2022 Paseo Arts Festival

Join us on May 28 - 30th for a weekend of local artists, food, music and more!
This event helps fundraise for the
Paseo Arts District.

VC Torneden

​The Other Side is a large and growing body of photographs documenting the changes occurring
along Route 66 over the course of the five years ahead of her centennial in 2026. Although Route 66 has
been photographed many times over the decades, the works in The Other Side bring fresh perspective
on the Mother Road by taking a deeper successive five year look, concentrated on the chronically
overlooked miles by primarily bypassing the tourist attractions and instead seeking the quotidian, the
overlooked, and the forgotten along America’s highway: the other side of the road.
A collaborative project, The Other Side is being photographed by two artists based in Route 66
states, Melinda Green Harvey of Texas and VC Torneden of Oklahoma. Both photographers shoot in
comparable styles and bend toward similar subject matter making their photographs a strong pairing for
exhibition. However, each photographer brings their own viewpoint to this particular project. VC
Torneden has made Route 66 one of the primary subjects of her art for more than a decade, traversing
its length and documenting long forgotten segments. This has given her an encyclopedic knowledge of
the locales along 66, an eye for minute detail, and a deep compassion for her subjects. Conversely,
Melinda Green Harvey had never prior to this project traveled Route 66 at length and thus brought fresh
eyes to the project. However, her photography frequently pivots around small town life, especially when
towns begin to dry up, giving her a strong affection for things that have been left behind and the
questions posed by the detritus. Given the history of Route 66 since its decertification, this perspective
made Ms. Green Harvey ideally suited for documenting the modern history of the Mother Road. Indeed,
the larger look she took at the locations involved is a strong balance to the fine details predominating
many of Ms. Torneden’s images.
Exhibits of selections from The Other Side offer audiences an opportunity to spend time getting
to know places they may have previously given little thought to if they knew about them at all, and to
reflect on how being bypassed (literally as well as figuratively) has fueled the changes to those places. It
is the intent of the artists that this consideration will lead the viewers to understand the broader
implications of Route 66’s legacy, especially the fact that what has happened and is happening along the
Mother Road is a direct reflection of what has happened and is happening throughout the whole of
American society.

Janet Funk

My name is Janet Funk. I am a visual artist specializing in Scratch board and Acrylic portraits. My goal is to create special pictures that are unique and beautiful and will last a lifetime. My scratch board artwork is black & white and if requested, color can be added. I believe that an etching can capture so much more personality and emotion than a snapshot. With attention to each detail, I can make your picture very personal and a piece you'll treasure a lifetime. Scratch board is both a fine art medium and a illustrative technique. The scratch board panel is a hard board that has a layer of very fine white clay then coated with a beautiful layer of black India ink. The artist uses various sharp knives, tools, and brushes, including a fiber glass brush, to etch the ink, making many detailed and intricate lines.