Artwork copyright Janette Hopper. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Shipyard, 1992

Janette Hopper
(American, born 1946)

Location: Southside Elementary, Shelton

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Shipyard is part of artist Janette Hopper’s body of work created while pursuing a Fulbright Teaching Exchange in Denmark in 1992. The imagery depicts a seaside port in Skagen, Denmark, the northernmost point on the European continent. Hopper describes the quality of light that inspired this painting as similar to the Pacific Northwest. She notes, “Especially when a storm is clearing and light breaks through heavy clouds to shimmer on the water’s surface and cause shadows to move across the land in ever rich and changing patterns, an artist wants to grab [a] brush and paint and capture the feeling of that moment.”

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Southside School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Janette Hopper is a painter, printmaker, and performance artist. Her art is inspired by the places she has experienced while hiking, camping and kayaking. She lived in the Northwest for over fifteen years and she notes that "Most of my art is still inspired by the Northwest mystical spirit and my education and experiences there."

Hopper grew up in Idaho with a lot of camping and fishing trips. In the late 1960s, she left university during the Vietnam War and joined the Peace Corps, spending two years in Colombia, South America. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Arts in Secondary Art Education from Boise State University in Idaho, and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting (1984) from the University of Oregon. She taught art at Columbia Basin College in Pasco, Southeastern Washington from 1985 to 2000. Hopper currently lives and makes art in North Carolina.