HLStearns Collage Artist Statement
by: Teresa Pilar Huarte
This work of art entitled Our Shared Experience seeks to tell the story and evolution of the HL Stearns Company since it’s humble inception dating back to the 1950s when everything began with the very necessary integration of proper lighting at a fuel station.
Thoughtfully incorporated within this meticulously, hand-torn, cut, glued and assembled mixed media collage is collected ephemera from the past and present, including the following:
- Handwritten notes by employees over the years depicting brand performance status reports from 2000s, contractor price list from the 1970s, internal office memos written and signed by Marge Stearns, vending statements from the 1980s and internal handwritten notes on brand partnership performance.
-The evolution of the HLStearns branding, colors and logo design including examples of original business cards and letter heads.
- 60 partner brand logos represented over 150 times throughout their transformation over the past 70 years; as well as various examples of brand lighting styles and designs hidden amongst the leaves, hills, waterfalls, forests, and hillsides.
- Transparent E. sheets, blueprints and electrical layout plans with hand-drawn guides and coding integrated among the grasses, rock faces and shorelines.
- Extensive technical data pulled from the IES Lighting Handbook, depicting how lighting works, with graphs, charts and diagrams explaining the science of reflectors, refraction, lighting control, performance, parameters and various bulb technology that were each hand-cut to create the bows of the doug fir trees and the wood grain in the driftwood.
There is also a dot matrix plan print out depicting how lumens per unit area where once deciphered numerically pulled from a vintage article of Architectural Lighting Magazine along the cliffs leading to the fuel station.
- Significant milestone projects that the HLStearns company completed such as: the Memorial Coliseum, the Lloyd center, the John Day Dam, the 200 Market building, the Tilikum Bridge, and the Portland airport mezzanine custom lights turned upside down as flowers in the grasslands.
Harry’s likeness with his memorable broad smile from a 1970s photo is composed and assembled entirely by hand from overlaid gradient scraps pulled from brand catalogs and advertisements. Harry is wearing one of his classic stylish plaid suits in which the plaid fabric is delicately woven from thin strips of paper made up from a combination of various significant archived items including 1960s can lights as the buttons on his coat sleeve.
Below Harry is his identifiable ballpoint pen blue signature signifying and reminding us that “one is only as good as their word”.
All the previous HLStearns office locations as well as the Springfield office and the current HL Stearns headquarters where this piece is on display are represented. The recently updated core company values are depicted on the lawn before it.
Harry is holding evidence of the evolution of the company’s ownership with an original company shares certificate from 1970 alongside the recent newspaper cover article from April 18, 2025, announcing the transition into a fully employee owned Company ESOP.
All of these items and more are integrated throughout a broad Pacific Northwest landscape, sampling from many personal photos collected of the iconic geography.
The rivers, high plains, grasslands, mountain peaks, dense forests, metropolitan area, cliffs along the gorge, rural vineyards on rolling hills, iconic waterfalls, rugged coastline with rock outcroppings, and sand dunes are all overlaid on top of an Oregon and Southwest Washington map that displays the territory HL Stearns operates within.
The overall color tone of the piece as well as the distinct graphic which also doubles as the horizon line depicts a warm to cool lighting scale from 2200 K to 6500 K. The golden light on the left side of the piece casts a sunrise of warmth towards the right where all of the blue and cool HLStearns branding and company significance is located.
This art piece represents the history and evolution of the company and all those who have had a hand in every moment and day-to-day contribution that made it come this far. With this piece we are both looking back to celebrate and honor the rich shared past experience and forward to the new day on the horizon, the new employee ownership, and a bright new shared future.
by: Teresa Pilar Huarte
This work of art entitled Our Shared Experience seeks to tell the story and evolution of the HL Stearns Company since it’s humble inception dating back to the 1950s when everything began with the very necessary integration of proper lighting at a fuel station.
Thoughtfully incorporated within this meticulously, hand-torn, cut, glued and assembled mixed media collage is collected ephemera from the past and present, including the following:
- Handwritten notes by employees over the years depicting brand performance status reports from 2000s, contractor price list from the 1970s, internal office memos written and signed by Marge Stearns, vending statements from the 1980s and internal handwritten notes on brand partnership performance.
-The evolution of the HLStearns branding, colors and logo design including examples of original business cards and letter heads.
- 60 partner brand logos represented over 150 times throughout their transformation over the past 70 years; as well as various examples of brand lighting styles and designs hidden amongst the leaves, hills, waterfalls, forests, and hillsides.
- Transparent E. sheets, blueprints and electrical layout plans with hand-drawn guides and coding integrated among the grasses, rock faces and shorelines.
- Extensive technical data pulled from the IES Lighting Handbook, depicting how lighting works, with graphs, charts and diagrams explaining the science of reflectors, refraction, lighting control, performance, parameters and various bulb technology that were each hand-cut to create the bows of the doug fir trees and the wood grain in the driftwood.
There is also a dot matrix plan print out depicting how lumens per unit area where once deciphered numerically pulled from a vintage article of Architectural Lighting Magazine along the cliffs leading to the fuel station.
- Significant milestone projects that the HLStearns company completed such as: the Memorial Coliseum, the Lloyd center, the John Day Dam, the 200 Market building, the Tilikum Bridge, and the Portland airport mezzanine custom lights turned upside down as flowers in the grasslands.
Harry’s likeness with his memorable broad smile from a 1970s photo is composed and assembled entirely by hand from overlaid gradient scraps pulled from brand catalogs and advertisements. Harry is wearing one of his classic stylish plaid suits in which the plaid fabric is delicately woven from thin strips of paper made up from a combination of various significant archived items including 1960s can lights as the buttons on his coat sleeve.
Below Harry is his identifiable ballpoint pen blue signature signifying and reminding us that “one is only as good as their word”.
All the previous HLStearns office locations as well as the Springfield office and the current HL Stearns headquarters where this piece is on display are represented. The recently updated core company values are depicted on the lawn before it.
Harry is holding evidence of the evolution of the company’s ownership with an original company shares certificate from 1970 alongside the recent newspaper cover article from April 18, 2025, announcing the transition into a fully employee owned Company ESOP.
All of these items and more are integrated throughout a broad Pacific Northwest landscape, sampling from many personal photos collected of the iconic geography.
The rivers, high plains, grasslands, mountain peaks, dense forests, metropolitan area, cliffs along the gorge, rural vineyards on rolling hills, iconic waterfalls, rugged coastline with rock outcroppings, and sand dunes are all overlaid on top of an Oregon and Southwest Washington map that displays the territory HL Stearns operates within.
The overall color tone of the piece as well as the distinct graphic which also doubles as the horizon line depicts a warm to cool lighting scale from 2200 K to 6500 K. The golden light on the left side of the piece casts a sunrise of warmth towards the right where all of the blue and cool HLStearns branding and company significance is located.
This art piece represents the history and evolution of the company and all those who have had a hand in every moment and day-to-day contribution that made it come this far. With this piece we are both looking back to celebrate and honor the rich shared past experience and forward to the new day on the horizon, the new employee ownership, and a bright new shared future.
