(Lacey Champagne | Photo by Jeff Spry)
The palpable power of change is a remarkable phenomenon that can be administered and experienced in a myriad of arenas, whether it’s love, life, and location… but especially in art.
After nearly a decade operating as Bend’s go-to location for artistic materials, Layor Art + Supply made the smooth transition this past December from a dedicated fine art supply store with some gallery space to a full-service gallery housing the works of many talented creators.
“Naturally, as time progressed, we’ve accumulated almost 60 artists now, so with that evolution we’ve moved into a complete gallery,” Layor Gallery owner and artist Lacey Champagne tells Cascade A&E. “We’re absolutely loving it. We have local and regional artists. Contemporary art is primarily the focus, but we’re also doing some traditional works too.”
Layor Art + Supply has been in existence since 2016, fortified with a dizzying selection of tools to provide visionary minds with products to suit any demands, from a sable brush to a linen canvas.
“Block printing. Screen printing. We did everything,” she adds. “But also on a smaller scale we had all the fine art needs. Which was really fun because I jibe really well with the technology aspect. That’s my favorite part of business operations. I’m an artist, but I really loved finding all the supplies. After COVID, sourcing everything got a lot more difficult on my end and we lost our major distributor, MacPherson’s. That was last August. We’d been thinking about transitioning for two years anyway and so I felt like that was kind of a sign.”
Champagne and her husband, Paul, spent last winter making the full-on change in December after removing all the shelving and preparing the walls for widespread curated display. “It was weird, it was just meant to be. Our space is shotgun style so we have it more minimal. Over the course of nine years, I got to really study what people were liking, and I met all the artists and the tourists. So I started factoring all these things in my head and thinking, ‘We really do need more galleries down here.’ You want it to be a destination.
“I think the more galleries the better. If there are multiple galleries, then you can come down and make a day out of it. You can get a coffee and walk and actually enjoy and go see art, which I think is so important in this day and age. To physically view the art. Most pieces will take your breath away in person. You can’t get the same feeling conveyed looking at them online.”
When she first opened Layor, Champagne discovered that Bend was slightly lacking in the modern art scene, and as an abstract artist herself, she hoped to remedy that situation.
“It’s been a steady climb uphill with the modern and contemporary side, but I think it’s fitting in really nicely,” she notes. “We have beautiful artists with innovative techniques. I like future-forward techniques that you aren’t seeing elsewhere. Some of our abstract art is very much on a subconscious level, which I think is so impressive. The more you look at it, the more you understand things. We get to see these beautiful landscapes, but if you want to come to see art that’s a little more reflective of the human mind, that’s kind of a goal for me too.”
Visit Layor Gallery at 1100 NW Wall St., #110 in downtown Bend.
layorart.com • 541-322-0421