Coastal Oregon Artist Residency : COAR 2025

David Fondren and Mike Yager were selected for the eighth round of the Coastal Oregon Artist Residency.

Recology Western Oregon and Astoria Visual Arts are thrilled to announce the newest award winners for the Coastal Oregon Artist Residency, Mike Yager and David Fondren. Each artist will receive a monthly stipend, materials, and a studio space at Recology Western Oregon’s Astoria Recycling Depot and Transfer Station for a four-month long residency beginning June 1, 2025. A public exhibition at the Anita Building in Astoria will showcase the artists’ creations at the end of the residency in October 2025.

Mike Yager, of Astoria, is a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) teacher at STARBASE Camp Rilea in Warrenton. He has taught integrated art and science programs around Oregon for the past 10 years, working with the Portland Children's Museum, OMSI, Arts for Learning Northwest, and others. Mike received his MFA in metalsmithing. He currently practices ceramics and mixed media electronic sculpture. His artwork is playful and experimental.

"I enjoy the puzzle of making a new project work; experimenting with scrap parts, learning, and troubleshooting” Yager says. “My goal for this residency is to build a band of musical robots and playable instruments from salvaged e-waste. The machines can't stage this uprising on their own. Consider yourself invited to band practice."

David Fondren, also of Astoria, is a mixed/multimedia artist and owner of Necro-Vita Ventures and Lonely Crow Forge. He spent his life working with and for artists in many fields and mediums including blacksmithing, installation art, and fabrication, but didn’t think of himself as an artist until recently. His work often incorporates salvaged materials and objects which he transforms into something new, finding synergy and meaning in the process of juxtaposing items.

“I enjoy the creative process and the struggles that it comes with,” Fondren says. “As the struggle feeds the process, the process feeds the struggle, and art is left behind - a byproduct. The ability to manipulate entropy for a brief time is a mark I think every artist strives for.”

This is the eighth round of the Coastal Oregon Artist Residency (COAR), which was developed collaboratively by Recology Western Oregon, an employee-owned company that manages resource recovery facilities on the North Coast, and Astoria Visual Arts (AVA). Astoria’s residency is a part of a larger program that was founded in 1990 and based in San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. COAR is designed to support the creation of art from recycled, repurposed and discarded materials. By supporting artists who work with recycled materials, Recology and AVA encourage people to conserve natural resources and promote new ways of thinking about art and the environment.