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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us March 31, 2005 Wild Goose fixture paints portraits of discrimination By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings Toni DeMello remembers exactly when she started her artist career. It was Oct. 28, 2003. The Wild Goose waitress stopped by the Dollar Tree on the way home from work to pick up chalk and a pad of paper. She went home to learn to draw because she needed to practice before the Wild Goose staff "paint night" that she had been invited to and, before that day, hadn't been able to draw a straight line. "The whole reason I even started was I was looking for something to do during the winter instead of sitting on the couch and watching TV," DeMello said. "It was a good release for me." DeMello, 39, never made it to paint night, but didn't give up on drawing with chalk and pastels. This year, she moved into using acrylics and dabbling with oil paint. "I'm self-taught," said DeMello, a lifelong waitress who moved to the Rogue Valley from Southern California in 1988. "I'm figuring it out on my own. It's very rewarding for me because it's all a part of me." She no longer needs to worry about the straight line because the majority of her 200-work portfolio is composed of human faces and figures she creates from images she finds on-line that show depth and emotion. Most of her pieces, which are displayed in the restaurant side of the Wild Goose, depict native Africans. DeMello wonders if she chooses African art to model because of the discrimination and hate blacks have experienced in the United States. She says she can understand their feelings because, as a gay woman, she has been discriminated against for decades. "It's just so tough," DeMello said. "People don't even know you. How can they judge if they don't know you? I just wish I understood it and what makes people hate." DeMello hopes she can grow in the art world enough to have the resources to reach out to young gays to help them accept who they are and teach others to support their choices. "I keep telling people, 'yeah, I'll be famous someday,'" she said, promising it will happen before she dies so she can revel in it. "I believe we create our own destiny." Her work is always on display at the Wild Goose, where locals, travelers, college students and collectors have purchased her prints and originals and, on Friday, DeMello takes the next step in making her destiny when her third show opens. The exhibit will be at the Abdill-Ellis Center in the basement of the Historic Ashland Armory, 208 Oak St., and be open from 6 to 9 p.m. during the First Friday Art Walk. For more information, go to www.artbytoni.com. Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 x 3019 or [email protected]. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's & Men's Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weightloss Products Memory Foam Mattress afsa home equity loans teleconferencing W2 Forms Homeschooling Tatoos student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts African Safari Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation diamonds Currancy Exchange Online Casinos Community Fasa Student Loans Tatoo Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams