Valley Artists Join Forces for Three-person Show at LBCC

Glass artist Jerri Bartholomew of Corvallis and printmaker Paul Gentry of Independence join Corvallis painter and graphic artist Carol Chapel for an exhibit in the North Santiam Hall Galleries at Linn-Benton Community College, 6500 Pacific Blvd. SW, Albany, from March 5 to April 20.

A reception and informal gallery talk will be held from 2 to 3 p.m. on Thursday, March 8 in the NSH Gallery second floor atrium.

The show, “Carol Chapel and Friends,” combines Chapel’s graceful, ethereal drawings and paintings with Gentry’s exquisite wood engravings of quiet Willamette Valley scenes and Bartholomew’s evocative collages assembled within glass panels.

“I asked Jerri and Paul to join me in this exhibition because in addition to liking them personally, I admire their work,” Chapel said. “Our approaches have some similarities but our mediums vary. I feel the combination of work by the three of us will make for an interesting show.”

Chapel studied painting and printmaking at Wichita State University and moved to the Corvallis area in the early 1970s. She owned and operated a graphic design and sign company for over two decades before devoting herself to full-time studio art work in 2000. “Almost all of my work is of something or someone that has some personal resonance for me,” Chapel said. “My hope is that it tells a story, and that the viewers can make their own story from the same objects.”

Gentry moved to the Willamette Valley from Seattle in 1994, and since then has concentrated on depicting the landscape of the valley in the traditional medium of wood engraving. Although his earlier work was more expressionist and abstract, the space and light of the valley’s pastoral landscape led him in a new direction, toward more realistic, detailed studies of place.

“My goal is to look hard at the visual world, find its most interesting and inspiring forces, and lend form to those forces in the most direct and honest way I know,” he said.

A co-owner of River Gallery in Independence, where he lives and has his studio, Gentry has exhibited in the Northwest and East Coast, and recently had a piece purchased by the Library of Congress for its print collection.

Bartholomew is a biological scientist who imbeds her love and knowledge of nature in her glass sculptures. Her work combines photographic screen prints with free-form imagery within glass panels created by various fusing and cold-working techniques.

One series, which she calls “Pages from a Naturalist’s Notebook,” uses various images of Pacific Northwest ecosystems, which have been a core of her work for nearly 10 years. In another, called the “Mannequin Series,” Bartholomew uses more ambiguous photographs designed to inspire the viewer’s imagination.

“Some pieces tell stories about travel or try to create a sense of place,” she explained. “Others are representative of my own experience and tell my stories.”

The exhibit will be on display on both floors of the North Santiam Hall through April 20. The galleries are open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays.