Beaverton Puts Art on Display

The City of Beaverton - perhaps taking a page from former Portland Mayor Bud Clark's assertion that you should expose yourself to art - is trying to make that as easy as possible.

Beaverton announced several new installations around the city.

All of the art is for sale.

THE BEAVERTON BUILDING: May and June 2016
The Beaverton Building (12725 SW Millikan Way) features works by several artists. Members of the public can view works during office hours, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Featured artists:

First Floor and Council Chambers: M.J. Loen
M. J. Loen has created paintings, drawings and cartoons his whole life. Taking printmaking and drawing classes at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, CA, he was also entered into several shows in Huntington Beach. Loen spent 30 years as a technical illustrator at various high-tech companies in Orange County, California. Though he did traditional drawing board work, he later worked on computer illustrations using Photoshop and Illustrator. These colorful yet enigmatic paintings are unplanned meditations that use a pointillist palette and geometric shapes to evoke carnivals, cities at night, fireworks, and natural and imaginary objects. Thirty-five years of painting, drawing and printmaking evolved into a synthesis of inner emotions and external environment. For more information, visit http://mjloen.weebly.com.

Fourth Floor: Thomas Siniscal
Thomas Siniscal was born in Newport, raised in Hillsboro and spent most of his working career in N.W. Oregon. Siniscal worked for ODOT as a Junior Inspector on the Freemont bridge project, as Coordinating Inspector on the Yaquina Bridge Painting Project and for T.Y. Lin International as a Senior Inspector on the Tillicum Crossing bridge project. His last project was the Hocken Ave. Bridge Project for the City of Beaverton. When he was not working on highways, bridges and roadways, Thomas spent his leisure time mountain climbing, scuba diving, ballet dancing, skydiving, hiking and hunting. From his personal relationships and experiences, Siniscal became inspired to write poetry and philosophical antidotes in an effort to satisfy his need for personal expression. He created his first book, Works, for his wife Laura for their 10th anniversary. It is a one-hundred piece book that includes the works displayed here. Currently, Siniscal is working on his second book, Works II.

Fifth Floor: Ward Stroud
For Ward Stroud, there is just something about real paper, canvas and pigments that delights the eyes and illuminates the soul. He sees himself as a modern Renaissance man. Stroud's earliest memories are of sitting with his mother, a Yaqui Indian Native, making music and drawing. She would make a small scribble on a piece of paper and challenge him to "make something" from it. She inspired, through her encouragement of vision and imagination, Stroud's joy and love of art. In every moment of our lives, everything we do and who we are is a culmination of what we have experienced. Stroud has assembled some of life's greatest lessons working as a professional artist, musician, photographer, and dancer. His life's body of work, lessons, and experiences is the well that he draws from in order to create. It is his "butterfly-chasing, dreamer" journey. For more information, visit http://artofward.com.

BEAVERTON CITY LIBRARY MAIN AND MURRAY SCHOLLS: May and June 2016
The Beaverton City Main Library (12375 SW 5th St) and the Beaverton City Branch Library (11200 SW Murray Scholls Pl) feature works by several artists. Members of the public can view works during library operating hours. All artwork included in this show is for sale. Featured artists:

Main: Leise Wease
Monday to Thursday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Leise Wease is a local photographer and Beaverton business owner. Leise Wease Photography is a Northwest nature, wildlife, scenery and cultural photography business founded in Beaverton in 2015. For Wease, the Pacific NW is a photographer's dream. There are many opportunities for capturing moments in time representing a variety of interests. Wease believes that her job as a photographer is to share moments and times in our history represented by people, places and things we see every day. She calls her collection of bird photographs the "Backyard Birds of Beaverton" because all of the shots were taken from her yard and deck in the NW corner of the city. For more information, visit www.LeiseWeasephotography.com or www.facebook.com/leiseweasephotography.

Murray Scholls: Dan Burrill
Monday to Wednesday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Thursday to Sunday noon to 6 p.m.

Dan Burrill has been a full-time professional photojournalist for the past 25 years. He uses a full-frame Nikon camera with several different F 2.8 lenses to capture his work. Today Burrill specializes in landscape and nature photography, which includes coastal, flowers, butterflies, and the great outdoors. The first two-thirds of his work involved photographing and writing articles about auto racing and technical aspects of car construction. However, his real love has always been outdoor and nature photography. Burrill has been fortunate enough to have travelled worldwide and to have photographed some interesting animals and wildlife. The butterfly group on display at the library now was photographed in Costa Rica. He has had about 400 articles published and has written two books, one of which is on Amazon today.

OTHER LOCATIONS: Display Schedule Varies
The Beaverton Arts Commission also has revolving art exhibits at Cedar Hills Recreation Center (11640 SW Park Way), Progress Ridge New Seasons (14805 SW Barrows Road), Bogza Coffee (12600 SW Crescent St., #100), and the Artisan Salon (4430 SW Lombard Avenue). For more information, contact Kourtnee Buechner at 503-526-2376 or kbuechner@BeavertonOregon.gov.

ABOUT BEAVERTON
Beaverton is a welcoming and responsible city that enjoys one of the most diverse populations in Oregon. In 2015, Beaverton was recognized as one of the safest cities in the Pacific Northwest (according to CQ Press with cities more than 75,000). Recently, the city's award-winning finance department received the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award as well as the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. In 2012, the city was awarded the Mayors' Climate Protection Award from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. It was named one of the best places to raise kids by BusinessWeek magazine. The city was named one of the top 25 Suburbs for Retirement by Forbes.com and one of the 100 Best Walking Cities in America by Prevention magazine. The city also received the Recycler of the Year award from the Association of Oregon Recyclers, named a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation, received a Silver Award Bicycle Friendly Community designation by the League of American Bicyclists, and recognized as one of the Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Communities. Lastly, the city's nationally acclaimed visioning program was named Public Involvement Project of the Year--Best Planning Project by the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) Cascade Chapter and also received the prestigious 3CMA Award of Excellence.

For more information, reminders and community news, visit www.BeavertonOregon.gov. Also follow Beaverton on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CityofBeaverton, or Twitter at www.twitter.com/CityofBeaverton.