Often it is difficult to understand the origins or inspiration that set a particular artist on their path. For Joren Traveller, the story began with pie.
Years ago when baking a pie, the recipe for the crust called for lard. Joren became intrigued with the texture and resilience of the pie dough and began to play with it. The result was a bird created for the top of the crust. Light bulbs began to go off.
Traveller moved from pie dough into Sculpey Clay and created several more creatures which remained on a shelf for a time until a friend suggested she have them bronzed like baby shoes. This seemed to be a great idea. Joren took the pieces to a local foundry where she was given a tour that included several larger than life sculptures in the works.
Although this was somewhat intimidating, she was encouraged by the owner of the foundry to make her existing pieces larger using proper armature and sculptors clay. Several months later Joren brought back her first piece to the foundry for bronzing. It was a beautiful horse and the foundry owner agreed it was completed except for the signature.
“My reaction to his advice that I sign the piece was sort of, OH NO, I could not “brand” my horse! He helped with my dilemma and signed and numbered my first bronze for me. That is where it really began.”
What inspires her today? “Whimsy, elegance and grandeur in nature inspire me, and I seesaw back and forth between these to create my sculptures in bronze and ceramic, drawings and paintings.” Since her beginnings with pie dough, Traveller has become one of the area’s most talented wildlife and bird sculptors.
Joren Traveller is associated with several Oregon galleries and is an artist member at the Red Chair Gallery, Bend where she will be a featured artist for November.
Red Chair Gallery
103 NW Oregon Ave., 541-306-3176,