Tillamook artist Christine Harrison exhibits pastel drawings and acrylic and oil paintings in the Coastal Oregon Visual Artists Showcase on the second floor of the Visual Arts Center through Oct. 26. A video about the artist will accompany the exhibit.
Harrison presents a body of work with a power of nature theme. She says, “Having almost drowned in my mid-twenties, I have often found myself attracted to and afraid of large bodies water. While visiting Maui, I watched a stream leap 400 feet down a mountain wall and continue to cascade over two miles down to the sea.
“I kept thinking about what a powerful and graceful force I was witnessing. It also made me think of what one of my students told me when she turned twenty, ‘It’s all downhill from here!’ If this waterfall is the metaphor of…human life, what a powerful life!”
Harrison, a visual artist living and working in Tillamook County, is a painter and sculptor. Her most recent sculpture project, three large cement cow sculptures, was a joint venture with artist Heidi Clemens and the 2010 Ford Family Foundation Tillamook Leadership Candidates. The cow sculptures are prominently displayed at three sites in Tillamook County.
Harrison received her BA in Fine Arts from San Francisco State University and an MFA with Distinction from College of the Arts in Oakland.
After finishing her MFA, she received seven California Art Council Artist-in-Resident Grants that allowed her time to work in her studio while she created a highly successful intergenerational art program for underserved populations of senior citizens and inner city public school children.
She currently teaches at Tillamook Bay Community College and Lesley University. Harrison will be the featured speaker at the September Exhibition Coffee at 11am on September 12 at the VAC.