Portland artist Sa'rah Melinda Sabino explores what it means to be mixed race in America. Her work is at the intersection of basketball, Moroccan culture and worlds that don’t yet exist.

Artist Daniela Molnar does it all. She makes her own paint with pigments and water that she forages from the wild and in Portland. She is also a painter and a poet. Molnar has launched the New Earth Series, which includes shapes of glacier loss all over the world. She derives the "shapes of loss" from satellite images.

A thread of artistic collaboration runs through singer-songwriter Jeremy Wilson’s life story, from his celebrated indie rock band, Dharma Bums, to ballet dancer, to a foundation serving others. Wilson's passion and humanity are expressed through his songs.

Growing up on her family’s remote homestead in the Wallowa Mountains, fourth-generation Eastern Oregonian Amy Lay found companionship with the animals around her. Today, that intimate familiarity with animals makes Lay one of the most successful contemporary wildlife artists anywhere.

The Portland writer continues to reach people all over the world through her deeply personal stories.

With work that takes years to mature, Oregon artist Richard Reames relishes his "long, slow conversations" with his trees.

Master water color artist uses tiny brushes to create intricate detail in her portraits of birds she observes near her home. Hiroko moved from Tokyo to Pendleton in 1986 – a culture shock at first, but today she can’t imagine leaving the beauty of Eastern Oregon.

Wallowa County ceramic artist Ted Juve remembers being six years old, watching his father build a barn on the family farm. Today that barn is Juve’s studio where he creates hand-etched bowls and mugs that have made him one of the area’s most in-demand artists.

Portland felt artist LeBrie Rich creates life-sized felt sculptures replicating some of this nation’s most iconic snacks. Her work has been featured at galleries and museums throughout the country. “I've discovered in making this work that we all have these nostalgic connections to certain brands or certain foods, and they're connected to very deep, very real memories,” she says.

It is with sadness but also a deep appreciation of their work that we remember artists who died in 2021. All of us on Oregon Art Beat are honored that these artists shared their stories with us. We celebrate their indelible contributions to the arts and culture landscape of Oregon.