MAZAMA ARTISTS

Ali Gray

I’m a web designer by trade, but I enjoy graphic design and dabbling in ink and watercolor in my free time (if I’m not out exploring in the mountains or playing with my cat). Over the years, I’ve designed a handful of topsheet graphics for a custom ski manufacturer in Wyoming, which is a true dream come true. I own skis with one of my designs, and could hardly bring myself to ski on them—now they’re pretty wall art! I’ve never thought of myself as being any good at art away from the computer, but a few years ago discovered working with ink and am loving it, and slowly improving. Not having an undo button is stressful! More of my work is on my website, iamalidesign.com.

Koko Olszewski

Koko Olszewski has long held a passion for art, education, and community building. A social practice art facilitator at heart, she is interested in the ways we can use art to connect and strengthen community, as a tool of inquiry to question existing social systems, and as an experiment in understanding who we are, where we are, and everything we’ve touched to get to this very point. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, she studied at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and got her Masters in Teaching K-12 Visual Art. After graduating, Koko moved to the west coast to complete two years of service with Habitat for Humanity as an AmeriCorps Construction Crew Leader. With AmeriCorps, she planned and implemented the Vancouver Women Build first Recycled Arts Festival in the Habitat Store parking lot. During her time at Habitat, she facilitated two murals, one at the Habitat Store in Vancouver, WA, and the other as Beaverton’s first intersection mural in the Vose neighborhood. In addition to social practice arts, she’s always been interested in using the accessible resources that already exist in her environment to create something new while doing what she can to reduce waste. While working at Habitat she began to take home discarded scrap materials to utilize as canvases (t1-11 siding, vinyl flooring, broken pallets, and subflooring, for example). It was from this resourcing that this series entitled “Deep Persistent Layers” was born. She deeply enjoys rebuilding mountains that she’s spent time climbing and getting to know more intimately. She sees and loves the parallels in mountaineering and art as tools to learn more about who we are and see into brand new corners of ourselves and the world.

Above

Above left: Custom rolling gate, private collection. Above right: "Mountain."

Below left: Untitled.

Jill Torberson is an artist, principal, and owner of Weld Metal Works, a design/build steel fabrication studio in Portland, Oregon. Jill is a licensed and bonded contractor, a certified welder, and has been registered with the Oregon Construction Contractor’s Board since 2013.

Weld Metal Works specializes in designing, fabricating, and installing site-specific artworks. The collection of work includes both functional steelwork and decorative art. Her work is included in many private residences, public places, and a museum collection in Oregon.

Jill’s design approach centers around the theme of “lightness.” She utilizes the structural integrity of the steel to create artworks that seemingly float, feel light, and may evoke fragility. Balance, mathematics, and minimalism are central to the work. She also considers both the daytime and nighttime conditions of place— whether through sunlight or ambient light conditions.

Alice Brocoum

Alice Brocoum has taken art classes all her life (her father was her first art teacher). Now, as a retired science teacher with plenty of time and no one but herself to please, she's become more spontaneous and really enjoys the process in addition to the finished creations. Alice says that all her work is "inspired by the beautiful places I have been hiking. The particular view only gets chosen if it has an interesting composition and color palette. The medium: pastel (soft lines for animals and flowers), acrylic (freer, less controlled approach), or watercolor (more detail and gentler colors) varies by subject. In any case, I find that a painting is always more expressive than a photograph. The time spent observing when painting helps me remember that particular scene better."

Top right: "Stream Crossing," acrylic. Right middle: "Balsam Roots," acrylic. Bottome: "Gorge View," watercolor.

Sarah Lydecker

Sarah has worked as a set designer and scenic painter at over a dozen Portland theatres, as well as for Portland-filmed TV shows such as Grimm, specializing in mural painting, faux finishing, blood effects, and gore. In her own pieces, Sarah only paints places she has visited; her images come from a sense of joy and deep respect for these landscapes, aiming to combine the right palette of colors to capture their emotional depth.

Rock climbing became Sarah's passion after taking BCEP in 2014, and she’s worked to advance her trad leading skills in preparation for longer alpine routes; this past year she led the crux pitches of the classic North Ridge of Mt. Stuart and Outer Space in Leavenworth. She has also assisted with BCEP, various skill-builders, and Advanced Rock, and worked as the Climbing Coordinator for the Mazamas AdventureWILD program for kids. This year she will be leading instruction for the Introduction to Rock Climbing Program from Peak Recovery, which offers free outdoor programs for people in mental health and substance use recovery.

You can see more of Sarah's work at sarahlydeckerart.com, on Instagram, or by visiting her at the First Thursday art market in the Pearl.

Bonnie Paisley Scott

I learned to draw and paint from life before I ever climbed anything. From a very young age, I developed my stamina for “slow looking” by practicing drawing. I developed my eye for seeing color and feeling how colors are related to each other by using paint. I spent concentrated time looking at things that were in front of me. Sometimes, I would cast my eyes in the distance, but more often I would be looking at something up close. This practice has been with me for many years, I now teach it to others, and try to return to it as often as I can, especially during times when I need to settle my mind and body down.

Since taking the Mazama Basic School in 2006, I have hiked (and climbed) up ten or so mountains in the Northwest, one in Africa, a high pass in Peru, sat on rocky beaches in Alaska and most recently completed a loop in Kings Canyon National Park. Sometimes, I am trailing behind my partner Greg Scott, or enjoying a more leisurely trip with friends or family. Forgoing all efforts to make my pack “ultra-light,” my sketchbook and a few materials often come with me.

Stephanie Buer

Stephanie took BCEP in 2012, not long after moving to Portland, and within a few years had taken ICS and Advanced Rock as well. She’s since volunteered to teach all of them, and has served on the ICS Committee, assisted Intro to Alpine Climbing, and taken Mountain Education Alliance training. She’s an avid rock and alpine climber with many summits under her belt, including the North Ridge of Mt. Baker, Mt. Rainier’s Kautz Glacier, Mt. Stuart’s West Ridge, and several in British Columbia's Bugaboos and Idaho’s Pioneer mountains.

Despite her love of climbing, Stephanie’s art has focused mostly on urban landscapes, which she first explored during a decade in Detroit. Combining exacting detail with a painter’s eye for light and composition, her charcoals and paintings are portraits of unsentimental landscapes: freeway interchanges, desolate backstreets, crumbling factories being reclaimed by graffiti artists and nature. But she also sketches while hiking and climbing, and has considered running a plein air painting and drawing class.

Stephanie’s work can be seen at stephaniebuer.com, on Instagram, and at many galleries, including Talon in NE Portland.