Putting art on the map.

Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

PLEASANT HILL - For potters Kathryn Finnerty and Tom Rohr, taking their wares on the road is a heavy undertaking - literally.

"For each three-day weekend art fair, it takes me nine days to pack the trailer, transport it to the fair, unload it, pack it back in the trailer and transport it back here," Rohr said. "And it's physically demanding."

Meanwhile, the husband and wife artists lose nine days of studio time, something particularly precious to Rohr since he took an academic year teaching post at Lane Community College last September.

He and Finnerty would love to eliminate that lost time - and money - by selling more of his spare, Asian-style vessels and her ornate, English-influenced cups and vases from the gallery they've created in their renovated farm house here.

"Every $1 sale that comes up the driveway is like an extra $3 in our pockets," he said of the bypassed festival circuit overhead.

But Pleasant Hill is hardly known for its art galleries. And few tourists are likely to just stop by the couple's property, which sits a mile off the nearest highway, down a sharply winding country road and at the end of a long driveway. Until now, that is.

Finnerty and Rohr are among more than 100 artists and galleries taking part in Oregon Crafted, a new economic development initiative sponsored by the Oregon Council for Business Education. Patterned after a similar project in North Carolina, it promotes art studios and galleries in the Southern Willamette Valley and Central Coast.

Participants are featured in a handsome, full-color guidebook that divides the region into 10 geographic zones. A self-guided tour is laid out for each zone, complete with map, photos and descriptions of local wares. Each map also includes other points of interest - trails, museums, wineries - likely to help draw tourists.

Finally, all Oregon Crafted artists and galleries have agreed to open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the first Saturday and Sunday of each month.

Oregon Crafted executive director Joan Shea and program director Yvette Keolker hope to replicate the success they saw in the North Carolina program - down to an economic ripple effect in rural communities there.

"Because it brought visitors to these more tucked away areas, nearby restuarants, stores and hotels also benefitted," said Oregon Crafted marketing director Cheryl Crumbley.

Finnerty and Rohr are part of Oregon Crafted's Pleasant Hill-Oakridge tour. Other participants include Pleasant Hill glass artist Patti Lomont; Oakridge painters Delores David and Vickie Dryer, and that town's fledgling Flying Turtle Gallery.

Flying Turtle owner Evonne Lowery does not have Finnerty and Rohr's location problem. The gallery she opened last October is right along Highway 58 in the center of Oakridge. Plenty of cars pass by each day - but too many do just that.

Lowery is hoping Oregon Crafted will open tourists' eyes to the quality of work being created by hundreds of rural artists and craftspeople. Her 750-square-foot gallery displays jewelry, pottery, painting and basketry by more than 60 artists, 80 percent of them from the Oakridge-Westfir area.

"The book is done so beautifully that I think it's going to bring people to Oakridge and other small towns," she said, noting that she's already sold 10 copies of the guidebook.

Back at Finnerty and Rohr's studio, only their work will be for sale. But visitors to their art-filled home can view the fascinating collection of sculpture, drawings and paintings they've received in trade from other artists during their international careers.

Not that their own, very different pottery styles aren't interesting enough. Canada-born Finnerty studied Italian majolica ceramic technique, then adapted the form to reflect her childhood exposure to ornate, Victorian china.

"My mum collected tea services and cups and saucers in fine bone china and porcelain," she said.

She uses etched, terra-cotta clay and her own rich, polychromatic glazes to create fabulous but functional pieces.

In striking contrast are Rohr's Spartan pots, cups and other vessels, typically colored only by the natural reactions of his custom clay bodies as they are fired in a 2,400 degree wood kiln.

Rohr is also a brewer and vintner, and he sells many of his cask-conditioned bottles filled with his ales and wines.

"My pots are for the people," he said. "Katheryn's are for the collectors."

The pair also plan to work on current projects during their Oregon Crafted open house weekends, so visitors can see a bit of their process as well as the final products.

"It could get very experiential,"

Rohr said. "I may put people to work feeding wood into the kiln."

OREGON CRAFTED

Guidebook featuring self-guided tours to art studios and galleries

Price: $4.95

Available: Convention & Visitors Association of Lane County, 115 W. Eighth St., Suite 190; through Oregon Crafted by phone or e-mail, 687-8353 or www.oregon

crafted.org

CAPTION(S):

Potters Kathryn Finnerty and Tom Rohr of Pleasant Hill are just two of the many area artists who have joined forces as Oregon Crafted, providing a booklet for self-guided tours to art studios and galleries in the Southern Willamette Valley and Central Coast. Laura Beamer, an Oregon Crafted member, incorporates bottle caps into jewelry designs. Evonne Lowery opened the Flying Turtle Gallery in Oakridge as a venue for her own art and that of more than 60 others. The Associated Press