi cial,
a CERT (Community Emergency
Response Team), and church lady
in order to do good in the world. It
fl oats my boat.
Having fun matters because
doing good should feel good, pro-
vide satisfaction and joy. Working
together in teams that do the great-
est good for the greatest number is
something that warms and nour-
ishes my heart. It also means using
compassion whenever possible.
Making money is an essential
element, because we also operate in
the material world and a capitalist
economy. Good thoughts and good
feelings matter a lot, but almost
always there’s a fi nancial compo-
nent involved in taking actions in
the world.
The job of county commissioner
involves considering costs and ben-
efi ts. We take in money all day long
every day, in the form of various
taxes and fees. We provide services
all day long every day, in the form
of programs and services. That’s
our job. That’s why government
exists, and we elected offi cials are
your representatives to do that.
When Clatsop County Com-
missioners are sworn into offi ce,
we take a vow to obey the laws of
the State of Oregon and of Clatsop
County. We vow to act legally as
your representatives.
We are also bound by Ethics
Commission laws to behave ethi-
cally as your representatives.
We are well-advised to behave
in a fi scally prudent manner, con-
sidering effi cient and effective use
of public monies to provide public
services as your representatives.
I am committed to behaving in
ways that are legal, ethical, and fi s-
cally prudent to provide public ser-
vices to you and for you. You are
my boss, and you make the money
to pay the bills.
I am committed to providing
you the opportunity to be seen and
heard in the public process. Just last
month representatives came to tes-
tify to the Board of County Com-
missioners at our meetings in Asto-
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TUNNEL ECHOES
LIANNE THOMPSON
ria. Both Falcon Cove Beach Water
District and Elsie Vinemaple held
up their needs in the public venue.
That’s good for them and good for
everyone, that they had opportunity
to be visible.
What other measures of good
government matter? To me,
accountability and transparency
matter. Accountability means that
we consider whose costs and whose
benefi ts. We consider the most effi -
cient and effective ways to achieve
the outcomes and goals we have
thoughtfully articulated in an open
and welcoming public process.
Nigel Jaquiss said, “Corruption
in Oregon doesn’t look like enve-
lopes full of hundred-dollar bills
being passed. Corruption in Ore-
gon looks like croneyism without
accountability.” That makes sense
to me. We’re all accountable to
someone. Who is our boss? Is it the
voters, or is it political operatives
who put us into offi ce to deliver our
voice and our vote to them, when
they have an issue or a cause?
I learned some hard lessons
early into my career as a County
Commission. I received a telephone
call from a lobbyist who said,
“Lianne, here’s how I want you to
vote on this issue.” I was told by
the Board Chair, “I gave you a con-
tribution. You owe me your vote.”
Someone I had considered a friend
sat at my kitchen table and said,
“The environmental community
got you elected. You have to dance
with the ones that brung you. If you
don’t vote the way we want you to
do on this issue, we won’t support
you. And there’s talk of a recall.”
Oh. So that’s how it works here,
I thought. Here’s a deeper value,
a more signifi cant voice in my
mind and memory: my father’s. He
said, “Let your conscience be your
guide.” Better advice than those
trying to control and command my
voice and vote.
You elected me to serve you,
using my moral compass and the
best thinking I could bring to
every issue. I listen to all sides of
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every issue, to the best of my abil-
ity. Then I use my best judgment,
which is what I think you elected
me to do, even if we don’t agree
completely every time on every
issue.
Here’s a signifi cant challenge:
District 5 is sharply and deeply
divided on a variety of issues.
There are people who think it’s
morally wrong to cut a single tree
and that people who cut trees are
evil. There are people who have
for generations made their liv-
ing cutting trees to provide sup-
port for their families and their
communities.
How do we wage peace together
rather than making war on one
another when we have widely
divergent points of view?
We need good listening, com-
mitting to welcoming divergent
points of view in a respectful way.
We need to do it in public, in a way
that is transparent and open to pub-
lic view.
What I’m seeing in the newly
elected chair and the newly con-
stituted board makes me wonder
about our collective commitment
to transparency and accountability.
Things are still developing, but I’m
preparing to raise more concerns
and raise them more openly if we
continue down a path that lessens
transparency and accountability.
One more thing about account-
ability. It’s best used as a tool, not
as a weapon. It’s important to allow
for learning curves, growing by
doing and making mistakes. When-
ever possible, I look for the “no
harm, no foul” evaluation if a mis-
take is recognized and owned and
helps us learn and grow.
Most of all, we have to be will-
ing to share our truths, not silence
or exclude those who raise ques-
tions or concerns. I’ve seen too
much of that. “Denial ain’t just
a river in Egypt,” as the saying
goes, and it doesn’t help us address
what needs to be seen, heard, and
resolved.
And I’m still working on hous-
ing, ecologically sustainable eco-
nomic development, and resilience.
Those are the bigger picture, lon-
ger-term solutions we need, going
forward together.
Lianne Thompson is Clatsop
County commissioner for District 5.
THE NATIONAL AWARD-WINNING