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produce the same thing all the time, and that doesn’t show any
growth or depth to the work. I’m eternally curious, I’m always
seeking other things.”
The Berlin-born artist was just a year old in 1933, when her
father found the words Juden raus! ( Jews, out!) scrawled on his
door. The family emigrated to Holland and then to England.
Caron was educated in London at St. Martins School of Art
and the Central School of Arts and Crafts.
“I was surrounded by very good artists, and it can be intimidating,”
she says. “Toward the end of my art school, my father
said, ‘You’re never going to make a living at this. I’m going to
send you to secretarial school.’ So I had to go secretarial school,
which I was dismal at.”
Caron and her husband, Gordon, came to the United States
in 1965.
“I started showing around and started actually selling work,”
she says. “It was great for me to come here because I was suddenly
recognized as an artist. That wouldn’t have happened
for many, many years in England because after the war, people
didn’t have disposable income.”
Caron’s work is in collections including Bertelsman, New
York; Bantam Doubleday Dell headquarters, New York;
Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA; Salishan Lodge, OR;
Skamania Lodge, Stevenson, WA; and the Alexis Hotel, Seattle.
She has had solo shows at dozens of Pacific Northwest
museums and has participated in invitational and juried shows,
including the Seattle Art Museum; the Attic Gallery and the
Mark Woolley Gallery in Portland; the Lawrence Gallery in
Gleneden Beach; the McMullan Museum of Art at Boston
College; and the U.S. Embassy in Mauritania.
Caron is represented by the Heidi McBride Gallery,
Portland; Riversea Gallery, Astoria; and Portland Art Museum
Rental Sales Gallery.
Oregon’s Percent for Art legislation requires that a
percentage of the cost of public buildings be devoted to art,
and, according to Caron, the selection process is “very competitive.”
Her paintings have been selected for the Court of
Appeals, Oregon State Mental Hospital, Oregon Institute for
Technology and OHSU.
To make a living as an artist, one must be able to promote
her own work, says Caron.
“The ones who succeed are the ones who have talent, no
question, but they also have a business sense, and they have to
sell themselves,” she says.
Caron’s work continues to make its way to public places
where it can be viewed by multitudes.
“The new Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel –
a state-of-the-art, wonderful facility – bought a piece of mine,”
she said. “And I just sold one to a business (Baum Ellis) in the
Empire State Building in New York.”
An exhibit of Caron’s Judaic art will open at Oregon Jewish
Museum in March 2013. To view her paintings, visit www.
sidoniekcaron.com.
Focus on
Nature
Wildcats of the World
Contemporary paintings
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The
NOW through JULY 22
Discovery Museum – World Forestry Center
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june 28 - july 22
The Rodgers &
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tickets at www.broadwayrose.org or 503.620.5262
Deb Fennell Auditorium, 9000 SW Durham Road, Tigard, OR 97224
proudly presented by
sponsored by
Photo by Craig Mitchelldyer
OREGON JEWISH LIFE | JULY 2012 17