LBCC’s SSH Gallery Show “Words & Pictures”

The Willamette Valley PhotoArts Guild and the LBCC Poetry Club are celebrating National Poetry Month in April with an exhibit at the South Santiam Hall Gallery at Linn-Benton Community College, 6500 Pacific Blvd. SW, Albany.

“Word & Pictures,” which features 17 pairs of photographs and poems, will be on view from April 4 to 29. A reception and poetry reading will be held in the gallery on Wednesday, April 13, from noon to 1 p.m.

During the run of the show, a silent fund-raising auction of arts and crafts donated by LBCC faculty and staff will be held in the adjoining SSH Gallery B to benefit The Valley Writers Series, a non-profit group that sponsors local workshops and readings by prominent authors. Bidding will close on April 29 at 1 p.m.

In her artist’s statement for the exhibit, Whitney Smith, LBCC’s student poet laureate, writes:“You cannot write from the heart unless you first see from the heart, and so several local artists and poets have collaborated efforts into a display that combines both heartfelt seeing and then writing. . . . We invite you to celebrate with us through poems breathed through the power of writing and of the lens.”

The 13 poets participating in “Words & Pictures” are Tav Knight, J.D. Mackenzie, Chris Riseley, Teagan Lochner, Whitney Smith and Ebrahim Siala, all of Corvallis; Robin Havenick and Karelia Stetz-Waters of Albany; Ruth Krueger and Dan Simmons of Lebanon; Lucette Wood of Coburg; Patrick Misiti of Wren; and Erin Merrill of Scio.

The 13 participating photographers are Jack Larson, Dan Wise, Rich Bergeman, John Morris, Alan Doerksen, John Ginn and Phil Coleman, all of Corvallis; Kurt Norlin, John Hull, Ellen Hamill and Ricardo Small, all of Albany; and Walt O’Brien and Charles Search of Eugene.

The SSH Gallery is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.