By Randi Bjornstad
Self portraits form the basis for Susan Detroy’s ongoing series called Portrait of a Woman, which continues with a show subtitled Beyond Imagination, exploring her own experience of aging by melding photographs of herself with scenes from the natural environment.
Blue, by Susan Detroy; part of her Portrait of a Woman: Beyond Imagination series
Those aspects of life make up the more traditional and eternal parts of Detroy’s topic. The more cutting edge component is creating ultimate images that combine face and nature by way of thoroughly modern digital manipulation via iPhone and iPad.
The result offers another way to look at human being and nature as they combine and recombine with age and experience, Detroy concludes, with the goal of portraying who she is as a person, reflecting her through images of the place where she lives, and therefore offering a clue to what in the world has come to matter to her most.
In doing that, the effort comes full circle, bringing each piece of art back to the discovery — sometimes forefront, sometimes subsumed — of Detroy’s face as the world experiences it.
Portrait of a Woman: Beyond Imagination
When: June 7 to 26; opening reception from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, June 7
Additional events: Talk by the artist from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday June 13; and workshop especially geared toward women titled Self Acceptance through Self Portrait, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 22 ($65 tuition)
Where: Beverly Soasey Community Gallery, Oregon Supported Living Program, 309 W. Fourth Ave., Suite 100, Eugene
Information: susan@susandetroy.com or susandetroy.com; artsandcultureeugene.org/
Idolatry, by Susan Detroy; part of her Portrait of a Woman: Beyond Imagination series
