The Astoria Tuba Quartet takes the low road in its performances featuring skill and humor. Submitted photo.

This Saturday, Oct. 9, the fourth annual “Spirit of the River” will be held at the Clatsop Community College Performing Arts Center and the Masonic Lodge, 16th Street and Franklin Avenue in Astoria, beginning at 7 p.m.

The performance and silent auction is a fundraiser for Columbia Riverkeeper, whose mission is to restore and protect the river. But as Carol Newman, host of KMUN’s “Arts Live and Local” and volunteer for the event, says, “It’s a great way to donate money for a great cause, but for me it goes way beyond that.

“The river is the heartbeat of our community. You can’t live here and not be influenced by the river. And this event has provided us with so many connections to our community.”

The color of the feeling

Newman manages the silent auction, which has outgrown its venue each successive year.

“The silent auction started out in the lobby of the Performing Arts Center,” Newman said. “Then we moved to the Josie Peper building. This year, we’re in the Masonic Temple and we’ll have plenty of space for people to take in the art.”

There are 60 artists involved. When asked how the art is selected, Newman talks about the incredible response the event has garnered.

“Many artists find us. Jewelry makers, basket makers, painters, sculptors, ceramicists – we have all artistic media represented.

“So it’s not just images of the river it might be the color, or the feeling the river gives an artist that inspires the work.”

Culture weaving

As part of the entry process, artists talk about their pieces. Kitty Paino said of her collage, “There is magic where the Columbia meets the ocean that speaks a language that makes art even without an artist.”

Charles Schweigert, working in encaustics on wood, said, “My piece captures the endless nuances of color, texture and light that can be seen on the surface of moving water.” Rhonda Grudenic’s etching captures “the river’s flow, the ocean currents.”

Some artists are bringing back traditions or are mixing traditions that existed for centuries with more modern techniques.

Leena Mela Riker has created a twined basket of paper, rayon and silk. “Native American tribes of the Columbia River have made twined baskets for thousands of years,” said Riker. “Using these ancient techniques, I have woven together paper from Finland with rayon and silk to explore the rich cultural influences and colors of our region.”

Last year, a pendant made by Judith Altruda was won by the featured Spirit of the River writer, Se-Ah-dom Edmo, a Shoshone-Bannock, Nez Perce and Yakama Indian, born and raised in Portland.

Edmo, whose family is from Celilo Falls, recognized the spirit of the river in this piece and carried it back to her home.

Featured writer: Bill Layman

Though this event takes place at the mouth of the mighty Columbia, the Spirit of the River celebrates the whole watershed, which reaches more than 300 miles into British Columbia. This year, the two featured artists come from upriver.

Cheryl Johnson, the event’s founder and organizer, said, “William Bill’ Layman, from Wenatchee, is our featured author. He actually lives halfway from the headwaters to the mouth of the Columbia.”

Layman’s “River of Memory: The Everlasting Columbia” won the 2007 Washington State Book Award for General Nonfiction and was a finalist in the 2007 Western Writers Spur award for nonfiction.

“In a sense, two Columbia Rivers flow through our lives,” Layman said in the book’s introduction, “the river we see today and the natural river that gave rise to the spectacular sights and thunderings of such places as Celilo and Kettle Falls.”

Performance and photography

David Lee Myers, who lives in Astoria overlooking the river, was the featured photographer for the first year’s event. Myers has stayed on the organizing committee to help incorporate digital photography into the entertainment portion of the evening this year including The Lazy Boys, the Astoria Tuba Quartet, the Astoria School of Ballet, Con Amici and Denise Drake.

“The featured photographer makes up a set of 30 or 40 images and the performers choose one or two images, something that is supportive of their act,” said Myers. “Then it’s my job to project them as a backdrop for the performances.”

Featured photographer this year is Patrick Dixon, a retired teacher and fisherman. The resident of Olympia, Wash., has also been part of the Fisher Poets Gathering. Myers says of his work, “Patrick has a lot of images from the middle part of the Columbia River where it goes through the Cascades. It’s great because it gives us another view of the Columbia.”

The river both separates Washington and Oregon and connects its inhabitants.

“We don’t think about it, but the Columbia River is the biggest source of fresh water in the Willapa Bay. I learned that from Kathleen Sayce,” Myers said.

Sayce, ShoreBank Pacific scientist, confirms. “The force of the fresh water at the mouth of the Columbia has an influence from Tilla-mook Head to Grenville Point, and it’s the most important source of fresh water in Willapa Bay.”

The Columbia percolates in our hearts

Despite the power the river wields, as Dixon says, “For all its size, strength and grandeur, I am constantly reminded how fragile the Columbia River is. It doesn’t take much thoughtless development to do irreparable damage to an ecosystem.”

The fundraising goal for the first year of Spirit of the River was $10,000.

“When I set that as a goal, my friends got very quiet,” says Johnson. “But we did it. And then we raised the goal to $15,000. It is such an amazing effort and affirmation of our stewardship of the river.”

As Newman puts it, “Community is the matrix that pulls us all together and the Columbia River is like the queen who stands above us all and lives in our hearts. This event is a celebration of the Columbia, that river that percolates in our hearts and minds and hands.”