This content was published: January 24, 2005. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
PCC-Rock Creek exhibit explores 'Ex-Voto' experience
Photos and story by James Hill
ROCK CREEK CAMPUS – The Rock Creek Art Gallery at Portland Community College is featuring a quilt installation that explores devotional work.
Bean Gilsdorf’s "Ex-Voto," ("from a vow") which the artist describes as "an environment for contemplation," will be on display through Friday, Feb. 25. The exhibit comprises nine quilts used as wall hangings, a small gilded and velvet-cushioned stool and an illuminated megaphone-like device. There will be an artist’s reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 27 at the gallery, located in Room 122 of Building 3 on the Rock Creek Campus (17705 N.W. Springville Rd.)"Traditionally, modern ex-votos, from the 19th century to the current age, are small devotional paintings or drawings," Gilsdorf said. "Most ex-votos illustrate the circumstances of a miracle like a kneeling petitioner in the scene of the miracle and the apparition of the interventionist saint. This ex-voto, absent of petitioner and intervention, is offered as both an environment for contemplation and as a private devotion."Gilsdorf, who has a master’s degree from the University of Colorado, is a part-time instructor in ESL programs at PCC. She has been exhibited widely, both in this country and in Europe. Rock Creek Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday. For more information, visit the gallery’s Web site at: spot.pcc.edu/rockcreekgallery. Or contact gallery director Prudence Roberts at 503-614-7362.
About James Hill
James G. Hill, an award-winning journalist and public relations writer, is the Director of Public Relations at Portland Community College. A graduate of Portland State University, James has worked as a section editor for the Newberg Graphic... more »