About the Artists:
Both Mary Lou and Ernie grew up in Kansas, and their art reflects their appreciation for rural landscapes, the colors of nature, and simple living. Ernie works in acrylics-- "I just really love the Kansas Flint Hills, its meadows, outcroppings of limestone, and wild cedar. It's always been the landscape that has appealed to me."
Mary Lou works in ink and watercolor. Simple Gifts includes her quilts and quilt-image portraits as well as her floral and vegetable designs on internationally-known Block porcelain china-- "I began to paint flowers when we moved from the prairies of Kansas to Berkeley, California., where the flowers bloom 12 months of the year."
The Goertzens have exhibited their work at the Union Concourse Gallery at Oregon State University in Corvallis, the Erb Memorial Union Gallery at the University of Oregon in Eugene, and the Springfield (Ore.) Art Museum.