Story by Caroline Sherratt
Photo by Devin Ream
On the evening of November 5^th, the Mills International Center in the EMU hosted an event called The Willamette Jaunt to celebrate local artists Roka Walsh and Mitch Schwartz’s mixed media photography.  Every term, Mills Center creates to commemorate the work of artists and offer free viewings to Eugene natives and students.
The current gallery displays mixed-media photographs such as paintings mixed with photographs to showcase the natural beauty thriving in the Willamette Valley.  Oregon student Mati Berveijilo is the mastermind behind the gallery.  He coordinated with Walsh and Schwartz to get the gallery running in the EMU.  Berveijilo states that this event is “unique because people will never see these pieces again” because there is a new theme for the gallery every term.  The focus of this term’s art is to explore nature and appreciate details that are overlooked.
Artist Mitch Schwartz lived in Bali for the past 30 years, and his experiences enabled him to have a deeper appreciation and understanding for nature, which is reflected in his art pieces. Balinese cosmology served as the major influence for his artwork. In Schwartz’s art pieces, the viewer will notice bees floating amongst flowers, and a vividly colored statue juxtaposed against this imagery. Schwartz’s ultimate goal is to create a balance between the seen and unseen in the world. With the use of Photoshop, Schwartz was able to overlay the media to achieve a blend of the natural world and the spirit world to create an extraterrestrial vibe.
Schwartz says, “The world we experience is real and animated by the unseen world, like a spirit.” This comes across in his media as he strives to connect a symbol in the unseen world with an emotion he felt after capturing his surrounding environment on camera.
Along with a nature theme, in an interesting artwork, there are sunflowers outlined by a gleaming blue-sky.  A bee also reappears in his art, and can be spotted hovering above foliage in local gardens.  Schwartz noted that the importance of the relationship between the bee and the flower is to show the significance that backyard bees capture the natural world, and the background portrays the spirit of the bee.
Anyone interested in experiencing the artwork can visit The Mills International Center, which will be displaying the artwork until December 13^th.  One thing is for sure, there is nothing quite like getting a view of your local surroundings through an artist’s perspective.
 

Gallery • 2 Photos

The Willamette Jaunt