Exhibit pays tribute to a life of creativity led by a self-taught Corvallis woman

By John Ginn
The Entertainer

The botanical treasures created by Corvallis artist Bonnie Hall are celebrated through March at the Pegasus Gallery, 341 S.W. Second St. The long-planned exhibit, perfect for a month in which so many of her artistic subjects begin to make their reappearance, took on an unfortunate poignancy with Hall's passing in late February. The Gallery will host a reception for friends and family from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, March 11. Visitors are encouraged to bring their written memories of Hall and share them with others.

Looking at Hall's colorful silk-screened images, it is difficult to believe that her craft was largely self-taught. In an interview last year, she said that her start as an artist was almost accidental. Interested in science, and being visually oriented, she tended to generously illustrate her lecture notes, a skill that was noted by other students who would sometimes ask her to illustrate their projects.

After completing her graduate work in Zoology at Berkeley, she came to Corvallis with her husband, Jim, in 1963. For 30 years, she worked as an illustrator in the now nonexistent department of entomology at Oregon State University. In her work, she created intricately detailed line drawings of insects for technical publications. "For really showing what an insect is like, a good line drawing is way more accurate than a photograph," she said.

In 1992, after her second bout with cancer, Bonnie took a serigraph course in silk screen printing with Sandy Zimmer at Linn-Benton Community College. The possibilities of color made her turn her attention to passionately documenting the local wildflowers, a mission she saw as both an artistic venue and a scientific duty. As she said last year, "40 years from now ... who knows ... a lot of them might not be seen anymore."

Her chosen method of preservation — silk screen prints — were, to her, the best way to document the flowers. She said: "A photograph has too much information in it. It distracts from what I am trying to do. My job as illustrator is to get rid of information, to get down to the barest essence of the flower."

The Pegasus exhibit features about 40 serigraphs of Hall's creations, including her most recent print of the Brown's Peony, which she felt represented some of her finest work. She was constantly seeking to improve her skills and technique, even finding the energy to attend a lecture in Salem about the exhibition of botanical drawings by Helen Gilkey that have recently been discovered and are on display at the Hallie Ford Museum.

I first met Bonnie, a friendly and open person, at her booth at the Corvallis Fall Festival, where she sold prints and greeting cards of her flowers. She enjoyed talking about the delights of her artistic models and in the interview last year, she pointed out to me the one failing of her work as scientific records — no roots. A true scientific drawing would include a drawing of the root system, but Bonnie shuddered at the idea, "I don't like the idea of picking them at all," she said. "My drawings aren't completely scientific because I don't draw the roots. I like to leave the flowers the way I found them."

What many artists may not realize is how much a promoter of the artistic community she was. Though active in the American Society of Botanical Artists, and an organizer of the annual Clothesline Art Sale in August, Bonnie was tireless in pointing me toward interesting stories about local artists, some of whom I've had a chance to profile, but many more who are on my list of things to do when time allows. When I do find time, Bonnie's legacy of support for the artistic community should, in this way, prove to live on well after her.

Included in the exhibit are some of the artists she regarded as friends as well as mentors — work by Ellen Samms Burtner, Sue Allen, Jim Howland, Earl Newman, Elton Bennett, Donna Jepsen-Minyard, Charley Harper and a linocut by Henry Evans.

For more information about the show and Bonnie's work contact the gallery at 757-0042, www.pegasusart

gallery.com.