A question from an artist

It's how those English eyes see the world that makes Rachel Wolford the artist she is.

Wolford’s new art exhibit is now installed at Redman Hall. The exhibit includes 40 paintings Rachel painted during the past year to reflect her thoughts about life on the Columbia River.

“I had this idea in my mind,” said Rachel. “I wanted to see if I could capture a vanishing way of life.

She speaks a little regretfully about life in Wahkiakum County and laments the fact that the times – they are a-changing.

Rachel was born in England. During her youth she moved to and from America several times with her family. “I really can’t remember how many times we moved,” she said.

Wolford said she met her husband, John, in Portland as she headed back to England.

“I got to England and he kept calling,” said Rachel, “so finally I had to fly back here and marry him.”

Part of Rachel’s enchantment with the Columbia River is that she says she is a water person.

“I don’t mind visiting drier places,” she said, “but I can’t stay for too long before I start getting restless and need to be near water.”

With that in mind Rachel said she married the right man. After they married, John bought a 42-foot Cascade sailboat hull and built them a home on the water. Rachel and John lived on the boat, named Bagheera, for 12 years.

“We set out see the river and the west coast and that’s how we found Cathlamet,” said Rachel.

Rachel said she and John discovered the Cathlamet marina in 1977 when their boat developed engine trouble and they put in for repairs. She said they came back off and on until 1985 when they dropped anchor for good at the marina.

“We loved the little marina and finally decided to stay,” she said.

After the sailboat adventure, Rachel said they decided to settle down. So of course when one settles down, what does one do? “Well, we built a steel barge and lived on that over on Puget Island," she said.

Rachel has been a volunteer at the St. John’s Family Center and Redmen Hall since the early 1980s. She’s is charge of development at the Family Center and handles all the fund raising.

“I’m also on the board so I sort of oversee things,” she said, “and help make the decisions about what we do and what we don’t do.”

Rachel said through the years the program aspect of The St. James Center has expanded to included ages 8-12.

“We now also have a one-on-one child’s mentoring program and an outreach program to help new mothers get the services they need,” she said.

Art had always been part of Rachel’s life. As a child she liked to draw until finally one day a teacher told her she didn’t have any talent and then she said she gave up for a number of years.

“She wanted me to draw a locomotive and I wanted to draw flowers. We were on different paths,” Rachel said.

It wasn’t until Rachel and John began living in the marina in 1978 that she felt she had the confidence to pick up a brush again. She said she found a local artist and began to take classes with her. She also took classes in Longview. It was during this time Rachel says she began to think of art in a different way.

“I like to paint things with character,” said Rachel, "and for me art is about capturing a moment in time.”

Rachel said Redman Hall is called an interpretive center and she wanted that theme to reflect in her current show.

“When I started thinking about it I wanted to try and capture how the river is changing, even since I’ve been on it.”

She said she has not only tried to capture the moments in time but capture a way of life that has passed and will never return. “When we first came to the marina, it would be filled with gill-netters for weeks on end; that’s all gone now,” she said.

Rachel said when she lived at the marina, fish buyers would be in and out all day long while tugs towing huge log-rafts passed in front of the marina three and four times a day.

“That’s all gone,” she laments. “The marina is a place for pleasure boats now, with a few gillnetters. The whole working river is disappearing.”

As an artist she feels she needs to hold up a reflection of what was, is and will be.

“Anyway, it’s like being an elder in a tribe. You hold the history of the tribe and reflect it back to them,” said Rachel.

She got the idea for her show over a year ago and then throughout the year tried to produce art conveying the central theme. She doesn’t want the viewer to think of her display as “just an art show;” rather she hopes the visitors to Redmen Hall will consider the installation as an exhibit.

“It’s got paintings but its also has a written text,” she said.

“I hope when people view my paintings, they see I’ve tried to create a visual dialogue that tells a story about how humans have changed the river. Then I hope the totality of my work asks the question: Where do we go from here?”