The Maude Kerns Art Center presents the 2021 season opener,“If Not Now, When?”, an exhibit featuring the work of local artists Tim Boyden, Ila Rose, Jud Turner, and Michael Whitenack. The show includes paintings, metalwork, and woodwork sculptures, as well as collaborative pieces the four artists created together. A perfect show for the beginning of the new year, “If Not Now, When?” promises to be an exhibit full of positivity, imagination, and creative synergy. The Title Sponsors for “If Not Now, When?” are Nancy Pobanz and David Wade.
“If Not Now, When?” is an exhibit about “community, collaboration, and positivity,” says Tim Boyden, who chose fellow artists he deeply respects to exhibit with him. Boyden, who struggled with serious health issues over the past year, felt a certain urgency to join in a creative effort with Rose, Turner, and Whitenack; hence the title of the show: “If Not Now, When?”.
Artistic collaboration is a key element of “If Not Now, When?”. The idea of exhibiting collaborative pieces was first suggested by Michael Whitenack. He and Boyden had experimented with making a composite sculptural creature. The exhibit features a number of inventive “beings,” including a sculpture with a donkey head on a praying mantis body.
Boyden recognizes the challenge of having four established artists collaborate. Such an effort requires a lot of give and take and “leaving your ego at the door.” The reward is that “you’re changed after you work on a piece with another artist.” Jud Turner, who normally does not work collaboratively, says “collaborations are a chance to push boundaries and play with the creative process.” Ila Rose feels that the collaborative creative process teaches artists to communicate - in spite of uncomfortable differences of opinion and taste - to reach toward a shared goal.
Sculptor Tim Boyden says that he collaborates with Mother Nature in his inventive assemblages. Working with wood, he attempts to create respectfully, retaining the patina, and changing the natural beauty as little as possible. Boyden owned the Out on the Limb Gallery in Eugene from 2011-2019. He has exhibited over many years in the Maude Kerns Art Center’s Oregon Made for Interiors exhibit and has shown his work in different venues throughout Oregon.
Painter Ila Rose describes her work as a way to explore human experience, using imagery that is at once colorful, dark, complex, detailed, luscious, and surreal. She is well known for her murals in over 10 locales throughout Eugene. Rose has had solo and group exhibitions of her paintings in Eugene, Portland, and San Diego and Yreka, California. In “If Not Now, When?”, Rose will display six to eight large paintings as well as a number of collaborative pieces.
Sculptor Jud Turner creates found object sculpture and mixed media assemblages that address issues of mortality, the intersection of nature and technology, the passing of time, spirituality, and environmental sustainability. He has exhibited nationally and internationally in solo and selected group exhibitions. Turner has had two solo shows at the Maude Kerns Art Center, “Steeling Space” (2007) and “Purpose: Repurpose” (2011).
Sculptor Michael Whitenack explores political or social issues in finely crafted, 3-D works that are often whimsical, with an edge. His pieces seem to tell a story, but they leave the viewer with questions. Whitenack has exhibited his work throughout the Northwest and has completed several Percent for Art Program commissions, including a relief mural for EWEB. He was named one of the Best in the Show” award winners in the 2019 Eugene Biennial.
