Kaycee Anseth has worked as an artist in Bend since she moved to the city 15 years ago. In that time, she’s contributed her time and talent to the city’s growing artistic community: The Franklin Avenue underpass mural, located in the Bend Central District, is just one of many places to see her work. Dozens of galleries and stores have exhibited her work and she’s painted commissioned murals throughout the city. As Bend grows more expensive—and those with creative careers struggle to stay afloat—Anseth has managed to thrive both inside and outside the lines of conventional culture.
Anseth’s work pushes the boundaries of traditional mediums. Instead of paint, she mostly uses tiny pieces of paper cut magazines once destined for the recycling bin. In a society where many consumer goods are designed to break and end up in the landfill, her reuse of discarded materials calls into question the norms of throw-away culture.
Anseth glues colorful strips into dreamy collages that evoke fairy tales and distant memories and a childlike reverie about foxes and wolves; for a time when small patches of forest and field held magic and mystery.
“She is mainly interested in the non-human world,” said Cathasach Ó Corcráin, Anseth’s husband. “She’s painting animals as saints; it comes from an animistic point of view. The natural world is a subject rather than the object. There’s a story in her work… it’s driven by mythology.”
While Anseth’s primary medium is collages, she’s also been commissioned to paint murals for the Tin Pan Theater, Lone Pine Coffee Roasters and the Old Mill District. Last year, she finished “Two For Joy,” a mural on the inside of the Franklin Avenue underpass, featured on the cover of the Source this week. She’s been featured on the cover of the Source five other times, from 2008 through 2015.
As Ó Corcráin tells it, Anseth overcame a number of hurdles in order to finish painting the mural in the underpass. Anseth is a member of the Bend Central District Visionary Board, a group organized by Moey Newbold of Central Oregon LandWatch, working to promote sustainable infill development in the industrial blocks east of the train tracks. The board envisioned a neighborhood brought to life by public art, and sought to “get the red tape out of the way for artists to paint murals in Bend,” Ó Corcráin explained. “The code affects the whole city.”
The Bend City Council passed a new mural code last year that eased the process for private buildings, but not for public places and right-of-ways.
“There’s no reason Bend shouldn’t have art in public places,” Ó Corcráin said. “It’s happened in big cities before, when they get support for art in public places, the incidence of graffiti goes down. There should be a process where if there is a location where art could go, the artist could go through the process, and it would be supported.”
Instead, Anseth encountered inaction and the threat of fines, Ó Corcráin said. She approached the City and spoke at a Bend City Council meeting to get permission to paint the mural. She also approached City Council members informally through emails and phone calls, Ó Corcráin said.
The City first told her that she must get permission from BNSF Railroad, because the City had no jurisdiction over the underpass. She got the go-ahead from BNSF and began the mural. That’s when the City called her to tell her they would fine her $700 if she continued to paint it. The City eventually conceded that because the property was owned by the railroad (technically federal property, and therefore public) they had no jurisdiction over the underpass, Ó Corcráin said.
“When there is art, places feel loved and cared for, not just an industrial waste land,” Ó Corcráin said. “In the Maker’s District [inside the BCD], there is no reason there can’t be an artistic vibrant intensity in the town. It can make the town glow.”
Anseth has been working with the BCD Visionary Board and Bend’s Creative Laureate Jason Graham to plan a second mural on the other side of the Franklin Avenue underpass, but this time, the group wants to work with high school students.
Meanwhile, Anseth has been living with cancer for over three years, and is now under hospice care. As she’s struggled with the illness, she’s documented her journey on Instagram and remains committed to her art. Finishing the mural became more than an art project, but a symbol of hope for other artists. It was about possibility rather than settling for the status quo, as well as a bridge between two parts of town.
Her success in the face of ambivalence and bureaucracy could also be seen as a symbol for a Bend at the crossroads. Will the reinvigoration of the BCD create a welcoming habitat for artists, or will it turn into a neighborhood of high-end condos built for investors?
Anseth plans to make all of her work available for print at kayceeansethcreations.com. All the profits will support local artists.
“She wants to be an angel investor,” Ó Corcráin said. “To leave a legacy that supports other artists in the community.”
See Kaycee Anseth’s work
kayceeansethcreations.com
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This article appears in Feb 19-26, 2020.
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Wow. This article turned heartbreaking very suddenly.
Sending thoughts of calmness, light, and nature’s beauty to you, Ms. Anseth, and to your husband. Your public art is a gift to our community and has provided joy for so many of your neighbors.
Love this beautiful creature and all she is doing to transform Bend, the way art is prioritized, and herself as she moves into a new form.
Kaycee Anseth is an amazing, beautiful and creative artist! I have been blessed to know Kaycee since she was a little girl, as a cousin through marriage. Please help support her legacy for the revitalization of this area in Bend, OR. And…prayers for Kaycee as she continues her journey fighting cancer.
Sending pure admiration and love to Kaycee.
Thank you Kaycee….for sharing your light, beauty and art for all of us to enjoy. Peace be with you.
More incredibly is that Ms. Brauns buries the fact that Kaycee has been dying of cancer for 3 years until the end of the article. The person who sent me this article is a professional newspaper writer, author and poet. His regret is that he didn’t write the story: he alone could have added the personal touch that would have erased the sterility of this one.
A friend of mine sent this to me for Kaycee….https://youtu.be/FKx5hw_2rqQ
T-man: You are certainly entitled to your opinion about how this piece was executed, but we stand behind our work here. I have, however, deleted your first comment, as it contained several statements that were factually incorrect. We welcome comments that share our readers’ views, but we hold the line at allowing untruths–in this case, in the form of unfounded gossip–to remain on our site. Thanks for reading.
Thank you for publishing this beautiful piece, celebrating the beautiful work of a beautiful person.
As a professional writer and editor of over 30 years, I appreciate that the writer chose to focus on the art. T-man’s comment suggests that perhaps he would prefer a schlocky cancer-pity profile.
Unlike him, I don’t find this article “sterile” in the least. Here the writer treated the artist—and what may be her last work—with dignity and respect. When I got to the end, my eyes welled up with tears.
I do not know the artist or the writer, incidentally. I just happened to pick up a print issue of The Source at a cafe.
Well Kaycee. Rest in peace, Kaycee.
There’s a lot of “I feel her spirit” and mention of her “soul” being shared on social media and other online platforms right now.
Tell you the truth, T-man, I always liked Kaycee because at her core she was a badass rocker chick who didn’t give a fuck about anything. The soft artist side of her was just the surface level. Kayce spent many days feeling depressed. She was depressed because she hated most everything. And she liked us (you and me) because we drank too much and also didn’t give a flying fuck about anything.
Kaycee is so much more of a badass than people will ever give her credit for. What we’ll read in the days and weeks to come is soft mushy shit that speaks little truth and has no real purpose, much like the whimsical article penned by one Laurel Brauns.
Cheers to you, Kaycee! Thanks for always being there and understanding our antics and shit for exactly what they were. No more, no less.
Little pieces of paper?
Tiny pieces of paper? It’s called a collage. I have one of her first collages from 2007 “Sustainable Vantage” 2007. The work was made for the author of the previous comment. The caption on the back simply reads, “May you be blessed with lovely landscapes… Love Kaycee August 2007.”The people that knew her best knew her first; Al, Joe, Boot, T-man and the ubiquitous Ryan “Old Man” not to mention Jake, an artist in his own wright. It’s with a sadness, but also with a feeling of immeasurable joy that we knew and supported her when others wouldn’t i.e. her stay and troubles at the Poet House. Her beauty and oftentimes caustic personality will remain with us, long after the Bend hipster league has forgotten this woman.
Heartbreaking is a euphemism, she was much more than you’ll ever know.
Kaycee was an advocate for Oregonians living in Bend, it pained her so to see the Californication of our once lovely town, you can see it in her later works.
Where were you Sandy? She Kaycee never mentioned anything about you in the 13 years I knew her.
https://youtu.be/cMFWFhTFohk Love you babe like those people never did.
Kaycee
Goodnight my sweet princess, they cant hurt you anymore. https://youtu.be/uRtDMigk8_A
But someone, they could have warned you
When things start splitting at the seams and now
The whole thing’s tumbling down
Things start splitting at the seams and now
When things start splitting at the seams and now
It’s tumbling down hard
No one is going to love you more than we do.
https://youtu.be/2l4alp0De8Y
Did any of you know Kaycee when she lived in a little trailer down the street on Brosterhous? Didn’t see the love when she and Al were freezing, we, her friends paid to keep them alive, Kaycee and Al spent many days in my home. We were friends, nobody cared, but now you do, because her art is worth more to you now that she’s dead.