June Underwood takes her artistic prompts from her quotidian, her daily existence. Underwood began in 1995 as a textile artist, working with quilted fabrics. However, in new millennium, the textiles became more and more painterly. In September of 2006, she was painter-in-residence at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in eastern Oregon. She initially planned to use the paintings from the Fossil Beds as prompts to make the textile art. But, as she says, "I went to the Fossil Beds as a quilter and came home a painter." Underwood’s paintings, mostly oils, begin with a personal encounter – plein air when the air allows; in the studio when necessary, but working always from that which she has physically experienced. She is something of a genre painter, depicting in wonky ways the scenes she confronts in tiny mountain villages as well as her personal experiences in southeast Portland (Oregon) neighborhoods. Occasionally she paints landscapes, but even there, she gravitates to those elements which are “of this time, of this place.” “I have sometimes muttered to myself ‘Be here now’ ”. she says.“Each painting has to come out of a specific two or three hour period, from a particular place with traffic and sun or curious onlookers and hail. For me the paintings resonate with the people who walk by, check out the painting, chat and hit me up for bus money. The art is universal only in the sense that I am universal -- human, story-teller, a hoarder of smells and noise as well as visions. I hoard the experiences and hope the paintings resonate with the people, creatures, landmarks and hamlet-scapes of the places I paint.”
Having said that, Underwood also does abstract work in her studio, but she insists those canvases couldn’t have been done without the representational investment. “No one but myself would know what the prompts are for most of my abstracts,” she says, “but if you probe a bit and ask the right question, I can probably tell you a story or two.” She also continues to work in textiles, which both inform and are informed by her oil paintings.
You can find informal comments and photos from the Underwoods' quotidian on June and Jer's blog, SoutheastMain. June is also the moderator of the Ragged Cloth Cafe and a contributor to Art and Perception. "June Underwood's Motto: Fools Rush In" (The Professional Quilter. Fall, 2007) features June, interviewed by Eileen Doughty. Another interview was conducted about June's oil painting at the residency in Basin Montana; it is found in "The [Helena Montana] Independent Record" (January 04, 2008), entitled "Celebration of Place" . For a poem for the occasion and some samplings of paintings June did in Basin during December and January 2007-08, click here.
