Rose Covert
Board Member
Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/gatesofmystery/
Instagram: @gatesofmystery
I am a multimedia artist who has switched mediums a few times in my career. I began as a 2-D artist using mostly oil paints to create large canvas works which featured primarily humans, anatomy and animals. Painting with lots of color and imaginal backgrounds, I still work with pen and ink to create illustrative pieces mixing poetry and forms. I spent a number of years as a self-taught ceramicist, hand building and sculpting creatures, beings and vessels. And now I work primarily with natural materials, using basketry techniques to create sculptural forms. I hand-process my materials and have experience with a wide range of weaving techniques. I am a member and organizer with the Columbia Basin Basketry Guild and have learned and developed my skill primarily through their teaching as well as my own innovations. I am teacher who works with toddlers, teens and adults and a gallery artist. I work in multiple mediums and love what happens in collaboration.
Leslie Crist
Board Secretary
Website: https://pnwsculptors.org/member-profile/lesliecrist/
Instagram: @lesliecristart
An early love affair with art swept Leslie away as a child. Having the great good fortune to be buffeted by ever-changing classes in pottery, wood carving, painting, music and drama, she devoured them all.
Thirty years in the business world provided an intense distraction, but also deep insights into human behavior, effective communication, change management and the power of technology. Leslie’s work ranged widely - from writing, producing and directing educational videos to measuring communication effectiveness at a large bank, to helping run a global software company focused on market research.
Now retired, Leslie creates mixed media art that explores the relationship between human development and the natural world.
“I’ve been lucky to work with amazing, creative people, across cultures and business types. Shifting to a life of making art has been fantastic, but it can be lonely. Frogwood serves a critical role for artists, and I’m delighted to be part of it.”
Michael de Forest
Board Member
Website: https://www.michaeldeforeststudio.com/
Instagram: @deforest503
Michael de Forest, fine furniture maker and wood artist, began working with wood in the1970s. He co-owned Oregon Fine Joinery from 1977-1992, where he designed and made fine furniture. He then brought his skills to the Oregon College of Art and Craft where he was a core instructor in wood from 1993-2018. OCAC's mentor-based learning community fostered self-reliant, entrepreneurial, globally conscious, critical and innovative makers. He was also the wood instructor at Catlin Gabel School from 1996-2013. In 2009, he traveled to Ghana and studied the art of design coffin making.
Over the years, Michael has evolved from creating balanced, high-end furniture to a much quirkier style. The pieces he now prefers to create have uneven outlines and are painted and carved with symbolic figures.
By using incised line carving, layered colors, and texture both from hand tools on the wood and brush strokes from applying Milk Paint, Michael is able to achieve a colorful, painterly quality that adds depth and dimensionality to his surfaces.
Michael received his MFA in visual studies from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and a BA in Sociology from Lewis and Clark College in 1972.
Mike Free
Board Member
Sculptor, Object Maker
503.705.9804
Website: https://www.mikeroycefree.com/
Instagram: @mikefree20
Born in Morehead City, North Carolina, Mike spent much of his early years out-of-doors in coastal North Carolina and Hawaii before moving to Portland, Oregon, where he currently lives. He enrolled in art classes, primarily drawing and printmaking, during his seven years in college obtaining Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in geology. Mike’s work carried him to remote locations in Alaska, British Columbia and the western US and has always been fascinated with the natural world.
While working as a geologist, he attended metalsmithing classes at the Oregon School of Arts and Crafts, where he started making jewelry. His membership with the Creative Metal Arts Guild connected him with fellow crafts people that met annually to collaborate making multifaceted 2D and 3D art pieces. Mike has attended various collaborations over the last ten years, including ones in Canada and New Zealand and is currently a board member of the Frogwood Artists’ Collaborative, a 501(c)(3) organization.
Mike’s current work relies on his metalsmithing skills and his love of rocks and the out-of-doors. His kinetic sculptures consist of moving metal components mounted on stone bases.
Mike primarily works with hammered brass and copper disks mounted inside brass, bronze, and stainless-steel rings. Because of the spinning nature of the disks, Mike’s current inspirations include our solar system and animal imagery.
Julie Johnson
Board Member
Website: https://www.basketryguild.org/julie-johnson
Instagram: @florafiberdye
Julie is a full time plant-based fiber artist who has created work with basketry, hand papermaking, book arts, dye, textiles and plant medicine for over 30 years. Harvesting and processing all her own materials, she enjoys experimenting and documenting her experiences with the natural world.
Her BS in Forestry provides a strong scientific basis for determining the properties and uses of each plant she encounters, while also forming a strong ethical framework and sustainable approach to harvesting. Often working at the intersection of art and science, she enjoys sharing her discoveries with others through arts education.
Julie is a strong collaborator who enjoys exploring new materials. Her method of inquiry is thoughtful and open. For eight years, she co-owned and ran a fiber arts gallery with six other artists. This experience provided a solid foundation for collaboration and working with others. A Frogwood participant since 2015, Julie became a board member in 2022.
She is an active member of the Columbia Basin Basketry Guild (CBBG) and the International Association of Hand Papermakers and Paper Artists (IAPMA). Her work has been featured in many galleries, publications, and fine art portfolios. Her photography, art and writing have also been featured in many scientific and art journals.
Her work with invasive plants led her to write an article on the use of invasive plants by artists for the Summer 2010 issue of Hand Papermking: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5394221.pdf
Owen Lowe
Board Treasurer
Instagram: @dadatschool
My interest in woodturning and creating three-dimensional forms began in 1998 when I left behind my fourteen years as a commercial photographer and become a stay-at-home dad for newborn daughter, Amy. During her baby years, I took up turning as a creative outlet and to while away the nap times of her babyhood. With crib monitor close at hand, I spent many, many hours turning wood on the lathe. These early years gave me the gift of time to develop my hand & eye skills for turned form.
When Amy began attending elementary school, I did too. A couple years of classroom volunteering led to becoming an Instructional Assistant working with kindergarteners to 5th graders to help develop and strengthen their literacy and mathematics skills. Calling it work when I so enjoy the children is a contrast of concepts. I continue to turn every chance I get - after school, snow days, and holiday breaks.
Sensitivity to composition, shape, and balance has been the underpinning of both my photography and woodworking. An integral part of this sensitivity is incorporating contrasts into the work. Many pieces have multiple contrasting elements: tonality; lines of form; and choice of materials. The contrast though, must be in balance - yin and yang, if you will. Should one element overpower the others, all subtlety and cohesiveness of the piece’s voice is lost. By integrating contrast into a piece, I strive to generate a bit of tension in the work but convey overall balance and peace.
Jen McCaw
Board Member
Instagram: @searoadjewelry
Throughout my life I’ve been fascinated with history, both real and imagined. My first creative efforts were writing stories and drawing maps of imaginary worlds, and my favorite books have always been those sprawling epics where the world is as much a character as the people who inhabit it.
This fascination led to an eclectic education on a wide array of topics including archaeology, Old English and Latin, Irish literature, and theater - where I eventually earned a degree in Costume Design. Since a costume is hardly complete without the accessories, in retrospect the headlong dive into jewelry and metalsmithing was probably inevitable.
To this day, I find it nearly impossible to create a piece of art without considering its story - whether it’s the actual history of a particular technique, or the history I imagine for the finished piece: who might have worn it and why. In my current work I use traditional, often labor-intensive techniques paired with deliberately modern or ahistorical design to create artifacts that reflect that original love of story - both the real history and the imagined narrative.
Laura Vincent
Board Member
LAURA VINCENT DESIGN & GALLERY
824 NW Davis Street
Portland, OR 97209
Email: lauravincentdesign@gmail.com
Phone: 503 267 9225
Website: https://lvdesignandgallery.com/
Instagram: @lvdesignandgallery
Established in 2018, LAURA VINCENT DESIGN & GALLERY defines its artistic program through the work of represented contemporary artists with soulful and discerning voices. Exhibition based, the gallery hosts shows of regional, national and international artwork. Thoughtfully intertwining the worlds of design and fine art, the design studio and gallery strives to present a welcoming, intellectually and aesthetically inspiring gallery experience.
Marjin Wall
Board Member
Instagram: @marjinwall
A woodturner living in Portland, Oregon, Marjin has over 20 years experience teaching and creating art based on turning wood. Growing up partly in the West Indies gave her a strong attraction to vibrant colors and strong forms. Living in Oregon with its many gray days has only increased that attraction. She frequently textures her work and uses multiple layers of milk paint, sanding partially through some of the layers to give the pieces richness and depth of color. Her work includes functional and non- functional pieces and she strives to make the viewer want to reach out and touch her work.
Marjin has trained at the prestigious Ecole Escoulen school of woodturning in Aiguines, France and is a veteran member of Frogwood.
Marjin has a warm and inviting way of introducing students to woodturning and also serves as a mentor for many students at the Gorge MakerSpace: https://gorgemakerspace.com/
For more about Marjin, see this article from Oregon Home Magazine: https://www.oregonhomemagazine.com/profiles/item/873-marjin-wall
World Wood Day 2021 informational interviews featuring Marjin discussing Frogwood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrZIe3vUtHA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0kOXRUSIyw
Greg Wilbur
Board Member
Website: https://www.gregwilbur.com/
Waterstone Gallery: https://www.waterstonegallery.com/pagegw
Greg Wilbur is a metalsmith/artist who raises (hammers) form and line from non-ferrous sheet metals into art objects. He is Oregon born, raised and educated. He has degrees in Geography, Fine Art and Art Education.
His country made him a war veteran, serving in the Navy from 1969 to 1973 and Viet Nam from 1970 to 1973.
He has marketed his work around the nation in galleries and art shows. He’s participated in over 100 such shows including the Smithsonian Craft Show, the Philadelphia Museum Craft Show, American Craft Shows, Art the the Pearl (was a founder of that show), and other regional shows.
He currently shows at Waterstone in Portland, Oregon and Row Boat Gallery in Salishan, Oregon.
He has been involved with collaborative events since 1998, falling in love with them at the grand daddy of them all, the Emma Lake Collab. He has since participated in about 30 collab events in Canada, New Zealand, France, Pennsylvania and Oregon.
As a former college team sport athlete, he compares these events with team work and creativity concepts. His love of baseball paved the way. He is a thrower and hammering is throwing and he is good at it.
The Frogwood Collaboration event was started about 17 years ago. He brought his love and his organizational skills to it very early in its existence (before it was named Frogwood).
Through art friends he “found” Camp Colton which has hosted Frogwood four great times. The site for the other 13 Frogwood events has been hosted by Dale Larson, a great supporter of art and a wood turner deluxe.
Greg considers collaborative events the best educational experiences possible for established creatives.
2012 Oregon Art Beat segment about Greg’s work: https://watch.opb.org/video/oregon-art-beat-may-10-2012/
World Wood Day 2021 interview featuring Greg and Marjin Wall talking about Frogwood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrZIe3vUtHA
David Williams
Board President
DavidWilliams@frogwoodcollab.com
In 1996 my woodworking and artistic projects took a major shift in direction due to my discovery of the lathe. I discovered that the lathe not only suited my temperament, but bridged the various directions of my artistic skills.
There is immediacy to turning wood similar to a potter turning clay. You design and adjust as you go, with a basic product created at a single session.
Being trained as an architect and artist, I understand how classic design and artistic interpretation meld in the objects we see each day. My background of woodworking and drawing lets me explore woodturning as both craft and sculpture.
A large part of the reason I moved from the plains to the Pacific Northwest was for the trees and wood. Part of the fun of woodworking is the chance to use the hundreds of types of wood available.
As each piece of wood has individual quirks and limitations, I try to mold the pieces into harmonious objects while accepting the opportunities to adjust the design to highlight those quirks.
I turn both small and large pieces as the mood and inspiration hits. The varied techniques, designs, and wood types constantly yield ideas for new variations.
The pieces I create frequently reflect my appreciation of Japanese design and architecture. Part of the joy of these turnings is the chance to rescue a beautiful piece of wood from a scrap pile and produce an object which I hope people will cherish.
B. Arch – Texas Tech ’79 (with minor in Art)
Registered Architect in Oregon and Washington
Tom Willing
Board Member
Tom Willing
Artist Woodturner
(503) 891-7985 (text and voice)
willingt1232@gmail.com
Instagram: @willingt1232
Oregon artist Tom Willing created his first woodturning in his father’s woodshop at the age of eleven. Active ever since as an artist in photography and woodworking, Tom focuses on the interplay between light, form, and material in his art practice. Using primarily native species of woods, Tom seeks to reveal the visual magic within each piece of woodturning he creates. In addition to sculptural work like his “Fire Salvage” series, he designs pieces that combine the aesthetic and functional - bowls, pepper grinders, platters and more. Willing’s work is elegantly finished on the lathe with walnut oil and wax, then buffed to bring out the natural luster of the wood.
Tom attributes substantial growth in his art practice to his involvement with Frogwood, an Artist’s Collaborative, which became a spin-off of the Pacific Northwest Woodturning Guild, attaining 501(c)(3) charitable organization status under IRS rules, in 2018. Tom has played a key role in the leadership of Frogwood since 2012. Working collaboratively with highly skilled makers in many different media has opened numerous doors upon the hearts, heads, minds, and materials assembled during Frogwood’s biennial week-long events. He says no other art event he has attended has delivered such lasting positives as Frogwood has. “Frogwood is an incubator for new and emerging artists and a haven where established artists can come to rejuvenate. How could I pass up an opportunity to immerse myself, to learn and grow alongside of such a passionately creative collection of souls?”
Willing holds degrees from the University of Oregon, the Ohio State University, and Lewis and Clark Graduate School of Education. He taught middle school in Newberg, Oregon, until retiring in 2013. He teaches woodturning workshops and is an active member of both Northwest Woodturners and the American Association of Woodturners. Willing lives in the Willamette Valley with his wife, watercolor artist Mary Burgess.
Representation:
· Art Elements Gallery: gallery@artelementsgallery.com)
· Fairweather House and Gallery: https://fairweatherhouseandgallery.com/
· Portland Art Museum Rental Sales Gallery: rentalsales@pam.org
· Tumalo Art Company: www.tumaloartco.com
· Chehalem Mountain Art Affair: https://www.facebook.com/ChehalemMountainArtAffair
John Wirth
Board Vice President
Instagram: : @j._wirth_metalsmith
As a child growing up it was early on when I was introduced to the concept of “Making”. From the massive red oak sideboard to the hard back, flat seated chair and the turned segmented bowl, the call was familiar: “Don’t touch that, your Grandfather made that.”
As time passed my thoughts went from ‘someone made that’, to ‘HOW did they make that?’ That is how a lifelong study in a wide variety of media began, some more successful than others.
High school forays into making tended to be on the less successful side of things, marginal enjoyment in woodshop, disasters in art classes, burnt fingers in welding class, but that brass planter in metalshop was my pride and joy!
My interrupted college years (US Navy) were spent with other educational goals in mind, but as life began to find its order of things my quest in making resumed. Following a learning experience in a major cabinet factory my interest turned to wood carving and the intricacies in wildlife carving. As time passed a wood lathe came into my world and this was the beginning of a brand new world of learning and interactions with other makers.
In 2007 a gathering of woodturners was called to ‘play’ together over a weekend and bring other media from our shops. This was the seed for what we know now as Frogwood. Through meeting other makers especially at Frogwood over the years my work has evolved past being wood centric and moved to other media such as metals both for raising and jewelry, lapidary, leatherwork, and book arts.
My professional career was involved in the healthcare field in the area of Occupational Therapy where I worked in the rehabilitation of a wide variety of disabilities/injuries ranging from head/spinal cord trauma and finally ending my career working with the rehabilitation of patients recovering from injuries or surgeries to upper extremities...shoulders, arms or hands. It was a rewarding career but nothing beats retirement!
Making, especially in collaboration with others is a grand and challenging journey and I’m pleased to once again serve on the Frogwood board.
Keep Calm and Hammer On!
We are grateful for the contributions made by these past board members:
Jerry Harris
Carol Horvath
Kristy Kun
Carole Murphy
Jeffrey Weber