Oregon150

By James Cloutier, Oregon Artist

When I was ten years old, living in Portland where I was born, I knew I wanted to be an artist and a professional baseball player when I grew up. That was 71 years ago.

Today I am an artist and the closest I came to achieving the second goal was to play baseball at the University of Oregon a few decades ago.

As an artist, I have eclectic interests. I love to paint, draw and photograph.I am especially fond of creating art with a touch of humor in it, hence my penchant for cartooning. In 1972 I illustrated a series of cards called the Oregon Ungreeting Cards; they were the brainchild of a friend of mine and fellow native Oregonian, Frank Beeson.

The cards featured a cartoon character name Hugh Wetshoe who accompanied humorous lines adapted from Governor Tom McCall’s much publicized campaign of inviting outsiders to Oregon and then asking them not to stay. The cards were a success and I later turned them into a series of cartoon books that were equally successful. The books, in turn, spawned a number of related products such as an Oregon passport, Oregon post nasal drip cards, numerous tee shirts and S.N.O.B., the Society of Native Oregon Born. And yes, when it comes to my feelings about Oregon, I readily confess to being a SNOB but only a second generation one although I have been known to brag about my grandparents homesteading over in Wallowa County.In the years that I authored and illustrated the “Orygone” books, I felt the humor I expressed, whether directed at Oregon’s climate or provinciality, originated from a deep sense of love for this state. Never were any of the jokes meant to be mean spirited. I did occasionally get accused of being a California transplant, though, implying that it was not okay to be poking fun at our beloved state.

That love for Oregon has never left me. On the contrary, it has only deepened over the years. Currently I find myself doing other works of art still related to Oregon and still playful in their own way.

Why do I love Oregon?

To begin with, it is stunning in all of its natural and diverse beauty. Climate-wise, winters are mild, albeit wet and the magic of summer is a big secret or at least should be. Most folks here are friendly and independent minded. Creativity is encouraged, appreciated and nurtured. The entrepreneurial spirit within the state is alive and well and may even play an important role in helping to turn our troubled economy around. And finally, I love Oregon because it is the only place I know of where the state colors are gray and grayer, the state animal is the slug, the state rock is a sponge, the state shrub is poison oak and WD-40 is thought of as sun tan oil.

So now you know my history and why I love this beautiful state, I ask you… Why do you love Oregon?

Photo Caption: Seski and friends celebrating Oregon’s birthday-Illustrated by James Cloutier

Bio:

James Cloutier is a native Oregonian and artist whose skills encompass writing, cartooning, illustration and photography. In the 1970’s, he formed the Society of Native Oregon Born (SNOB). His first book, The Alpine Tavern, was an essay of sensitively photographed images documenting the tavern, an important social gathering place, in the small western Oregon town of Alpine. This photographic essay also served as the terminal project for his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Oregon in 1969. His collection of books, Orygone IV, Orygone III, Orygone II, Orygone I and The Best of Orygun are things of legend. Cloutier lives in Eugene, the Running Capitol of the World.