OUR GORGE I CREATE
A Tale of Two Artists The language of art brings together a student and her teacher story by JANET COOK | photos courtesy of the artists
I
t’s been nine years since artist Yvonne PepinWakefield met Yazmin Villegas in an art class she was teaching at the Columbia Center for the Arts in Hood River. But she still remembers it clearly. “It was a ceramics class for kids,” Pepin-Wakefield said. “Yazmin didn’t say anything, but I’d put some clay in her hands, walk away and she’d have done something when I came back.” Yazmin was 9 years old at the time. She was born with a genetic disorder that presents with physical and cognitive challenges, but has always been drawn to art, according to her mom, Monica Romero. “She’s always loved art, and doing art and craft projects,” said Romero, who enrolled her daughter in the ceramics class to encourage her interest. The class turned out to be pivotal for Yazmin. Pepin-Wakefield, a prolific artist who does painting, photography and ceramics (as well as being a writer with several published books to her name), has experience teaching art to all ages and abilities. Her own art career began after the death of both of her parents, when she started drawing to channel her grief and loss. She later studied at the Mendocino Art Center fine arts program and continued at Antioch University in San Francisco, where she studied fine arts and arts administration. Research for her doctoral degree was based on drawing as a means of nonverbal communication. Yvonne Pepin-Wakefield and her student, Yazmin Villegas, discuss frames and composition at Pepin-Wakefield’s studio in The Dalles. Top, an oil rendering of a pomegranate by Yvonne Pepin-Wakefield.
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SUMMER 2022 II THE GORGE MAGAZINE
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