What is going on!!
News, current and past…
My new studio
About 27 years ago, I had a third floor studio in the Carton Service Building in NW Portland. Since then, I’ve always had the great pleasure of having a home studio. But when my work got bigger, I found that I’ve grown out of spaces at home, and as luck would have it, one of my dear friends was moving into her new studio, leaving a vacancy on the second floor in the old studio building. I’m now able to unroll large prints I made years ago, but stored rolled up and unable to see. Opening them has been like seeing old friends after years of a pandemic. Let me know if you’d like to visit! You can send me a note here.
Dave Miller is the host of OPB’s daily talk show, and I gotta tell you, that guy is smart, genuine, funny, and he really listens. Live radio is stressful, (no, really, it is!) but he makes it seem to be just a normal everyday thing to do. Which, of course, it is for him. And because of his great skill at figuring out how to ask questions about visual art on live radio, well, he made it fun to be interviewed. Here’s another one of my 15 minutes of fame talking about taking part in a traveling exhibit called “Art About Agriculture”, a juried show overseen by Owen Premore at Oregon State University. Here’s a link to the Think Out Loud segment from June 7, 2022, that you can listen to anytime you want.
Fender’s Blue Butterfly: Oregon’s Endangered Treasure
In 2020, I entered a call for public art for the new Oregon State Treasury Resiliency Building, made it through the finals, and although the project went to another, I was offered a commision from the committee. I worked with the theme of the endangered Fender’s Blue Butterfly, endemic to the Willamette Valley, and dependent on food and nectar sources that themselves were endangered. Researching the beautiful creature’s habitat brought me introductions to wonderful people, including Carolyn Menke at the Institute of Applied Ecology; Lynda Boyer at Heritage Seedlings; Victor Berthelsdorfer, a landowner who had the Kincaid lupine on his property, and taught me much about photographing tiny fast moving insects. An old friend, Gary Rogowski of the Northwest Woodworking Studio, sourced Oregon white oak, milled it and built an incredible hand carved frame for my still life photograph, that at 48”x 66”, has a powerful presence in its new home.
You can read all about the building itself in this fascinating article in the New York Times, “A Super Building for Fragile Times”.
“Fender’s Blue Butterfly: Oregon’s Endangered Treasure”, still life photograph made by Deb Stoner, 2022, dye sublimation on aluminum print, 48” x 66”, in hand carved Oregon white oak frame, on view and in the permanent collection of the Oregon State Treasury Resiliency Building.
Detail of lower right corner of aluminum print housed in hand carved ebonized white oak frame.
While I was working with Gary Rogowski on the framing of the Treasury Building project, he was wearing a different hat indulging his interest in learning more about how artists work via his series of podcasts. He asked me to join him on the topic of “curiosity”, and here it is if you’d like to listen.
Glad to show work that I made at an artist residence at PLAYA in an exhibit called “An Education of Arid Places” at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon, through September 12, 2021. In fine company with esteemed photographers Nancy Floyd and Peter deLory, the exhibition depicts some views of the arid Playa landscape not usually seen. My work is presented as large metal prints, that you can look at closely here.
At Imogen Gallery in Astoria, Oregon, April 10-June 7, 2021.
More still life photographs from the Willamette Valley, some large scale prints framed in handmade frames, all one of a kind. Some that you may have seen before, but not like this!
A collaboration with In Mulieribus and Marilyn Zornado that premiered in their online concert April 17, 2021. But you can watch it here, now!
Each year I’m uplifted when the jurors like my work enough to include it in this annual event. Pandemic blues got me thinking about this small body of work called “Who’s Going to Backup Your Digital Life?”. You’ve got till March, 2022 to make it to Blue Sky to spend some time with all the artists’s work in this excellent exhibition.
2020 Art About Agriculture Competition and Exhibition: Tension/Harmony
37th Annual Art About Agriculture Competition and Exhibition at OSU Corvallis Oregon, Giustina Gallery/ The LaSells Stewart Center
September 3 – October 30, 2020
Reception: October 1, 2020, 4pm – 7pm.
Deb Stoner | Haskap Berries from Shinji's Farm | Photography: dye sublimation on aluminum
My two entries both came from this experience: A few years back, I received an email from Dr. Jim Myers asking about a certain variety of tomato depicted in one of my photographs shown at Portland International Airport. I replied that I thought it was the Indigo Rose, to which he replied, “Yes, it is!” and so revealed his involvement in developing that particular variety at the Vegetable Breeding Program at OSU. He invited me to visit the farm to see if there was anything that might be of interest to me to photograph. So started a remarkably interesting series of images that I made from the extraordinary fruits, vegetables and flowers at the farm. Dr. Myers also introduced me to Shinji Kawai, a faculty research assistant at OSU, whose farm in Brownsville is home to a half acre of haskap berries that are part of a project started by Prof. Emeritus Maxine Thompson with plants brought from Siberia and Japan. An invitation to visit Shinji’s farm was a delight in exploring the fruit’s unusual shapes, color, and, of course, taste! I’ve learned that my work relies on the kindness and curiosity of interested people, and am so grateful for these wonderful connections that makes my own work grow and evolve.
One of 10 at Blue Sky Gallery
It’s August, and Blue Sky Gallery is open! I went last week to drop off my work, and was so happy to encounter a little bit of the old normal. A beautiful show of John Baldessari prints, an active installation in Nine Gallery by Bill Will, a little peek at how LaBrie Rich sees the world, (at least a tiny bit of Japan), and then the sudden infusion of life in the Pacific Northwest Viewing Drawers where I’m showing my work through next March. Check the hours before you go, wear a mask, and enjoy yourself at this wonderful place of calm, beauty, creativity, and kindness.
And through August, 2020, Blue Sky is helping to support things that matter through a print sale to benefit the Black Resilience Fund and Sisters of the Road Cafe. I’m happy to report that three of my prints have sold already! Thanks!
And oh yeah, VOTE!
Live streaming presentation
Well, it happened June 2, 2020, but since it’s a slideshow presentation hosted by the Portland International Airport, you can watch it anytime you want! As any first time streaming event goes, bear with a few technical glitches, but for the most part, it feels like a regular powerpoint presentation of me talking about my work. You can see it here on facebook, https://www.facebook.com/flypdx/videos/920113238451499/
or if you don’t use facebook, you can use this link to go to the flypdx blog where the video is embedded, and scroll all the way to the end to watch it from there: https://portside.portofportland.online/2020/04/pdx-live-join-us-for-virtual-performances-and-conversations-with-local-artists/
I gotta tell you, this experience has helped me gain empathy with all the amazing artists, musicians, dancers, poets, and other performers pivoting with creative approaches to showing their work. The best of them make it seem effortless. It is not. On Tuesday, June 2, 2020, it was clear that there were events in the world that seemed so much more important than my previously scheduled presentation. Assured by the crew at flypdx that we could cancel the event if I wanted to, I took a tearful pause to reflect on the opportunity to simply share some beauty with an audience who might need just that, and then carried on. I’m glad we did. It was the first time in months that I was able to get into the groove of just showing my artwork to others, talking about a subject I know a lot about (me!). Thank you Wendy Given and the social media team at PDX.
A lovely blog post about my work
Lenscratch is a terrific daily blog curated by Aline Smithson. I’ve read it each day for years now, and published March 28, 2020, here is my coveted five minutes of fame…
http://lenscratch.com/2020/03/deb-stoner-more-pictures-about-flowers-and-bugs/
“More Pictures About Flowers and Bugs”
In the Norris Gallery at the Palos Verdes Art Center, a mere 15 miles south of LAX, you can see some new work of mine inspired by looking close at the flora and tiny fauna of southern California. Join me at the gallery on Saturday, February 8, 2020, for an opening including “HABITAT CALIFORNIA: Flora & Fauna”, work from a call for entry that features invitational and juried work about plants and wildlife of California, as well as the wrapped exterior of the building. On view February 8 – December 2, 2020 (during COVID-19, by appointment only). Gallery talk at 7pm during the opening on Feb. 8. Love to see you!!
“Like Hummingbirds to Nectar” is a two person show at the Focus Gallery at the Penland School of Craft. I’ll be showing my still life photograph series “A Year in the Willamette Valley” along with the spectacular blown glass birds and teapots by artist Shane Fero. Fall is such a beautiful time to visit Penland, I hope you’ll get a chance to go!
Friday October 4 – Sunday November 17
Reception: Saturday, October 5, 4:30 – 6:30 PM
Here's what I've been up to! Back in December, I saw a call for entry that seemed interesting...wrapping an art center in Los Angeles with images. The building itself, the Palos Verdes Art Center, is a blocky metal clad structure that spoke to me as a large scale canvas for my still life photography. So I mocked up some concepts, entered the competition, and in February, got the call that I'd won! In April, Fred and I flew down to see the reality of the situation, and found the building wrapped with iconic images from Hollywood photographer Douglas Kirkland. Wow! So great. Finally, seeing a picture of a person in front of Audrey Hepburn put it all in perspective for me. I'm so excited to see the scale I've only imagined my work to be in. (What is wrapping????, Well, images are printed on vinyl that is 36” wide, and as tall as the building is…it has an adhesive backing, and is hung rather like wallpaper in strips, covering the surface, till the building is “wrapped”!)
Big thanks to the diverse and delightful crew at PVAC. Thank you for support from the RLES Burke Artist Residency Program at the non-profit Palos Verdes Art Center for creating the opportunity to help me think of my work in this way, as well the Oregon Arts Commission and the Ford Family Foundation for a Career Opportunity Grant supporting travel. The show opened September 7, 2019, and will be up through December of 2020. If you’re in the LA area, go take a look! It’s all completely outside, so you can see it anytime!
Through end of July, 2019, I’m showing large scale still life photographs in a solo exhibit in the Scholar’s Study at the Lan Su Chinese Gardens in Portland, Oregon. This print, at 30”x40”, depicts a lotus blossom, a bud, and several spent pods from the Garden itself. With help from one of the gardeners, Mandi Lynn Atkinson, I was able to visit the garden’s offsite greenhouse and and gather some art making beauties. The Gardens are open to the public every day, and yes there is an admission fee, but it supports one of Portland’s most beautiful cultural institutions.
On Friday, July 12, 2019, at 2-4pm, I’ll be giving a demo and artist’s talk about my work at the Garden. I’d love to see you there! It’s a casual drop-by event, with lots of repetition, so you surely don’t need to be there the whole 2 hours!
My solo exhibition at Imogen Gallery in Astoria, Oregon, April 13 through June 4, 2019. Artist reception is April 13 from 5-8pm, as well as an additional art walk on May 11, also 5-8pm. “Garden Studies” are exactly that, the work of looking closely at two exquisite gardens in Portland, an old and beloved old garden in Vancouver, a natural area at the edge of Summer Lake, and the Vegetable Breeding farm at OSU in Corvallis. An opportunity at using a large scale printed let me make these prints at a scale that is truly exciting to me, and truly overwhelming to the tiny gallery. With sincere thanks to Teri Sund at Imogen for inviting me to show my work. As these opportunities will often do, this one gave me the push to just focus on the work, not worry about the framing. And the timing couldn’t be better, with Portland’s Photo Month, and lots of photographers traveling around the Pacific Northwest. Welcome!
Sitka Invitational
Happy to be invited to participate in this annual curated fundraising event for one of the most spectacular places on earth, involving some of the most spectacular artists in Oregon. I’m showing 3 of my metal prints from my open edition, “A Year in the Willamette Valley”. This piece, “Mushrooms and Beauty Berries” looks just like a peek under our yard debris pile right now, fall at its most amazing. Saturday and Sunday November 3 and 4, 2019 at the World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon.
Here’s an archival pigment print called “Dark Iris”, on view at Imogen Gallery in Astoria, Oregon, through late summer 2018. I met gallery owner Teri Sund last year when she saw my solo show, FLORA. And so now, I’m excited to be working on a solo show for April 2019 for the gallery. Right now, you can have a peek at my work if you haven’t seen it in person, or hey, what better excuse to take a quick trip to the coast. Fred and I were there the last week of September, what a memorable trip!
Cascadia is a statewide-wide touring fine art photography exhibition of juried work by Oregon photographers. With thanks to the Ford Family Foundation for sponsoring this traveling show, as well as creating a book of the work of the 48 photographers. Also thanks to the jurors for choosing my piece, "OSU Pears" for an Honorable Mention, and a cash prize. Really so happy to be involved with this innovative approach to showing photography throughout the state of Oregon!
Now this piece is on view in a beautiful handmade frame at Framing Resource in Portland. Owner Todd Puttman has been a fantastic supporter of my work over the years, and it’s always my pleasure to refer clients to the shop when they’re seeking options for framing my work. Everyone at the shop is super knowledgeable, friendly, and they’ll work within whatever parameters you have in mind. Love this place!!
All Around Oregon
An annual roundup via a juried call for entries in all manner of media, from artists throughout the state of Oregon. Juried by Andries Fourie, curator of the High Desert Museum in Bend. My work is an archival pigment print called Prickly Columbine, dark and murky, from an bug's eyeview. The show opens at the Art Center in Corvallis, June 1- July 13, 2018, with an artist reception on June 7.
Northwest Passages
SNAG, or the Society of North American Goldsmiths, is having its annual conference in Portland this year. Amarette Gregor has curated a beautiful show of 23 jewelers and one photographer...guess who the photographer is. With deep roots in jewelry, of course! I'm delighted to be included in the show, once again exhibiting work on those gorgeous steel wall of Alchemy Jeweler. May 3-31, 2018.
Capturing Place
Three large aluminum prints in this group show that is about "the intersection of place and home..." It's my first time showing here, and the gallery space is quite lovely. The show is up through June 15, 2018, so perhaps you'll get a chance to see it. At the 510 Museum and Artspace, in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
Portland Photo Month is coming, and Photolucida is sponsoring "Love it and leave with it", a fund raiser offering photographs by some of Oregon's great photographers. The event is April 12, 2018, and you can buy my print as an 8"x 10", and support Photolucida's scholarship program at the same time!
And now to catch up…Framing Resource owner Todd Puttnam bought this print to support Photolucida. He framed it ever so fantastically, and now it’s on view at the shop!
Wednesday, March 21, 2018, I presented my work to the Photography Council's Brown Bag Lunch Talk Series. In the Miller Gallery in the Mark Building, 1219 SW Park Avenue, Portland. What a great turn out on the first day of spring! Thanks to all who came, a lovely event to be sure.
February 22-24, 2018, I spoke at the Yuma Symposium. 25 years after my first speaking gig there, great to revisit all that has happened since... And if you're anywhere near the Yuma Art Center, I'm showing some beautiful 16"x22" floral pieces in custom frames, as well as three 30"x40" and larger dye sublimation on aluminum prints from January 22 through March 10, 2018.
Artist Talk at Corvallis Art Guild
7:00 pm Monday, February 5, 2018
co-sponsored by the Photo Arts Guild of Corvallis
Free and open to all. I'm excited about meeting more artists in this especially photography rich zone of the Willamette Valley.
Making a Spectacle!
I'll be teaching a one day workshop Sunday, May 27, 2018 at the Oregon College of Art and Craft on the design and making of eyewear by jewelers. Not connected with, but timed to happen right at the end of the Society of North American Goldsmith's Portland conference May 23-26, it'll be a fast paced day of thinking about all that goes into this most exquisite of designed objects, and how a low tech jeweler might consider making them.
I'm 60 inches tall...
So that gives you an idea of scale of my work! These are 26"x32". If you find yourself at PDX in the Alaska Airlines terminal, check out these pieces. You can look at the whole collection, and you can read about how it is that the Port of Portland now owns the 12 pieces, "A Year in the Willamette Valley" as a part of their public art collection. Big thanks to curator Wendy Given.
A solo show of my color still life photography, curated by MaryAnn Deffenbaugh of Vernissage Fine Art, in partnership with Guild Mortgage, at 1953 NW Kearney St, Portland. You may remember the space as the old Jewish Museum. It now houses a forward looking mortgage company and one of the prettiest galleries in town. Opening reception Tuesday August 8, 2017 an artist talk on Tuesday September 12, and a festive closing event October 30, 2017. On view are large works printed on aluminum, small framed aluminum prints, as well as an editioned series of works on paper.
Blue Sky Gallery, Northwest Viewing Drawers 2017
Each year Blue Sky offers a competition to show work in their flat files for a year. And so each year, I see it as an opportunity for an investigation into a small new body of work. This one was inspired by the solarized photographs of Man Ray and Lee Miller. Juried by Mitra Abbaspour, an independent curator and scholar based in New York, formerly Associate Curator in the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art. You can check out my drawer any time Blue Sky is open until March of 2018, or even better, spend a few hours going through the dense talent represented by all of the interesting photographers in the Drawers. First portfolio walk happened December, 2017, with another on Saturday, March 17, 2018, and I'm presenting my work from 4-5pm. Stop by if you have a chance!
Between July 2016 and July 2017, visitors to Portland International Airport can view twelve of my large scale color photographs at the Concourse Connector space. Once a year, a photographer is chosen to present their work to a million or so visitors who will walk through this space. My work "A Year in the Willamette Valley" shows how the months look, from dark winter through emerging spring, to summer harvest and autumn leaves. Prints are available directly from me in this open edition, in sizes from the original 26"x32", to 16"x20 and 11"x14". The details are so exciting when seen up close and large. I'm so grateful for the support from Port of Portland, from the trust of arts curator Greta Blalock, for the gorgeous framing from Art of Framing, and the ongoing support from curator Wendy Given.
City Panorama Photomural 2017
A juried competition by Photographic Center Northwest to create murals for bus shelters to beautify, deter graffiti, and become a source of community pride. My piece, "Still Winter" lives in an industrial area of Kent. At 8 feet wide, the flowers look great!
The image is 8 feet wide, printed on wood panels, and intended to be in this bus shelter in Kent, Washington for 10 years.
Straub Hall University of Oregon
My piece "Columbine and Hibiscus" was selected for the renovated building from architects Rowell Brokaw, in an invitational juried competition to be purchased as part of the University's permanent art collection. It's a face mounted plexiglass print, at 40" x 56". Here it is, newly printed by my trusted colleagues at Pushdot Studio, ready for the trip to install the piece in Eugene, summer of 2016.
Sometimes the energy of a blog entry can feel like an exhibition...like this one from the esteemed NY Times Jonathan Blaustein at aphotoeditor, a terrific photo blog. After reading his thoughtful post-election writing, scroll on down and you'll see some of my work. Beauty helps in a challenging world.
and in a moment of blog meets other blog, seek out Photoshelter, for the article "50 Nifty Reasons to Love Photography in 2016", and scroll down to #18 for a sweet nod to my work. Thanks Allen.
I received grant funding from the Regional Arts and Culture Council to participate in the Medium Photography Review and Lecture Series in San Diego, October, 2016. I'll present my work to reviewers, and get to see the work of many others. Excited! A juried show of small works called "Size Matters" opens Oct. 22, at Low Gallery including my piece "Dandelions and Lilacs", an 8"x10" dye sublimation on aluminum print in a frame of teak that Fred and I made. Yee haw, a red dot.
About RACC: Over the years, I've received funding for travel to New Zealand to teach (1995), and to attend conferences in San Francisco (2003) and Seattle (2011). Each event was career building, and supportive in the sense that someone out there believed in what I was doing. Portland is truly fortunate to have such an organization to nurture artists at every phase of our careers. Thank you RACC!
Here's a detail of "Blue". Always tough to tell how detailed these works are unless you're looking close...
My work was selected by juror Katherine Ware for the 2016 Northwest Photography Viewing Drawers, an exhibit of ten black and white works that will be available for viewing for one year. The theme that unifies this ten image edit is "bugs", like in this piece where sometimes, when I'm making an image, I'm not aware of the uninvited guests who ride along on the backs of leaves.
And as one year of the Northwest Drawers project at Blue Sky comes down, there's an opportunity for one last viewing, (and the ability to buy artist's works), this year on March 19, 2016. I'll be there showing my work, an edition of color prints at 11"x16" in 18"x24" mats ready to frame.
On the Getty's online magazine, The Iris, is a feature on my work in photography through the years. It's an interview with writer Allison Ramirez who asked such great questions!
Late summer in our garden, with cucumbers, zucchini, black-eyed susan vine, a bee, some beetles, and the Solanum Pyracanthum. And actually, quite a lot more! That's Portland for you...The other thing that a slide show on a computer monitor may not tell you is that this piece is quite large. Like 50"x70" large. Large enough that I had to print it in two pieces. Exciting!
Continually showing, Deb's large scale color photographs are featured on the gorgeous steel walls of Alchemy Jewelry, 1022 NW Lovejoy, in Portland's Pearl District. Visit often as the work changes from time to time!
Blue Sky Gallery
Opening Thursday October 1, 2015, and up for the month of October, is Blue Sky's 40th anniversary show. I'll be showing two prints there. It'll be a great show, and fine company to hang with. Here's one of the pieces I'm showing (Happy for me and for Blue Sky, both my pieces sold opening night! Thanks for the support.)
Deb's work is featured in a one person show, June 27 through July 31, 2015 with an artist's reception on Sunday, July 12 from 3-5pm. Twenty five 11"x14" prints will be shown from a series called "Channeling Karl Blossfeldt".
Camerawork Gallery is the nation's oldest continuously running fine art photography gallery, with monthly shows since 1970. The inspiration for the Gallery initially arose from and was directed by the work of master photographer Minor White and his Portland Workshops that started in 1959.
Finalist in the photography competition Critical Mass 2015. It's sponsored by Photolucida, which is "an arts nonprofit with a mission to provide platforms that expand, inspire, educate and connect the regional, national, and international photography community."
PCC Permanent Art Collection
This piece was purchased by the Portland Community College's permanent art collection in early 2015. Mounted between plexiglass and aluminum, it's 40"x55", installed on a concrete wall on the second floor of the Student Commons at PCC's new SE Campus, at SE 82nd and Division.
The summer show, "Cross Sections", at the Hoffman Gallery at the Oregon College of Art and Craft. As interim Metals Department Head in 2015, I showed two large ornately framed pieces that form a diptych in the entry corner of the gallery. Through July 29, 2015.
At Blue Sky each year, there goes out a call for entry, and NW photographers scramble to put together 10 pieces of their finest work, that are cohesive thematically, are excellent in all ways, and that fit into an 18"x24" space in a flat drawer. Said photographers send their body of work to be juried into this year long show at the lovely Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon. This year, you'll see my work of color prints that my friend Carla says "makes me feel like I have extra vision". On through March of 2016. Take a look at the work of all my esteemed drawer mates, a great way to spend an hour in the Pearl District.
At Cascade Sotheby's in Portland's Pearl District, October and November, 2015
During this exhibition of 10 large scale color works, the Society of Photographic Educators was in town for the NW Regional Conference, where I was a presenter. At the conference, I showed my working process in an artist's demo, along with a presentation that detailed my long history with analog photography that led up to these current works.
Presenter for the SPE Conference
The Society of Photographic Education’s Regional conference took place in Portland in 2015, and I was invited to speak on my process as well as give a demo on how to go about using a flatbed scanner as an image capture device. I enjoyed meeting students and other presenters, especially my photoshop guru Bret Malley. I ended up signing up for Bret’s photocompositing class at Chemeketa Community College the next year, and my skills started to match my imagination.
And that’s what SPE is all about!! Education!!!
And now for something completely different: in Brockton, MA, May-Nov, 2015, you can see a selection of my work in handmade eyewear from the past two decades, in a show of artists who've been connected with the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. Curated by Ellen Wieske and Claire Sanford in conjunction with the SNAG conference in Boston.