(Above: Paula Goodbar takes a walk through the Emerald Art Center’s well-stocked gift shop on her last day as the center’s executive director; photos by Randi Bjornstad)

By Randi Bjornstad

Paula Goodbar is a woman of her word.

When she took on the job of executive director at the Emerald Art Center in downtown Springfield in 2013, Goodbar told herself she would stay five years. Five years to the day later, on July 3, she finished her last day on the job.

“It was time,” Goodbar said. “I was cramming about 40 hours worth of work into about 28 hours every week, and that left me with no time or energy for my own art. I love working with other artists, but I also need to be able to spend more time creating and promoting my own work.”

The idea came to her forcefully a few months ago when during a doctor visit for a sliced finger, she learned that her blood pressure was “off the charts.”

“I thought, this is not good,” Goodbar said. “I realized it was time to take another look at what I had been doing and what I really want to accomplish. I was having to try to cram my own art into 10-minute increments because of all the other things I needed to do. I turned 64 this year, and I needed to re-evaluate taking care of my own needs and focusing on my own art. I’m not getting any younger.”

Paula Goodbar retires from the Emerald Art Center after five years as its executive director; she is seen here with one of her photography pieces now on display at the art center

She’s been interested in art most of her life, discovering photography during her college years in Arizona. She bought a camera, set up her own darkroom, and started her own camera club, catering to other women “because I had encountered so much misogyny in photography,” Goodbar said. She called the club, Women Exposed.

From there she became vice president of Prescott Fine Arts in Arizona and discovered how much she enjoyed working with artists, as well as how much she wanted to do it herself.

“I threw myself into it,” Goodbar said. “I was hiring models, doing my own art photography, and for income shooting weddings, sometimes two in a day.”

She and her husband, Steve Goodbar, became interested in relocating to Eugene in 2004, after her daughter “saw Eugene online and said we need to be there,” Goodbar recalled.

“She said it has bike paths, water — and lots of vegetarian restaurants,” she said, laughing at the recollection. “We knew nothing about Eugene.”

Nonetheless, the Goodbars flew into Portland, drove south to Eugene, and explored the area from there to Cottage Grove and from the McKenzie Valley — “I loved the quirkiness of naming something Nimrod,” Goodbar said — west to the ocean.

She also was attracted to the degree of support that seemed to be growing in the area for arts, “and I knew then that I would like to live here — I didn’t want to leave,” she said.

It took two more years to make it happen, but in 2006, everything fell in place.

“Steve came up here and found a house for rent on Grant Street, and we lived there until last year, when we moved to Cottage Grove,” Goodbar said. “When we started looking for a house to buy, we looked everywhere, but I felt especially drawn to Cottage Grove for some reason.

“Then this house came on the market, and it really felt right — it was built the same year Steve was born, it was painted yellow — my grandmother loved yellow and had a yellow house, and I always wanted one — and it had a work space for me and a garage for Steve. It was an easy decision. And we love it here.”

Now she hopes to have plenty of time to work on her art, which is still based on photography, but often embellished now with digital effects and mixed media approaches.

“It seems like such a luxury to imagine having several hours to work on my art instead of several minutes,” she said.

Nonetheless, Goodbar is not closing the door on further employment opportunities.

“I still want to work with other artists,” she said. “I feel I have a talent and the experience to be a ‘coach,’ someone who can help others find their own vision, their voice, as well as practical skills for submitting their work, pricing their work, and helping them find appropriate places to show what they have done.”

Contact Paula Goodbar: facebook.com/paulagoodbarart/

 

 

 

 

 

 

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