PSU Magazine Spring 2004

By Melissa Steineger and on two days she saw five movies. This July, when Lhe National Stereo– scopic Association holds its 2004 convention in Portland, Rulien will be serving as chair. And she'.s a driving force behind the 3-D Center of Art & Photography, which the Cascade Stereoscopic Club opened in February in trendy Northwest Portland. Rulien is director of the center, newsletter editor, chief counsel, and on the board of directors. Within the 80- member club, she acknowledges, 'Tm definitely the nutso." It's been a nutty journey. C,fter Rulien graduated from Milwaukie High School in 1967, she entered Pacific Lutheran UniversiLy in Tacoma, Washington. But after two years, she dropped out, married , moved to Seattle, and had a daughter. Diane Rulien never really removes the 3-D mask. Stereo photography is as much a part of her life as her law practice. © Photos Steve Dipaola 3-D photos are this alumna's passion and part-time job. When the family returned to Portland in 1977, Rulien needed a job. "I didn't have a college education," she says, "and I needed some sort of work that paid well and had benefits. " The Greyhound bus company was it. "There were only two women drivers in Oregon at the time- and only because the company was compelled to hire women," she says. "Ninety percent of the drivers were great. A few weren't. " As a new hire, Rulien worked "the extra board"-filling in at the last minute for drivers on vacations, taking sick days, and such. "You never knew ahead of time which routes you'd be on," she says. "I'd drop my daughter off with friends or my parents and I might be back in four hours or I might be back in Lhree days. " Rulien enjoyed the job, and even found Lime to serve a year as the presi– dent of the Portland chapter of the National Organization for Women. But she wanted more. Now single, she decided to return to college. This time things were different. Very different. "I went to Pacific LULheran at a time when girls had a 10 p .m. curfew and students had to go to chapel every day," says Rulien . Almost 15 years later, PSU was "a vibrant combination of national– ities and ages-so much was going on. I used to love to stand in front of the bulletin board and just look at every– thing there was you could do." Rulien followed a lifelong interest and majored in history with a minor in women's studies. "I was a product of the '60s," she says, "and very into the idea of equality for blacks and women." But it was a class in constitutional history that set Rulien on her next career path. "We read Supreme Court cases and then discussed them in class," she says. "I loved that course. " Rulien decided to enter law school. "Law school," she says, "was terrify– ing. The pressure, the rumors, the fear. " Rulien took an average of five classes a term, reading 80 to 200 pages of homework every day. And none of her classes had any graded work until the final exam. "In every class," she says, "the final exam consists of two essay questions. You read, analyze-if you miss the point of the questions, that'.s the end. There'.s no makeup exam." After earning a JD in 1990 from Lewis & Clark College, Rulien started her own practice and soon danced the cha-cha that changed her life. Fast-forward a dozen or so years to a modest storefront on Northwest Lovejoy Street and the cul– mination of a years-long dream: the 3D Center of Art & Photography. a)he center features a display of antiques , including a wooden box camera that shoots in stereo, early 1900s stereo-viewers, stereo cards, and even a View Master display featuring a collection of hundreds of reels of Chinese art in View Master format. Elsewhere is an uncanny lenticular photograph and the four-lens camera used to create it. Lenticular photogra– phy gives photos an almost holographic look. If you've seen a small card featur– ing a man or woman whose eyes seem to follow you , chances are you've seen a lenticular photo . In the art gallery area, the club plans to rotate contemporary art. The gallery's first exhibit featured work by David Lee, a California artist whose specialty is to recreate Ansel Adams photographs in 8-by-10 stereoscopic view. The gallery provides special viewing equipment for visitors, but Rulien, like many experienced stereo photography viewers, can "free view," that is view the photos without goggles or viewers and see them magically pop into 3-D. Currently open afternoons Fridays through Sundays, the center plans to add workshops in all things stereo– photographic. Which means, of course, that soon others, too , may dance a life-changing cha-cha. D (Melissa Steineger, a Portland freelance writer, wrote the article "Aquatic Invaders" for the winter 2004 PSU Magazine.) SPRlNG 2004 PSU MAGAZlNE 19