Rare is the artist who can make a living from creative expression. Just as rare, possibly, is the artist-educator who can sustain a long career teaching the joy of art.
That’s what helps make Debbie Aken a stand-out.
She’s among the first artists in a new venture — the Little Art Museums of Yachats presented by Polly Plumb Productions. The project is made possible by a $6,500 grant from the Oregon Community Foundation, and additional funding from Polly Plumb, the local nonprofit that brings cultural events to Yachats.
Along with artists Dave Baldwin and Victoria Kwasinski, Aken’s nature-themed works will be displayed at the Overleaf Lodge beginning April 5. For an entire year, visitors will get an up-close look at some of the creative people who call Yachats home.
“The purpose is to promote Yachats as an art community, and help people understand why the artists live here,” explains Meredith Howell, secretary of Polly Plumb. “It’s an exploration of why art in rural communities is important — economically, as a boost for tourism, and also for building a sense of community.”
Aken understands the value of art in rural communities because she taught art in them for 30 years. She estimates that in her time as an art teacher in Oregon — primarily in Glendale and Myrtle Creek in Douglas County — she reached about 3,000 students. For some, her influence may have helped make the difference between finishing school or not.
“My passion was with the kids … it grew and grew,” she says. While teaching art classes at a high school in low-income Myrtle Creek, she found that “elective classes, such as art, helped motivate kids to come to school and, hopefully, stay in school.”
Two of her former students entered the architecture program at the University of Oregon, several went on to study graphic design, and a few even became art teachers themselves.
“Some people think being an art teacher is a ‘fluff job’,” Aken says. “But education opens up your eyes to a whole new way of seeing the world.”
That’s why Aken would try to expose her students “to other ways of life.” For example, she merged American history with art history when she introduced classes to painter Jacob Lawrence.
A famed Black artist, Lawrence created landmark paintings about the Great Migration of rural southern Blacks to northern cities after World War I. The works documented both the racial violence that spurred the migration, and the struggles of Blacks in their new homes.
“We would talk about the migration itself, which combined history and art. This was probably not in their history books. Imagery like (Lawrence’s) can remain in the brain in a way that text might not.”
Now home in Yachats
A native of Genoa, Ill., Aken and her husband, Greg Ammann, moved to Oregon in 1981. She completed her master’s degree in art education at the University of Oregon.
While the couple has traveled around the globe — from Greece to Tahiti, Hawaii to Iceland — it was Yachats’ beauty that compelled them to retire here in 2015. Today, Aken serves as treasurer of the Yachats Arts Guild, and is on the board of Polly Plumb.
Now that she has more time for her own art, Aken focuses on printmaking and mixed media but her skills also includes painting and pottery. Nature — especially trees — inspires much of her work.
“Trees have beautiful negative (empty) space,” she says. “A couple of my pieces at the Overleaf are about that positive/negative relationship.”
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