CJ June - Pathlight Studio

I grew up in Northern California at the foot of the Cascade Mountain range and started hiking the trails on the heels of my parents by the time I was big enough to carry my own sleeping bag. My deep reverence for the wild awakened as I stood on some jutting rock peak looking down on mountain ranges that seemed to have no end. The silence only interrupted by the wind in the trees or echoing cry of hawk or osprey. I have been eye to eye with the bear, shared space with deer and always inadvertently shared food with all the smaller inhabitants. A summer rarely passed without venturing into the wilderness somewhere. It became the place where I felt most at home.

...I did however leave the nest for many years, living and traveling throughout Europe and the east coast. Europe had a profound effect on me artistically, in particular the prehistoric cave paintings deep in the earth of the Pyrenees Mountains that separate France and Spain. The magnificent images of bison, deer and horses seem to convey the same reverence and connection to the wild that I felt growing up. This would eventually translate into the work and how I evolved as an artist.

I naturally returned home and started college, first in California then in Oregon, both within sight of the mountains I considered home. I acquired an Associates degree in Early Childhood Education and a Bachelors degree in Psychology. I taught art and creative movement at a preschool for two years and found children to be wonderful teachers for imagination and creative expression. I gained as much if not more from them as I did from my academics. During my last two years of college I took classes in sculpture, experimenting in several different mediums, finding clay to be the most adaptable to my senses. I loved the smell of the wet earth and the totally responsive nature of it.

I soon became a member of an artist co-op in Ashland, working and selling from a small rented space, but the response was inspiring! I became a featured artist for two years in an Ashland gallery during Women’s History Month and have done several art shows throughout Oregon. I am a member of Clayfolk, a growing organization of clay artists and have work in several Oregon galleries; Second Street Gallery in Bandon, Soda Creek Gallery in Sisters, American Trails in Ashland and the Bison Gallery in Friday Harbor. I now have work in Washington and Northwest Handmade in Sandpoint, Idaho and The Gallery in Mount Shasta, California as well.

I am living in a wonderfully secluded and forested place at the foot of mountain in southern Oregon. It’s a short walk through a meadow from the house to the studio. While I am working with the clay, creating texture and shape, painting bison, deer or horse or watching some forest creature emerge under my hands, I can often look out the window and see the wild I call home