| Fashion News Oregon |
Oregon glass artists featured on Oregon Art Beat Dec. 27
Monday, December 24, 2007
The Hillsboro Argus
A special Oregon Art Beat program features glass artists from around the state and will be telecast at 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 27, and at 6 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 30, by Oregon Public Broadcasting.
See how four artists use this medium in different ways to fashion their unique creations.
They are:
Roger Crosta - This Nehalem artist quit his job as a building designer and contractor when he discovered glass blowing. Now Roger Crosta is one of
two people in the country working in a new, yet ancient, process of glass blowing called 'scavo.'
Chris Hawthorne - He's one of the finest glass artists in Oregon. Chris Hawthorne's signature vessels swirl in an enchanting display of color and
texture. It's a style he developed on his own in a remote studio on the southern coast. Watch him create these marvelous works of art and learn how
this acclaimed artist came to call the tiny hamlet of Sixes, home.
Catharine Newell - Have you ever seen glass that looks like paper, crumpled with artful images peaking through? Portland glass artist Catharine
Newell's creations fool the eye and challenge your perceptions.
Mike Plane - Mike Plane spins superheated glass into exquisite sculpture. Every day the Eugene Glass School artist in residence is breaking the
boundaries of glass art by building bigger and more adventurous pieces.
Video clips of the stories featured on Art Beat can be viewed online immediately following the broadcast at www.opb.org/programs/artbeat.
Gift of Light
Every year, the Benedict family gives the town of Wasco a brilliant Christmas display, and this year the town gave back
By KATHY GRAY
of The Dalles Chronicle
Wasco, Oregon, sits about a mile off the main highway that bisects Sherman County north to south, an oasis of 400 people and a
handful of businesses surrounded for miles around by wheat fields and windmills.
It’s a quiet little town, hidden from casual view by that rolling wheatland and high desert. On a chilly December Saturday afternoon,
the only inhabitants to be seen out of doors are a black cat surveying the tall grass and an elderly couple crossing the main street from
the tavern that serves as a town directional marker.
Except for the big annual Memorial Day celebration that distinguishes them from communities in its four neighboring counties, the
residents of Wasco are pretty quiet about their goings on.
But as winter weather begins to set in each year, Wasco begins to glow on the night horizon. The source of this evening gleam is the
Benedict house — known to locals simply as “the house on the hill” — ablaze with more than a half-million decorative Christmas
lights.
Over the past eight years, the spectacular display has become a fixture that Wasco residents look forward to each holiday season. But
this year a dark hill nearly took the place of the familiar glow that can be seen throughout the town.
As a result of recent price increases for electricity and oil, which heats the five-story Victorian house, Bill and Linda Benedict had
about decided not to put on the massive show this year. In 2006, electricity to light the display from
Thanksgiving through Christmas cost $600, not to mention the up-front costs of such a big undertaking.
Linda was at a community event earlier in the fall and had mentioned the family might be forced to end the display.
“A couple of little old ladies said, ‘You can’t do that,’” Benedict recalled, sitting at a kitchen table with a nearly life-size Santa
standing nearby and an evergreen arrangement on the table.
The house on the hill, also known as the Christmas house at this time of year, had gone from an impressive private display to a public
institution over the past eight years, and the residents of Wasco weren’t prepared to let it go dark.
“People just came to expect that we’re going to see these lights on the house,” said Cassie Welk-Strege, Wasco’s city clerk. “The
comment I heard was disappointment.”
So, in true community fashion, the city of Wasco launched a campaign to raise money for this year’s display.
“The lighting of ‘the house on the hill’ brings such enjoyment to everyone in the community, as well as to those who travel here during
the holiday season especially to view them,” wrote Wasco’s mayor, Karen Kellogg, in the October city newsletter.
A collection jar marked “Donation for Holiday Lights,” appeared on the counter at Wasco City Hall and residents were encouraged to
send in an extra check with their water and sewer bills.
The request generated more than $925 in donations, according to Welk-Strege.
So, once again this year, icicle lights drip from every eve on the grand old Victorian house, colored strings festoon the trees and
shrubbery, and a glowing Santa welcomes passersby.
While the way the lights are displayed varies from year to year, the over-the-top tradition is a constant, thanks to the Benedicts’ oldest
son, Howard, who started the tradition when the family lived in Willard, Wash. He took a week every year to put up the ambitious home
display.
“He just wanted to do it, mostly for the older people and shut-ins,” Linda Benedict explained, “but it was for everybody to enjoy.”
Almost nine years ago, at the suggestion of a friend from Moro, the Benedicts bought the big house in Wasco, a decaying relic of a
grander era. During its history, the old house had been used as a community hospital, and also for public dances that took place in the
third-floor ballroom.
When they bought the house, a hole gaped in the kitchen ceiling from an old plumbing leak, the wood of the second-floor balcony was
rotting away, and the house was in a generally crumbling condition.
“It was a wreck,” Linda Benedict admitted, “but this was my dream house,
no matter what condition it was in. It had always been my dream to have a home like this.”
The Benedicts brought not only their dreams, but their holiday tradition.
“It’s my favorite time of the year,” said Linda. “When my kids were little I always decorated. Christmas is for kids.”
That first year, the Benjamins were neck-deep in renovation work, along with their son, who works in construction. Bill and Linda
hadn’t planned to put on a lighting display, but Howard had a different plan that he acted on while his parents were away from the
house.
“I came home and the house was all lit up,” Linda said. “I cried, I was so happy. I couldn’t believe it.”
The family tradition has continued in Wasco each Christmas since, and the residents of Wasco expressed how they feel about the
annual Benedict effort through their donations this year. Between 30 and 40 people contributed, Welk-Strege estimates. Those
donations have helped illuminate a holiday display that amounts to more than 1,000 lights for each resident of Wasco.
“People come from all around the area to look at it,” Welk-Strege said. “It just adds to the holiday spirit in town. You can see the house
from everywhere in the city.”
She was pleased and surprised at the number of people who contributed, and so was Linda Benedict, who responded in true small-town
fashion: She invited all donors into her home for a series of open houses, just to say thanks.
“I didn’t think there was that much interest,” she said. “It proved an awful lot of people have enjoyed these lights.”
A Little-known Oregon Artist Passes On
December 14th, 2007 -- If you are in your Sixties, and began your journey in the Portland area, you remember his work. Not that you
ever knew his name: Paul Srofe. But, most likely, you knew and loved his work. Before television in the 1940's, it was a Christmas
family tradition to visit downtown stores at night so that the kids could see the holiday department store windows. Meier and Frank,
Lippman Wolf and others during that WWII era turned their sidewalk windows into miniature landscapes. Railroad trains, tiny
forested mountains, beautiful little towns and farms, and so forth. If memory serves, there was a competition involved, and awards
given out.
Paul Srofe no doubt won some of those awards for his M&F windows, but more importantly added to the richness of the season,
delighting thousands of kids, including me. It was decades later that by accident I found out the name of the artist who made those
wonderful displays. His daughter, Chris, became a Jantzen model and married a friend I made in the advertising business -- the Dutch
commercial photographer who chose Oregon as his home, Sjef Wildschut. (Shef Vildskoot)
Oregon attracts artists, for whatever reasons. I've met a great many during my six-plus decades here. One of the best was a man whose
name I didn't even know for most of my life. He made displays for store windows that sent the imagination of children soaring.
Tax break gives Oregon arts a break
Contributing to Oregon Cultural Trust enhances state’s quality of life
December 12
Oregonians around the state support the arts and culture in Marion County, and local residents return the favor by supporting the arts
elsewhere — all through the Oregon Cultural Trust.
The trust gives donors a tax break for supporting the arts. All they need to do is add up their checks to nonprofit arts and cultural
organizations for 2007; write a matching check for the total to the Oregon Cultural Trust by year’s end; and take a tax credit — better
than a deduction — off their 2007 Oregon taxes.
Locally, some of that money has come back in the form of major grants for restoration of cedar boards, furniture and cabinetry at
Gordon House at the Oregon Garden. Scotts Mills Historical Society received $1,500 for an entrance sign depicting historical features
of the city, in another recent example.
Meanwhile, local folks have helped support projects as diverse as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, A.C. Gilbert’s
Discovery Village children’s museum in Salem, and a writer-in-residence program in the northeastern Oregon community of
Enterprise.
So far, the folks taking advantage of this state tax break tend to be big donors to the arts. But people can be part of this even if their
only “culture” donation of the year is a small check to a school music or art program or to the local Friends of the Library.
This would be worth doing just for the tax break. But the statewide, grassroots nature of the project is what makes it really valuable.
People shouldn’t have to live in big cities in order to hear excellent music or meet a professional author. Youngsters throughout the
Mid-Valley deserve to be exposed to these things so they can develop their own skills. Adults need to connect or reconnect with art,
theater and history in their own communities, not hours away.
Likewise, Oregon’s native tribes, immigrants and ranch families have skills and crafts that deserve to be fostered and shared. Grants
from the cultural trust have helped preserve oral histories of Japanese-Americans, reach out to Hispanic-American veterans, preserve
Native American languages and restore a Chinese museum in John Day, among many other things.
Much of the decision-making takes place from the bottom up, in true Oregon fashion. Local councils have formed to represent all 36
counties and nine federally recognized tribes. So if a Silver Falls teacher has a great idea for a project, he or she can get some seed
money by convincing Marion County’s council members that the project is worthwhile.
A new grant this year seems tailor-made for Silverton and Mount Angel: the Arts & Cultural Tourism Grant Program. Businesses have
been piggybacking informally on the Oregon Garden’s presence. A grant could encourage further cooperation and draw additional
tourists during this next crucial year in the garden’s development.
Oregon is not known for state support of the arts. But the Oregon Cultural Trust gives everyday Oregonians the chance to say, “Here’s
my vote. Use this part of my state taxes for the arts and culture.”
That’s pretty neat.
Monday, December 24, 2007
The Hillsboro Argus
A special Oregon Art Beat program features glass artists from around the state and will be telecast at 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 27, and at 6 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 30, by Oregon Public Broadcasting.
See how four artists use this medium in different ways to fashion their unique creations.
They are:
Roger Crosta - This Nehalem artist quit his job as a building designer and contractor when he discovered glass blowing. Now Roger Crosta is one of
two people in the country working in a new, yet ancient, process of glass blowing called 'scavo.'
Chris Hawthorne - He's one of the finest glass artists in Oregon. Chris Hawthorne's signature vessels swirl in an enchanting display of color and
texture. It's a style he developed on his own in a remote studio on the southern coast. Watch him create these marvelous works of art and learn how
this acclaimed artist came to call the tiny hamlet of Sixes, home.
Catharine Newell - Have you ever seen glass that looks like paper, crumpled with artful images peaking through? Portland glass artist Catharine
Newell's creations fool the eye and challenge your perceptions.
Mike Plane - Mike Plane spins superheated glass into exquisite sculpture. Every day the Eugene Glass School artist in residence is breaking the
boundaries of glass art by building bigger and more adventurous pieces.
Video clips of the stories featured on Art Beat can be viewed online immediately following the broadcast at www.opb.org/programs/artbeat.
Gift of Light
Every year, the Benedict family gives the town of Wasco a brilliant Christmas display, and this year the town gave back
By KATHY GRAY
of The Dalles Chronicle
Wasco, Oregon, sits about a mile off the main highway that bisects Sherman County north to south, an oasis of 400 people and a
handful of businesses surrounded for miles around by wheat fields and windmills.
It’s a quiet little town, hidden from casual view by that rolling wheatland and high desert. On a chilly December Saturday afternoon,
the only inhabitants to be seen out of doors are a black cat surveying the tall grass and an elderly couple crossing the main street from
the tavern that serves as a town directional marker.
Except for the big annual Memorial Day celebration that distinguishes them from communities in its four neighboring counties, the
residents of Wasco are pretty quiet about their goings on.
But as winter weather begins to set in each year, Wasco begins to glow on the night horizon. The source of this evening gleam is the
Benedict house — known to locals simply as “the house on the hill” — ablaze with more than a half-million decorative Christmas
lights.
Over the past eight years, the spectacular display has become a fixture that Wasco residents look forward to each holiday season. But
this year a dark hill nearly took the place of the familiar glow that can be seen throughout the town.
As a result of recent price increases for electricity and oil, which heats the five-story Victorian house, Bill and Linda Benedict had
about decided not to put on the massive show this year. In 2006, electricity to light the display from
Thanksgiving through Christmas cost $600, not to mention the up-front costs of such a big undertaking.
Linda was at a community event earlier in the fall and had mentioned the family might be forced to end the display.
“A couple of little old ladies said, ‘You can’t do that,’” Benedict recalled, sitting at a kitchen table with a nearly life-size Santa
standing nearby and an evergreen arrangement on the table.
The house on the hill, also known as the Christmas house at this time of year, had gone from an impressive private display to a public
institution over the past eight years, and the residents of Wasco weren’t prepared to let it go dark.
“People just came to expect that we’re going to see these lights on the house,” said Cassie Welk-Strege, Wasco’s city clerk. “The
comment I heard was disappointment.”
So, in true community fashion, the city of Wasco launched a campaign to raise money for this year’s display.
“The lighting of ‘the house on the hill’ brings such enjoyment to everyone in the community, as well as to those who travel here during
the holiday season especially to view them,” wrote Wasco’s mayor, Karen Kellogg, in the October city newsletter.
A collection jar marked “Donation for Holiday Lights,” appeared on the counter at Wasco City Hall and residents were encouraged to
send in an extra check with their water and sewer bills.
The request generated more than $925 in donations, according to Welk-Strege.
So, once again this year, icicle lights drip from every eve on the grand old Victorian house, colored strings festoon the trees and
shrubbery, and a glowing Santa welcomes passersby.
While the way the lights are displayed varies from year to year, the over-the-top tradition is a constant, thanks to the Benedicts’ oldest
son, Howard, who started the tradition when the family lived in Willard, Wash. He took a week every year to put up the ambitious home
display.
“He just wanted to do it, mostly for the older people and shut-ins,” Linda Benedict explained, “but it was for everybody to enjoy.”
Almost nine years ago, at the suggestion of a friend from Moro, the Benedicts bought the big house in Wasco, a decaying relic of a
grander era. During its history, the old house had been used as a community hospital, and also for public dances that took place in the
third-floor ballroom.
When they bought the house, a hole gaped in the kitchen ceiling from an old plumbing leak, the wood of the second-floor balcony was
rotting away, and the house was in a generally crumbling condition.
“It was a wreck,” Linda Benedict admitted, “but this was my dream house,
no matter what condition it was in. It had always been my dream to have a home like this.”
The Benedicts brought not only their dreams, but their holiday tradition.
“It’s my favorite time of the year,” said Linda. “When my kids were little I always decorated. Christmas is for kids.”
That first year, the Benjamins were neck-deep in renovation work, along with their son, who works in construction. Bill and Linda
hadn’t planned to put on a lighting display, but Howard had a different plan that he acted on while his parents were away from the
house.
“I came home and the house was all lit up,” Linda said. “I cried, I was so happy. I couldn’t believe it.”
The family tradition has continued in Wasco each Christmas since, and the residents of Wasco expressed how they feel about the
annual Benedict effort through their donations this year. Between 30 and 40 people contributed, Welk-Strege estimates. Those
donations have helped illuminate a holiday display that amounts to more than 1,000 lights for each resident of Wasco.
“People come from all around the area to look at it,” Welk-Strege said. “It just adds to the holiday spirit in town. You can see the house
from everywhere in the city.”
She was pleased and surprised at the number of people who contributed, and so was Linda Benedict, who responded in true small-town
fashion: She invited all donors into her home for a series of open houses, just to say thanks.
“I didn’t think there was that much interest,” she said. “It proved an awful lot of people have enjoyed these lights.”
A Little-known Oregon Artist Passes On
December 14th, 2007 -- If you are in your Sixties, and began your journey in the Portland area, you remember his work. Not that you
ever knew his name: Paul Srofe. But, most likely, you knew and loved his work. Before television in the 1940's, it was a Christmas
family tradition to visit downtown stores at night so that the kids could see the holiday department store windows. Meier and Frank,
Lippman Wolf and others during that WWII era turned their sidewalk windows into miniature landscapes. Railroad trains, tiny
forested mountains, beautiful little towns and farms, and so forth. If memory serves, there was a competition involved, and awards
given out.
Paul Srofe no doubt won some of those awards for his M&F windows, but more importantly added to the richness of the season,
delighting thousands of kids, including me. It was decades later that by accident I found out the name of the artist who made those
wonderful displays. His daughter, Chris, became a Jantzen model and married a friend I made in the advertising business -- the Dutch
commercial photographer who chose Oregon as his home, Sjef Wildschut. (Shef Vildskoot)
Oregon attracts artists, for whatever reasons. I've met a great many during my six-plus decades here. One of the best was a man whose
name I didn't even know for most of my life. He made displays for store windows that sent the imagination of children soaring.
Tax break gives Oregon arts a break
Contributing to Oregon Cultural Trust enhances state’s quality of life
December 12
Oregonians around the state support the arts and culture in Marion County, and local residents return the favor by supporting the arts
elsewhere — all through the Oregon Cultural Trust.
The trust gives donors a tax break for supporting the arts. All they need to do is add up their checks to nonprofit arts and cultural
organizations for 2007; write a matching check for the total to the Oregon Cultural Trust by year’s end; and take a tax credit — better
than a deduction — off their 2007 Oregon taxes.
Locally, some of that money has come back in the form of major grants for restoration of cedar boards, furniture and cabinetry at
Gordon House at the Oregon Garden. Scotts Mills Historical Society received $1,500 for an entrance sign depicting historical features
of the city, in another recent example.
Meanwhile, local folks have helped support projects as diverse as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, A.C. Gilbert’s
Discovery Village children’s museum in Salem, and a writer-in-residence program in the northeastern Oregon community of
Enterprise.
So far, the folks taking advantage of this state tax break tend to be big donors to the arts. But people can be part of this even if their
only “culture” donation of the year is a small check to a school music or art program or to the local Friends of the Library.
This would be worth doing just for the tax break. But the statewide, grassroots nature of the project is what makes it really valuable.
People shouldn’t have to live in big cities in order to hear excellent music or meet a professional author. Youngsters throughout the
Mid-Valley deserve to be exposed to these things so they can develop their own skills. Adults need to connect or reconnect with art,
theater and history in their own communities, not hours away.
Likewise, Oregon’s native tribes, immigrants and ranch families have skills and crafts that deserve to be fostered and shared. Grants
from the cultural trust have helped preserve oral histories of Japanese-Americans, reach out to Hispanic-American veterans, preserve
Native American languages and restore a Chinese museum in John Day, among many other things.
Much of the decision-making takes place from the bottom up, in true Oregon fashion. Local councils have formed to represent all 36
counties and nine federally recognized tribes. So if a Silver Falls teacher has a great idea for a project, he or she can get some seed
money by convincing Marion County’s council members that the project is worthwhile.
A new grant this year seems tailor-made for Silverton and Mount Angel: the Arts & Cultural Tourism Grant Program. Businesses have
been piggybacking informally on the Oregon Garden’s presence. A grant could encourage further cooperation and draw additional
tourists during this next crucial year in the garden’s development.
Oregon is not known for state support of the arts. But the Oregon Cultural Trust gives everyday Oregonians the chance to say, “Here’s
my vote. Use this part of my state taxes for the arts and culture.”
That’s pretty neat.
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