CREATE

A Tale of Two Artists

The language of art brings together a student and her teacher

story by JANET COOK | photos courtesy of the artists

It’s been nine years since artist Yvonne PepinWakefield met Yazmin Villegas in an art class she was teaching at the Columbia Center for the Arts in Hood River. But she still remembers it clearly.

“It was a ceramics class for kids,” Pepin-Wakefield said. “Yazmin didn’t say anything, but

I’d put some clay in her hands, walk away and she’d have done something when I came back.”

Yazmin was 9 years old at the time. She was born with a genetic disorder that presents with physical and cognitive challenges, but has always been drawn to art, according to her mom,

Monica Romero.

“She’s always loved art, and doing art and craft projects,” said Romero, who enrolled her daughter in the ceramics class to encourage her interest. The class turned out to be pivotal for

Yazmin.

Pepin-Wakefield, a prolific artist who does painting, photography and ceramics (as well as being a writer with several published books to her name), has experience teaching art to all ages and abilities. Her own art career began after the death of both of her parents, when she started drawing to channel her grief and loss. She later studied at the Mendocino Art Center fine arts program and continued at Antioch University in San Francisco, where she studied fine arts and arts administration. Research for her doctoral degree was based on drawing as a means of nonverbal communication.

Yvonne Pepin-Wakefield and her student, Yazmin Villegas, discuss frames and composition at Pepin-Wakefield’s studio in The Dalles. Top, an oil rendering of a pomegranate by Yvonne Pepin-Wakefield.

Yazmin has developed her painting technique over the years, above and opposite inset.

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Pepin-Wake eld has taught art in many settings, from elementary schools to a six-year stint at Kuwait University, where she taught art to university-aged Muslim women. So, the kids’ ceramics class was just another one, until she met Yazmin.

At the time, Yazmin was non-verbal even when Pepin-Wake eld tried to engage her. But after a few days, the student would sit down next to her teacher during snack breaks. “She’d sort of elbow me,” Pepin-Wake eld said. “I knew there was a connection there.”

Pepin-Wake eld o ered to take Yazmin on as a private student. Romero agreed and began driving her daughter to Pepin-Wake eld’s studio in e Dalles once a week for a one and a half hour class. e weekly classes continued until the pandemic hit in March 2020. During Covid, they did as much as they could over the phone with video. e two started back up with in-person classes this spring.

During the last nine years, Yazmin, now 18, has developed her art techniques, become a multi-year participant in the annual Gorge Artists Open Studios Tour, and held several shows of her work at local galleries. She has a website and an Instagram account to promote her work.

“Seeing the growth in her has been amazing to watch,” PepinWake eld said. When Yazmin started with her, she didn’t talk at all. At rst, Pepin-Wake eld focused not on art, but exercises. “Yazmin has some atrophy in her hands, so I had her pound nails to develop strength,” she said. It was during one of the nail-pounding sessions when Yazmin rst spoke to her teacher.

“I think she knew in herself that she had something,” Pepin-Wake eld said. “I think art was a way to validate it, and she knew that I saw that. I think it’s that validation that led her to open up to me.” Pepin-Wake eld found out about things Yazmin liked — including Shopkins toys, Hello Kitty, and Monster High dolls — and used them to talk about art. “We looked at those characters, what they wore, their color compositions. We found a common-ground language and approached art through that.”

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A painting in a series entitled “In the Spirit of When they Fished,” by Yvonne Pepin-Wakefield, left. Yazmin Villegas in her studio, right.

Their lessons together evolved over time as Yazmin gravitated to painting. Pepin-Wakefield would send Yazmin home with homework to do in her sketchbook. In their studio sessions, she taught her how to hold pencils and brushes, how to divide a canvas into quadrants, and later how to look at proportion and space and create linear perspective. “Yazmin gets classical training,” she said.

Within a couple of years of working together, Yazmin was creating art with acrylic paint, oil pastel, and ink while continuing to work with clay. As a student at Wy’east Middle School, she won first place for a painting in the Middle School-High School Show at The Dalles Art Center. The next year, she was juried into the Emerging Artists show at the Columbia Center for the Arts.

Now, Yazmin has a studio at her house where she spends long hours painting, looking at other artists’ work and researching art supplies. “I’m glad she’s found a niche,” Romero said. “I’m so grateful to Yvonne for being there for Yazmin.”

With her in-person classes resumed, Yazmin continues to perfect practiced techniques and learn new ones. Pepin-Wakefield taught Yazmin how to draw in the Japanese Sumi tradition, as well as calligraphy techniques learned when she studied in Japan. Now, Yazmin has her own calligraphy kit. “The level of concentration you have to have for that is really high,” Pepin-Wakefield noted.

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Yvonne Pepin-Wakefield works with Yazmin on painting with single brush strokes using calligraphy ink during one of their weekly art classes.

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e two study art books together, sometimes going to the library to nd books Pepin-Wake eld doesn’t have in her own collection. “We’ll take art history books and look at similar art so she can study it and try to do it a di erent way,” she said. ey also go to galleries and paint other artists’ paintings to practice techniques, and sometimes paint en plein air.

“Yazmin is really open to learning,” Pepin-Wake eld said. “She doesn’t have an attitude.”

To help Yazmin prepare for the Gorge Artists Open Studios Tour, where visitors come to artists’ studios to see where they work — and often to purchase original artwork — Pepin-Wake eld has worked with Yazmin on the business side of being an artist as well, including how to present art and market it. Pepin-Wake eld has attended artists’ parties with Yazmin, where she encourages her student to make eye contact and say, “thank you.”

“She’s becoming more secure in herself,” Pepin-Wake eld said. “I think recognizing the artist within her enabled her to give voice to that part of herself.”

Yazmin is preparing to graduate from high school, and plans to focus on her art. “She just wants to do art in her studio,” Romero said. “It’s her happy place.”

Pepin-Wake eld will continue to teach and mentor her long-time student. Next on her agenda is to get Yazmin working on larger canvases, which she’s ready for. “I get to see the growth in her from one week to the next,” she said. “I love seeing that learning take place.”

She also treasures the rapport the two have developed over the years. “We’re in it,” she said, “for the long haul.”

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