Hoffman Gallery
September Gallery Exhibition
Exhibit-Thursdays–Sundays | September 4–27 | 12:00-5:00pm
Opening Reception September 6 | 3:00-5:00pm
Gallery is closed the last Sunday of every month
Hoffman Center for the Arts | 594 Laneda Avenue | Manzanita
Free and open to the public
Featuring Works by
Bill Atwood, Mandee Schroer, Chris Steinken
Chris Steinken – A Preponderance of Pareidolia
“A Preponderance of Pareidolia” is a series of paintings that focuses on driftwood, which has been a favorite subject matter since I started painting. There’s something about the twisted, bleached remnants of mighty trees that I find fascinating. They almost seem as if they are tortured or contorted by the sea and left deposited on the beach. When people view my driftwood paintings, they often comment that they see things in the shapes (a face, or a whale, or an alligator, etc.).
Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon that causes people to see shapes or make pictures out of randomness. It’s the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one sees an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. This often leads to people assigning human characteristics to objects, such as seeing faces or human forms.
I’ve decided to embrace this phenomenon and paint suggestive imagery into a new set of driftwood paintings, some of it more obvious, and some well-hidden. It can be up to the viewer to decide what they see in each piece. For those who truly experience pareidolia, my hope is that this will give others (and myself) a glimpse into the realities of the phenomenon.
Artist Bio
Chris is an artist and graphic designer, living in Portland, Oregon. He’s been creating artwork for most of his life. Chris started with drawing, using graphite pencils and colored pencils. After high school, he attended the Art Institute of Chicago and Ringling College of Art & Design. He learned a great deal about painting and photography. For a while, Chris entertained the idea of becoming a photographer—there’s something about catching a moment in time. Ultimately, he was drawn more to oil paints because he liked the richness of colors and being able to create and change his compositions. Chris still uses his photography
as reference material for his paintings. Chris’s work involves the elements of weather and time and the transformations that take place. He is fascinated by how quickly this change can take effect. Chris likes to capture these moments in time as nature converts elements into completely different forms.
“I wish to create artwork throughout my lifetime. It is a peaceful endeavor and a great source of joy in a world often filled with stress and hardships. I hope that my work can be enjoyed by others and that it will offer them a brief chance to escape to another place or moment in time.”
Mandee Schroer – Assembly
This work explores an interplay of geometric and organic forces, via texture and reduction. They speak to me as complex compositions, where rudimentary curved and angular forms repeat variations of themselves, competing yet synchronizing as a visual dialogue. Transparent layers of mesh sink into one another, while solid blocks push everything out of their way—all looking to be still.
This body of work combines my passion for painting, printmaking, and design. My approach to printmaking is similar to my process as a painter. Not concerned with editioning, I chase a final combination layering color, texture, and form, plate by plate. Each attempt, whether conforming to my initial mental picture and corresponding depiction, or a serendipitous rhyme or resonance, encourages the next. Although I am able to control the process within certain means, the results are never guaranteed, only welcomed or disguised. Similar to my painting process, if something isn’t working, then something gets omitted. We try again. Most of the prints in this exhibition have 3-7 layers of oil based ink. All sit on my wall like a painting as I observe what works/doesn’t work, and the process of reciprocal addition and subtraction begins.
Artist Bio
Mandee Schroer is a Portland-based painter and printmaker who exhibits her work locally and internationally. She is an adjunct professor of art at Portland State University and Clackamas Community College. Schroer also regularly teaches printmaking workshops in Mexico and in Portland.
Recent work and exhibitions include Curb Gallery, Portland, OR (2024), Paulsen Gallery, Oregon City, OR (2024); Saranac Art Gallery, Spokane, WA (2022); Terrain Gallery, Spokane, WA (2021); Coos Art Museum, Coos Bay, OR (2019); Caldera Alumni Artist Residency, Sisters, Oregon (2017); Pence Pinckney Gallery, Central Oregon Community College, Bend, Oregon (2017); Alexander Gallery, Clackamas Community College, Oregon City, Oregon (2016); Caldera Artist Residency, Sisters, Oregon (2015); Arquetopia Artist Residency Program, Oaxaca, Mexico (2013); Proyecto Ace’s Artist Printmaking Residency, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2011); Portland State University – La Casa Latina Center, Mixed Media Commission, (2011); The Last Book – El Ultimo Libro, a project created by Luis Camnitzer, on display at The National Library of Buenos Aires, Zentral Bibliothek, Zurich, Switzerland, and New York Public Library (2009), New York. Schroer also had her work published in Volume Magazine Issue #15, and Portland Modern, Issue #5.
Bill Atwood – Ripples
After the birth of my first son in 2011, my sculptural work became focused on figurative forms—deeply influenced by the emotional landscape of family life. As my children have grown, so has my practice, expanding into new materials, most recently metal and glass. I’ve been working with reclaimed glass bottles, drawn to the medium’s connection to water—its transparency, fluidity, and fragile strength. Glass is a mesmerizing and demanding material, one that invites both precision and spontaneity. I begin each piece with an open-ended approach, carving casting forms intuitively and allowing organic shapes to emerge. My family and our shared experiences continue to be wellspring of inspiration and joy, both in life and in art.
Artist Bio
Bill has been an artist for as long as he can remember, working across various media with a primary focus on multimedia sculpture. He holds a degree in Art from Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, Oregon.
In 2005, Bill co-founded Waypoint Studios, a still-thriving artist co-op, and in 2022, he was selected for the Coastal Oregon Artist Residency. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions throughout the Pacific Northwest including at the Hoffman Center in 2022.
Bill currently lives and works in Astoria, Oregon, creating out of his home studio.
