December 13, 2009
November 15, 2009
gallery meeting
honorary member eunice with the current members of 12x16 gallery cooperative- 11 strong!
November 07, 2009
October 22, 2009
the blitz is over
collected the works from the hallie ford museum of art monday and the works were delivered to the gallery from madras over the weekend
four shows at four venues in three months!
it was fun while it lasted, now time to start thinking about the march show
October 13, 2009
new show in march
eunice will be showing new collages in march 2010 @ 12x16 gallery
she will be showing alongside guest artist ann carstensen
October 06, 2009
essay by roger hull
Eunice Parsons: Collages
“The principle of collage is the central principle of all art in the 20th century in all media,” according to the writer Donald Barthelme. Invented by the Cubists prior to World War I, commandeered by the Dadaists after the war, and adapted by later artists in a wide range of mixed media experiments, collage is an art of destroying one thing to create another, splicing excerpts from many discourses, and jumbling the formerly ordered into a new, often chaotic unity. In these ways, collage does seem to reflect the splintery static of contemporary life. For the Portland artist Eunice Parsons, collage involves a particularly vital interplay of words, images, textures, shapes, and colors that mingle the new and the nostalgic, the present experience and the remembered time or place.
Eunice Parsons was born in Colorado in 1916, grew up in Chicago, and moved to Portland in 1938. Long interested in art, she enrolled in a painting class with Charles Voorhies at the Museum School in Portland in 1950. She eventually completed the equivalent of two years at the school in classes with Voorhies, William Givler, Louis Bunce, Jack McLarty, and others. A dynamic teacher, Parsons was an adjunct instructor at the Museum School from 1957 through 1979 except for 1960-1961, when she taught at Portland State University.
Parsons began her career as a painter and printmaker. In 1957, she rode the bus to New York to see firsthand the new movement of Abstract Expressionist painting. She adapted the fluid, spontaneous, experimental techniques of Abstract Expressionism to her own work including her collages, which she began to make in the 1960s.
Her first collages were studies for paintings and prints, but she soon realized that the studies were often complete visual statements in their own right. The chance viewing of a collage by the New York artist Anne Ryan in the collection of her friend Louis Bunce confirmed her belief that the medium was its own legitimate art form. “It was all over,” Parsons recalls, and collage became her favored and eventually exclusive medium. In a conversation in May 2009, she stated: “I love the torn edge–and the cut edge. I love edges. I love paper. It’s a passion.”
Parsons’ greatest activity in collage-making has occurred in two separate periods: the 1970s, and from the1990s to the present day. After her long-time friend and lover died in 1973, she went into relative seclusion and made a series of bold collages. These are large works with strong patterns of torn and cut papers in intense colors: red, white, blue, sometimes yellow, and black–the black often being the lettering from posters and other graphics. French and Italian words (torn from posters and advertising kiosks during trips to Europe beginning in 1965) give these collages an international flavor, sometimes evoking the mood of Fernand Leger’s work or Jean Dubuffet’s later pieces.
In contrast to her collages of the 1970s, Parsons’ later work is more delicate, more varied in colors and textures, and at times more concrete in imagery (with pictures of Milan’s Galleria, for instance, or an Edward Weston photograph). At the same time, her strong use of lettering and bold embrace of the international, especially European internationalism, assures unity and continuity to her collages spanning a period of 40 years.
I thank Eunice Parsons and her friend and agent Cary Doucette for their assistance in preparing this exhibition.
Roger Hull
Professor of Art History and Curator of the Exhibition
September 22, 2009
art adventure show...
the show at art adventure gallery in madras is in it's final week
the last venue in the summer long series of shows featuring over 40 years of eunice's work
see it while you can
blue room, 2009 collage
September 14, 2009
queen for a day
the reception was well attended and the show looks great
see it before it ends sunday, 9/20
September 09, 2009
August 30, 2009
on the slow bell
eunice is nursing some bruised ribs after a fall which involved lulu and the contractors who were in the house cleaning out the heating ducts- she's fine, taking it slow, and promises to be in top form for the hallie ford show reception in two weeks
lulu
August 28, 2009
d.k.'s hot sheet
this was in today's oregonian a&e section
"To many, collage fails to impress. It's piecemeal ingredients suggest a crafty exercise, a weekend jaunt with paper, scissors and glue. But Eunice Parsons may change some of those minds with her show at Willamette University's Hallie Ford Museum of Art.
Parson's collages are anything but simple. They're complexly constructed works infused with many art historical references that you'd expect of someone whose career spans much of modern and contemporary art. Parsons was born in 1916. Yet those influences are never at the expense of the artist's subdued visual splendor. Her collages have grace.
Parsons has been in Portland since the 1930s and has had numerous solo exhibitions in Oregon. The small group of collages at Hallie Ford is the latest welcome reminder of her consistency and facility.
In a 2005 review of a Parsons show, Oregonian contributor Victoria Blake wrote, "Parsons understands that collage, like life, is an art of imperfection, of the torn edge and the spot of glue. The potential for biting humor is here, and sentiment, as well as a good deal of judiciously used smarts. Parsons has all of these, but she has grace, too, and the ability to recognize the chance encounter for what it is: potential in its purist form."
August 23, 2009
rediscovered
eunice treated the gallery members to dinner last night at cassidy's where we found this collage hanging in the bar!
eunice gave it to bob in 1992 and he had brought it in, along with some work from other artists, to brighten up the bar
as with all of her work, she was happy to see it again
August 14, 2009
the madras show...
met coralee and bill at eunice's to select works for the show in madras
we settled on a good mix of paintings (4), watercolours (5) and collage (about a dozen) spanning from 1953 to present
steel bridge redux, 2009, collage
August 10, 2009
August 04, 2009
August 02, 2009
print show reception
despite the heat, the reception was well attended and there were sales to boot
eunice talking with buyers
July 30, 2009
new prints...
eunice retreated to the basement to escape the heat of the past few days and ended up printing (hand burnishing) two old woodblocks
one of which will be on view at the print show which opens tomorrow
July 29, 2009
July 25, 2009
the hallie ford show opens today
Eunice Parsons: Collages
July 25-September 20, 2009
The Portland artist Eunice Parsons has been called an American master of the art of collage. Parsons’ interest in the interplay of words and phrases and her travels to Europe and the Far East are reflected in her collage work. Organized by Professor Roger Hull, the exhibition features a range of collages created over the past few decades and includes work from public and private collections throughout the region.
July 21, 2009
July 19, 2009
manuel izquierdo has died...
eunice said, "he was a wunderkind when he was young... he was a fantastic character... it's the end of an era"
July 17, 2009
in the studio screening...
a rather small turnout but the films were well received
harry, george and aaron
July 16, 2009
the print show...
"the artist formerly known for her prints"
Aug 1 - Sep 4
luke's frame shop
2707 se belmont
portland
reception: saturday august 1, 5pm
July 15, 2009
in the studio...
the three pcc films "in the studio", featuring eunice, george johanson and harry widman are being screened tomorrow night
port wrote about it here
July 14, 2009
artists reception...
the sunday reception was well attended and sales were "brisk"
eunice with bill and louise
July 10, 2009
July 06, 2009
July 05, 2009
July 04, 2009
July 02, 2009
press release...
Museum features collages from Portland artist
SALEM, Ore. — A small selection of collages by Eunice Parsons, a Portland artist and teacher who has been called an American master of collage, opens July 25 and continues through Sept. 20 at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University.
Organized by art history Professor Roger Hull, Eunice Parsons: Collages features a range of collages created during the past few decades and includes work drawn from public and private collections throughout the region. As a special feature, a 30-minute film on Parsons, produced byPortland Community College, will be shown Sept. 13 at 2 p.m. in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall at the museum. A reception to honor the artist will follow from 3 to 5 p.m. in the lobby and Study Gallery. Admission to the film and reception is free.
Parsons’ interest in bold compositions of torn and cut paper and the interplay of words and phrases, coupled with the influence of her travels to Europe and the Far East, are reflected in her striking and evocative collage work.
Born in Loma, Colo., in 1916, Parsons attended the Art Institute of Chicago from 1934–36 and the Portland Art Museum School from 1950–54. An art teacher at Portland State University and the Portland Art Museum School, she has been included in dozens of one-person and group exhibitions in the past 60 years and is included in the permanent collections of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, Kaiser Permanente and the Portland Art Museum, among others.
Eunice Parsons: Collages has been supported in part by grants from the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax funds and the Oregon Arts Commission.
June 29, 2009
June 26, 2009
June 23, 2009
June 19, 2009
in the studio...
...produced by Portland Community College, documents three former Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) faculty members, all established Northwest masters with accomplished bodies of work and distinguished teaching careers, at work in their studios. Former Portland Art Museum Curator and co-producer Prudence Roberts places these three artists within the cultural history of Portland. At age 90, Eunice Parsons is making the strongest work of her long career—collages created from scratch in a process as spontaneous as it is methodical. (26 mins.)
the director michael annus is presenting the films thursday, july 16 at 7pm at the nw film center, portland, oregon
June 17, 2009
the eunice blitz...
in addition to being included in the pnca at 100 show at the portland art museum, eunice's work will be exhibited in four venues over the summer
Eunice Parsons: Bliss
July 2 – August 2, 2009
Reception: Sunday, July 12, 2:00 PM
12x16gallery
8235 SE 13th Ave. No. 5
Portland, Oregon
(503) 432-3513
www.12x16gallery.com
Eunice Parsons: Collages
July 25 – September 20, 2009
Reception: Sunday, September 13, 2:30PM
Hallie Ford Museum of Art
Willamette University
Salem, Oregon
www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art
Eunice Parsons: the artist formerly known for her prints
August 1 – September 4, 2009
Reception: Saturday, August 1, 5:00 PM
Luke’s Frame Shop
2707 SE Belmont
Portland, Oregon
(503) 841-6090
Eunice Parsons: Paper and Paint
September 1 - 28, 2009
Reception: Friday, September 4, 5:30PM
Art Adventure Gallery
185 SE 5th Street
Madras, Oregon
(541) 475-7701
June 15, 2009
found...
this is a 1953 painting in the collection of omark industries
eunice asked mark humpal for his help in locating it and after a couple emails and phone calls- here it is
mark took eunice to the the company's headquarters to see it and she was interviewed for their monthly newsletter
she was very happy to see it again and recalled that it is a painting of of her daughter's first boyfriend
June 12, 2009
the y painting
this is an early painting from the period when eunice was teaching art classes to wealthy women at the y - it is in the collection of lu bond, a dear friend of eunice
June 10, 2009
living with eunice...
this is one of eunice's paintings in our dining room
it was a gift from the artist, or payment for services rendered
either way, it's one of my favorites and will always occupy a prominent space in our home
eunice jensen, "eastern oregon" 1966, oil on canvas
June 09, 2009
June 08, 2009
June 07, 2009
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