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What If...

Octopus Embrace is a jeweler and printmaker mash up revealed in a polycarbonate pendant necklace. The Giant Pacific Octopus has resurfaced out of layers of time and geological history via current 3D printing technology. Until about 12 million years ago Western Oregon was under the sea. This species and many others roamed the ocean floor which is now our Willamette Valley home.

The Distance Between Us

Tallmadge Doyle:

Introduction:
I have yet to meet Tallmadge. Her work delights me, and I knew of her form Instagram, where I thought she was Tall Madge. My bad. It is a pleasure learning more as this project progresses.

Bio:
Tallmadge Doyle was born in New York City and has lived and worked in Eugene, Oregon, for twenty-five years. During the last few years, through the experiences of several artist residencies across North America, Tallmadge has aimed to observe and portray the quality and atmosphere of an environment, it's land, air and water through layered 2D imagery. Typically she employs traditional methods of printmaking and combines layered elements of drawing and painting. She is currently interested in depicting a layering of time and geological history and how the landscape changes through the pressures of human and natural forces.
Recent exhibitions include one person shows at Davidson Gallery, Seattle; Augen Gallery, Portland; and Schrager Clarke Gallery in Eugene. Her work is included in more than one hundred national and international exhibitions and is featured in over forty public collections in the United States and abroad.
Tallmadge taught as an Adjunct Professor of printmaking and drawing at the University of Oregon for 15 years and teaches annual workshops at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology.

Gary Dawson Designs:

Introduction:
Gary is as down-to-earth as his bio might suggest. I first encountered him at a wedding. My best friends in town exchanged beautiful rings he custom designed with them. When I noticed he was on this block, we were thrilled.

Bio:
I didn't initially choose to be a designer and goldsmith...but it sure chose me!

I was going to be a lawyer.But after I'd rented my apartment in Eugene to attend the U of O in a pre-law program I got the news. Lucky 14 was my draft number so I lost my deposit on the apartment and spent the next two years in the army. Fortunately, the conflict du jour, what is called in the USA the Vietnam war, was winding down so I did not have to go there during my service term. And somehow, after the experience of being drafted I just didn't have the same urge to become a lawyer as I thought I had in high school. I spent some time drifting through a liberal-arts degree at the U of O, wondering where I would end up. A friend talked me into taking a jewelry class. It took some coaxing, he pestered me for a couple of terms, but I finally relented and ended up in the classroom of my mentor, Max Nixon. This time I was genuinely lucky, Max changed my life.

Or perhaps he allowed me to change my own life, find my home. I found that I felt at home making things. The back-backstory here is that my first paying job (at age 12) was sweeping the floor in a machine shop in my hometown of Riddle, OR. That segued into a work-study program in high-school and eventually to summer jobs working at Hannah Nickel Mine, near Riddle, as a welder. So when I began this jewelry making class, I had a fairly deep background in some forms of metalworking. Once I finally went to the U of O, I may have been a tiny bit more mature than many of his beginning freshmen students, having been in the Army (as a Military Policeman) so Max encouraged me set up a home workshop and proceed to where my heart seemed to be taking me.making jewelry!

While learning the jewelry trade I still wanted a well-rounded education and after participating in the Psychology Dept. for several years, I switched to a focus on Anthropology and retain a deep interest in the topic. Cultures, and the people within them fascinate me. How people interact with the objects in their lives is determined by both culture and personality and for me somehow this all ties into my process of making meaningful custom jewelry for people.