LEWISTON, Idaho – A collection of sculpture works from the late pine needle basket artist Shannon Uriona will be on display starting Friday, Sept. 22, at the Lewis-Clark State College Center for Arts & History, located at 415 Main St.
The collection, called “Life Interwoven: The Art of Shannon Uriona Exhibition” will be on display through Oct. 28.
An opening for the collection is scheduled Friday at 5 p.m. at the Center. Steven Hatcher, Folk & Traditional Arts director for the Idaho Commissions on the Arts, will be the guest speaker.
Uriona, who lived in Meridian, Idaho, was a self-made artist who said she used mediation with the world around her to create her works. While working on a pine tree farm outside of Boise, she began the old craft of pine needle basketball weaving and added pieces of bones, seeds, pine cones, pods, feathers and other materials found in nature. Uriona dampened the pine needles and bound them together with raffia, soda straws, and a needle-in-the-coil method to create her sculptures.
Uriona’s work has been in galleries and festivals, including The Festival of the American West, The Indian Summer Festival Invitational in Wisconsin, and The Blue Heron in British Columbia, Canada. She provided pine needle basket workshops and demonstrations and was a member of The Pine Needle Basket Group, an online group for pine needle artists to share their baskets, tips and techniques.
Uriona passed away in February, 2016, at the age of 74.
This exhibit is brought to the Center by Jim & Eleanor Downey and Inland 360, in partnership with Idaho Commission on the Arts Folk & Traditional Arts Program, and grant funding from US Bank and artsIDAHO.
The Center is open Monday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and features free admission but donations are welcome. For more information about the exhibitions or to schedule a docent tour, visit www.lcsc.edu/cah or call 208-792-2243