Purple Fever
Experimental gallery Ink Thirsty runs on seasonal colors
by Rachel Coussens

Ink Thirsty is a four-month old gallery that takes an experimental approach to showing mostly local artists. “We don’t just want to be art fans; we want to contribute something,” gallery proprietor Richard Hofmeier says. “We can find these humble folks that do art in their free time, and we can do all of the yelling and screaming for them.”

Type Studies by Adam Brochugere

Art Kicks by Evan Schultz

When gallery goers walk into Ink Thirsty, a purple fever washes their visual senses. They’re met by a purple window display, which is followed up by purple in-house objects accentuating the white fixtures and colorful art pieces. 

“We are going to have different colors for every season,” Hofmeier says. “For the fall we were one of my favorite colors, international safety orange.” Photographer Jenny Kuglin documents the theme color by taking shots around Eugene that are in the season’s color. For example, this month she has taken photos of purple things such as grapes.

As with most of the artists whose work Ink Thirsty hosts, the gallery is not Hofmeier’s sole job. He does freelance work, including illustration,  in conjunction with running the gallery. He created a video arcade exhibit for Ink Thirsty and plans on releasing the game for downloading from his Web site, www.inkthirsty.com, in summer 2010. 

Cory Brown’s abstract paintings and Adam Brochugere’s framed type studies also hang in the gallery this month. 

“Next month, it’s all about if there is an answer in any art form, it is universally appealing,” Hofmeier says of the February’s show, “Vibrant Things.” The gallery will feature local favorite Cassandra Warren’s acrylic and glass-melted canvases. “They have fun titles, and the title communicates to the viewer that this is just fun, it’s suppose to be pretty, and it’s not suppose to make you think deeply or evoke a complex tension,” Hofmeier says. “It is just supposed to be pleasurable. I thought it would be a good fit.”

Ink Thirsty will be incorporating events in the spring designed to help people view art in a new way. “We love Eugene. We love the people. This is where we belong in the world. So we want to grow some really long aggressive roots, and we want to meet people like us,” Hofmeier says. Starting at the Jan. 29 Last Friday Artwalk and through the end of February, Ink Thirsty is holding an art sale for charity. Profits will benefit Haiti relief efforts.

“Eugene has so many amazing opportunities for art lovers here in this town,” Hofmeier says. “There are so many theaters, live music venues, plenty of beautiful art being displayed all over this town. Those are more conventional forms and venues; we kind of bridge the gap between.”

Follow Ink Thirsty on Twitter at twitter.com/inkthirsty; find the gallery on Facebook at http://wkly.ws/7j and see Ink Thirsty’s website at www.inkthirsty.com. The gallery, located at 281 W. 8th St. in the WestTown on 8th development, has varied hours; call 541-505-9856 for more info, or see them in the Last Friday Art Walk on Jan. 29.