Jon Jay Cruson
WORKS IN PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Museum of Art, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England
Salem Art Museum (Bush Barn Gallery), Salem, OR
Salem Civic Center, Library, Salem, OR
Polk County Court House, Dallas, OR*
Mid-Willamette Valley Manpower Consortium, Salem, OR*
Oregon State Supreme Court Building, Salem, OR*
Oregon State Capitol Art Collection, Salem, OR
Oregon State Office Building, Pendleton, OR
Oregon State Prison, Pendleton, OR
Ford Collection, Michigan
Chrysler Corporation Collection, Michigan
Cooper, White, & Cooper, San Francisco*, Walnut Creek, CA
Bank of Astoria, Astoria, OR
Salishan Lodge, Gleneden Beach, OR
Hutchinson Anderson Cox Parrish & Coons P.C., Eugene, OR
Euro-Pacific International Corp., Portland, OR
Western Oregon University, Monmouth, OR
SAIF Corporation, Salem, OR
Cone Lumber, Goshen, OR*
Swanson & Walters P.C., Eugene, OR
Moss Adams & Co., Eugene, Portland, OR
Willamette Industries, Portland, OR
Marlin, Bischoff, Templeton, Portland, OR
Portland General Corp., Portland, OR
Pacific Corp., Portland, OR
Hult Center, Eugene, OR
OKA American Semi-conductor, Tualatin, OR
Tualatin Country Club, Tualatin, OR
Medford Clinic, Medford, OR*
Vanian Corp., Palo Alto, CA
Hill, Huston, Cable, Ferris, Portland, OR
Bricker, Zakovis, & Querin, Portland, OR
Rogue Valley Medical Center, Medford, OR
Takeshi & Minako Sando, Tokyo, Japan
Pacific University Forest Grove, OR
Lobby Scott & White Memorial Hospital (New Center for Advance Medicine), Temple, TX*
Collection of the Attorney General of Washington State, Olympia, WA
University of Oregon Law School
3 Paintings, Fred Harvey Collection*, Ban Am-Phur, Thailand
Memorial Hermann Heart & Vascular Institute, Houston, TX*
Sacred Heart Hospital River Bend, Eugene, OR*
Denotes Commission
SELECTED ONE-MAN SHOWS
Retrospective Show, Jacob Gallery, Eugene, OR 2010
White Lotus Gallery, Eugene, OR 2001, 2004, 2008
Salem Conference Center, Salem, OR 2007
Sun River Resort, Bend, OR 2007
The Center for the Humanities, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 2006
Governor’s Office, Salem, OR 1977, 2006
Gottleib Gallery, Portland, OR 2004
Spring Field Museum, Springfield, OR 2004
Bush Barn Gallery, Salem, OR 2002
Pacific University, Forest Grove, OR 1997
Patricia Williams Gallery; Gleneden Beach, OR 1995
Maveety Gallery, Portland OR 1990, 1993
Lawrence Gallery, Portland, Gleneden Beach, Sheridan, OR 1983-84, 1988
Salishan Lodge, Gleneden Beach, OR 1975, 1978, 1981-82, 1985
Museum of Art, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 1973, 1984
Gallery West, Portland, OR 1981
Western Montana College, Dillon, MT 1975
Willamette University, Salem OR 1974
University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD 1974
Chico State Art Gallery, Chico, CA 1967
Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento, CA 1967
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
Hanson Howard Gallery, Ashland, OR 2004, 2010
Oregon Artist Series, Salem, OR 2008, 2009, 2010
Sun River, Bend, OR 2008
White Lotus Gallery, Eugene, OR 2006, 2007, 2008
Select Eugene Artist, Jacobs, Gallery, Eugene, OR 2004
Art About Agriculture, Oregon State University, 2002, 2004
Expressions West 2003, Coos Art Museum, Coos Bay, OR 2003
Mayor’s Invitational, Eugene, OR 1986, 1989, 2002-03
Opus Gallery, Eugene, OR 1990, 1993-94, 1997
North West Print Council Shows: Arizona 1983; Oregon 1984, 1989, 1991; Australia 1984-86;
Argentina 1988-89; Columbia Art Assn. 1991
Maveety Gallery, Gleneden Beach, OR, 1990
Fairbanks Gallery, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 1988-89
Bush Barn Gallery, Salem, OR 1988
Lawrence Gallery, Gleneden Beach, OR 1987-88
Miriam Perlman Gallery, Inc., Chicago, IL 1987-88
Art for the Home, Atlanta, GA 1988
Chicago Center for the Print, Chicago, IL, 1989
North West Printmakers Show, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR 1982-83
Gallery West, Portland, OR 1976, 1979-80
Artist of Oregon, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR 1974, 1977
Coos Art Museum, Coos Bay, OR 1976-77
DISTINCTIONS
Retrospective Show, Works 1970-2010, Jacobs Gallery, Eugene, OR 2010
One Man Show Governor’s Office, Oregon State Capitol, Salem OR 1977, 2006
Mayor’s Art Show, Jacobs Gallery, Eugene, OR, Mayor’s Choice Award, 2003
Mayor’s Invitational Art Exhibit, Hult Center, Eugene, OR, Purchase Award, 1986
Recipient of Two Art in the public Place Grants, 1978
Two Year One-Man Traveling Exhibit, Statewide Services, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 1976-78
Superintendent (Director) of the All Professional Arts and Craft Show, Oregon State Fair, 1977
11th Annual Juried Exhibition, Coos Art Museum, Award, 1977
(DISTINCTIONS continued)
Mayor Invitational Art Show, Salem Civic Center, Salem OR, Purchase Award, 1977
Artist-in-Residence, Oregon Arts Commission, Sprague High School, Salem, OR 1973-75
Graduate Cum Laude, M.F.A. University of Oregon
INSTITUTIONS ATTENDED
1960-1967, University of Oregon, B.S. and M.F.A.
MUSEUM AND GALLERY AFFILIATIONS, PAST AND PRESENT
Present:
Northwest Print Council, Portland, OR
Bush Barn Gallery, Salem, OR
Freed Gallery, Lincoln City, OR
Seattle Art Museum, Rental Sales Gallery, Seattle, WA
White Lotus Gallery, Eugene, OR
Mary Lou Zeek Gallery, Salem OR
Hanson Howard Gallery, Ashland, OR
Portland Art Museum, Rental Sales Gallery, Portland, OR
Past:
Lawrence Gallery, Sheridan, Portland & Salishan, OR
Maveety Gallery, Portland & Salishan, OR
Opus Gallery, Eugene, OR
Interart, San Francisco, CA
Anne Goodman, Marina Del Ray, CA
Miriam Perlman Gallery, Inc., Chicago, IL
Patricia Williams Gallery, Gleneden Beach, OR
Earthenworks, La Conner, WA
Richardson Gallery, Bend, OR
Gottleib Gallery, Portland, OR
TEACHING
1970-1971 Instructor, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. Basic Design, Drawing, Special Studies
1967-1968 Instructor, Treasure Valley Community College, Ontario, OR. Painting, Drawing, Watercolor
1965-1967 Graduate Assistant, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. Teaching, Painting, Lithography
Full-time Artist since 1971
TRAVEL
Canada; Southeast Asia; Japan; Hong Kong; 45 of the United States; 6 European Countries; England; Scotland; Ireland; Mexico; Tahiti & Moorea (Society Islands)
ARTIST STATEMENT
Time and again I find myself 'where the road leads me ', not knowing exactly what I will discover yet finding the inspiration from what comes over the horizon. The open country, patterns, shapes, and colors, they are all there. Back in the studio, it all comes together with the play of the elements, transferring, assembling, and incorporating into my own landscape.
Jon Jay Cruson
HISTORY
Life events-- my visual and emotional environments-- have guided my work over the last 40 years. I did not always know where I was going, but simply went where the road led me. The metaphor of traveling along a road has been my constant approach to work and life and has led me through many varied environments. I have not jumped on artistic bandwagons, doing what was currently popular. Instead I have followed my own changing interests by studying both the nature of the subject and the ways in which I could best express my understanding of it.
After Army service in Vietnam, I traveled around the United States, and then in the fall of 1970, returned to teaching drawing, painting, and design this time at Oregon State University. I also started building a cabin on the Oregon coast. Taking leave of absence from teaching at the end of Spring term 1971, I moved to Seal Rock, starting a new life working on my cabin, drawing, and working once a week in John Rock’s lithographic studio in Corvallis. Living at the coast provided me with a quieter reflective time.
Drawing and lithography became the focus of my art. Living alone allowed me to explore drawing in greater depth. Through the assembling of images and the exploration of drawing materials, I began to process my subconscious emotions and respond to my experiences of military life and war. I drew images of children set within symbols and designs from Chinese and Japanese art as well as from both Art Deco and Art Nouveau. Feelings of the timelessness pervaded.
Driving to John Rock’s studio in Corvallis allowed me to form images of houses, landscapes, and environments of the Willamette Valley. Studying the light on Victorian and early 20th Century homes and farm houses became especially important to me. The results of these studies showed up in later drawings and paintings.
In 1973 I stared a two-year Artist-in-School residence at Sprague High School in Salem where I set up an etching studio, worked with students, and printed etchings and woodblocks. I continued traveling a couple of nights each week to Rock’s litho studio and spent weekends at the coast. Also in 1973 I experimented with charcoal and paint on wood. I sealed these with a glaze. At first I worked on hollow core doors, cutting them to various sizes. Later I used the same technique on full size doors. This resulted in three large commissions by 1978.
When I returned full time to the coast, I took a new road that led me in yet another direction. Applying the basic principles of lithography---that oil and water do not mix---I formulated a process of mixing oil with acrylic to paint on wood. I made small panels with folding shutters, painting all three segments. At first the painted surface was composed of a multitude of lines, dots, and squiggles. These were soon transformed into wave and cloud forms from a number of sketches. In 1975, as an invited artist in the Oregon Bicentennial Show, I expanded the format of the wooden pieces with shutters in which I place drawings and later small painted coastal images.
In the mid 90s I expanded the format to large flat wall hanging screens.
In the early 1980s, I once again began traditional two-dimensional painting, which I had abandoned in 1969 when drafted into the Army. My landscapes on canvas or board, in acrylic or oil, reflected the images and colors of the Oregon Coast: somber shades of blue, gray, and green. The works of Turner, Constable, Boudin, and the Italian Macchiaioli painters, which I had seen in Europe, influenced my return to more traditional painting.
In 1975 I moved to Eugene and set up a painting studio while maintaining the Seal Rock house and printing at the Corvallis studio. Only later did John Rock and I move the litho studio from Corvallis to my etching and painting studio in Eugene.
A trip to California sparked an interest in rivers and streams. During my commutes to the coast from Eugene or Corvallis, I further observed and studied the patterns of flowing water. This resulted was a series of large paintings, at first on masonite, later on canvas. However, after several years living in the Willamette Valley and commuting to the coast, I began to respond to new landscapes and abandon the grays of the overcast skies and the darker greens of the forests of Western Oregon.
I took trips to eastern Oregon, Eastern Washington, Idaho and Northern California where I rediscovered vast spaces and clear skies, recalling the landscapes of my childhood in the Sacramento Valley. For the last ten years I have been exhilarated by clear skies and the freedom that open landscapes inspire. I have enjoyed expressing these feelings by experimenting with perspective, patterns and warm colors in my acrylic paintings on larger canvases. This has been my most recent adventure along a new road.
Where the road next takes me, I am not sure; but I am ready to follow.
Jon Jay Cruson