Press Room

Two Local Artists Win Public Art Competition

The lobbies of the Crescent Village Town Center buildings will soon be awash with the colors, textures and visions of two local artists. In May, a panel of jurors selected Sarah Grew and Lynn Peterson to create the public art installations at Crescent Village Town Center.

Though the chosen artists’ techniques are very different, their projects have in common visual interest and intricacy that will engage viewers time and again. Sarah and Lynn will complete their works in time for tenants to enjoy when they move in this fall.

Sarah Grew’s installation focuses on the uniqueness of place in Lane County. In a mixed media piece that includes photography, oil painting, found objects and resin glaze, Sarah hopes her 63 square panels will “give people a chance to learn about their environment and how it’s been shaped.”

Says Sarah about her work, “We view photographs as factual and historical documents. Indeed, the photographs in my piece will be images of places, past and present, in Lane County. The paintings and objects, in contrast, will speak about the details too small to see in the photos and will illustrate the dynamic relationship we have with time.”

A professional artist for 15 years, Sarah has shown at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and at various local galleries, including the Jacobs Gallery and Maude Kerns Art Center. She plans to keep a blog about the experience of creating her work at: www.sarahgrew.com/blog »

Lynn Peterson’s work will focus on the juxtaposition of ancient and modern; a 54-foot clay collage on 18 large-size wood and masonite panels. She calls it “Building on the Past.”

“Clay presents textures, light and shadow,” says Lynn. “This work will captivate the viewer up close as well as have an overall dramatic impact. I’ll use fossils from my own collection to represent the ancient lakes and riverbeds of Oregon alongside remnants of ‘modern’ life.” Lynn presses each item into the clay, leaving an imprint in relief. A clear glass tile river unifies the panels.

Lynn is a multi-talented artist who has been creating art in Eugene since she moved here in 1968. Book illustrator, greeting card designer, painter and graphic designer, her work can be found in private collections on the West coast, in New York and at Lane Transit District and EWEB.

Juror Robert Canaga, a local artist and curator of the Opus6 Gallery in downtown Eugene, offered this about the two selected artists, “Sarah and Lynn’s works were clear choices for these spaces.”

He continues, “The key to both artists’ proposals was the suitability to place and responsiveness to the atmosphere that Crescent Village will create. Viewers will be able to see something different in each piece every time they see it.”

Other jurors included Suzanne Arlie, President of Arlie & Company, Jason Halstead, Creative Director of View Design, Sylvie Pederson, writer and art critic, and David Turner, Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Oregon School of Architecture & Allied Arts and former Director of the Jordan Schnitzer Art Museum.