Around Oregon Biennial 2025

Around Oregon Biennial
The Arts Center
Corvallis, Oregon
July 15th - September 6th ​

Opening Reception
Thursday, July 17th 
5:30 pm - 7 pm 

The warm, golden palette of the painting, Palm Springs: Went to the Desert is now on display at The Arts Center in Corvallis, Oregon in the Around Oregon Biennial. The Palm Springs series consists of twelve paintings full of color and fat shapes, fat with love that will be part of a solo exhibition in Fall 2025. 
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I am from the Pacific Northwest, specifically, Eugene, Oregon.  Where I live, nearly five feet of rain falls each year. This amount of rainfall leaves the Willamette Valley lush, but the damp air and constantly overcast skies can leave a person with a sense of perpetual despondency. When I visited the Coachella Valley for the first time in 2022, I, for a lack of a better word, fell in love. I have been to the city of Palm Springs, twice now, the little city is nestled in the Coachella Valley. That dry desert town with its golden sand and blue pools contains the ongoing vibe of the crooner. You can’t help but listen to Frank Sinatra in your car. I love the dry air and ease of the small city. The town of Palm Springs is walkable. On your way to the Palm Springs Art Museum, a gargantuan Marily Monroe with a flirty smile and upturned dress invites you to stop and say,  “Hello.” Everyone does. She is the muse and the mistress of that pedestrian block (Since writing this statement, I read that Marilyn Monroe has been removed in light of all the controversy. Big Girls seem to be always controversial, too bad).

In the dry air and golden sand all my irritation and irritability of the past Covid years seemed to dissipate in Palm Springs. The heat killed the annoyance of past grudges and replaced it with something that felt like forgiveness. I’m not sure who I forgave when I walked in the desert or where all that anger went. Maybe anger and grudges cannot live in the desert, and for me, that is good. 

The writings of C. S. Lewis has also inspired much of my work. His writings regarding humans being similar to circles resonated with me because much of my work is based on the circle. The circle as a whole, as completeness and as holiness fits perfectly with my understanding of being in relationships and the connectivity of belonging. Circles connect my abstract and figurative work into one narrative, my understanding, my process and story.

M. V. Moran earned her MFA in Visual Studies from Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland,Oregon. Moran has a BFA in Painting from the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. After several years of working at the UO in Student Services, she resigned from her position and began her dream of becoming a professional artist. Moran has exhibited prolifically throughout the Pacific Northwest. In 2020, the Big Girls and Bad Air series exhibited in a solo exhibition at Coos Art Museum. Moran is also an Artist-in-Residence for the Lane Arts Council and has taught at Bushnell University in Eugene, Oregon. Moran is a lifelong Oregonian, raised in Sutherlin, educated in Eugene and Portland and has lived in Eugene for the past thirty years.

M. V. Moran

For more information about Around Oregon Biennial, go to The Arts Center website,
Around Oregon Biennial