Maureen Andrade Montague and her kids were being watched.
Unblinking eyes — etched in stone, actually — were peeking at them through the shrubbery.
“I was captivated by her, and I began painting her,” Montague said.
Now her interpretations of those eyes are bringing more focus to an iconic image of the Columbia River region.
One of Montague’s versions of “She Who Watches” will be part of the exhibit Saturday when she leads an art talk at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site Visitor Center.
The exhibit features 10 works from seven artists inspired by Fort Vancouver; it was curated by Montague to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.
Other artists represented are Cynthia Heise, Erin Dengerink, Christine Eagon, Pepper Toelle Kim, Sharri LaPierre and Tom Relth. Several of the artists are expected to be on hand to discuss their creations.
Her exhibit version — “She Who Watches is Waiting” — was inspired by the pictograph, Montague said. She has never visited the original version (also known as “Tsagaglalal”) at Columbia Hills State Park, near Dallesport. But Montague came across a copy near Vancouver Barracks.
“I first became acquainted with the image when I was a young mother living in the Hudson’s Bay neighborhood. I would walk my babies in a stroller,” she said.
“I saw the carving when the light hit it. I loved it,” she said. “I felt those big eyes watching over us, in a benevolent way, a kindly way, a motherly way.”
Recognizing the image, Montague did some research. She also consulted with Northwest artist Lillian Pitt, who brings Yakama, Warm Springs and Wasco tribal ancestry to her work.
Pitt is one of the featured artists at the Visitor Center book store. “A cornerstone of her work is ‘She Who Watches,’ ” Montague said.
Montague painted her first reinterpretation of “She Who Watches” in 2004. The subject is dressed in white, holding an owl. It seems to echo another iconic image from that Columbia Hills State Park rock-art gallery — a carved bird known as the “Spedis Owl.”
However, it’s more of an unfortunate coincidence, Montague said. During one of those strolls with her baby in the Vancouver Barracks area, she saw a dead owl in the street.
“Someone had hit it with a car,” she said. “I stood there for a moment.”
When Montague got back to her studio, she added the owl to her painting of “She Who Watches.”
“When I was organizing my thoughts around the centennial show, and what I wanted to create for it, I decided to do a small, intimate painting of her immersed in leaves with water as a backdrop,” said Montague, who is executive director of Columbia Springs Environmental Education Center.
She calls that piece “a reminder that the spirit of the earth we live and work on is eternal, and will outlast us, just as the story of ‘She Who Watches’ has lived on.”
