QuickTake:

“As We See It: Six Sculptors” at the Maude Kerns Art Center is more than a group exhibit. It’s a tour of the decades-long artistic journey of six women who found camaraderie in Lane Community College’s art studios.

At first glance, the sculptures of Ellen Tykeson, Nadya Geras-Carson, Anna Golden, Mary Maggs Warren, Karen Myers and Christine Paige have little in common: whimsical animals, carved marble figures, altar pieces, fantastical masks. 

But the works do have a connective thread: They’re the result of decades of work from the sculptors, who created side by side, laughing in a ceramics studio. 

Tykeson has been an instructor and artistic guide for Geras-Carson, Golden, Warren, Myers and Paige for decades; all six women are showing pieces in “As We See It,” a new group exhibit at the Maude Kerns Art Center and a celebration of their longstanding friendships. 

The six sculptors’ works are wildly different, but each come from the artistic perspective of women in their 70s approaching life on their own visual terms. The faculty at Lane Community College, where they take classes together, calls them “the crew.”

“Everybody can relate to it,” Warren said of the work in the show. “But there’s loss, and there’s problematic marriages, and there’s childbirth, and there’s death. I think it is our life experience.”

“We’re not 18,” added Myers, who has another loving yet ironic nickname for “the crew”: “The clay crones.”

“Still a Dance in the Old Dame Yet,” by Karen Myers on display at “As We See It,” a group sculpture show Maude Kerns Art Center. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

Life as part of ‘the crew’ 

The group started taking courses at Lane Community College one-by-one in the years since the late 1990s, largely with Tykeson as an instructor, but also under the guidance of LCC’s 3D visual arts faculty members Kathryn Finnerty, Lee Imonen and Andreas Salzman. Each reflected on working with Tykeson and each other across the years.

The artist community that Tykeson cultivates in class keeps Warren coming back. She took one figure sculpture class from her in 2000, 10 years before she retired; she said she started it as an outlet, but didn’t expect to ever make any “keepers.” 

The second she was done with her professional life, she signed up for another course. Now, she’s taken Tykeson’s classes every year for at least a dozen years, a common refrain in “the crew.” 

Warren said the class environment is light, with chatter and music, but also rigorous, as the artists must pay attention to the models and gestures in front of them. Warren pointed to Tykeson’s advice to “see the critter in the person” (Tykeson attributed the phrase to Geras-Carson) and delightful descriptions of form in the figure sculpting sessions. 

“She will have these great phrases that she uses for us to remember what the body part is,” Warren said. “I’m thinking of, ‘that beautiful half-hemisphere butt.’”

Anna Golden, whose work revolves around women as goddesses, agreed about Tykeson’s mix of technique and levity. “She has a good skill of teaching these very specific things and making it really fun,” she said.

“New Life” by Anna Golden during the opening of “As We See It,” a group show at Maude Kerns Art Center in Eugene. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

‘What do you feel like this year?’

Figure sculpting work with Tykeson, Paige said, has helped define the core elements of her sculptures, which distill gesture and dance into pure line and form. 

For her, working with the 3D visual arts department allowed her evolution over the years, exploring metal work before finding her niche carving marble with power tools. “It just offers this whole range of, ‘Oh, what do you feel like this year?’” Paige said. “Where are you going?’”

“Cadence” by Christine Paige on display at “As We See It,” a group sculpture show Maude Kerns Art Center. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

Geras-Carson, a former dimensional designer for Walt Disney Imagineering, said that working with Tykeson and the others in independent study helps her expand her artistic boundaries beyond what’s already in her toolkit. For her sculpture of a reclining black cat, she didn’t need help with the actual sculpting or painting, but with the logistics of firing a larger detailed piece in the kiln. 

“When you hit a certain stage, you know what you’re doing,” she said. “But if you really are pushing yourself, there are probably some things that you don’t know how to handle.”

“Olympia” by Nadya Geras-Carson is on display during the opening of “As We See It.” Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

Tykeson said all of the appreciation should go to her students. For her, the exhibition was a special point of pride.

“It’s one of those moments that we’ll think about and be glad that we got to do this,” Tykeson said. “I think we all realize that time is going by. I really can’t take credit for anything that they’re doing, but I think I have provided a place for clarity, and a critical eye when they want that.”

Nadya Geras-Carson, Christine Paige, Anna Golden, Ellen Tykeson, Karen Myers and Mary Maggs Warren at the opening of “As We See It.” Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

How to see ‘As We See It: Six Sculptors’ at the Maude Kerns Art Center 

The exhibit is on view now through March 20 at the Maude Kerns Art Center, at 1910 E. 15th Ave. in Eugene. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, and from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. 

Admission to the gallery is on a donation basis, with a suggestion of $3 per person and $5 per family. 

An artist talk at the gallery with the sculptors is scheduled for Saturday, March 7, from 1 to 2 p.m.