NSH Gallery Features Three Northwest Artists

Three Northwest artists will be featured in the second annual Art Invitational from Jan. 9 to Feb. 24 in the North Santiam Hall Galleries at Linn-Benton Community College, 6500 Pacific Blvd. SW, Albany.

Sandra ‘sloy’ Nichols and Dave ‘nic’ Nichols, a husband-wife art duo from Salem, will share the walls with Tallmadge Doyle, a nationally recognized print-maker from Eugene.

A public reception and gallery talk with the artists will be held on Thursday, Jan. 26, from 2 to 3 p.m. in the NSH second floor atrium.

The purpose of LBCC’s annual invitational is to showcase high quality of creative work being done by artists who live in the Willamette Valley. “We have a lot of artistic talent right here in our own backyard,” said Dori Litzer, chair of LBCC’s Fine and Performing Arts Department. “These three artists are great examples of the vitality of the local art scene.”

Doyle, who has an extensive background in printmaking, will be showing about 20 copper etching prints from her “Celestial Menagerie” and “Celestial Mapping” portfolios. Drawing inspiration from the histories of astronomy, astrology, geometry and nature, Doyle carries on an age-old tradition of storytelling through constellations and the movement of stars in the night sky.

A resident of Eugene since 1989, she studied drawing and metal-smithing at the Cleveland Art Institute and received her MFA in printmaking at the University of Oregon, where she has taught printmaking as an adjunct professor since 1997. She also has work in the permanent collections of museums around the world, from Minnesota to China, and recently installed a public art project at the University of Oregon’s new Ford Alumni Center.

Sandra and Dave Nichols will be showing paintings that each has created separately, as well as some jointly created pieces, including their just completed 50-Pound Sandbag Series—six painted canvas sandbags, one side by each artist.

The pair work together under the name “nicholsloy studio,” making it a practice to always paint at the same time and in the same 13-by-15-foot space. Dave (a.k.a. nic) said: “We hooked up 31 years ago this January and have dedicated our relationship to art ever since. Over the years we’ve whittled our names down to nic and sloy (lower case by choice).”

Nic is a painter who works with line, circles and space. Sloy is a writer whose work has evolved into word paintings.

The three artists will be exhibiting on both floors of the NSH Gallery, which is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.