Art in Rural Storefronts 2012 - "Sweet Home"
European settlers first arrived in the Sweet Home Valley in the early 1850’s and developed the community of Buckhead, named after a saloon featuring a set of elk antlers mounted on the outside of the building. The town of Mossville arose east of Buckhead and included a store and post office. In 1874 these two small towns merged to become one community called Sweet Home, which is built on a prehistoric petrified forest.
These three window installations illustrate a brief history of Sweet Home, Oregon. In a “tall-tale” style narrative, these elk-antlered giants cast the petrified forest, dig the South Santiam River, plant trees, sculpt the environment, and build the small towns of Buckhead and Mossville. The minimal color palette and wide range of detail in the drawings are meant to convey a sense of old black and white photographs.