So pleased and honored to receive an Individual Fellowship Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission.
This grant is an affirmation of my efforts and provides extra resources for me to learn and grow.
I have already been more generous to my practice with purchase of art supplies and pushing myself to explore new materials. Also, I signed up for a class to dust off my printmaking skills and hope to find an Artist in Residence location, as another way to grow.
This grant will spread beyond this year in terms of opportunity for me.
Huge thank you to the Oregon Arts Commission for the money but also and more importantly for spreading the word about my work and it's local efforts. I have learned so much by through this work and am pleased to lead the effort to rename the creek flowing through the Bird Alliance into Forest Park, running along side Lower Macleay Trail.
The creek was descriptively named Balch, as that name was one the maps when the land was surveyed and handed out during the Donation Land Act of 1850. Dan Balch lived there only 6 years, before murdering his new son in law, after opposing the elopement of his step-daughter.
Lots of dark stuff there.
But who wants the name of a convicted and hanged premeditated murderer on a creek in a public park?
In consultation with the various local tribes (Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians, Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and the Chinook Indian Nation) kulla kulla was suggested.
kulla kulla (lower case on purpose) means bird in chinuk-wawa, the first language of Oregon.
If you want to help me in this endeavor, and I do need help by writing a letter of support, please use this link to copy and paste this template.
You can send it to me as a pdf or in the body of an email, via kullacreek@gmail.com.
I will add it to my letters of support. But we need 100 letters, so get writing...please.
A genuine thank you to everyone especially the Oregon Arts Commission,
Nancy
