This show’s got legs
Artistic duo takes new exhibit in stride
Story & photos by Gretchen Ammerman
Oregon Coast TODAY
Two artists with wildly different backgrounds and techniques but equally impressive talent and imagination will share collaborative and solo efforts in the next exhibit at Lincoln City’s Chessman Gallery.
The opening reception for “Enchanted Grounds,” featuring pieces by Janet Runger and Veta Bakhtina, will begin at 5 pm this Friday, Dec. 16. A virtual gallery tour will be posted on the Lincoln City Cultural Center’s Facebook page the following day. The exhibit will be viewable through Jan. 28.
The artists’ friendship goes back roughly 20 years to when Runger, an American assemblage artist with a background in art education, and Bakhtina, a Russian classical oil painter with a background in set design, met through Runger’s son Jeremy.
“It all started with a coloring book that Veta had made,” Runger said. “She had arranged for me to have an art show in Olympia so I wanted to make a present for her. I created a tiny version of one of the pictures in the book and I gave it to her for her birthday. After that I made other things from the coloring book, and she began painting things that I had made, too.”
The two continued to collaborate after Runger moved to Toledo and opened her first studio while Bakhtina was living in Olympia.
An image both have creatively mined with stunning results comes from Bakhtina’s cultural heritage, the Baba Yaga house.
In Slavic folklore Baba Yaga is a ferocious witch who dwells deep in the forest, living in a hut that stands on giant chicken legs.
“Once I carried a very large Baba Yaga painting on the train all the way down to Toledo,” she said.
Runger has created two assemblage art versions of the house.
“The first one I made was really tiny and it’s one of my favorites,” she said. “People offer to buy it but I just can’t seem to part with it.”
When Bakhtina decided to move to the Oregon Coast, Runger had just relocated to a new gallery and studio in Toledo, the Crow’s Nest, a space that holds her studio as well as her work and that of other artists. Bakhtina can often be found there, painting new fantastic images, surrounded by art.
“I really like the process that I have now,” she said. “I’ll start with some really inspiring imagery then start to explore the universe behind it. I find a lot of super expansive energy here.”
Bakhtina’s work can also be enjoyed in large scale in murals around Lincoln County, including on Toledo’s A Street; on the Bayfront in Newport next to the Bay Haven Inn; and at the Wolf Tree Brewery in South Beach.
Though Runger has always been creative and a collector of curious objects, it wasn’t until she retired in 2010 that things really took off for her artistically.
“I suddenly had all the time in the world to make art,” she said “I wasn’t even close to who I am now before I retired.”
Bakhtina sees Runger as living proof that artistic ability can peak at any time.
“I think people have this idea that Janet has been doing this her whole life,” Bakhtina said. “But she didn’t get into her true creative self until later in life.”
Both have an eye and heart for the deep, magical and mysterious.
“There’s a lot of fantasy in both our art,” Runger said. “It’s probably the key connection between us.”
The other connection that becomes evident after spending time with the two artists is a deep and abiding respect.
The Lincoln City Cultural Center is located at 540 NE Hwy. 101 and is open from 10 am to 4 pm, Thursday through Sunday. For more information, go to lincolncity-culturalcenter.org or call 541-994-9994.