Of the many possible stops along the First Friday ArtWalk, the newly renamed Oregon Arts Alliance (formerly Oregon Crafted) has harnessed some of the best talent from in and around Eugene and the Northwest in general.
Right now the guild’s exhibit, SCULPTURE: Rock, Paper, Stone, Wood, Glass, Bronze & Clay, on 8th Avenue and Willamette Street is displaying the work of more than 20 different local artists, mostly in the fields of sculpture and photography, but the broad variation of fields among their members now extends to include poets, writers and other forms of art. This broadening has to do with the name change and a redefining of what’s what in the Oregon art sphere.
“We changed our name to better reflect what we did and who we represented,” Diana Richardson, the OAA’s communicationscoordinator, said. “So we have opened up our membership to musicians and poets and writers. We thought an alliance of (different) artists better represented who we were.”
This sort of inclusivity has put local poetry like Laura LeHew’s “Uttered Chaos” on the walls of the gallery and has provided a much more stimulating atmosphere.
Specific to poetry and the written arts, their inception has sparked the formation of a new reading series and a reading, which will mark the ending of the current exhibit on Jan. 29. Many of the artists are at the ArtWalk in person, showing that the addition of these artists has enhanced the vibrancy of dialogue and has created a forum for a more diverse idea exchange among Oregon artists.
This month’s sculpture exhibit features art from Eugene sculptors like glassworker Patti Lomont, whose kiln-rendered glass sculpture draws from environmental and naturalistic themes. The Willamette Valley bio-region and its cloud coverage, rain and fertile ground are all recreated within her pieces among multi-layered colored glass.
“I love living in the Willamette Valley, so definitely clouds are an inspiration along with the sky,” said Lomont, who is the alliance’s art program coordinator. “But in general, nature themes. I’ve always been drawn to Native American themes, art nouveau, art deco.”
Like many Oregon artists, naturalism is one of the inspirations and focuses of members of the organization; however, it manifests itself differently among the artists and isn’t short of being turned on its head at times.
“There are a lot of artists in our membership that are drawn to nature and the inspiration in that and the spirituality around it,” Lomont said. “But all sorts of other things too.”
Other things could include the art of Josh Cote, a Eugene sculptor who works mainly in wire and concrete. His pieces currently on display are large wire pieces and incorporate solid, resin-formed pieces as the faces of different animals. “Mobile Bunny,” a three-foot-tall wire sculpture of a rabbit riding a tricycle, teeters between magical realism and snarky irony.
“I like a little realism and surrealism and magical realism,” Cote said, “and I do like the solidity of some parts and the ethereal, airiness of the wire. I do like animals in the natural world, I’ve always lived in a ‘wild’ place, so that’s always been an inspiration.”
Another work of his on display is “Begging Monkey,” a wire sculpture that incorporates a molded resin face, and a large bat wire sculpture.
Other artists who will have pieces on display for the rest of the month are local artists like Jud Turner, whose wall-hanging sculptures of machine-gutted floating islands play with the theme of humanities’ contorted relationship with the earth.
Naturalistic themes in sculpture are abound at the OAA this month, but with this new opening of doors to more artists there’s plenty of eye candy for those who like art deco and art nouveau.
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ArtWalk on the wild side
Daily Emerald
January 9, 2011
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