(Artwork above by Mary Medrano)

The Oxford Hotel presents Mary Medrano’s colorful acrylic paintings Feathers and Tails, continuing through December. Medrano will attend the champagne opening on First Friday, November 7, from 5:30-7pm.

A BFA graduate of Western Michigan University, with certification in graphic design and visual communications from UC Santa Cruz, Medrano notes that painting is her favorite method of storytelling. She adds, “It’s also effective in expressing thoughts and emotions.” When working in graphic design for many years in San Jose, California, she became known as the Crow Lady, often using crows in her work. Upon her move with her husband to Bend, and a full time career as an artist, birds and often crows became her chosen subject.

Her bird paintings, although fanciful, often express conflict between the natural world and humans. Crows and other avian subjects represent nature while the paintings’ collaged torn paper and jagged triangles of broken glass (often found on local hiking trails) represent human litter endangering the birds. The artist recently commented, with surprise and humor, that cats have now appeared in her “studio full of birds.” The cats, over scale in size with large, intensely focused yellow eyes and playfully painted designs on their would-be coats, seem to reside peaceably next to the spirited birds on studio walls (and at the Oxford exhibit).

Billye Turner, art consultant, coordinates the Oxford Hotel exhibition schedule. For more information please contact her at 503-780-2828 or billyeturner@bendnet.com.