Jack Duren (Central)
Growing up, Jack was known as the “school artist.” He taught Art, English, and Drama in high schools and has always been an advocate for art. He continues to believe the appreciation for art, the making of it, and the use of it is a humanizing effect on societies. Jack considers himself a “Maker” rather than an “Artist” because of the wide range of media and projects he works with and on.
Jack carved this big bird out of styrofoam as a decoration for a Rose Villa Foundation fundraiser. The bird is approximately 12 feet tall and weighs around 100 pounds.
Jack says he loves doing three dimensional work so, except for the long hours and physicality of the job, it was great fun and he learned a lot from it.
A few years ago Jack was approached by a group of RV residents and asked if he could make some “bird hats” for a video they wanted to produce. He had fun making a Kestrel, a Crow, a Stellar Jay and a Blackbird hat from quilt batting, cardboard, duct tape, paint and markers.
The hats appear in a musical skit, called Strictly for the Birds produced by Rose Villa’s Bringing Nature Home group about the importance of native habitat for wildlife.
While living in the Corvallis area before moving to Rose Villa the theme for an area of the DaVinci Days festival was “Unidentified Flying Art.” Jack was intrigued by that and, using all discarded materials, built this flying bug from a newel post, an old bentwood chair, and a couple of old light fixtures. The head and tail lit up at night and the tail blinked red.
Jack built this leaded glass window for a lifelong friend — it is his family crest. Jack also built one for his friend’s wife’s family.
Jack designed and built this double leaded glass sliding window for the master bathroom of the house he and his wife, Pam, lived in in Philomath. Pam decorated the room with a sea shore theme and the window picks up that theme and the colors she used.
Since the window was a sliding one, Jack designed the leaded glass window to be mounted in front of the bathroom window and to slide open and closed with the original one. Clever, Jack!