Vonda Roloff
of Portland, OR

Member Since: May 5th, 2011 My Web Site

I am a visonary artist with a great sense of humor who loves dark chocolate, espresso and nature.  Yes, I live in Portland and love birds.

My husband & I were blessed to live in a 27' vintage Airstream trailer on Sauvie Island,a little island just outside of Portland for years. It was next to a wildlife refuge and you could see the Columbia River outside of our windows. In the path of migrating birds, you could tell the seasons changing by the sights and sounds of the birds.  At the river, we saw deer almost nightly, beavers playing and fish jumping. It is the life of amazing solitude, inspiration and beauty.

It was the place that we went to as children and I formed a deep connection with it. I will be going back there soon as it is the place I call home. I'm in the city now completing the final treatment for injuries that I suffered from a trauma auto accident caused by another driver. I know that my life was spared because my destiny and purpose has not been completely fulfilled. I look forward to and am grateful for each new day and live the adventure of my one and only life to the fullest.  

I got my sense of adventure from the family that I was born into. I am the 2nd oldest of nine children and grew up on a property in the country next to a creek. We had almost every variety of fruit and flowering trees and berries.  We received fresh milk & eggs 3 times a week from the local dairy and grew a garden.  We also tried to raise chickens and rabbits but that didn't work out as we wanted them for pets.  We also had regular pets like cats and yes, a dog named Spot. We spent most of our time outdoors boating and fishing in good weather and inside reading during the rainy Oregon days.  We never had a television in the house and we never missed one. We visited our local library usually several times a week and inside the books we read, we saw another world of adventure awaiting.

My father, a former Marine had been in China and later  WWII. My mother was an orphan. She had lost her mother when she was in 1st grade and her father when she was 13 or 14. One of the greatest blessings in my life was the family that I grew up in.  I have an abundance of siblings and each one has diverse giftings. Our parents have passed and we really treasure each other.

We were unique in that my father bought 2 former city transit buses to use as our family vehicles.  Unlike the Partridge family, it wasn't painted with wonderful colors but we did have some wonderful adventures traveling in it.

When I was young, I wanted to have a multitude of children or work in an orphange. I think it was because of my mother being an orphan but also I had a heart to help people. I have one amazing daughter but I am the Art Mommy to lots of artists that I mentor on a volunteer basis.

My narrative assemblage work explores the human experience.  Like a snapshot in time, the stories told are poignant, sad, funny, heartbreaking or mysterious showing the complexity and tension of human interactions, relationships and personal identity. 

 An astute observer, I see the invisible in people as I live in my everyday world. There are spoken and unspoken connections leaving the seed of a story that must be told.  So I collect; things, objects, and pieces I know are important. Later after sensing a collective frequency resonating "NOW", I respond, and as a writer pours words on paper, I assemble the story using an assortment of reclaimed elements and found objects including wire, stone, metal, vintage parts, plastic, paper, photos, wood and other. I modify, connect, cut, change, paint and adapt them into a new piece layered with new meaning as I interpret and translate a symbolic and spiritual language. 

I am a board member of the Public Art Advisory Committee for the Pittman Addition HydroPark in Portland, OR.

and the Co-Founder of The ARTS Support Network, a volunteer creative mentoring group.

The things that are important to me are:

LOVE, family, friends, spirituality, sustainability, destiny & purpose and living my one true authentic life.

I also wanted to let you know that my love for the people of Honduras began in 2000 when my husband and I won a trip as a prize off of a radio station.  We went to Honduras and were touch by the people whose lives we came in contact with.  We said that we would go back. I believe winning that trip was a destiny appointment in my life.

Thanks so much.  Contact me right away with any questions that you may have. I look forward to you becoming a part of this life-changing project.

Vonda