Back, and Forth: In Willamina, creative talents and spirit of community converge
Sampling four of the nine stops on the Coastal Hills Art Tour on Nov. 11 added layers to my appreciation for Willamina, a community I have gradually been getting to know.
The quilt show was just the starter; the old “fabric of the community” line is a cliché, but a workable one. I was inspired to use it when quilter Jean Brown told me, “I try to use what I have.” Like one quilter borrowing a swatch from another, I’ll invoke that old saying because it feels like the fabric of Willamina is strong.
I met people such as Kalakoa Napoleon-Riggs, 8, who was plucking at his newly purchased cigar box kalimba, a musical instrument from woodworker and cigar box ukulele maker Will Eikleberry. And Pam and Gary Shofstall of Mountain Springs Creations, who made ornaments invoking Bigfoot and numerous other figures and themes. Their slogan is “recycle-repurpose-reimagine,” and their works include pictures painted and engraved on boards salvaged from an old mill in Dallas.
I’ve been to Willamina a few times since arriving here 2 1/2 years ago. I always look forward to going there. It has a subdued vibrancy to it; the holiday decorations are up and brightening the highway through town, and it has four (that I am aware of) centrally located art and historic landmarks. They include the postcard-style mural on D Street, with classic scenes of art, lumber and recreation, and the Walt Mendenhall “Logger” sculpture and Galloping Goose train, both three blocks west. With the latter is a detailed and informative history of Willamina’s history as a brick-making center.
It bears mentioning that the city, the railroad and local businesses combined forces last summer with a fix of the road surface at Highway 18 and Main Street (as reported by our Paul Daquilante) to promptly address concerns for the safety of pedestrians in general and wheelchair-users in particular.
It’s a quiet town, but it does not sit on its hands.
Which brings me back to the likes of Jean Brown, and Cris and George Darr, in the auditorium of the West Valley Community Campus. Jean, and others, impressed me with skills displayed in the cloth pageantry in the Coastal Hills Quilters’ annual show, one of the stops on the arts tour. Two churches, several businesses, private homes, and the city library were also showcases for local art, and talent was in abundance.
Then there’s the local history museum, where Gary Brooks’ meticulously detailed historical dioramas of Willamina-area lumber and brick-making mills are a sight to behold. The room full of Willamina High School memorabilia is as thorough as any you’ll find at a community history facility.
Voices and hands in art and historic preservation are clearly present in the West Valley. The Coastal Hills Quilters, founded in 2000, met in homes until buying a mobile home so all could have a key and “our own clubhouse.” In 2017, they moved to the West Valley Campus.
The campus was Willamina High School until a new school was built in 2015, and as such, is a place of living history. Elements remain from its high school days, but the nonprofit that runs it is gradually transforming the facility (and its grounds, home to the town July 4 festivities) into a gathering place used for more activities. The annual Wet Season Concert Series is a shining example: it resumes Nov. 18 at 6 p.m. with a free concert by Alder Street.
The quilt group is a mainstay user of the campus, meeting regularly to make “everything from wild and crazy avant-garde quilts to traditional piecing and applique,” according to the placard on display at the show. The group owns a 12-foot long-arm machine named Charlotte that’s kept in Room 7, home to free quilting instruction on Fridays from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
This is the 28th quilt show as part of the arts tour, and Brown’s batik-scrap “Asian Roads” pattern and her self-designed “Hoops” stood out for me. “Asian Roads” has been bought by a neighbor, and Brown plans to use more batik to expand it.
I also got to know Marguerite Kelly and Gay Paul-Pentecost from another longtime nonprofit participant, the West Valley-based Art Conspiracy program, returning in June 2024 to Amity High School. (It rotates annually among Amity, Willamina and Sheridan.) Board members spent time last weekend at an information table and display of T-shirts and art cards, designed and created by Art Conspiracy students in recent years.
“This is nice to connect with people here,” Paul-Pentecost said.
“We’ve had quite a few people who are new to the community and it’s quite exciting to introduce them to who we are and what we do,” Kelly said.
The quilt show itself was dedicated to the late George Darr, a 45-year resident of Willamina who died in September. George, a civil engineer, worked in renewable energy for the Bonneville Power Administration, and in retirement made quilt racks and signs for quilt shows and for the art tour.
“He had been a big help to the quilt group over the years, and when he became a woodworker, he based his work on a lot of quilt patterns,” his wife Cris told me. The wood comes from white oak on the Darrs’ property near Willamina.
Being at the show so soon after George’s death “has been a little difficult,” she said. “A lot of people who knew him have been in, and a lot of people have been buying things because he won’t be creating any more. I knew it would be a rough couple of days but it’s been fun also because I’ve seen people I haven’t seen for a while.” Cris added that George did not charge much for his pieces, “because he did it out of love and interest of the work, and he would sell his things so he could make more.”
Quilt patterns are clearly represented in George’s trays and boxes, with vibrant colors he taught himself to create with handmade dyes. “It’s sort of difficult to get certain colors,” Cris said. “Turquoise is almost impossible to find from a veneer company.”
Asked if there was a quilt on display that connected George’s woodwork and Cris’ quilting, she answered with a laugh, “No, he did his stuff and I did my stuff.”
Contact Kirby Neumann-Rea at kirby@newsregister.com or 503-687-1291.
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