Backstreet Gallery is proud to celebrate the accomplishments of founding member Pat Romanov who will soon be moving to Eugene. Join Backstreet in honoring Pat, at a gala event during Backstreet’s After Hours, 1421 Bay Street. January 25th, 5-7PM.

            Retiring at age 71, Pat had always wanted to live on the Oregon Coast. She has become Florence’s iconic champion of arts.

             Pat’s first love was the theater. She started producing plays at the age of 10. She’d go to the library and select a play. Then after rewriting it, she and a friend would cast and produce the play in a local barn. As time went on these plays were performed in junior and senior high school assemblies. She carried on through her own student years, as well.

            As a high school teacher, Pat taught speech and drama. She then completed her education at the U of O.

            When offered a professorship at the University of Arkansas, she swore she would never go to Arkansas. The lure of the finest theater art complex that combined art, music and dance in one venue, was too much to resist. Though she was a professor for a short time at the U of O and Montana State, she spent 27 years as a professor of theater arts at the University of Arkansas.

            When songs were needed in the plays she produced or directed, she would join with a songwriter and write the lyrics. She created over 50 songs in her career. She wrote her own version of Christmas Carol which has been used by a number of other directors.   

            When Pat came to the Oregon coast, she joined with John Flaherty in producing and directing plays that toured around Oregon.

            Settling down, she lent her skills, producing and directing, to a number of plays performed here in the last few years­­­­. After selecting the plays, she would rewrite them until they worked in our local theaters. You may recall the outstanding performances of Song of Survival, Steel Magnolias, Shirley Valentine, Social Security, Vagina Monologues and Dancing at Lughansa. Through Emerald Coast players and the Last Resort players, she gave numerous local actors a fabulous opportunity to entertain us.

            Joining with Sally Wantz, Jennifer French, Kathryn Damon- Dawson, Jane Rincon, and Susan Weathers, Pat helped create Backstreet Gallery, which has steadily grown from its cozy cottage on Laurel Street to the fine art gallery on Bay Street. With Ken Rystrom as photographer, she wrote many articles about the gallery and its members.

            Painting for years in oils, she was smitten with watercolors while taking a class from Backstreet member, Susan Weathers. Until fall of 2011, her colorful watercolors graced the walls of the gallery. Wildlife, found in her various travels or from her cabin in Montana, provided inspiration for her work. Her last show created a travelog from her cruise where she toured through Patagonia. (parts of Argentina and Peru)

            In Pat’s honor, one of her wonderful paintings will be hung in Backstreet in perpetuity.

            There was a desire to share art with the community and to bring recognition to Florence’s local artists. Along with David Kapen, Pat organized the G.AL.A. Art Walk, a free bus tour, continuing now with 11 local galleries. Each second Saturday, the bus tour leaves at 3PM from the FEC visiting five local galleries.

            Come bid farewell to a popular and talented pillar of our community, Wednesday evening, January 25th, 5-7PM. There will be live entertainment by Dave Craddock and a table replete with Backstreet’s delicious appetizers to give Pat and Ken a grand send-off.

Today is an exciting day at Backstreet Gallery because we are opening our doors after being closed for maintence for 10 days.  Our fresh gallery is now open and we are featureing the multi-faceted artist, Mary Beers. Combining multiple components, Beers loves to create with various beads, metals, seed beads, stones, then weave them into intricate pieces of beautiful and unique jewelry. She uses the various weaving stitches, stringing, and wire work in her creations, but weaving is her favorite.  

Please click here to read the rest of Mary’s story and be sure to
help us celebrate her art on January 14th from 3-5pm. 

 While her life’s work encompasses nearly 2000 works, the book most beautifully presents 250 of her works in its 248 pages, showing Katheryn’s striking impressionistic style. The content of the book relates interesting information about her travels to capture life’s beauty on location or with live models. It also offers her comments about her life in the art world, 32 years of which were spent in Florence.

The Art of Katheryn Davis is by Katheryn’s husband, Leroy Krzycki, who adds richness and insights into her work.

 Taking the 20th century technology to the 21st century was accomplished by expert photographer Charles Draper. He worked wonders converting old photos into the high-resolution digital files expected in today’s high-tech world, while Debbie Golob and Susan Canavarro also provided assistance.

 Katheryn’s art workshops were attended by students from a great many places, but those students in Florence feel particularly blessed to have received her guidance and friendship.

 Katheryn once said, “Art is a life-long study and I am an eternal student.” With this book, she becomes an eternal teacher of art. Be inspired. Come to Backstreet Gallery, 1421 Bay Street, for your copy of this marvelous book!

Our annual Little Dickens Show, is hung in the gallery with care, in hopes of nice art lovers soon to be there…   The show is a miniature show, that we open to non-coop members to enter and display.  The winners get to show thier artwork later in the year, in our gallery.

Enjoy the festive reception for all the artists from 3-5 on Dec. 10th. 
Good cheer and great art to be enjoyed by all.

59 works are on display, 32 entries from our community, and 19 from BSG members.  Bill Durst was our juror and following artists won awards:

Entry form and $5 per piece entry fee is due by Nov. 29th, while the art pieces need to be delivered by Dec. 3-4 before 5 PM.

You can download the forms below (pdf version)  or pick them up at the gallery next week. Let all your friends know about this show.

We look forward to seeing your marvelous work!

ENTRY FORM

LITTLE DICKENS SHOW RULES

Geraldine’s unique hand-built pottery may fool you. It is so beautifully executed that one would think that it was wheel-thrown.

‘Pumpkin’ pots, so named for their shape, are formed around sphere shapes. Tennis balls, basket balls, and beach balls are some shapes used to create two hemispheres which are joined together. Her ‘Saturn’ pots are created the same way but by preparing shallower hemispheres, a flatter version of the pumpkin pot result. Joining the two parts results in a seam that must be worked and burnished. This process consolidates the molecules of silicon into a surface sheen. Geraldine designed her perfect tool, the “Thumper, a wooden block rounded to fit her hand with a flat edge that she thumps against the pot to eliminate the bumpy seam. She burnishes with polished stones or an ordinary plastic spoon. She may create textures with sandpaper, imprint with rocks or other tools while the clay is still moist. Pit firing her pots and vases fixes the beautiful sheen with a smoky finish that may partially expose the red clay she uses. She glazes some earth tone pots with underglazes. Some designs are painted with the under glaze, and receive a shiny glaze.

Read more about Geraldine here and come  celebrate her art at a reception in her honor at Backstreet, Nov. 12th, 3-5PM.