LaVerne Krause

LaVerne Erickson Krause (1924–1987) was an American artist. She founded the University of Oregon printmaking program and taught there for twenty years, creating more than ten thousand paintings and prints in her lifetime. An advocate for artists' economic and working conditions, she was instrumental in founding the Oregon chapter of the Artists Equity Association and served as president of the national Artists Equity. She is "recognized for her outstanding contributions as an educator, studio artist, and arts activist". She was adopted at the age of six weeks and raised on a farm outside of Portland by her great-uncle and great-aunt, James Martin and Hannah (Wrolstad) Erickson. She attended the University of Oregon in Eugene on an art scholarship, working in the summers at the Commercial Iron Works shipyards in Portland as a scaler scraping ships' hulls to remove rust, and eventually as a blueprint machine operator at another shipyard ironworks, Poole McGonigle. While at the University of Oregon, she studied under Jack Wilkinson, whom she considered to be her greatest teacher. She served on the university's Faculty Committee on the Status of Women, and Gov. Mark Hatfield appointed her to his Planning Council for the Arts, leading to establishment of the Oregon Arts Commission.

Krause taught at the University of Oregon from 1966 to 1986, where she was known as "a strong influence on art students and young artists". She created over ten thousand prints and paintings in her lifetime. According to Arlene Schnitzer, "Way back before it was fashionable, she was an activist on behalf of women and artists."