Past Exhibits
Alice Van Leunen & Kelly Gill Holland
"Passages"
August 9th - October 6th, 2009
Alice Van Leunen
Alice Van Leunen was born in Evansville, Indiana in 1943. Her father was artistic and encouraged her in her art as well as supported it. She attended Smith College and received a BA in Psychology and a minor in fine art. After a year in graduate school at Indiana University she switched from Psychology to the Fine Arts department. She was then working on an MFA in Textile design. She moved to Oregon in 1970 and spent six years involved in loom woven artworks.
In 1980 Van Leunen taught classes in textiles at Portland State University and in 1993 received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission. Van Leunen has enjoyed working in collaboration with many other artists and was inspired by the poetry of her long time friend Kelly Gill Holland to create works for her Golden Gallery Show.
Her approach is light hearted, and inspiration comes from a wide range of interests. Many of which have come from her research in history, science, and mythology. Many make musical or literary references, featuring calligraphic marks made with yarn, foil, paint, fabric, or pencil. Some works are an artistic response to life's challenges for her. And others refer to other art forms, especially other textile traditions. Her work often reflects something humorous or a play on words.
Kelly Gill Holland
Kelly Gill Holland, born 1934 Dolores Gottfried in Salem Oregon. She studied at the Sacred Heart Academy where she excelled in music and voice.
Her father was a avid hunter and she developed a passion for the outdoors. Some of her work has been inspired by some of her days with her father out in the wilderness. Holland always had a love of nature inspiring her to write volumes about her surroundings. She also learned music, sang opera, and played the piano.
As a young adult she lived a parallel life; holding down a career in radio broadcasting, commercial writing, while acting and writing poetry. She attended Willamette University where she majored in drama. She also gained recognition for her acting skills and winning the Voice of Democracy Award. From there she was published in numerous periodicals such as Modern Poetry magazine in New York and the Oregonian that lead to a close relationship with Ethel Romig Fuller (Poet Laureate).
Her skills and desires for the arts were significantly driven by a childhood filled with language and music. Her first poem was made public at the young age of 17 at the local radio station. Radio producer, Carl Richie directed the Warwich Radio Theater. He was a fan of her poetry and he would read Kelly’s poems live on air.
For this showing Kelly has taken all her passions and has partnered with visual artist Alice Van Leunen, to translate physical art into poetry and poetry into art making. This makes an amazing form where words and art explode on the page and onto the canvas incorporating visual and other media techniques and rules of grammar.
Her work has also been displayed at the Delphian Gallery.
