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| the creative way of life
The Creative Way Of Life
A
G
S
O
by Lynn Leissler
ummer suggests outdoor activities and road trips. It is also a Art reaches into the heart and soul, for both artist and viewer, engag-
perfect time to enjoy the arts, fine and performing. Southern ing our senses, evoking our emotions, sometimes articulating what
SOregon’s rich treasure is too vast to fit in just this piece, so look we find hard to express. Humans are drawn to depictions of per-
for art-themed stories throughout the magazine. We’re featuring the ceived reality, whether literal or figurative. We will peek into the
“stars,” but never forget the essential behind-the-scenes people— lives and work of several local artists, a small representation of the
sound, light and stage crews, set builders, business managers, picture many in our region.
framers, ushers, and many more.
TREASURES IN TREES
SUN & MOON
PATH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
DARLA BAACK
When the teacher asked her kindergarten class what they wanted
to do when they grew up, Darla Baack announced she would design
greeting cards. Though she never went that direction, she followed
an art path. She started as a cartoonist, but discovered it was hard to
get syndicated. While working part time at a crafts store, she took a SPIRIT
stained glass class, and a love was born.
She and her husband moved from the Washington D.C. area, inten-
tionally choosing Southern Oregon for its openness to art and its
laidback lifestyle.
Darla is drawn to her love of line, the sense of color, texture, how
the changes of light affect a piece, even the sculpture involved in
stained glass. Like most artists, she seeks new ways to express an
old medium. Often, she says, the glass tells the story. Baack includes
other items—pieces of broken glass vases and bowels, stones, fos-
sils—things that won’t melt when touched with a soldering iron.
She likes the engineering aspects of stained glass, building something
that must be structurally sound, and you deal in fractions of inches.
Google Darla Baack to see her work.
74 www.southernoregonmagazine.com | summer 2018
