Agriculture as Tikkun Olam
By Paul Haist
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Sidonie Caron and Bonnie Meltzer are about as different as they are alike.
Both are women, both are Jews and both are highly regarded artists at work in Portland.
But give them both more or less the same assignment and they come away with quite different impressions, quite different things to say and quite different works of art.
The two women are among 12 artists from Oregon, Washington and Idaho—four from each state—who were selected in 2003 by the Maryhill Museum of Art near Goldendale, Wash., in cooperation with the American Farmland Trust, based in Washington, D.C., to be paired with farmers and ranchers in the three states to learn about sustainable agriculture and then create works of art from this experience.
The paintings, sculptures and mixed-media works that came out of this project are featured in an exhibit that opened March 15 and will run through July 30 at Maryhill, a castle-like chateau overlooking the Columbia River Gorge on 6,000 acres of ranch land about 100 miles east of Portland on State Route 14 in Washington.
"If we don't do the land right now, we bequeath nothing to the next generation," said Meltzer, whose large, politically charged, three-panel mixed-media painting called "Bequest" was selected for the cover of Maryhill's exhibit catalog.
Meltzer, also an urban gardener who lives and works in her St. Johns home and studio surrounded by a grassy, loamy yard, and who earlier in her life worked on a kibbutz in Israel, was paired with Sam and Nancy Sweeney who operate the 1,000-acre Country Heritage Farms in Dayton, about 40 miles south of Portland in the heart of the Willamette Valley.
Sam Sweeney heads the Yamhill County Soil and Conservation District and is dedicated to managing his farm in earth-friendly ways.
The farm's proximity to Oregon's largest urban center was an issue for Meltzer, who worries about the march of suburbia over prime agricultural soil. One panel of her large work, for example, depicts houses encroaching on the farmland.
"Once its covered with houses, there's no going back," said Meltzer, whose work typically is infused with hard-to-miss political commentary.
On the other hand, elsewhere in her work, she makes a point of stressing the relationship between the farm and the city, the dependence of one on the other. The empty grocery cart she included in the work is meant to show that's what we would have if it were not for the farms.
She finds room also to show the interconnectedness of the earth, the life that inhabits it and humanity's need to be mindful of that interconnectedness in order not to lose those many gifts.
Caron works in a large and creatively cluttered studio carved out of the sixth floor of an historic warehouse just beyond the highly gentrified so-called Pearl District in what used to be the industrial northwest corner of Portland.
Caron was paired with ranchers Doc (a veterinarian) and Connie Hatfield of the High Desert Ranch near the community of Brothers. They produce the Country Natural Beef brand in accordance with what they and partner ranchers call the "Graze-well/Raise-well" practices of sustainable farming that have been endorsed by the Food Alliance.
The Food Alliance is a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable agriculture by recognizing and rewarding farmers who produce food in environmentally friendly and socially responsible ways.
Caron's highly productive career as a painter has yielded works in a variety of styles addressing a broad range of subjects.
"I'm a pretty eclectic painter. I've done a series of works, lots of agricultural workers," she said.
She saw the Maryhill project as "reportage," she said. "This particular subject calls for a more factual analysis."
She visited the High Desert Ranch, four and a half hours east of Portland, on two occasions and learned a lot about the Hatfield's approach to what they do.
"I felt comfortable about what they were doing," said Caron, who was doubly persuaded after she sampled a meal of the beef the Hatfields produce.
"When I tasted it, I thought that this is what we have to work for."
Good taste aside, Caron hinted at a little skepticism about the business of sustainable farming.
On one visit to the ranch she was accompanied by her son who runs Microsoft's Israel office and previously spent 13 years on a kibbutz there, and by friend Zvi Anan, an Israeli who lives on a kibbutz.
"I got the feeling from my son that this (sustainable agriculture) is a kind of luxury for countries," said Caron, who added, "third-world countries can't do this."
"You have to be realistic," she said. "I like the fact that they (the Hatfields) are pioneers, and maybe it can be shared elsewhere in time."
Typical of her prolific output, Caron produced nine paintings for the Maryhill project. There was room in the exhibition only for three of the paintings. The other six are up now at Portland's Attic Gallery.
Caron's three canvases at Maryhill depict unique or unusual aspects of the High Desert Ranch operation. "Moving On" shows a panorama of cattle moving along the range, which is carefully monitored to avoid overgrazing and the damage such negligence would cause to the environment. The painting "High Protein Grass" depicts the rancher's mindfulness to the nutritional quality of what his stock is eating. "Cowboy Horsepower" is a motorcycle parked on the range, reflecting a modern reality of many cattle ranches, that horses have been supplanted by dirt bikes.
Whether sustainable farming is a luxury or a necessity won't be decided by this exhibit. However, judging from the work of the two Jewish artists in the exhibit, it is both clearly worth the effort and an act of tikkun olam, healing the world.
When Artisan Northwest magazine published a story about the Maryhill exhibit in their winter 2006 edition, they alloted editorial space for only five images, although 12 artists participated. They chose to include works by both Meltzer and Caron.
Other artists with work in the exhibit include Michelle Arab—mixed media sculpture, Jan Boles—photography, Rachel Brumer—installation, Robert Dozono—charcoal and watercolor, Sany Marostica—oil painting, Sorcha Meek—oil painting with mixed media, Megan Murphy—oil painting with photography and mixed media, Norman Nelson—watercolor and ink, Nancy Taylor—mixed media, and Pat Toll—oil painting.