Connecting through images

Farming-inspired art exhibit carries vital message

Richard Burger
Freelance Writer

May 5, 2006

Art and agriculture – at least the work of agriculture – may seem at first an unlikely alliance.

But the American Farmland Trust and the Maryhill Museum are betting it will help communicate and inform urbanites about the obstacles and difficulties farmers and ranchers face day in and day out, particularly as they relate to sustainable agriculture and stewardship of the land.

The museum and the Farmland Trust have worked together to create a new exhibit at the museum, titled “Sustaining Change on the American Farm: An Artist Farmer Exchange.”

The exhibit, sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, West Coast Wealth Advisors and New Seasons Market, opened in March and runs through the end of July. It will showcase the work of 12 Pacific Northwest artists, four each from Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Each of the artists was paired with a farmer, rancher or dairyman who had been recognized for sustainable agricultural practices and environmental stewardship.

Each artist made numerous visits to his or her respective agricultural counterpart and developed a theme and content for the art pieces to be included in the exhibit. In some instances, the visits included actually doing some work on the farm, though that was not required.

Lee Musgrave, the museum’s curator of contemporary art exhibits, said the artists “were given carte blanche” in their selection of subject matter and the medium they chose to use for the display.

“Each artist zeroed in on something different,” he said.

The exhibit includes oil painting, photography, drawings and sculpture.

Don Stuart, Pacific Northwest field director for the Farmland Trust, said he believes the exhibit will have positive effects for farmers and for those who see the exhibit.

“Farmers really feel their isolation,” Stuart said.

Because visitors to museums and art exhibits tend to come from urban, metropolitan areas, he said, the exhibit will help farmers “communicate with people they would normally have no contact with.”

Stuart stressed that even though all the farmers chosen had received state or local stewardship awards, “they are not alternative farmers,” he said. “They are mainstream farmers.”

Stuart also said he believed the experience of the artists with their farmers gave them a true appreciation for the realities of the agricultural lifestyle.

“The artists ‘got it’ across the board,” he said.

He said he believed the artists related to their farm experiences on a “very personal” level. A cross-section of comments from the artists seems to bear that out.

In the case of Idaho artist Sandra Marostica, the experience was painfully personal, when Brad Orme, the rancher she worked with, was killed in a motorcycle accident.

Marostica, of Boise, was assigned to the Orme Ranch, a cattle operation owned by Brad and Rich Orme. Marostica said that even though she had grown up around farms and ranches, her visits to Orme Ranch “were like an awakening.”

“Brad was an exceptional steward,” Marostica said. “He was a great guy, wonderful and enlightening. More like a scholar.”

Marostica took about 500 digital photos during her visits to the ranch, as well as slides and print photos, and used oil paint as the medium for her artwork.

After Orme’s death, “It was very hard painting,” she said. “It was hard to get back into it. It distanced me from the project somehow.”

She said in her paintings she tried focus on the conservation techniques used on the ranch. “I really connected totally with what Brad was doing,” she said. “It was like coming home to a place you’ve never been to.”

Bonnie Meltzer, of Portland, was assigned to Country Heritage Farms, operated by Sam Sweeney.

She said the farm covers about 1,000 acres, on which are grown row crops such as cauliflower, corn, and beets, as well as grass seed.

Meltzer, a native of New Jersey – “and not the garden part” – said she was “enormously interested” in what she encountered on the farm.

The medium in which she worked for the exhibit was a combination of painting on a flat surface and adding layers of paint and three-dimensional objects. Her exhibit piece is made of three connected 5-by-5-foot panels, a construction called a triptych.

She finished the piece in November, and later that month invited Sweeney and his family to preview her work.

“I’ve been thrilled with the whole project,” Meltzer said. “I’m very excited about working with Sam.”

Washington artist Rachel Brumer said she began her art project with quilting in mind. But after her visits to the Chocolate Swiss Farm, the dairy operation of John Mower, her idea changed.

“That concept didn’t make any sense,” she said. “I was so impressed with the enormity of the operation, the dedication that went into it.”

That dedication is exemplified by the fact that, in more than 28 years of operating the dairy and associated farm, Mower has never spent a night away from it.

That provided the name for Brumer’s work, “10,402 Days of Dairyness.”

She said she used an old library card catalog with about 30 drawers and filled them with cards of fabric dipped in beeswax.

The work is displayed with the drawers open and significant farm-related dates on cards.

Brumer, who grew up in Oakland, Calif., said what she encountered on the dairy was “not in my experience.” She wasn’t content to simply observe during her visits, and she “ended up doing some gardening” while she was there.

Though she didn’t participate in any of the early morning or early afternoon milking, she did get up at 3:30 a.m. during the course of work on her project “in an act of solidarity” with the Mowers.

“I can’t give as much reverence to them as they deserve,” Brumer said.

Farmland Trust director Stuart said that in addition to their time and access to their operations, farming participants wrote a statement of philosophy about conservation and stewardship in sustainable agriculture.

“Some were poetic, and some were scientifically prosaic,” Stuart said of the statements, which will be displayed with the artwork in the exhibit.

“We really have two (sets of) artists here,” Stuart said.

He said his hope for the exhibit is that the art will help convey what is required of the agricultural community to farm on a sustainable basis.

“It’s a big deal, what farmers do for us,” he said. “We really need to get that message across.”

The Maryhill Museum of Art overlooks the Columbia River on Washington Scenic Route 14, just west of U.S. 97, a few miles south of Goldendale.

The museum operates from March 15 to Nov. 15, and can be reached at (509) 773-3733, or at www.maryhillmuseum.org.

Sam Sweeney and his wife, Nancy, at right, visit with artist Bonnie Meltzer during the opening of the Artist/Farmer Exchange exhibit at the Maryhill Museum of Art. The Sweeneys own and operate Country Heritage Farms in Dayton, Ore., with other Sweeney family members.

Norman Nelson, “Highland,” 2005, watercolor and India ink. Inspired by the Koester Ranch, Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. - Courtesy of Maryhill Museum

What the farmers had to say

Each of the farmers and ranchers that participated in the Artist/Farmer Exchange featured at the Maryhill Museum of Fine Art contributed a statement about their perspective on sustainable agricultural practices.

These statements were displayed with the artwork created about their farming or ranching operations.

Excerpts from some of these statements give illuminating insights into the challenges and rewards of concerned stewardship of the land on the family farm.

Wayne Jensen, Jensen Farm, Genesee, Idaho:

“We like to think of each field as having its own personality and needs. Some fields can be protected with just high-residue seeding, while others need structures or permanent vegetation in critical areas. We use a variety of conservation practices to protect our soil for the future.”

The Bailey Family, Orchard Views Farms, The Dalles, Ore.:

“We believe that taking care of the earth requires a personal culture. Four generations of Baileys are farming here today. We hope to continue that conservation culture for many generations to come.”

Doc and Connie Hatfield, Hatfields High Desert Ranch, Brothers, Ore.:

“Our product is more than beef, it’s the smell of sage after a summer thunderstorm, the cool shade of a Ponderosa pine forest. It’s 80-year-old weathered hands saddling a horse in the Blue Mountains, the future of a 6-year-old in a one-room school in the High Desert. It’s a trout in a beaver-built pond, haystacks on an aspen-framed meadow. It’s the hardy quail running to join the cattle for a meal, the welcome ring of the dinner bell at dusk.”

Sam Sweeney, Country Heritage Farms, Dayton, Ore.:

“Our ability to produce quality food products is dependent on the Earth. That’s why we’re dedicated to maintaining our land for future generations. More than 20 percent of our acreage is set aside for natural habitat preservation. We also practice erosion control methods, keeping our soil at home for the fruit, and out of the streams and watersheds. We see this as a tradition our grandparents started, and one our grandchildren will continue.”

Pirie and Jane Grant, Grant Farms, Othello, Wash.:

“Certainly good health and good fortune were considerable factors in the position of our family farm today. But that said, probably the next-greatest contribution was establishing a strong foothold through the use of every conservation practice that fit our operation in the home, shop and field. Indeed, conservation became our way of life.”

John R. Mower, Chocolate Swiss Farm, Sedro-Woolley, Wash.:

“As leaves rustle in the dark, I see my child take off his coat and tenderly wrap it around a newborn calf. That moment I realize the most important things that have been handed down, that will continue to safeguard the patchwork of fields and trees, preserve the ancient race of cattle, and provide habitat for wildlife, are love and compassion.”

Tracy Eriksen, Eriksen Farm, St. John, Wash.:

“Land that is suited to producing high quality and quantity of food is finite and an ever-shrinking resource worldwide. We, who are stewards of these lands, need to elevate our commitment to sustain this productive capacity. For the Palouse, this means breaking tradition, seeking the knowledge and honing the skills necessary to successfully plant into untilled soil.”