Mural mania: Eugene is becoming the mural mecca we always hoped it would, catching up to the flourishing walls of downtown Springfield. The Lane Arts Council hosts its 3rd Mural Bike Tour 10 am to noon Saturday, Aug. 20, spinning off at the Whiteaker Carpark South (5th Alley and Blair Boulevard). The 2-mile ride around the Whit and downtown Eug will visit about 15 murals with several artists on hand to discuss their work including Ron Lafond, Valentina Gonzalez, Hans d’Hollosy, Jim Evangelista, Ila Rose, Kari Johnson, Jordan Schaefer-Limbach and visiting Los Angeles muralist Beau Stanton. 

Stanton is in town creating the second mural at the McDonald Theatre for the city of Eugene’s 20X21 EUG Mural Project, which is commissioning 20-plus murals by local and international artists to spiff up the town and promote art diplomacy for the 2021 IAAF World Championships. Brazil’s Acidum Project art collective painted the first mural earlier this summer on the east wall of Cowfish Dance Club downtown, a mural that will also be on the bike tour. Visit lanearts.org/mural-bike-tour for details.

Meanwhile, the Whiteaker Community Art Team announced its second call to artists to paint murals on the remaining walls of the Whiteaker Carpark South, next to the one Ila Rose completed in July. Contact whiteakermurals@gmail.com for details. 

And Bayne Gardner, perhaps the most profilic local muralist ever, just completed an extra-long, candy-colored pup mural for the Luvable Dog Rescue shelter. It is only one of many Gardner completed this summer; follow his Instagram account @baynegardner for fantastic time-lapsed videos of his art.

This year, unfortunately, is prime for a show called Dead Rockstars: A Tribute to the Mortal Gods of Sound what with the passing of Prince, David Bowie and Glenn Frey — not to mention the death of Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister in December. Print house Blunt Graffix hosts the group show featuring the work of artists from across the U.S. Look for a gun-toting Bowie and Amy Winehouse getting the Andy Warhol treatment 6 to 10 pm Saturday, Aug. 20, and 11 am to 4 pm Sunday, Aug. 21, at 3709 W. 1st Avenue.

Local graphic designer and visual artist Rogene Manas has a book coming out Sept. 14 through North Light Books. Artful Paper Clay: Techniques for Adding Dimension to Your Art is a how-to guide for upping your paper clay (also known as fiber clay) game by combining it with paint, collage and other mixed media. Manas will host a book signing and demonstration in September; details TBA.

Oregon Cultural Trust makes it rain: This month it is awarding a record-breaking $2.9 million to nonprofits statewide. Local recipients include: Lane Arts Council’s Fiesta Cultural Latino culture festival ($10,926); Shelton McMurphey Johnson House preservation ($21,140); Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art preservation ($22,568); Cascadia Concert Opera ($5,000); Delgani String Quartet ($8,389), Eugene Symphony ($8,910); Oregon Mozart Players’ hiring of an education coordinator ($16,133); Cottage Grove Historical Society for “the commissioning of an original score for the silent film The General and a tour with live music for the film’s 90th anniversary” ($8,895); Corvallis Arts Center’s 2017 Microbiomes — Seeing the Unseen art and science exhibit ($12,069); Benton County Historical Society for a new museum building in Philomath ($40,000).