Recollections of an Early Exhibit

In May of 1995, Mt. Hood Community College hosted a one-woman exhibit for me in their luxurious Fireside Room. This was quite an honor as I grew up in the area and, at one time, had attended a few art classes at the college. My Mom was a Golden Age Student there for many years. My childhood friend, Jeanette Crockett McDermid, wrote a press release for the exhibit recalling our life as kids in outer southeast Gresham, Oregon.

That press release was republished on this blog in December, 2007 to illustrate how play, imagination, and early creativity help to guide us towards our life’s calling. As a kid, these experiences were invaluable for me. I will be forever grateful for the multi-cultural neighborhood filled with friends of all kinds who helped make lasting memories. The following images are a few of the paintings that were on display in that exhibit.

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Press Release – May 1995
East County Magazine
East County History Corner

May 1995… and Other Childhood Memories

By Jeanette Crockett McDermid, Historical Society Member

Art of  Former East County Resident, Margret E. (Fuller) Short, on Display  at  Mt. Hood   Community  College

GRESHAM, OREGON
In the 1940s and early 1950s, living on Glisan between 182nd and 188th was still a “country” style life. There was not any television, and we did not have telephones. Your friends were the people who lived close by because the world was contained in a very small area. Our entertainment as children was also contained in a very small area and virtually created by ourselves.

Imagination was the key to making the little world enjoyable and exciting. There were no Nintendo or television character plastic people to play with. We did play little cars in the dirt, even the girls, and played wild cowboys, made mud-pies to look like real things, and with paper dolls, cutting out the clothes ourselves coloring and sometimes getting lucky enough to get some plain paper and getting to draw your very own picture.

I was fortunate; I got a chalk board to use. It had two sides that you could use, one as though it were on an easel and the other folded down flat. Therefore, I drew and finally started painting on whatever I could find with whatever I could find to paint with.

Little did I know that one of my friends down the street on the corner of 188th and Glisan had the same feeling about drawing and painting that I had. The difference is I still just dabble in art, write about and hang art shows, but she has become a very fine artist. Her name is Margret E. (Fuller) Short. She has a one-person exhibit now at Mt. Hood Community college in the Fireside Gallery.

I spoke with Margret this week and she told me how she loves looking at the sunrises and sunsets and even as a child felt the need to capture that beauty in a timeless way. She spoke about the early morning times we got on our bikes to ride to the berry fields in the summer to earn a bit of money and being outside getting to see the wonders, beauty, and color that possibly not everyone noticed.

Margret listened constantly to the radio, mostly with her grandmother, and created and imagined her way through the programs she just listened to and never saw except in her mind’s eye. Now, we get to peek into this creative spirit through her paintings on display in the Fireside Room at Mt. Hood Community College.

View Margret’s Oil Paintings From The 1995 Exhibit