New Exhibit Opens at Belknap Center – June 15th

American Frontier Art

Along the Oregon Trail Featuring Artist David Dittman
June 17-Aug 24

Step back in time and experience the rugged beauty and adventurous spirit of the Oregon Trail with "American Frontier Art: Along the Oregon Trail by David Dittman." This captivating exhibit showcases the works artist David Dittman, whose vivid and dynamic pieces bring to life the trials, triumphs, and tenacity of America's pioneering past.

Along the Oregon Trail
bu Dave Dittman

The first Women who went West
The Men who never returned
The Orphans on their own
The Loggers, Lawmen, & Loved Ones
The Cowboys, Hay farmers & Homesteaders

All Pioneers

About the Artist

In 2015, Dave and Terry Dittman took the step of selling their thriving 50-year, Anchorage, Alaska-based political consulting and communications business to move to Sunriver, Oregon and be closer to grandchildren. Born at the beginning of WWII, Dave and his younger brother each seemed to inherit an "art gene," and both drew P38's, B17's, Jeeps and Sherman tanks as soon as they could hold a pencil.

In his childhood, Dave benefitted from talented public school art teachers, and later graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Science degree with concentration in Statistics, Accounting, Economics and Art. Over the course of his career creating political advertising, Dave was awarded eleven national "Pollies," originally the political equivalent of an "Oscar" or "Emmy," by the peers and judges of the American Association of Political Consultants, for some of the most effective political communication in America.

In Oregon, Dave is focusing on realistic representational figurative art featuring vintage, nostalgic sepia-toned images of pioneers "Along the Oregon Trail." The vintage figures, situations and circumstances are products of Dave's imagination and are not intended to represent actual known people of the time, however we can be quite certain they, or something very similar, must have actually occurred, most likely many times! The design and purpose of Dave's "Along the Oregon Trail" art is to honor our Pacific Northwest pioneers, and to remember and celebrate their vital virtues of vision, hope, courage, faith, fortitude, purpose, inner strength and uncompromising resilience.