Angela Ridgway remembers push to grow Washougal art scene

After shifting from California to Washougal in 2014, steel artist Angela Ridgway shortly settled into the Clark County arts neighborhood, opening a studio in downtown Vancouver and becoming a member of the Washougal Arts and Tradition Alliance (WACA), serving to the nonprofit group to placed on its annual Washougal Artwork Pageant.

However as she turned extra aware of different Washougal-based artists and their work, she got here to the conclusion that they weren’t being exhibited in addition to they may very well be.

“After I (participated in) the Clark County Open Studios Tour, I observed there wasn’t anyone from Washougal,” she mentioned. “I talked to some folks from (WACA) about it, and so they mentioned, ‘If you will get six or so artists from Washougal for a studio tour, go for it.’ I began to seek for native artists and I wasn’t upset.”

These conversations led to the creation of the Washougal Studio Artists Tour, which debuted in Could 2018 with 18 artists from a wide range of mediums, together with clay, wooden, ceramics, acrylics and watercolors, fused glass, coloured pencils and pens, jewellery and tattoo artwork. Nineteen artists participated within the second tour in Could 2019.

“I needed to point out what sort of artwork neighborhood there may be in Washougal,” Ridgway mentioned. “I additionally needed to see Washougal neighborhood members come out and assist an occasion like that. We had an exquisite response the primary yr, and a fair higher response the second yr, virtually to the purpose that, as we began getting increasingly more artists desirous to be a part of it for the third yr, the query turned, ‘How large can we need to get?’ It was a superb downside to have.”

Now, the Washougal artwork neighborhood should clear up issues with out Ridgway round to assist. The artist moved to California in September along with her husband, John Poterack, who not too long ago retired from his job at Hewlett-Packard.

Washougal resident Rene Carroll, a member of WACA, mentioned Ridgway’s “influence and legacy are important within the artwork world of Washougal and Camas.”

“She not solely created artwork right here, however created the infrastructure and occasions to advertise different artists,” Carroll mentioned. “That’s what makes her so particular — she’s not solely (selling) her personal artwork, however the artwork of fellow artists.”

Ridgeway initially cancelled the 2020 studio tour as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, however then determined to arrange a “digital” model. 13 artists produced movies of their work, which was displayed on the studio tour’s web site and social media channels on Mom’s Day weekend.

“For a last-minute digital tour, I believe it went properly,” mentioned Washougal resident Anni Furniss, one of many collaborating artists. Angela did 99 p.c of the work. She’s a powerhouse of concepts, and I’m glad she got here up with the concept to do it nearly.”

WACA named Ridgway as its “Honored Artist” for 2020 earlier this yr in recognition of her contributions to the group.

“Angela is extraordinarily hardworking. She takes on challenges and completes them,” Carroll mentioned. “She doesn’t simply give you concepts — she sees them by way of. She has a fantastic mixture of creativity and group, and is ready to talk properly. She first got here to us as a volunteer, and she or he took on a really pivotal function in organizing and implementing a profitable first artwork competition, and pushed to maintain enhancing and altering as went ahead. She set the template for us.”

Ridgway mentioned that whereas she and her husband liked a whole lot of issues about Clark County, they have been desperate to return to northern California, the place they lived for greater than twenty years earlier than relocating to Washougal.

“We had deep roots on this space, and we needed to get again to these roots,” Ridgway mentioned. “We’re California folks, however that doesn’t imply we didn’t just like the Pacific Northwest.”

Discovering success with a singular model

Ridgway grew up in Virginia and attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State College (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia, the place she acquired a level in industrial engineering earlier than shifting to California in 1991.

“Conventional industrial engineering has so much to do with manufacturing processes, steel processes,” she mentioned. “After I was in school, I realized about sand-casting, molten steel, welding and many different issues. I acquired hooked on the method of steel welding and (working with) molten steel. That’s what drew me (to steel art work) at first.”

Ridgway labored for a few years as an engineer and mission supervisor for Hewlett-Packard and enterprise advisor for the state of California, and started to create steel art work in 2007, principally as a interest.

However after she misplaced the overwhelming majority of her consulting work because of the Nice Recession of 2008, she turned to her art work as extra of a full-time job. She enrolled in courses at a area people school to sharpen her welding abilities and steel artwork methods, and was invited to take part in her first present at a gallery in Loomis, California, in 2009.

“I made extra artwork and located locations to promote it,” she mentioned. “The financial system had tanked, however folks have been nonetheless shopping for art work, which was good. So I continued on.”

Ridgeway’s distinctive model shortly developed a following.

“Not a whole lot of steel artists have been creating what I used to be creating,” she mentioned. “Individuals who weren’t at all times drawn to steel artwork preferred my artwork. Individuals affiliate steel artwork as being chilly or modern-looking, however for a few of my items I used bent steel or warped steel and added heat colours, and folks felt like they have been hotter than among the different steel artwork. It was a special model that I hadn’t seen anybody else doing.”

“(Her artwork is) very industrial and rugged trying, but additionally very stunning and endearing,” mentioned Carroll, who owns a number of of Ridgeway’s items. “How she does that with steel is spectacular to me. Her talent as a welder, and her means to get essentially the most out of a bit of steel, to carry it to life, is thrilling. That’s a part of the great thing about her work. She lets the uncooked materials inform her what it ought to grow to be.”

Usually, Ridgway’s major inspiration got here from the steel itself.

“I’d use the fundamental patterns from the rust to create the art work,” she mentioned. “There’s stunning rust patterns on steel, and I felt that I couldn’t enhance on the sweetness that was already there. I used the rust outlines to color totally different colours throughout the patterns. I like discovering and utilizing scrap steel as a result of there’s a lot magnificence in a bit of steel already that’s been used for one thing. Some folks have a look at it and see a bit of trash. I have a look at it and see a bit of artwork.”

Though Ridgway doesn’t stay in Washougal anymore, her work stays seen in east Clark County. Two steel herons that she created in 2019 are prominently displayed within the middle of a roundabout on State Route 14 and Washougal River Street, and her items are displayed in a number of galleries within the Portland metropolitan space, together with The Attic Gallery in Camas.

“I met Angela on the Washougal Artwork Pageant in 2016 and began representing her straight away,” mentioned Maria Gonser, co-owner of The Attic Gallery. “We put her in native reveals and have her (work) on our web site, and it at all times does very well. She’s tremendous pleasant, and acquired the neighborhood concerned within the arts. She took it to a different stage. She made a wave right here, that’s for certain. She’s wonderful, and I can’t wait to see what she does subsequent.”

Embracing new creative endeavors

Ridgway’s profession as a steel artist is completed now.

Whereas dwelling in Washougal, she underwent 4 surgical procedures to restore her proper shoulder, which she first injured about 30 years in the past. The ultimate operation, carried out in January, “solely partially took,” based on Ridgway, who at that time determined that performing the duties required to create her artwork with a compromised arm wouldn’t be in her finest pursuits.

“Rotator cuff points will not be enjoyable. The rehabilitation course of is lengthy and exhausting,” she mentioned. “It was tough for me to get phrases out of my mouth that I’d not be doing any extra steel artwork. It’s been my livelihood, my ardour, for the final 10, 11 years. To go to a physician and listen to these phrases, that it was most likely throughout, was an emotional blow.”

“I’ve at all times identified that creating steel artwork could be very bodily work, and that as I acquired older I’d have to consider working into one thing else,” she continued. “However I didn’t assume I’d must (face that actuality) after I was 55. After I look again on these six years (in Washougal), I’m amazed at how a lot I acquired accomplished. I produced fairly a little bit of art work after I wasn’t recuperating.”

Ridgway remains to be creating artwork, nevertheless. After her closing surgical procedure, she began to attract — along with her left hand, at first, whereas her proper arm was incapacitated.

“Throughout quarantine, I drew folks sporting masks in widespread environments,” she mentioned. “I did drawings of baristas and clients at Caf? Piccolo. I drew my husband sitting at Nuestra Mesa. Now I’m drawing virtually daily. I’ve gone from not drawing in any respect to being on the level the place folks need to purchase my drawings. It’s blown me away slightly bit.”

She hasn’t forgotten the legacy she left behind in Washougal, nevertheless, and hopes that the studio tour can proceed in future years regardless of her absence. Earlier than leaving for California, she gave a “detailed plan” to a bunch of native artists and neighborhood members who’ve already begun conversing about the opportunity of placing on a studio tour in 2021.

“I actually need it to proceed,” Ridgway mentioned. “I advised them in the event that they need assistance from me, I’ll do as a lot as I can do from right here. I hope that even when they must do one thing to switch it (subsequent yr) that it gained’t go away, and that it may possibly come again once more in full power when persons are capable of be out and about in shut proximity with artists and studios.”