TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY K.B. DIXON
This is the third installment of portraits in The Artist Series. The first two focused on Oregon writers. This one focuses on visual artists—the gifted painters and sculptors who have made invaluable contributions to the character and culture of this city and state, people whose legacies are destined to be part of our cultural history.
It would take pages to catalog the awards, commissions, and honors of these artists and color reproductions of their work to provide a full appreciation of their wizardry so I will simply refer you to their various perches in cyberspace—their virtual ateliers.
LEE KELLY: SCULPTOR

Kelly is one of the most revered artists in the Pacific Northwest. He is best known for his monumental public sculptures. These large pieces are “often animalistic, sometimes suggestive of calligraphy or Asian script, always poetic.” – Bob Hicks, ArtScatter.
Examples of Kelly’s work can be found at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery and at lee-kelly.net.
HENK PANDER: PAINTER

Examples of Pander’s work can be found at Henk Pander: Paintings.
LUCINDA PARKER: ABSTRACT PAINTER

Examples of Parker’s work can be found at the Russo Lee Gallery.
SAMANTHA WALL: PAINTER

Examples of Wall’s work can be found at the Russo Lee Gallery and at samanthawall.com.
KATHERINE ACE: FIGURATIVE AND STILL-LIFE PAINTER

Examples of Ace’s work can be found at Froelick Gallery and at katherineace.com.
LAURA ROSS-PAUL: PAINTER

Examples of Ross-Paul’s work can be found at Froelick Gallery and at lauraross-paul.com.
STEPHEN O’DONNELL: PAINTER

Examples of O’Donnell’s work can be found at Froelick Gallery and at stephenodonnellartist.com.
ARVIE SMITH: PAINTER AND ACTIVIST

Examples of Smith’s work can be found at arviesmith.com.
SHERRIE WOLF: PHOTOREALIST PAINTER AND PRINTMAKER

Examples of Wolf’s work can be found at the Russo Lee Gallery and at sherriewolfstudio.com.
MATTHEW DENNISON: PAINTER

“Painting is a form of writing to me. I view a group of paintings as text. I join ideas together with information and explore meanings through association. I combine images to make new information as if the images were words. The goal is to surface the remote elements of each painting as if they were a chapter in a larger text; a way of mapping together information to create another way of seeing the moment.” – Matthew Dennison, New American Painting.
Examples of Dennison’s work can be found at Froelick Gallery.
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Earlier in the Artists Series:
- The Artists Series: Writers. Dixon portrays Oregon writers Kim Stafford, Jon Raymond, Samiya Bashir, Omar El Akkad, Willy Vlautin, Lidia Yuknavich, Leni Zumas, Justin Taylor, Kimberly King Parsons, and Kevin Sampsell.
- The Artists Series: Writers, Part 2. Dixon portrays Oregon writers Floyd Skloot, Sophia Shalmiyev, David Biespiel, Karen Russell, Arthur Bradford, Molly Gloss, Kate Carroll De Gutes, Reema Zaman, Zachary Schomburg, and Anis Mojgani.
Conversation