Disappearing America

MOSES LAKE — Artist Deon Matzen will make an appearance at the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center Friday to open her new exhibit.

“My theme for this show … is “Vanishing Rural America,” Matzen said from her home on Whidbey Island. “I work on old barns that are falling down — the old-style barns, not the contemporary metal loafing shed-style barn — trucks, barns, any kind of old detritus. Most of what you’ll see is that, although there are a number of wildlife paintings too. I call them ‘varmint paintings.’”

The exhibit will kick off with a reception at 4 p.m. Friday where patrons can meet Matzen and nibble on refreshments while checking out the artwork.

Matzen paints in oils, but she came to that medium fairly late in life. She had been into fiber art, she said hand-spinning and hand-dyeing yarn and creating one-of-a-kind clothing. Then her husband got tired of carrying her equipment to shows, she said, and he and her sister signed her up for a painting class.

She also taught painting for about 25 years, which she said she sort of fell into. She had briefly taken a class at Skagit Valley College, then dropped it and thought that was the end of it.

“About a month and a half later, I got a call from the director of the center, and she says, ‘I see you have a degree in art.’” Matzen said. “I said yes. She says, ‘Could you teach art at Skagit Valley College?’ And I said, ‘Well, I don't know. What does it entail?’ She says, ‘Well, it entails starting in three days.’”

The COVID-19 pandemic gave her a chance to retire from the teaching side, but she still paints full-time. The show at the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center represents years of her work, she said.

Matzen’s favorite subjects are the relics of rural America: the rusted truck overgrown with weeds, the barn festooned with now-faded tobacco ads, the country store with signs crowded all over the façade and an antique gas pump in front. 

“It takes an artist’s eye to find beauty in these sort of ramshackle places,” said Dollie Boyd, director of the museum. 

“I am a representational artist,” Matzen said. “I tend to try to recreate reality rather than abstracting it. And color is really important to me, so most of my pieces are really colorful. We live in a climate here (on Whidbey Island) that’s normally very gray … So I have a tendency to pop things up a little brighter than what they actually are. Otherwise I stick pretty close to the realism that you see in most of the paintings.”

The reception Friday will also include a chance for attendees to make some art of their own at Art After Hours, which will involve barn wood painting. There’s no charge for Art After Hours, which Boyd said is a popular part of the exhibit openings.

“We do a lot of things for kids, and we do a lot of things for families,” Boyd said. “So it's a chance to give adults space to sit and do something artistic. We make it really simple, put all the supplies out and everything and very simple instructions.”

Joel Martin may be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.

    “Now Where Did I Park the Car?” is one of what artist Deon Matzen calls her “varmint paintings,” and will be on display starting Friday at the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center.
  

    This painting of farmers plowing behind a team of horses evokes the starkness of the eastern Washington landscape.