Upper Willamette’s influence on Eugene artist is vivid on new Oregon license plate, now on sale

By LAUREN KESSLER/For The Herald — The covered bridge at Lowell.

Hiking boots that trekked up the short, steep climb to the summit of Mt. June near Dexter.

A pair of skis that schussed down the slopes at Willamette Pass.

Berries, hazelnuts and salmon — the traditional foods of the Calapooya peoples who for 14,000 years harvested, hunted and fished on this land.

A wooden wheel from the “lost wagon train” that carried pioneer Agnes Stewart from St. Joseph, Missouri to Oakridge, Oregon, a place she praised as “above the fog, below the snow,” and called The Shangri-La of the Cascades.

Look closely at the colorful new Oregon Cultural Trust license plate—on sale Friday, Oct. 1 — and you will see these images, each a hand-drawn symbol that celebrates life along the Highway 58 corridor—and more. A lot more. The plate, measuring a mere 11.5” x 5.5”, with a vibrant Oregon landscape as background, features 127 images that recognize and honor the heritage, history, arts and culture of our state.

There may, in fact, be even more symbols. The artist, Eugene muralist Liza Burns (who has hiked, biked and camped along our stretch of the river) has lost count. During the year-long process of working on the design, she kept drawing and redrawing, thinking and researching, talking to and learning from dozens of “stakeholders,” people who know and care deeply about the state and its rich and diverse history.

This interactive visual key https://culturaltrust.org/celebrateoregon/license-plate-narrative/ explains each of the symbols and how they connect to Oregon culture.

Burns was one of 36 artists who submitted statements of interest and work samples to the open call for a new license plate design posted by Cultural Trust back in July of last year. Sale of the plate helps support the twenty-year-old nonprofit’s efforts to fund creative projects throughout the state.

She remembers the day she read the original call. It was her son Henry’s one-week birthday. He was a pandemic baby born big and healthy at McKenzie-Willamette to Burns and her husband — and high school sweetheart—a Hamlin Middle School science teacher.

A jury evaluated the three dozen statements and recommended 20 artists, including Burns, to submit preliminary proposals. Simultaneously exhausted and exhilarated, she went to work.

“I quickly realized that it was impossible to come up with a single symbol,” Burns says. “I had to start thinking about multiple images, like snapshots, and how to create a seamless way of presenting them all.” As Henry slept, she sketched on her iPad, working with two designs. One was the digital canvas with the emerging design; the other was the emerging design with an overlay of all the “obstructions” of an actual license plate: the numbers, the Cultural Trust logo, the DMV tags. She always knew that some of what she was carefully sketching would be obscured.

Three months after that first call to submit, Burns got another call. The Cultural Trust Board of Directors had unanimously chosen her design. “I was at home with Henry. He had just gone down for a nap,” she remembers.  “I just danced around the room.” She pauses, smiles, and then adds, “Very quietly.”

She says that winning the competition was validation that she could be both a professional artist who pays the bills, and a mom. She had just gone out on her own as a freelancer before the pandemic hit—and before the pregnancy.

Her winning design was, however, still a work in progress. Dozens of people would be involved in offering feedback and suggestions. More sketches. More images. Seven different government agencies would have a hand in the process.

Then, this February, the design process completed, a new idea suddenly emerged in conversation: Wouldn’t this design look really cool BIG? As in mural-sized. Could the artist transform an 11.5”x 5.5” design into a 16’ x 8’ mural?

Of course she could.

Burns is a muralist. The artistic and technical challenges were significant. Images on the license plate that Burns described as “mere squiggles” had to be reimagined. A barely eighth-of-an-inch blip became a three-foot high symbol. The digital color palette and tools were completely different than the ones she would use in mural-making. She set up shop in her garage studio, donned her paint-stained overalls and started tackling the transformation.

There was also the challenge of funding the project, which grew from a single mural to four, each to be installed in an Oregon airport (Eugene, Portland, Medford, Redmond).  GreenCars, part of Lithia Motors, signed on to the project. The airports helped with installations and events. Meanwhile, Burns painted and painted, making small changes to each mural as she went along. It took a solid month to finish the first mural. Henry, now a fourteen-month toddler, accompanied her to Medford for the airport installation.

The Cultural Trust license plate is now on sale. The murals are almost all installed. For those who want a print of this vibrant work of art for their home (either 24” x 12” or 12.5” x 6.5”), these are available here: https://www.lizamanaburns.com/shop

For photos of the license plate design, the artist at work and a time lapse video of her mural creation, go here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/t41fr325g0by8hi/AAB0SSwY_29QT4YcS508G411a?dl=

About the author

Lauren Kessler of Eugene, the  author of 10 books of literary nonfiction, describes herself on her blog, The Lauren Chronicles, as “(semi-fearless) immersion reporter, blogger, biker, hiker, barre-fly, chicken-wrangler, wanna-be ballerina, quadruple Aries.” She is an affiliate professor at the University of Washington. Her 11th book — Free: Two Years, Six Lives, and the Long Journey Home — is scheduled for publication April 19.