ASTORIA — The Clatsop Community College Art Center Gallery will open its exhibition season with “Cakes, Nudes, and Bowling Balls,” the first retrospective exhibition by Bay Area artist V.E. Long. The show will feature the artist’s figurative works, monotypes, sculptures, collages and assemblages created over a span of 27 years, from 1987 through the current year.

The exhibition opens with a reception at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 2 and continues through Nov. 6. The gallery reception and exhibit are free and open to the public. The CCC Art Center Gallery, 1799 Lexington Ave., is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and on weekends and holidays by appointment.

In conjunction with her exhibit, V.E. Long will conduct a workshop entitled “Pushing the Figure to Abstraction” on from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3. During this workshop, participants will gain insight into the artist’s personal process and practice this approach in a hands-on session.

“Having taught at Napa Valley College, I love to teach workshops,” Long says. “My goal is always the success of workshop participants and to personalize any feedback to participant’s individual needs. One of the hardest jobs of an artist is that of being an editor, and I would like to share how an artist might approach that challenge.”

The workshop will be held in the Drawing/Painting Studio of the CCC Art Center, and is free to CCC students enrolled in fall term credit classes and open to the general public for a $20 fee. Space is limited and pre-registration is required. For a materials list and to register, contact Kristin Shauck at 503-338-2472 or kshauck@clatsopcc.edu

Selected to exhibit in the 2014 “Au Naturel” competition, Long was also chosen by the art department faculty to receive the coveted prize of a solo exhibition at the CCC Art Center Gallery. Long’s work has been collected by corporations including AT&T, Chubb Corporation, IBM, Twentieth Century Fox, and the Hewlett Foundation. Private collectors of her work include Manuel Neri, Robert Redford, and Lawrence Halprin, designer of the F.D.R. Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Born in Washington, D.C., Long earned a Bachelor of Arts from University of California at Santa Barbara and an Master of Fine Arts from California State University, Long Beach where she studied with Paul Wonner, one of the original Bay Area figurative artists. She is regarded as a third generation Bay Area figurative artist. Her prevailing use of the strong gestural marks of abstract expressionism is reminiscent of Willem de Kooning, while influences for her assemblage works and sculpture range from Ed Keinholz to Louise Nevelson to Joseph Cornell.

Although the show represents a wide variety of work in both 2-D and 3-D formats, the common thread interconnecting the pieces lies in the process of creation; the original image that inspired each work has been removed from its original context. With the 2-D figurative work, the artist initially works from a life model and later deconstructs the images, pushing and abstracting them. With the 3-D assemblage works, the artist scavenges items that once had a specific function, such as game tokens and cake decorations, and then she transforms each item into a completely different incarnation imbedded in a work of art. Each item serves as a visual element in a new context, and in the process, each item becomes infused with a deeper, more complex meaning.

Both the figurative works and assemblages express what it is to be human in various ways. They depict circumstances and tragedies, strengths and frailties, hope and survival. “The figure, and its connotations, are a never-ending source of inspiration for me,” Long says. “Had I been born more recently, I’m sure I would have been labeled as ADHD. As it was, my parents just received notes that I was a ‘distracted child’ and a ‘daydreamer,’ and I guess I was, because everything interested me and still does. My sculptural work uses ordinary items as icons, many of which I find in the street or at the landfill. My figurative work is ‘all over the place’ — once the model leaves, I can make her into something else. So I’m really thankful that I was, and still am, a distracted child.”

Clatsop Community College acknowledges special support for this exhibit and workshop from the Cannery Pier Hotel and Spa.