HERMISTON, Ore.-Visitors to Chute 8 during the Farm-City Pro Rodeo can enjoy some new artwork this year thanks to some Hermiston High school students.
Cheyanne Lancaster, Hanna Schulz, and Jocelyn Silvani, all Seniors at Hermiston, and Estrella Cortes, who graduated this June, spent part of their summer transforming nondescript storage containers behind Chute 8 into rodeo-inspired works of art.
“We serve 4-500 people a night here and I’m anxious for people to see them,” said Cathy Barnett, who has been volunteering with her husband Dennis, a member of the Farm-City Pro Rodeo board, at the rodeo for about 35 years. “So far everybody that has seen them has been blown away.”
Chute 8 is located next to the Farm-City Arena at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center (EOTEC) and features food, music, and dancing after each night of the rodeo.
“After seven years we ran out of storage room, and that’s a good problem to have,” said Barnett, of the success of Chute 8 and the need to bring in storage containers.
Putting together a team of painters
Two XPO logistics storage containers were moved in around the back perimeter of Chute 8 about three weeks ago.
According to Barnett, the original plan was to have the containers wrapped, however, there wasn’t enough time to get them done before the Farm-City Pro Rodeo started August 12.
In a pinch, Barnett reached out to the Good Shepherd Community Health Foundation (GSCHF) to see if they knew of anyone who could be available to paint the containers.
The GSCHF, then contacted Stephanie Duquette, a Communications teacher at Hermiston High, who suggested the four teens.
“I’m lucky I found them, there wasn’t much time and Liz Marvin (Executive Director of the GSCHF) and Stephanie Duquette set me up with their names and numbers,” said Barnett.
Lancaster agreed to participate after receiving an email from Barnett explaining the project, and that she’d been recommended by a few people at the high school.
Cortes and Shulz received similar emails, and then Cortes reached out to Silvani to bring her on board for the project.
Aside from Cortes, who graduated this June and has made art a hobby for the past two years, and Schulz, who hopes to pursue an art career as a cover illustrator, none of the teenagers had much art experience before the project.
Working from seven in the morning until about noon every day, the four teenagers bonded, with Lancaster becoming a sort of Captain of the quartet as the artwork took shape.
“I’d done lots for Future Farmers of America (FFA) and the rodeo growing up, so I figured why not?” said Lancaster. “All our skills kind of meshed together throughout the project.”
The paintings
Barnett wanted the Farm-City Pro Rodeo logo on one of the containers and showed the painters a bumper sticker of the logo, but beyond that gave the teens artistic license over the designs that would be painted.
“People give me more credit than I deserve,” said Barnett, of the project. “I put brushes in their hands and supplied Starbucks, donuts, and an Ace credit card. They turned two XPO logistics containers into beautiful artwork.”
The container the teenagers painted first depicts the Farm-City Pro Rodeo logo above a sponsor’s badge in the center, with an American Flag and the silhouette of a cowboy on the left, and the silhouette of a horse on the right side.
“After we did the logo, we started adding different items,” said Lancaster, of the painting process. “The horse actually came pretty easy.”
The sponsor’s badge bears the number 88, representing the first year of the Farm-City Pro Rodeo, and the background is fiery shades of orange and red, reminiscent of a Hermiston sunset.
“The second one was a little harder and included lots of trial and error,” said Silvani. “While we were doing the first one, we thought of ideas for the second one.”
The second painted storage container works as a sort of companion or sister piece to the first artistically.
It features a western skyline similar to Hermiston’s Butte in front of a soft yellow sky, with a fence in the foreground and the silhouette of a cowgirl in the center. “The handshake…Our Word, Our Bond,” the motto of Chute 8 Whisky is painted across the center of the scene.
“There’s a lot going on, but it’s still simple and colorful,” Schulz said of the second container. “It reminds me of Hermiston.”
All four painters contributed different aspects to the paintings, with Cortes working on the cowgirl silhouette, Lancaster doing the lettering, Schulz painting the flag, and Silvani working on silhouettes, the fences and backgrounds.
“All of our skills kind of came together and we were each able to do different things on the second one,” said Cortes.
Coming together
Aside from being a premier Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA) event, the Farm-City Pro Rodeo has always been a community celebration, and the painting project this summer was a microcosm of that.
“I was lucky to find these four girls,” said Barnett, who enjoyed seeing the progress of the paintings and new friendships. “It was so rewarding to see the changes every day.”
Working from seven in the morning until about noon every day, the four teenagers bonded as the artwork took shape, and finished the project in about nine days.
“None of us really knew each other before this but we meshed,” said Silvani. “It’s been the best highlight of summer.”
Barnett is, admittedly “not an artist,” yet she’s happy with the result and can’t wait to show it off during the rodeo.
“The beauty of the Farm-City Pro Rodeo is you get to connect with the same people each year,” said Barnett. “It will be fun for people to see the paintings. It’s neat that they were done by local high school kids, that’s what it’s all about.”
The Farm-City Pro Rodeo is August 12-15, with the rodeo starting at 7:45 p.m. each night. Tickets are available online or by calling the FCPR box office at 541.564.8500.
