Sunday, June 6, 2010

You know the game where you can link Kevin Bacon with anyone?   This weekend a show at the Cannon Beach Art Association Gallery opened that linked our community with others through one artist, Bonny Gorsuch.
 

 

Her project, “Random Scraps of Fabric,” was the product of CBAA’s Individual Artist Grant.  If you don’t know Bonny, she is an accomplished artist, a mother and the wife of another accomplished Cannon Beach artist, Richard Gorsuch.   Into reduce/reuse/recycle long before it was mainstream, Bonny’s art is distinctive:  retro, kitschy, created with found objects and fabrics, but with enough point of view and whimsy to keep it from being cheesy.

 

In a nutshell, she created wearable art inspired by other people’s stories in various Oregon newspapers.  It brought me back to one of my favorite concepts:  every person has a story.   In a fabulous “fashion show” presentation at the Coaster Theatre, Bonny’s friends twirled, strutted and beamed ear to ear in her lovingly sewn garments as Kyra the emcee read Bonny’s descriptions, journal notes and inspirations for each.   An audience full of locals cheered them on and admired the stunning pieces.

 

Where it goes beyond for me is that she was able to bring the inspiration to us by re-telling their stories and honoring their struggles and their victories in her clever designs.  For instance, in 1959 a couple blazed a northwest trail through the mountains on horseback, a feat that in the past 51 years only 183 people have been able to repeat.   A postmaster in Cornelius, Oregon decided to promote the town by inviting people to send a postcard from their town to receive one from Cornelius.  Five hundred locations responded.  He attended the fashion show, and our own postmaster, Caroline, modeled the inspired shirt.   From an obituary, Bonny got the story of a woman who began winning ribbons for baking and canning at the county fair—at last count, 500---and began entering contests and more contests, ending up with everything from toasters to cars.  

 

Now more of us know about these ordinary people and extraordinary lives and can derive our own connections from them, so that our “random scraps” of stories and life and art don’t feel so random after all.    

 

(the show will be up at the Cannon Beach Gallery til June 25th  www.cannonbeacharts.org )

And speaking of random and ties, the remainder of my Saturday night was spent at EVOO photographing their scrumptious June menu items (and eating the props!)  This particular evening, there were eight couples out of which four were celebrating birthdays. Three were celebrating anniversaries, including friends Dana and Kathy, loyal readers of this blog.  In this photo, Chef Bob Neroni of EVOO lights candles on EVERYONE'S dessert since there was so much to celebrate! 

After the gallery show, have dinner down the street at EVOO ( photos soon at  www.evoo.biz)