(Above: “Marcos,” an acrylic on canvas painting by Andrea Ros, is one of the showstoppers in the New Zone Gallery’s Zone 4 All show that closes Oct. 27; photos by Randi Bjornstad)
NOTE: The Zone 4 All exhibit at The New Zone Gallery ends Oct.27. Earlier information given to Eugene Scene gave the end date as Oct. 29.
By Randi Bjornstad
If Dianne Story Cunningham weren’t an accomplished artist, she might well be a stand-up comedian instead. A couple of hours of conversation with her on a recent fall afternoon at the New Zone Gallery is punctuated — frequently and pleasantly — by laughter.
In fact, Cunningham, who is in her fifth year as president of the gallery’s board of directors, can even elicit a giggle about that.
Dianne Story Cunningham, who creates abstract faces in clay and metal, is president of the New Zone Gallery’s board of directors
“Because I’m president doesn’t mean that I know a lot about a lot of stuff,” Cunningham says, momentarily with a straight face. “It just means that no one else wanted to do it.”
She’s considered herself an artist for only about a decade, but she also has a philosophy about that.
“If you want to be an artist, the first thing you have to do is to identify yourself as one — then you will be an artist.”
That’s how it happened with her. When she decided she was going to be an artist, Cunningham said she “surrounded myself with eight other women who also wanted to be artists, and we became artists.”
“I told them to come to a meeting and bring a portfolio, however small it was. Some of them said they had never done anything, but I told them to look around — there had to be something they could consider as art.”
For her own part, Cunningham had designed and created a couple of tile backsplashes in her own home — “I had never really considered them art, but I decided they were” — so she took photographs of those and presented them at the meeting.
The others did likewise. At their very first meeting they agreed to meet regularly, and that the following summer every single one of them would enter something in the then-annual (Eugene) Mayor’s Art Show.
“We all marched in with our art, and we all got rejected,” Cunningham said, of course with a laugh. “So we all marched over to The New Zone Gallery and entered our stuff in the Salon des Réfusés, which Steve La Riccia had started here for things that didn’t get into the ‘real’ show.”
The second year, two members of the group had art admitted to the Mayor’s Art Show, and the fourth year Cunningham also made the cut.
To Dianne Story Cunningham, the names of her art pieces are as important as the work. This one is called Her Bad Habits would Allow Her to Avoid the Dementia of Old Age
“It just shows what the power of group can do,” she said. “Every month we all had to come with a new piece on a theme we had set. It might be something just based on one word — like red or bowl — and it could be anything that had anything to do with that theme.”
After a couple of years, La Riccia invited the women in the group to make application for membership in the New Zone Gallery collective. At first, only Cunningham did, and she was accepted. Eventually, two more of the original group also joined.
Art takes time
Cunningham was born in southern California, but her family soon moved to the Reedsport, “where I had an absolutely fabulous childhood,” she said, but eventually the yen for a larger community drew her to the Eugene area.
Before she was an artist, Cunningham made her living as a dental hygienist. She lived a frugal lifestyle and squirreled away savings, which eventually enabled her to buy, refurbish and rent out several single-family houses that augment her income and help support her art.
“Art takes time and money,” she said. “In order to do it, you have to be able to clear your life out.”
She still lives frugally — “I don’t like to buy new stuff,” she said — but she does enjoy travel. She also supports the arts.
“All the money I make from art, I donate to nonprofits,” Cunningham said.
She laughs as she explains her sometimes taxing life philosophy.
“My philosophy is to always say ‘Sure,’ ” Cunningham sums up.
For example, after she became a member of the New Zone Gallery, “Steve (La Riccia) said, ‘Dianne, can we put your name in the hat for the drawing for featured artist?’, and I said, ‘Sure.’ When it was time for the drawing, my name came out, and he said, ‘It’s you — how about June?’, and I said, ‘Sure, I work well on deadline.’ “
So she went home “and made 56 of my textured clay pieces, and by the time my exhibit ended, 48 of them had sold,” Cunningham said. “I have done shows to benefit Womenspace, ShelterCare, and FOOD for Lane County — I’m a bleeding heart liberal.”
Ms. President
Likewise, when asked to become president of the gallery’s board, Cunningham of course said, “Sure.”
“There were lots of reasons not to — my mom was in poor health, and I had all kinds of other reasons not to be keen on it — but then I thought about what the New Zone had done for me,” Cunningham said. “No other gallery would have taken on my work and given me a featured artist show that gave me such a boost. I knew I had to do it.”
The New Zone Gallery is a nonprofit organization that can accommodate about 65 members at a time, Cunningham said. The members pay an annual fee that helps support the organization. The
Grapevine Fires, an acrylic by Felicia Alley, is on display
Zone 4 All open shows also are fundraisers. Non-members pay $10 per entry in the show, while members get one free entry and pay $10 for each additional piece of work.
One of Cunningham’s first challenges as president was finding a new location for the gallery after the owner of the previous location on West Broadway decided not to renew the lease in favor of revamping the space.
“New Zone had been paying $500 a month total for rent and utilities for 10 years, so having to find another space at the market rate for downtown rentals was a big deal,” she said. “It took six months — I wrote letters to the owners of every vacant space downtown explaining our situation and asking them to consider renting to us, and I got zero response. I put my foot into any door that was open.”
When the state liquor store on West Eighth Avenue closed, Cunningham contacted the agent for the family that owned the building, “and I told them that we are a nonprofit art organization and would be interested in renting that space but that honestly we couldn’t afford to pay the market rate for it.”
To her delight, a deal was struck, albeit for rent that was more than the previous rent-and-utilities total, with utility costs not included.
“But it has worked out,” Cunningham said. “We are careful, and we have expanded our activities to include renting the space for outside functions as well as membership functions. We also rent our Klausmeier Room to other arts organizations that want to have shows there.”
She said she also prides the New Zone Gallery for continuing to give members the same kind of chance that she got there, to show their work and benefit financially from sales.
Dennis Duvaul’s acrylic on mixed media canvas, called Juxtaposition, is part of the New Zone Gallery show
“Our members pay an annual fee to help support the gallery, but when they show and sell work, our commission is 25 percent, which is much less than most galleries retain,” she said. “We are kind to our artists.”
One other thing, Cunningham added: The New Zone Gallery throws the greatest parties for the public during the First Friday ArtWalk each month in downtown Eugene.
“We have food, wine, great art, lots of people, and lots of fun,” she said with a laugh. “And it’s all by donation.”
Zone 4 All at The New Zone Gallery
When: Through Oct. 29
Where: 220 W. Eighth Ave., Eugene
Gallery hours: Noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday
Information: 541-683-0759 or newzonegallery.org
The New Zone Gallery encourages work by non-members in its fall Zone 4 All show. This collage by Laura Rose is called Deep Memory
