Posted by Randi Bjornstad
Master printmaker Heather Halpern
The long hallway outside the library in Springfield City Hall has a non-governmental purpose of its own, and that is serving as the Springfield City Hall Gallery.
Right now, both sides of the hallway are taken up with very different types of art. On one side Heather Halpern, cofounder of Whiteaker Printmakers in Eugene, has a show of dozens of her exquisitely executed prints. On the other, the students of the private Oak Hill School in Eugene are showing their early prowess in painting, drawing and ceramics.
A New Dawn, by Cassie, a 5th-grader at Oak Hill School
The juxtaposition is surprisingly suitable, because Halpern has almost literally been an artist all her life, starting with crayon drawings as a tot, working up through sculpture using children’s Play-Doh modeling compound, and eventually finding her calling as a fine-art printmaker.
She and her husband, Paul Halpern, founded Whiteaker Printmakers, located in Eugene’s Whiteaker neighborhood, described this way on the group’s website, whitprint.com:
The WhitPrint studio was opened in 2015 by Heather and Paul Halpern. Heather, an artist and printmaker, was motivated by the desire to do printmaking. Paul was motivated by the desire to get Heather’s presses out of the garage.
The studio provides a place for area printmakers to share the space for creation of a wide variety of printmaking techniques as well as other art forms. Since 2017, WhitPrint has been operated by a nonprofit organization called the Fine Arts Brigade.
In her statement about the Oak Hill student art show, art teacher Melanie Pearson explained that her students have the opportunity to try out many mediums in their art classes, as well as studying the works of artists through history as well as from their own imaginations.
Artwork by an Oak Hill School seventh-grader, Camas, titled Kimmy Cantrell inspired
