I pulled myself away from the house today to specifically visit a friend, Lauren Ohlgren , working inside the window at Footwise (a shoe store in Corvallis). Jeff Hess started the Window on Art program two years ago in this space. During the month of April, artists come and work live in front of folks on the sidewalk. Each artist works in their own style or often in collaboration with another artist. Lauren is working with oil bars, oil pastels, acrylics and charcoal (and probably a few other things too) on paper. She has had many visitors over each day and several “studio helpers”. I happened to stay and chat for an hour.
She had her friend Claire come join the fun. Claire is someone I know via the dog world and it was great to reconnect.
Claire hadn’t ever really tried colors before. Lauren said “go grab that box over there and open it up!” Oil pastels! A giant box of Sennelier pastels! Envy!!!
Jeff popped in to take a few photos. He asked why I hadn’t applied for the experience. Maybe next year…. I’ve already experienced working in front of the public during a month long “Artists @ Work” in 2011.
The bottom images (taken through the window) are of Lauren’s work, created prior to the live event. She will be there for one more day!
Sticks, Stones, and Paper Stew Blog 
Beautiful art!
I love working in public
I told Lauren about the recent drawing of your nephew on tracing paper. She loved the concept.
Very cool! And that box of pastels, what an adventure!
She bought it on Craig’s list. I love big boxes of color. So many possibilities!
Clearly I need to take Craig’s list more serious!