RiverPlace Artists and Authors
Lynda Ater
A scientist and artist by education and sensibility, Lynda Ater makes work that combines abstracted cancer cell images with the dynamics of color interaction.
At her day job she used a microscope to examine cell samples from patients for signs of cancer. Ater found the abnormal cells visually fascinating, having variable shapes both subtle and extreme. By taking these microscopic forms out of the lab and presenting them in paint on canvas, she gives them new life, highlighting playfulness and intrigue instead of sickness and dread.
Carla Dietz
For me, writing is a personal challenge, a dare issued to myself—start with a blank page, drop an unanswered question into the lap of my leading woman or man, and see what happens. Would they take the bait? Would they see it through to the end?
I’ve always been fascinated by the consequences of our everyday decisions. Make the right one and the day continues as planned. But make the wrong choice and one’s life becomes the stuff novels are made of. In my books I have tried to incorporate the idea that an innocent departure from the norm can quickly become the fertile soil for intrigue and danger.
Mary Engrav
Stories from the Emergency Department: A real look inside of an Emergency Department, as an Emergency Physician of 20 years remembers some of the cases she has seen that are the most memorable. Real stories about the patients, nurses, consulting physicians, and daily life of a busy Emergency Department. Get a glimpse inside the inner workings of an Emergency Department and the staff that works there, caring for patients and their families. From a toddler who can cuss a blue streak, a dead mouse brought into the Emergency Department, to critical resuscitations, these are stories that you will never forget.
Sue Friesz
My work originates from two very different sources. The first is from an interest in the natural world of native plants and the environment. It began while growing up in a family who loved the outdoors. For myself plant life represents a link to the environment I love and also creates a vehicle for composing my drawings. Some of my recent work is based on drawings made in the beautiful area adjacent to Terwilliger Boulevard in Portland, Oregon.
The second source I use in my work comes from found objects in the built world such as metal hardware and mechanical items. An interest in these objects began during undergraduate school when I found a solenoid valve a repairman had left behind. Eventually I began using various found objects in assemblages and low relief wall sculptures I make.
Finding a balance between these worlds with organic shapes on one end of the scale and mechanical shapes on the other end is a challenge, and one I like. In my most recent work the subject matter is organic but counterbalanced with stylization and precision.
Judy Morris
My painting philosophy is very simple. I paint because I can’t stop. I don’t know exactly when I became obsessed with watercolor painting. It caught me when I wasn’t paying attention and changed my life. I no longer look at the world without seeing common things in a special way. The subjects I paint are recognizable but certainly not painted in a photographic manner. The design of my “painted shapes” are more important than painting realistic details. Many times I paint people. I always paint the presence of people, even if their image is absent in the painting. My work has been described as abstract but intimate………………I hope you agree.
John H Raaf – https://riverplacepdx.com
In a previous life I was heavily into underwater photography –everything from tiny nudibranchs to mighty hammerheads. I used the now rare celluloid material called film, so a lot of digitization will have to occur before any of those images can appear here. My dive buddy in those days was always-tolerant wife, Heather. She was so kind, when my scuba tank ran out of air at 90 feet under, to loan me some air from hers. I will be forever grateful. Along the way, a book on Soft Tissue Sarcomas was written. Amazingly, it’s still available on Amazon.com, though a few sections are sadly out-of-date. Medical science marches on at a rapid pace these days. Website design is a new hobby.
Sue Siefkin – www.suesiefkin.com
I am drawn to cool, quiet, natural places. I love streams, trees, tide pools, river rocks and the lichen and moss-covered boulders I discover in parks, gardens and in the wild. I try to evoke the magic of these hidden places in my artwork with fabric, thread and paint.
Sometimes I begin with photographs, other times from memories, real or imagined. I work on just one composition at a time in my studio, using dyes, paints and inks to create or alter fabric for my desired palette. Layering and fusing fabric from background to foreground, I try to achieve the illusion of depth, volume and complexity. The free motion machine stitching is the final step, creating contour and texture.
My hope is that on seeing the finished pieces the viewer will experience a sense of discovery and shared wonder that in turn evokes his or her own memories of hidden places.
Janet Voss
I started making collages not long after I suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2007. I enjoyed it so I kept making more, framing some of them to hang in my home. In 2007, I was an executive at Umpqua Bank when I had a ruptured brain aneurysm which was the end of a very long banking career. At first, making collages was somewhat therapeutic after the brain injury but then I found it to be a better way than words to express myself. There’s now a file where I store interesting pictures which I cut out of magazines, theater programs or wherever I see something that catches my eye. The file is quite full so I have a lot of collages still to make!
Nina Vallion – https://www.ninavallion.com
I am inspired by the beauty around us which we cannot see with our naked eye; the beauty that we can see only through a microscope or a telescope, such as the Hubble. The cells in our body, the cells of plants and animals, the structure of metal and other inanimate objects are all breathtakingly beautiful, as is the incredible vastness of the universe. The birth and death of the stars, the turbulence of gasses are all awe inspiring and overwhelming.