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Exquisite gorge

Produced & Supported By

Logo, Horizontal, Tansparent, B&W, 4800x

The Story

In the summer of 2019, 11 artists collaborated with communities along the Columbia River to create a massive 66-foot steamrolled print. Each artist was paired with a specific community and given a geographic area of the river to create a 4x6 block print that when paired with the other blocks would create an "exquisite corpse" of the Columbia River.

 To tell this amazing story we focused on the artist Drew Cameron based in The Dalles. Drew worked primarily out of the Columbia Gorge Veteran's Museum, and made visits to the Veteran's Home on the bluff.

On the day, hundreds of people gathered to participate in, and watch the massive print be steamrolled. Two prints were pulled successfully!

Interviewing Artist, Drew Cameron
Section 8 Block by Mike McGovern
The steamroller runs the first print!
Revealing the first print
Section 8 block by Mike McGovern
Maryhill Curator of Education, Lou Palermo at the helm
Section 7 block by Roger Peet
Preparing to print
Revelaing the print.jpg

A part of the

landscpape

“I feel that my relationship with all rivers is that it’s something that reflects back who we are. The river is more a part of us than something that we visit. The river was here long before we were, we just happen to be stewards in this moment.”

- Drew Cameron, Artist

Drew Cameron works on his block at the Oregon Veteran's Home in The Dalles, OR
Preparing the blocks for printing
Pulling the print
Detail of Drew Cameron's section 9 print
Section 4 block by Jane Pagliarulo
Group photo of the Exquisite Gorge artists
Detal of section 4 block in progress by Jane Pagliarulo
Laying down the roll for the first print

Through The

Eyes of OThers

"The elements that I was able to incorporate into the piece that I created were aspects of the river as seen through the eyes of these teenagers.  A lot of them had ideas of recreating in the gorge with canoes and seeing fishermen on the banks. One student talked about the eagle creek fire. That gave me some really interesting ideas about a theme that developed in my block about the river and the ecosystem."

​

-Jane Pagliarulo, Artist

Story Origin

We were approached by Dylan McManus, the Art Director of the Exquisite Gorge project, early in the process. He clued us into the scope and scale of the project and where he felt Story Gorge could fit in. Going through our Discovery and Story Arc process we identified the possible characters and stories that may arise from the project. Dylan then connected us with Lou Palermo, the Curator of Education at Maryhill Museum, and Project Manager of the Exquisite Gorge project. Lou provided us with the details we needed to gather interviews and b-roll we felt we would need for the story, and stayed with us through post-production to arrive at the story you see above.

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