'Her Sense of Place' | Interviews with Two Rivers Art Gallery artists

Jennifer Evenhus, Sheri Trepina and Sasha Syssoeve Fair were asked the same three questions. Their responses, edited for brevity and clarity, are presented in a three-part series in the Weekender this month.

First is Evenhus, who paints with oil, oil and cold wax, and pastel.

The Wenatchee World: What are the most inspirational places in the Wenatchee Valley?

Evenhus: We live up here by the airport against a hill, an open field with sagebrush and rabbits running around and, of course, coyotes, too. I love the balsam roots because they are colorful, but during the late summer they die out and turn into these wonderful deep colors of reds, blues and oranges — I’ve used that a lot in my work. And then along the Columbia River, I love going down and seeing the reeds and the grasses. Also, I love cattails. Actually, down by the Rock Island golf course, you’ll see the red-winged blackbirds down there, you’ll find them in among the marshes where the cattails are all the time, they’re very common. Another favorite thing for me to paint are water lilies.

WW: How does being in a collective, such as a themed group show, or membership with a collaborative gallery or being part of arts associations, influence your choices in art making?

Evenhus: Being an artist, you spend so much time alone that it is such a pleasure to work with other artists in a collaborative like this. For me, it has been like putting blinders on a horse, where you just want that horse to pay attention to what’s in front of it; you don’t want distractions. It has been good to have a theme and to focus on a series and to really explore that subject in depth. I also learn a lot from them: I see how they work, where they get their inspiration from, and watch their marketing, where they market, how they market, some framing tips. Same thing that happens when I give workshops: When you teach, you’ll find that you learn so much from the students in teaching because you have to be very articulate in telling them; encouraging them how to do something, you learn yourself how to do that. Being part of those pastel societies is more of a community, more of an encouraging type thing.

WW: What do you consider to be your greatest success and biggest challenge as an artist?

Evenhus: I think the greatest success... I’ve got a couple different things that go under that. One would be when I became a Master Circle member of the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS,) an umbrella organization over all of the other pastel societies. But to become a Master Circle artist is a long process of achievements, like awards or being accepted into certain shows over many years. Another thing that happened in 2018 is that I got my artwork on wine labels. Goose Ridge Vineyards out of Richland contacted me and asked if I wanted my art on wine bottles. I said, ‘Yes, that’s one of my biggest goals.’ So they created eight different wines and they had eight different images of mine that went on the wines. And then the third thing about success is not giving up. Not giving up.

(One of) The biggest challenges for me because I was a young mom, worked full-time for many, many years — it’s just the fact that I had to balance out my day job, my family and painting, and again, just never giving up on the painting. After dinner and bedtime, I oftentimes worked until midnight, then I had to wake up and go to work in the morning. That’s the biggest challenge is the balance, and the challenge it takes to work with your art even though you might be tired or stressed, but if you want to be an artist you have to have that discipline to just go on, keep learning and making the baby steps.