Hoffman Center Gallery will feature the work of painter Laura Ross Paul and ceramicist Sarah Swink. The show will run July 3rd through July 30th and can be seen during Gallery open hours, 12 pm to 5 pm, Wednesday through Sundays (closed on July 4th). The opening reception is July 6th from 3 pm to 5 pm. Artists will offer a talk about their art at 4 pm. The Hoffman Gallery is free and open to the public.
Laura Ross-Paul is a Portland based artist and teacher. She has been painting professionally for over four decades and has been represented by nine different galleries on the West Coast from Seattle to Laguna Beach. She has exhibited her work throughout the Pacific Northwest.
In 2003 a life threatening illness greatly impacted Laura’s life path. Approaching a diagnosis of multiple focus breast cancer with the goal of saving her breast, (what a life-long figure painter/teacher would want), Laura volunteered to be the first US woman to be treated with Cryoablation, or freezing. The successful outcome of this treatment has led Laura, and her husband Alex, to found Cryoablation for Breast Cancer Advocates.
Sales from Laura Ross Paul’s art at the Hoffman Gallery will benefit the not-for-profit Cryoablation for Breast Cancer Advocates.
Laura will give a one-hour talk following the Artist Reception on July 6 from 5-6 pm. The art talk is also free and open to the public. Laura will speak about her art as well as the not-for-profit to whom she is donating all of her sales commissions from this show.
Sara Swink is a West Linn ceramic artist who creates distinctive pieces based on collages and other brainstorming techniques. She teaches workshops on learning to express creativity, and practices what she teaches every day in her studio.
Sara has been creating in clay since she was about 8. Her next door neighbor was a potter “and she planted this seed in me and my sister – something about clay would be a great thing for you and I absorbed it, because I didn’t get that kind of thing at home.”
Sara now resides in Portland where she has established Clay Circle Studio. She teaches and is featured in shows and exhibitions around the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
Aside from being featured in the July show at Hoffman Gallery, Sara will teach a two-day Creative Process workshop, July 18 and 19. In the workshop, Swink will introduce an approachable methodology that she relies on in her own work for exploring artistic vocabulary and cultivating personal style. Beginning with guided exercises in collage, doodling and clay, some discussion of the creative process and common obstacles, the workshop culminates in an image journal, clay sketches and ways to keep moving forward.
Hoffman Center for the Arts is located at 594 Laneda Avenue in Manzanita. To learn more about current and upcoming programs visit hoffmanarts.org.
