>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

By Alice Perry Linker

Observer Staff Writer

Early one morning, photographer Eric Valentine went out into the Hawaiian sunrise looking for photo opportunities.

"I saw a rainbow above a lava flow, and a fern was growing through the lava," he said.

That scene became one of Valentine's favorite photographs — one of the photos he will exhibit during an art show and music performance Sept. 29 at Foley Station.

The event, created to benefit the Grande Ronde Symphony Orchestra, will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Wine, hors d'oeuvres and desserts will be served.

Inti St. Clair, a Seattle photographer who grew up in Halfway, will also show her works, which are reminiscent of abstract art.

St. Clair, who has titled her show "Reflections," uses an unusual perspective to photograph images of common objects.

She said she does not manipulate the photographs to create the unusual image.

"The images in this collection are stills of a sight people walk by countless times every day and never stop to consider the beauty," she said.

Valentine has titled his show "Resiliency and Hope." His photographs show the resiliency of nature, as symbolized by the fern growing through lava. He will also display a few of the photographs he took while living as a Peace Corps volunteer years ago in Afghanistan.

Now in his final term as circuit court judge, Valentine has traveled to many countries and throughout North America taking photographs of mountains, seasides and other scapes. His works have been widely displayed in Oregon and he publishes a pocket calendar of his photographs every year.

In addition to the photography exhibit, the evening at Foley Station will feature the music of Grande Ronde Symphony Orchestra members Ken Girrard and Keith Koster. The two will perform flute and clarinet duets by Georg Philipp Telemann, Francois Bouperin, George Frederick Handel, W.A. Mozart and others.

Koster became the music education program coordinator last year at Eastern Oregon University. Koster, who will perform on flute and clarinet, also plays bassoon and has performed with several quintets in various parts of the U.S.

Girrard, president of the Grande Ronde Symphony Orchestra board of directors, has played clarinet in the orchestra since 1984 and performs with Oregon East Symphony in Pendleton. He is completing a degree in art at EOU while teaching part time in the computer science and multimedia studies

program.

"My real focus lately is my art degree," Girrard said. "So I've been showing work in area galleries, donating bowls for the Shelter from the Storm soup supper, helping with Arts for All."

Tickets for the evening are $24 and are available at Sunflower Books and at the door.

Season tickets to the orchestra performances will be sold during the evening at a discounted price.