(American Kestrel, oil on gallery wrap canvas, 9”x12”, 2019 by Jacob J. Norris and The Illusion of Control: Influence, mixed media on canvas, 12”x12”, 2019 by Cody Wade)

Jacob J. Norris (jacobjnorris.gallery)

Bio: Jacob J. Norris is an award-winning and published fine artist who specializes in painting representational abstractions in oil. With a childhood spent exploring the high desert among juniper and sagebrush, Jacob found his passion for capturing those simple and peaceful moments on canvas. He began painting landscapes right after high school and has recently found a deep love painting the birds that he spent so much time studying as child. He is currently working on a bird field guide. Jacob’s work has brightened the walls at Lone Pine Coffee Roasters, Crow’s Feet Commons, 123 Ramen, Sparrow Bakery, Townshend’s Tea House, The Tin Pan Theatre, Back Porch Coffee Roasters and various house shows around Bend. His work has been auctioned at fundraisers for Waldorf School of Bend and Westside Village School, as well as numerous independent fundraisers. Jacob recently drew illustrations for a novel titled, The Year I Lived Dangerously (available at Amazon.com), and his paintings are for sale at Found Natural Goods in downtown Bend. Upcoming art shows will be held at Lone Pine in July and Crow’s Feet in August.

Artist Statement: I love birds, and when you love something, you want to take it in and make it a part of you. In life when the inevitable gust of chaos regarding what’s for dinner, bills needing paid, kids’ needs, and the whirlwind dance of “tending to” overflows, I walk up the hill to a tree and sit upon the earth. Almost always I hear the quick, buzzing wings of a hummingbird. What joy they bring! When the birds give with their song, their ordinariness, their simple tasks of finding food and feeding their young, they remind me of myself. And so I fill my canvases with them. I paint some singing, some flying, but it is their gestures, their colors, their personalities, and the tiny reflection of the landscape in their eyes that I appreciate the most. When I paint them my relationship with each one becomes more intimate; I am able to see even more the unique features of every bird. This is my inspiration for creating and publishing my own illustrated local bird field guide as my way of deepening my craft as an artist.

Cody Wade (codywade.art)

Bio: Cody Wade builds a dazzling bridge into the territory of awareness that separates validity from illusion by revealing the thoughts and feelings associated with vibrant color. His mixed media work emphasizes multi-layered optical effects that were discovered while studying printmaking and psychology at Arizona State University. During the time spent at ASU, he gained representation by ArtOne Gallery in downtown Scottsdale his freshman year, was an Art Editor for The Superstition Review, taught digital printing methods in the digital lab at Arizona State, and exhibited work in numerous art shows in the Valley of the Sun. After finishing up at ASU in 2017, he took an innocent trip to visit family in Bend, Oregon where he currently resides and has not looked back since. Cody has been publicly displaying his art since 2002, has work in the permanent collection at Arizona State University, and is collected nationwide. His work is currently showing at Layor Art + Supply in downtown Bend. Interested in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Wade conveys the journey towards self-actualization as an imaginative and true free spirit.

Artist Statement: My art illustrates my attempt to turn routine observation into an optical adventure. Tangible commodities in direct experience are not my focus. On the contrary, it is how objects and color interact when they are consciously perceived. The interaction serves to prompt one into an ethical role. What am I perceiving? What does it mean? And more importantly, why am I perceiving sensory data in this fashion? Rather than interrogating the substance, I am examining my self; the objects simply act as a vessel offering momentum towards self-actualization. My art is about who I am, and what I can make of it. Phenomenology provides a bridge into a territory of knowledge that distinguishes validity from illusion. The object of sensory intuition becomes tangible only when categorized through the interpretation of substance and cause. It is my aim to emphasize the whole over its parts by exalting phenomena in terms of relations with others. We are created to be whole.