The Oregon Coast Council for the Arts presents the 2022 Mayor's Show from February 12 through March 5 in the Runyan Gallery at the Newport Visual Arts Center. The Mayor's Show features nine artists selected from the 89 Lincoln County artists who participated in the 2022 PushPin & ClothesLine Show during January. The nine artists were selected in consultation with OCCA VAC Director Tom Webb and Newport Mayor Dean Sawyer.  

The nine participating artists are Veta Bakhtina, Barbara Flewellyn, Sylvia A. Hosie, Rebecca Hooper, Herb Kately, Julie Lamberson, Janet Runger, Wendy Schwartz, and Carol Shenk. 

I use art as a way to work out or explore a concept in-depth, whether it's a therapy or a spiritual exploration or just exploring your feelings about something, it's a very useful process. It's fun too. For me it's painting, but it could be dance, writing or whatever you choose as your creative outlet. Just give some time to it and you will learn about yourself through the process."

Bakhtina is a powerful fine art painter whose works are easy to get lost in. Painting with her heart on her sleeve, Bakhtina revisits her childhood in Russia to draw inspiration from and also to pay homage to.

"My childhood inspires my work. I came here in the 90s after the Soviet Union was dismantled," she said. "A lot of my work ties back to my heritage and my culture and that is very grounding for me."

Full article:

https://www.oregoncoasttoday.com/home/absence-makes-the-art-grow-fonder

There are things that for me, as an emigrant of the United States, have influenced my work in a very real way. That longing and nostalgia for our homelands can be crippling at times for emigrants. I paint what I need to paint." Nearly all her paintings include elements of the landscape of her youth.

"The closest link for me is the astounding visceral sensation of being in a place you love. Place, for me, has always been an important concept," she explained.

Full article: 

https://www.newportnewstimes.com/community/artist-making-her-mark-in-toledo/article_b41c7846-010e-11ec-b0d9-134bfcadbb77.html

I met with Veta in her studio. Inside, the walls are filled with her recent works and the cabinets are loaded with well-loved paint tubes and distressed brushes. She offered me a fresh carrot and the interview began. Veta grew up in St. Petersburg at the end of the communist era when Russia was still the Soviet Union. Recalling her childhood, she had nothing but good things to say. Her family had properties in both the buzzing city and the peaceful countryside so her environments were diverse, and being a child, she didn't have to bear the weight of being an adult in such a serious time. She also came from a literary family: her grandfather was an author. "We also had family friends that were translators," she shares, "which afforded me an immense library of children's books from around the world that were translated into Russian".

Full article:

https://www.thurstontalk.com/2019/11/03/local-artist-yelizaveta-bakhtina-mixes-old-and-new-world-art-to-olympia/