We’ve had a few sunny days. The trees are leafing out.   I’ve been out at the Goshen School Artist in Residence for two weeks now. I think it is a great idea but it isn’t shaping up to be what I thought it would be. When the kids come in to visit they are so eager to make something it is hard to deny them. Also I realize they don’t have the vocabulary to really discuss what I am doing for more than a few minutes and the teachers who send kids up most are those with the younger elementary levels. At the same time it is nice to have a very quiet warm place, and I think given time I could get work done there. 

Peacocks and peahens wander in the school yard and hide under the eaves while it is raining. I took some photos through the studio window but the dirty glass made them less than satisfactory. 

Martin Puryear exhibit at MoMA

Exquisite

gulls

I’ve been reviewing some photos I’ve taken recently with the intention of posting one every so often. 

Jellyfish at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

In the past week I went out to Ridgeview school in Springfield and then to the Goshen elementary school. Both are taking part in a program called The Studio in which they have an artist-in-residence work in an empty classroom. As a reward for good behavior the teachers give the students passes to go visit the artist and talk to him/her. The idea is to demystify visual art and to make it a part of the kids lives, even if only as a spectator. Interesting.I think I will be working at the Goshen school in April.  I took down the Reliquary show monday. I’m glad it is over. The show really didn’t work for me. I felt the work had too little tying it together, so it was hard. 

Last night I went to a planning meeting about visual art in the new Eugene city hall.  It was interesting. A number of people mentioned they really wanted local artists to have a primary shot at getting commissions, to which the reply was, “It depends on your definition of local. It has to be a broad enough to get good entries.” I guess that way local can be defined almost however you want; Eugene, Oregon, Pacific Northwest, West Coast, Western States…   I don’t think they’ll be that broad but I thought it was a funny moment.

They want the building to be inviting, with lots of natural light and open space, native plants, rainwater capture… A “green” building. Isn’t that the catch-phrase these days.

As I left I realized that one question no one answered is just when they think this new city hall might be built. It has to go to a bond measure…

Eugene is such an odd place in some ways. I can’t believe the mixture of pretense and ignorance that tries to pass as sophistication around here. I’m responding to another quickie review of the Jacobs Gallery exhibition this time on KLCC radio. I’m including the link but I’m not sure it is worth much. I hate it when reviews don’t say anything or worse make assertions that are uninformed and inaccurate. And I’m not even writing about what they said about my work! Oh, but don’t worry, after all Eugene is “The World’s Greatest City for the Arts and Outdoors”.
KLCC VizCity 

For a quickie review of my exhibit at the Jacobs Gallery, check out Eugene Gallery District blog by Robert Canaga. 

I am having a show at the Jacobs Gallery in the Hult Center, downtown Eugene. The Jacobs Gallery is a non-profit space in the big performing arts space. My exhibition is called Reliquary: the Everyday Sacred  which is an apt description of what my paintings are. The other two artists in the show are Ken Herrin and Claire Flint. The opening is tomorrow night.   

So long overdue… I completed the Crescent Village Project in October, now titled Coast Valley Cascade. It came out really well, in fact it looks pretty fabulous if I do say so myself. It is scary to work on something of that scale and scope so it is particularly rewarding to feel it all came together even better than I had envisioned.