Residents, on show between December 7 and 28, is a solo exhibition featuring new artworks by Oregon City-based artist Quire (Leah Hugon). The show features new original paintings that explore the relationship between past and present history in the Pacific NorthWest.

After spending the last three years researching historic sights in the Pacific NorthWest, with an emphasis on the land surrounding Oregon City, the artist recreated landscape paintings by imagining what the land looked like before it was stolen and settled. On top of such imagined landscapes, Quire then added plexiglass layers, etched with digital line drawings that depict historic structures currently on the same land.

The series started when Quire became curious about the land in her own historic neighborhood in Oregon City. As she shares: "It was very difficult to find information prior to European settlers… I partnered with local museums, a wildlife biologist, and individuals from local tribal communities, read many textbooks and learned to forage wild food to gain a sense of how the land was cared for and what the habitat may have been."

The combination of Quire's watercolor landscapes and digital etchings echoes the relationship of our shared history and the path or reconciliation moving forward. By juxtaposing how the land might have been with how it is today, the artist challenges viewers to reflect on how past and present entwine, coexist, and are embedded in our everyday surroundings.

About Quire

Quire is an artist, mother, and forager living in the PNW. She was raised in church and went to art school at a religious university and has spent her adult life rediscovering faith, human existence, and her own truth. Quire has traveled the world for humanitarian work, organized and performed with an indie rock band, and has had consistent art practice for the last 15 years.  Her work seeks to connect us to each other and our world in deep and meaningful ways by weaving themes of our shared human experience with stories from herself and her community into her mixed media artwork.