BRIGHTENING THE WORLD WITH BEAUTY

Polly Malby has lived a remarkable journey in the U.S. and beyond, working as a midwife and teaching midwifery to the next generation with a balance of science, art, and faith weaved into her story.

Now she channels her passion to create into unique custom lampshades and light fixtures. Her art pieces are displayed at the Red Trillium Gallery in downtown Troutdale and additional locations.

The Fairview resident says love for the arts has always been a part of her life, even while teaching nearly two decades at the Oregon Health & Sciences University in Portland.

“I have always had a sense of creativity and desire to make things beautiful and fun,” she said.

“When I did midterms and final exams for my students, I made them like screenplays, and the students had to figure things out – not just regurgitate information, but show they had critical thinking skills. I had former students come up to me many years later at conventions and say they still had those exams.”

Regularly she made special gifts for students, such as hollowed-out eggs on which she inked an image of a baby in the womb, or a young child with a mother. She made a golden speculum award for one fellow faculty member. “Then, of course, my daughters were getting older, and they needed prom dresses, wedding dresses, and wedding cakes,” which she was glad to craft, she said.

Bringing amazing new items, and living beings, into the world has long been Polly’s gift.

The daughter of a U.S. Marine whose duty shuttled the family to Hawaii and many other stops, she dove into handdelivering several piglets during a difficult farm birth – solo, and without training – and then into her career of nursing and birthing.

After nurse training in southern Oregon, she and her husband, Greg, would join the Baha’i religious community. Founded in the 19th century, the Baha’i faith teaches the worth of all the world’s religions and unity of all people, and one of its central tenets is to be of service. For four years, the couple served as a nurse and carpenter, respectively in the remote Falkland Islands – a tiny U.K. territory off the tip of South America, about 250 miles from Argentina and nearly as close to the edge of Antarctica.

“A windy, cold place. Very, very British,” Polly said. “And I got to work with British midwives. They were these tall, bossy women, and I thought, ‘By golly, I want to be one of those.’ ” Intrigued, she pursued formal midwifery training, even as her family grew by two. She completed her training at the University of Mississippi medical school and began work in one of three state-run charity hospitals there. The staff of five certified nurse midwives and three physicians achieved the highest infant and maternal survival rate of any hospital in the state at the time. They cared for thousands of impoverished and underserved families whose access to good nutrition and housing was minimal.

“(W)ithout modern equipment and backup... your learning curve goes sky-high when you’re thrown into the trenches,” said Polly. “What you had were your skills, hands, and heart. It was an incredible experience for me as a brand-new midwife.”

The family returned to Oregon in the early 1980s. She worked in a small birth center in Gold Beach a year, then in Crescent City, California. She owned a private practice and did home births there for five years. Then it was off to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland to complete graduate work and begin teaching midwifery to others. Finally, she was hired at OHSU as an assistant professor faculty midwife, serving there 18 years before retiring.

A New Passion

By 2015 Greg had taken a secondary job at Hippo Hardware in Portland, which sells antique hardware and salvaged goods. One day he brought home a broken lampshade and asked her if she could do something with it. She quickly replied, “Are you kidding? Silk, ribbons, colors, beads... Yeah!” And since that moment, her custom lampshades and fixtures have come to brighten many lives and earn renown.

Besides at the Red Trillium Gallery, Polly’s works are displayed at the Café Delirium in Gresham and Pendleton House Historic Inn. Her work can be seen at several McMenamins properties, such as Edgefield in Troutdale, the White Eagle Saloon & Hotel in Portland’s St. Johns neighborhood, and the Blue Moon Tavern & Grill in northwest Portland. Two of her lamps were purchased to be featured in a hotel scene for the television show “Billions.”

Polly says she draws inspiration from artists William Morris, Maxfield Parish, and Duffy Sheridan, as well as the Art Nouveau and Craftsman eras.

Clearly, her favorite type of lampshade project is creating heirloom and memorial lampshades, as well as shades to commemorate special events such as weddings or anniversaries.

An example: She had an opportunity to create a shade in remembrance of a child who died in a tragic accident. The mother had taken many years to unpack the boxes or get rid of anything that belonged to the victim. Finally, the mother gave her some clothing and charms that had belonged to the child and a newspaper clipping with a poem on it that the mother read at the funeral.

“I designed the lampshade thinking this mother would never be able to attend that child’s wedding, to see them graduate, or welcome that child’s children,” said Polly. “I used strips of a blue dress to create a pocket for the mother to tuck in her child’s student body card and display that treasure, if she wished. The child’s soccer number was 2, so I included number 2 charms with the others along the trim. I printed the poem from the newspaper clipping on a ribbon and incorporated it at the base of the shade just above the trim. “And it was very subtle, but you could see the beautiful words from this poem as they ran around the shade. It was a very special project for me because I knew I was being helpful to that family.”

Polly loves to create shades that incorporate a bride’s colors, flowers she picked out, the style of the wedding invitation, or the type of lace on her dress.

“People having a wedding spend a lot of time and money shopping for the right flowers, the right atmosphere and theme. And then the event is over, and all the tablecloths get returned, the flowers wilt, and everything gets thrown out. If I make a lampshade that incorporates all those beautiful elements, it helps to preserve the memory in a beautifully unique way.”

Always there is a story attached to how she comes about her lampmaking supplies, how each piece comes together. While visiting the Oregon Coast she encountered a woman moving her own antique shop, and in the stash was a Chinese gentleman’s wedding skirt from which a large square had been cut from the middle. To most people, the garment would be considered ruined and unusable, but not to her.

“It was made of this crispy, gold silk with perfect pleats and gorgeous hand embroidery throughout, and I’ve used it in several projects,” she said.

She loves repurposing old neckties because they come in beautiful colors and silks. She has a collection of Czech glass buttons that she uses in the shades as a little “window” to great effect.

“I’m always looking for antique crystal and glass beads. They are so brilliant when the light shines through them it excites me, and I think it excites the people who appreciate my art.”

Inspiration Abounds

Polly said her Baha’i faith plays directly into her appreciation for beauty and possibility within objects large or small. “One of my favorite things is using pen and ink to decorate eggs and using alcohol inks in vivid colors. Why does a hummingbird look for a red flower? Why do we like butterflies? It’s the color and vibrancy and marveling at the incredible creative energy in the world and trying to reflect that harmony, beauty, and joy because the world is full of darkness and sadness.

“Creating helps me feel whole, healthy, and connected to the community.”

Recently she was asked to join a study group researching the importance of the arts on a spiritual level, and became one of three facilitators in the U.S. for this program. Among the first topics covered was that art is a gift from the divine.

“We are looking at the role of art in society. When we have a body of knowledge, whether it’s midwifery, education, or business, and we study it, it is just a body of knowledge; but when you put that knowledge into practice, it becomes art,” she said. “It’s not just about how we use our knowledge but also about brightening the world with beauty and creating harmony.”

“Art takes your mind to these meditative spaces, and you become more open to the divine light we’re all capable of accessing. If more people did art, I imagine that society wouldn’t be so crabby with each other, and we would find other things to do with our time other than hurt each other.”

For years, Polly has sponsored a monthly ladies’ tea meeting at the Corbett Grange. She brings an expert to teach the group an art form such as improv, cooking, quilting, painting, or even estate and financial planning. She currently has two lampmaking apprentices whom she meets with weekly and may add a third (readers here are invited to inquire). A YouTube channel that includes instructional videos may be in the works.

“My apprentices are young in spirit, mind, and energy. They are skilled and talented, and it thrills me to pass these skills along,” she said. She advises students looking to enrich their lives through art to do it, and keep doing it: Grab a piece of paper, start doodling without expectation, and see what shows up. If you hit a creative block, you should put their work down, take a walk, and return to it again in the morning.

“See everything as art. See it as a way to express not just what you know, but what you love about it. You never know who or what may bring you inspiration.”

For a full version of this story with more on Polly’s amazing life, visit https://www.advocate-online.net/ artist-births-lampshades-with-creativepassion/

For more about her designs and work, visit https://shadestoremember. com/

Right: Ink-pen drawings on hollowed eggs are among Polly’s favorite crafts.