Slightly Off Center

Maude Kerns Art Center, where my pottery co-op is hosted, is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, with a big ol' art show. Legacy: 75th Anniversary Exhibit. The show features 75 artists (naturally) who have a connection to the center, including half a dozen of my Club Mud compatriots. And me; this is "The Optimists," a piece from 2002 inspired by Garrison Keillor's Lake Woebegone tale of the Sons of Knute's giant duck decoys.

Also included are late artists and Oregon legends Maude I. Kerns, Nelson Sandgren, Mark Clarke, Ann and David McCosh, and LaVerne Krause. Potters Lottie Streisinger, Gil Harrison, Don Prey. I also recognized many names from my grad school days: Mary Dole, Mike Walsh, and faculty members Craig Spilman and Ken Paul.

Turnout for the opening was huge. I only barely managed to see all the art, and will want to come back when it's quieter to read the historical panels and clippings. The show is open until June 20; I highly recommend it if you're in Eugene.

I drove 450 miles.

I know, "shelter in place," right?

But I had a gallery order to deliver, wholesale, not consignment (meaning they pay me whether or not they sell the pots), so I really needed to get it there. There being Olympia, Washington.

I've never actively sought galleries; they approach me. I've had, oh, a dozen over the years, and every one has seen me at a show or art fair (or once, at the Craft Center) and solicited my work. It's been definitely a mixed experience. The first four or five went out of business on me (one still owing money); I began to feel like Typhoid Mary.

Then I had a run of good ones, steady sellers who, moreover, made it easy for me. Both Mud in Your Eye and Crow Valley Pottery did pick-up runs down into Oregon. I'd still have to drive a little, but rarely further than Portland. Heron's Nest was even easier; one of their artists had grandchildren in Eugene and was more than willing to put a couple of boxes in the trunk to take back to Vashon Island.

These days, I only have two galleries, plus the bookstore right in town. One is in Forest Grove, west of Portland, the other, as I said, in Olympia. I suppose I could pack and ship to both, but time, materials, expense. It's cheaper (and way easier) to take a day off and drive up.

In better times, Denise and I would make a day of it. Drive up (trading driving as necessary), deliver pots, eat lunch in a nice restaurant. Maybe drive back via the scenic route--the drive south from Forest Grove meanders through farmland, nurseries and vineyards, lovely in nice weather.

Which we haven't had--grey, rainy, downpours, barely able to see to the end of my hood. We had about 20 minutes of sunshine yesterday, out of nine hours. I did all the driving. And lunch was sandwiches and fruit we brought from home, sitting in a rest stop in Toutle River.

But we stayed in the car, wore masks and washed thoroughly at rest stops, and at least got away from the house for a day. And delivered the goods.