Phoebe Cole Gordon (July 15, 1955 – January 14, 2017) was an American artist.

Early life

Gordon was born Phoebe Cole in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lane County, Oregon, United States. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie River (Oregon), McKenzie and Willamette River, Willamette rivers, ...

on July 15, 1955, the second child of Nonnie and Paul Cole. As a child, she was not allowed to sit and watch television without doing something her mother deemed "constructive," so she was provided drawing paper and colored pencils. From this, Gordon learned to doodle while she watched cartoons. She attended

South Eugene High School South Eugene High School is a public high school located in Eugene, Oregon, United States. History The school was founded as Eugene High School in 1903, and was located at Willamette Street and West 11th Avenue in a brick building that later se ...

and

Oregon Episcopal School Oregon Episcopal School (OES) is an American independent, coeducational, College-preparatory school, college preparatory, day and Boarding school, boarding school in the Raleigh Hills area of Portland, Oregon. It was preceded by St. Helen's Hall, ...

(Portland). Her college education included one year at Colorado University. After returning to Eugene she worked at Cole Artist Supply as a picture framer and met her future husband, Doug Wilson. Returning to her studies, she graduated from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

with a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students pursuing a professional education in the visual arts, Fine art, or performing arts. In some instances, it is also called a Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA). Background ...

in Printmaking in 1981.

Career

Gordon studied

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...

at the University of Oregon with LaVerne LaVerne Krauss. Her cohort included Jennifer Guske and Libby Unthank. Following her completion of a BFA in Printmaking, Gordon produced multicolored linoleum cuts and sold them to galleries around the United States. Gordon's prints were exhibited widely during the 1980s and 1990s. Soon after, she moved on from printmaking to creating

papier-mâché file:JacmelMardiGras.jpg, upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti Papier-mâché ( , , - the French term "mâché" here means "crushed and ground") is a versatile craft technique with roots in ancient China, in which waste paper is s ...

altarpieces An altarpiece is a painting or sculpture, including relief, of religious subject matter made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting or sculpture, ...

and

dioramas A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional model either full-sized or miniature. Sometimes dioramas are enclosed in a glass showcase at a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies like Model ...

, which were featured in two solo exhibitions in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

in 1990 and 1993. From 2008, she created ceramic sculptures, acknowledging the influence of Mexican folk art and making

Day of the Dead The Day of the Dead () is a holiday traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2, though other days, such as October 31 or November 6, may be included depending on the locality. The multi-day holiday involves family and friends gathering to pa ...

pieces. Her works are held in the collections of the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

, the

National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openi ...

, and the

Portland Art Museum The Portland Art Museum (PAM) is an art museum in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. The Portland Art Museum has 240,000 square feet (22,000 m2), with more than 112,000 square feet (10,400 m2) of gallery space. The museum’s permanent c ...

References

External links

* Phoebe Cole's works of art: *
The Famous Fandango
(1981), screenprint on paper (Smithsonian American Art Museum) *
Shu Shu Wah
(1984), color linocut on paper (Smithsonian American Art Museum) *
Phoebe (Cole) Gordon & Renée Manford: Works on Display
(Clay Space Eugene) *** Phoebe Gordon Artist Profile (Clay Space Eugene)
Phoebe Cole Gordon Obituary
published in Eugene Register-Guard on February 12, 2017 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Phoebe 1955 births 2017 deaths Ceramists from Oregon University of Oregon alumni Artists from Eugene, Oregon 20th-century American ceramists 20th-century American printmakers 20th-century American women artists American women printmakers American women ceramists