Wooden remains of Rick Bartow’s art studio coming back to life at Yakona Nature Preserve

By LORI TOBIAS/Oregon ArtsWatch

NEWPORT — Last year at this time, all that remained of Rick Bartow’s art studio was a scrappy load of wood looking like it was destined for the dump.

But in a matter of weeks, as friends and family mark the 10-year anniversary of Bartow’s death, they’ll celebrate that pile of ugly lumber, now the bones of the new Rick Bartow Art Studio at the Yakona Nature Preserve & Learning Center.

“People have been hearing about this or seeing it for months now,” said Rena Olson, the center’s arts and engagement manager. “Now, finally this summer, we’ll be able to share it. We absolutely believe we’re honoring Rick and his legacy as an art educator. The whole area has been transformed because of the Bartow studio. It’s amazing. The anticipation level is through the roof.”

Bartow died April 2, 2016. He was considered one of the nation’s most prominent contemporary Native American artists, according to the Institute of American Indian Arts, and is known for his paintings, drawings, and sculptures, often depicting wildlife in moments of spiritual transformation.

In 2012, Bartow’s pole sculptures, We Were Always Here, were dedicated outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., where they face the Washington Monument in a traditional welcome of Native American culture.

The idea to save what was salvageable of Bartow’s home studio came from an old friend who happened to be passing by Bartow’s property as workers were set to demolish the tumbledown shed. From there, it fell to Bartow’s nephew, Michael Clark, to figure out a place for it. Clark approached JoAnn and Bill Barton, founders of the 450-acre Yakona preserve on Newport’s Yaquina Bay, who quickly said yes.

And the project to reconstruct a new studio began. That was about a year ago. Today, the 16-by-16-square-foot studio is a mix of the old and new.

Because it will be used by the public, building permits required new lumber to frame the structure. Other materials, such as the windows and roofing, are also new.

But inside, Bartow’s spirit lingers in the old, scarred wood, the paint splatter from some long-ago work, and even a bit of a mystery in some Japanese lettering inscribed on a wall. One theory is that the characters were left by a visiting Japanese artist, but author and translator Michael Freiling suspects that, given some mistakes, Bartow might have been attempting to learn to write the Japanese characters himself.

The studio was funded through $225,000 in donations, including a $25,000 challenge grant from the Roundhouse Foundation, along with contributions from The Healy Foundation, the Siletz Tribal Charitable Contribution Fund, and numerous others.

The studio will be part of Yakona’s HeART Connections, a program that “partners with local artists to offer unique classes that blend creativity with the natural world.”

Although largely complete, work remains to be finished on the studio’s ADA ramp, the interpretive sign and a donor wall. The official grand opening is planned for late May.

But Olson isn’t waiting.

“The studio may not be 100 percent complete, but I have my first class of the season in early April,” she said. “It’s an herbal-medicine-making class. We may not be able to be inside, but if not, we’ll be right there on the deck on site. We also have coming Nora Sherwood with a nature-sketching class.”

Others lined up are classes on botanical monoprints in watercolor led by Olson and Carly Kay and nature mandalas with ink and watercolor taught by Rena Ekmanis.

“The thing I am personally passionate about is co-creating with nature,” Olson said. “All of these things give people a chance to slow down, connect to place, incite them to look a little bit deeper into nature and then to create in some creative art form. This is a rustic setting. We are utilizing what is here. Making tinctures with conifer needle tips in an herbal medicine class works really well with Yakona.”

Saving the studio from demolition, then re-homing it at Yakona is not simply relocating a workspace but preserving a “creative spirit and inviting others into it,” Olson said.

“The studio will serve as a one-of-a-kind centerpiece of our HeART Connections arts program, a place where people can gather, create, and connect,” she said. “There’s something powerful about honoring Rick’s legacy through joyful creation. Happy people creating together in nature feels like the most fitting tribute of all.”

• This story was originally published by our community partner Oregon ArtsWatch. For more arts news coverage go to Oregon ArtsWatch
• Lori Tobias is a longtime Newport-based journalist and author who can be reached at [email protected]