Culture Keepers
Carrying on with the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program
The idea that America is a melting pot has long dictated how immigrants should behave when they arrive, which is that they should disappear into … Continue reading
Ester Barkai
Author: Ester Barkai
A Life’s Work
Eugene’s Mike Van has been making and showing art for half a century
Eugene artist Mike Van doesn’t want to call his new exhibition at White Lotus a “retrospective,” even though the title of the show refers to … Continue reading
It’s Safety First at Visual Arts Week
The city’s summer art fest doesn’t want big crowds this year
For the first time in its three years of operation, Eugene Visual Arts Week is trying to make it so people don’t have to show … Continue reading
Art By Appointment
Artists Jon Jay Cruson and Satoko Motouji, who have new work at White Lotus, talk about working in the new normal
Eugene artists Jon Jay Cruson and Satoko Motouji both paint landscapes, but with strikingly different results. Cruson’s acrylic paintings are crisp exercises in design with … Continue reading
A ‘Beautiful Interruption’
Artist and gallerist Karin Clarke adapts to social distancing
When I called Karin Clarke to suggest we switch from the in-person meeting we had planned to a phone interview, we were in that very … Continue reading
Invisible Art
Art and the coronavirus: Reviewing an art show you can no longer go to see
On my way to Salem recently to review Capturing Power: Works on Paper from the Permanent Collection, an exhibit at the Hallie Ford Museum of … Continue reading
Loving Kitsch
An exhibit explores the aesthetic of Lane County’s ordinary past
The Lane County History Museum is celebrating poor taste. The Culture of Kitsch, curator Faith Kreskey says, is meant to be a lighthearted look at … Continue reading
Don’t Forget
Roger Shimomura at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
Roger Shimomura’s life story is, mostly, all-American. Born in Seattle in 1939, he studied art at the University of Washington, joined ROTC and then the … Continue reading
Finding Mother
Lidoña Wagner’s Seed of Imagination: It’s about the journey
Upon meeting Lidoña Wagner I am presented with a guide to her book Seed of Imagination: An Ancestral Creative Journey. The guide is one printed … Continue reading
Mystery is Beautiful
Claire Burbridge looks deep into nature in enormous drawings at JSMA
Claire Burbridge is moved by small things. Her drawings in Claire Burbridge: Pathways to the Invisible at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art are of … Continue reading