PENDLETON — Most all of us have experienced looking at something and seeing only a jumble, then marveling when everything suddenly resolves into crystal clarity.
Pendleton artist Jason Hogge cultivates those moments in the art he creates. He loves optical illusions, three-dimensional pieces and anything that tricks the viewer’s eye.
Last month, the La Grande City Council approved Hogge’s idea for a large public art installation to sit in front of Cook Memorial Library. The La Grande Arts Commission earlier selected the artist and his concept and needed a go-ahead from the city council.
Hogge envisions about 25 concrete panels that will become pieces of several murals, viewable from four spots.
“It’ll be partly sculpture and partly mural using concrete panels that look randomly spaced and turned at different angles,” Hogge said. “When you stand directly in front of it, it looks jumbled.”
Viewers will gaze at each from separate designated spots at eye level, though the last is meant to be viewed from a child’s height.
“Adults will have to get down on their hands and knees to be low enough to see it,” Hogge said.
The first mural will depict two Native American women gathering camas backdropped by a wide expanse of the Grande Ronde Valley. Hogge modeled the scene after a photo of one of his wife’s ancestors and another woman digging for camas root. His wife, Ethel Hogge, her sister, Irene Jackson, and her niece, Rey Jackson, modeled for a newer photo, which Hogge will paint.
Pendleton artist Jason Hogge's idea for a large art installation was chosen by the La Grande Arts Commission to sit in front of the Cook Memorial Library. The piece will include four different murals in one.Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
He bases the second mural on an old photo of a Black logger named Lafayette “Lucky” Trice who logged in Wallowa County and later was a well-known businessman in La Grande. Hogge’s mockup of the mural also includes an old bridge, a water wheel, the historic staircase leading to Eastern Oregon University and four railroad workers operating a handcar.
The third mural will highlight La Grande as a place of recreation, education and the arts. In the mockup, a salmon swims toward a fishing lure. Bear prints and the footprint of a hiking boot mark the soil. A paintbrush and a graduation tassel float midair. Like the others, this mural is still developing in Hogge’s fertile imagination.
The last mural, the most surreal and colorful of the four, speaks to the future and may include a hidden image for children to find.
Northeastern Oregonians who don’t recognize Hogge’s name might have seen his art without knowing it. He painted the huge wolf that adorns the gymnasium wall at Blue Mountain Community College. He created art and logos on display at numerous local venues, including one that honors veterans at Helix School and two in the hallways of Sunridge Middle School.
Hogge doesn’t remember a time when he didn’t want to be an artist. He spent his boyhood in Pendleton drawing and inventing things and studying with artist Antoinette Kennedy, who taught art privately. He dreamed of a career as an artist.
“As a kid, my family wasn’t really fond of the idea of me jumping into art to make a living,” Hogge said, grinning. “But while I wasn’t as encouraged to go into art as a profession, they always entertained my ideas. They let me dream.”
Hogge hung on to his ambition of being a full-time artist as he grew up, married and started a family. He established a fine art/graphic design business, but took other jobs to pay the bills.
Hogge, now 50, is a patient man. He did custodial and maintenance work while building his artistic resume over the years. Early on, he favored watercolor painting, but these days prefers oils and the interesting way the colors blend. He also sculpts and carves.
With his personal projects, Hogge can be painstaking and indefatigable. He started one painting 15 years ago that he is still perfecting. The piece features a Celtic knot made from one line that weaves in and out.
In 2017, Hogge enrolled at Pacific Northwest College of Art and later finished his degree at Blue Mountain. He continues to take classes at Eastern Oregon University.
These days, Hogge is finally the full-time artist he dreamed of being in his boyhood. He said he looks forward to turning his mockups of the La Grande art installation into reality. The artist said after funding comes in he expects the work to take four-to-six months and to be in place by the end of next summer.
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Pendleton artist’s installation in La Grande will trick the viewer’s eye - OregonLive
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