Welcome to the Picnic

With all the hoopla of Eugene Celebration and Kaleidoscope Music Festival this past weekend, you probably laid eyes on a whole slew of inexplicable sights. And if you saw a giant glowing jellyfish bouncing around Mount Pisgah, don’t fret — you weren’t having a crazy trip; those dancing tentacles were just the far-out fiber optic artwork of local company Ants On A Melon.

“I found the music festival scene and it just completely changed my view of the world, and I found different ways to connect with people,” says Ants On A Melon founder Joel Pinkham. The idea came to the UO grad after shining a flashlight on a decorative beaded umbrella in his living room; Pinkham was inspired to string colorful fiber optic silicon strands inside an umbrella and send it out over the crowd at Re:Generation Festival at Horning’s Hideout in North Plains, Ore. “I thought it’d be cool to contribute and to bring something that was different and brought joy to people in a really cool way,” he says.

Since then, Pinkham started experimenting with fiber optics, constructing his own flashlights and sharing his illuminating creations with festival-goers across the country. After traveling to major festivals Shambhala, Electric Forest and What The Festival, Ants On A Melon was invited to showcase its art for hometown festivals Faerieworlds and Kaleidoscope.

In the last six months the company has made headway operating out of a small studio in Springfield and launching a website where fans can buy Pinkham’s smaller creations like lightsabers and fiber optic whips and tails. He says the sale of the smaller toys helps fund his larger creative projects, like the jellyfish. But for Pinkham it’s the interactivity, not the money, that makes his artwork worthwhile. “There’s so many people who see what we’re doing, and they come to us with ideas and then we can work with that idea and make it come to life.”

As day turned to night at Kaleidoscope, the giant glowing umbrella jellyfish swayed above the starry-eyed crowd. Pinkham let people take turns spinning the umbrella, hypnotized by the printed nebula and neon fiber optic veins stretched across its underbelly. For the artist, this is the ultimate way to connect. “Not through words,” he says, “but through light.”

Visit antsonamelon.com for more info

A Note From the Publisher

Dear Readers,

The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.

That’s because of you!

Not just because of financial support (though that matters enormously), but because of the emails, notes, conversations, encouragement and ideas you shared along the way. You reminded us why this paper exists and who it’s for.

Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.

We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.

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None of this happens by accident. It happens because readers step up and say: this matters.

As we head into a new year, please consider supporting Eugene Weekly if you’re able. Every dollar helps keep us digging, questioning, celebrating — and yes, occasionally annoying exactly the right people. We consider that a public service.

Thank you for standing with us!