JOSEPH, Ore. – Nestled in Oregon’s Wallowa mountains, the small town of Joseph has long had a reputation as a haven for painters and sculptors, known for the its bronze foundries and the blending of Western and Native American art themes.
But a number of the town’s best-known artists are leaving Joseph, citing the town’s rural isolation, and unwillingness to confront changing times.
“We built our careers in Joseph, and now we are going to the city,” Gary Parmenter, business manager for his brother, Ramon Parmenter, a painter and sculptor, told The Oregonian. “I have bittersweet thoughts about the county. I love it, and I hate it.”
Also leaving is David Manuel, a well-known bronze sculptor whose departure ended years of squabbling with the Joseph City Council over off-street parking, water bills and his plans to build a bronze casting foundry and art education center.
When he left, Manuel closed his family’s popular Nez Perce Crossing Museum, which had a mix of fine art and exhibits of pioneer, Native American, motion picture and military exhibits. His family is now spending $10 million to refurbish the Hot Lake Hotel in La Grande.
While Gary Parmenter calls Joseph “an absolute jewel of a place,” he said living there had become too difficult. The artists, for instance, must travel extensively to meet clients, and the nearest major airports are a four-hour drive one way.
Many old-timers don’t want light industry, property subdivisions or resort hotels, the artists said, so art buyers stay away or don’t stay long when they come. “There is nowhere for them to go, no entertainment,” said Dennis Jones, a wildlife sculptor and 21-year Joseph resident, who recently moved to Central Oregon.
“That town was nothing before the artists got there,” Jones said. “Now the town wants to put restrictions on the very hand that feeds it.”
Joseph Mayor Peggy Kite-Martin acknowledged that artists have “helped the town hugely.”
But, she also said that, “Different people have different concerns with the way we run Joseph.”
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