Artistic license

Two Portland artists get serious about their work as they reach mid-life; see what they’re up to during the 2007 Open Studios tour

By Janie Nafsinger

Lifestyles Northwest, Oct 1, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Janie Nafsinger / BOOM!

Shelley Hershberger explores her North Portland neighborhood’s relationship between nature and industry in her paintings and prints.

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Many people who dream of becoming professional artists forgo their ambitions in favor of more practical matters, such as earning an actual living. Some of them, though, reach a point in their lives when they decide to chuck the day job and pursue what they’ve always wanted to do: make art.

Shelley Hershberger, for example. The 58-year-old fourth-generation Oregonian, who grew up in Salem, worked in book publishing in New Zealand in the 1970s, returned to her native state to work in communications –the past 26 years in the wood products industry – and raised a son and daughter.

In 2005, with her marriage behind her and the children grown, Hershberger steered her life in a new direction. She sold her large home in Southwest Portland, downsized to a brand-new small house in North Portland, set up an art studio in the detached building in her back yard, and started producing paintings and prints. She also returned to school and in August received a bachelor’s degree in fine art from Portland State University.

Hershberger hasn’t totally given up her communications career, having retained one client to bring in some income. But, she says, “I can’t imagine doing anything else at this point.”

Then there’s Debra Meadow, 48, of Southwest Portland, who was a full-time mother of two, freelance writer and self-described “closet artist” when she enrolled in the Oregon College of Art & Craft more than a decade ago.

“There was no plan in all this. I just kind of fell into art school,” says Meadow, who originally thought about earning a master’s in art therapy and discovered she loved her basic drawing class.

She graduated in 1997 from the college’s drawing program and began painting and working with fabric. Proficient in needlework, which she learned when she was a little girl, Meadow now concentrates on textiles, producing works that combine elements of painting, quilting and collage.

Although she has a full-time job as demonstration manager at the New Seasons Market in Mountain Park, Meadow says she’s finally getting serious about her art. When she nears retirement, “I hope to spend more time on my art and less time working,” she says.

Hershberger and Meadow are among 98 artists featured in Portland Open Studios 2007, the annual self-guided tour that brings the public face to face with artists in their workspaces during two weekends this month. Hershberger’s studio will be open during the Oct. 13-14 tour on the east side of the Willamette River; Meadow is part of the west side tour Oct. 20-21.

It’s the first time for both of them in Portland Open Studios. Meadow will display new textile works and show how she continually reassembles pieces of fabric in different designs, sometimes mixing them with other objects, be they scraps of metal or squashed cans.

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