(Yarrow Dancing by Jan O’Brian Tetzlaff, Sage Plains by Sheila Finzer, The Austere Land by June Jaeger, Deserted Foothills by Jean Wells Keenan and High Desert Impressions by Judy Beaver)
September 27 marks Journeys 12th annual show, High Desert Moods, at Sisters Art Works, 204 W Adams Ave Sisters, Oregon. The 4-7pm reception coincides with Sisters Art Walk. The pieces, interpreting High Desert Moods will be for sale and will be available for viewing Monday-Friday during business hours through the month of October. Central Oregon is a mecca for quilters. People come from all over the world to immerse themselves in this quilt environment. Out of this quilt community evolved Journeys, an art group formed in 2007 to develop and promote individual, distinctive styles in fiber art. These artists have moved beyond traditional quilting to create fiber art that rivals any other art form. Members include award winners, teachers, authors as well as artists who have shown their work in many places in the world.
Central Oregon’s High Desert is a land of contrasts. Jan O’Brian Tetzlaff’s Yarrow Dancing shows vivid turquoise skies, striated grey stone, chartreuse rabbit brush and yarrow are the land’s palate. Fragile botanical taxonomy and extreme climate shifts create a geography at once stark and bountiful. Pillars of basalt stretch across the desert creating high standing ridges of stone above the sage covered desert floor in Jean Wells Keenan’s Deserted Foothills. August brings the glorious golden yellow tones of the sage that cover the desert floor in the high plateau of the Central Oregon landscape. What created a lasting memory of the high desert are the many glorious and varied patterns and textures — on the ground; rocks, and shrubs. In Judy Beaver’s High Desert Impressions, the earth is marked with animal tracks or showed rivulets where water and wind had left its mark. The only hint of color apparent is the glorious rabbit brush which showed some color along the edge of the road.
Sheila Finzer’s Sage Plains represents a small glimpse if the vastness of the Oregon outback, along with its endless sky. Looking closer at what many think is a very grayed landscape, one will find the richness of color and perhaps a rustle of a desert dweller. June Jaeger’s The Austere Land shows that stern, severe, unadorned, generous but not lush, is our Central Oregon High Desert. Pillars jut out of the sandy loam soil, staunch and stately. They tell the story of the beginning of our beautiful desert we call home.
Members include Judy Beaver, Helen Brisson, Sheila K Finzer, Betty Gientke, June Jaeger, Jean Wells Keenan, Tonye Phillips Donna Rice, Jody Rusconi, Martha Sanders, Marion Shimoda, Mary Stiewig and Jan McBrien Tetzlaff.