Arts: Page 411

None Of Your Beeswax

Arts

Encaustic painting is an acquired skill that is by no means easy to master. It involves the careful melting and pigment alteration of heated beeswax, which is then applied as a paste. Think of it like painting with a medium far more difficult than acrylic, and then imagine trying to make your creations not look like crocodile crap on a canvas; this, Marianne Clancy has on lock. “I moved away after living here in the ‘70s,” says Clancy. “Now my daughter is at the University studying and I am ‘home’ again in Eugene.” Continue reading →

The Hardest Working Troupe in Eugene

Phoinix Players rise again in Red Cane Theatre

Theater

It’s hot, humid and breezeless inside the Red Cane Theatre, a new Eugene venue sinking fresh roots at West 11th and Chambers. Right next door is Lava Lounge, the bamboo-and-thatch watering hole sprung like a tropical oasis within Ring of Fire Thai restaurant. It’s late afternoon, in an uncommonly flowery month of May, and from the adjacent lounge one of those tall, fruity drinks with a baby umbrella is calling. Continue reading →

Loved By All, Feared by Fish

Arts

Local painter John Babbs died in April, but his artwork survives him. A prolific member of Eugene’s art scene, Babbs made countless friends playing basketball at the YMCA, was one of Ken Kesey’s original Merry Pranksters and was an initial participant in Kesey’s Acid Test. But later in his life, Babbs’ interest turned to fly fishing and painting.   “I’d describe his technique as rustic with a psychedelic edge,” says Ken Babbs, John’s brother. Continue reading →

Exhibit explores intersection of athletes and art

Arts

“Student-athletes are often recognized for their accomplishments in their respective sports. However, UO student-athletes are well-rounded students with diverse interests that extend beyond their athletics pursuits.” These are the words of Rob Mullens, director of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Oregon, lending his perspective on a remarkably unique new exhibit that just opened at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Continue reading →

Tough by Nature

Eugene artist Lynda Lanker portrays the women of the West

Arts

“I try not to paint eyelashes, unless they are really important,” says artist Lynda Lanker, whose portraits of women of the West are as intimate and forthright as the flesh-and-blood women they depict. Though some of Lanker’s work is so detailed that for a moment the portraits appear to be photographs, even her more abstract pieces capture a sense, a feeling, of these generations of ranch women and cowgirls.  Continue reading →

Fade to Black

Film

In the age of the quick fix and pop-up porn, you gotta hand it to E.L. James for hoodwinking the hoi polloi into dicking around with something as atavistic and temperate as on-the-page erotica. Fifty Shades of Grey — the first installment in a trilogy of erotic novels that started online as Twilight fanfiction — sold more than 10 million copies in six weeks in the U.S. alone. This, despite repeated assaults by high-brow literary critics as well as pop sexpert Dr. Continue reading →

Hey Marseilles Gigs Cozmic

Music

  It seems indie music is experiencing a movement of flannel-clad gents strumming vintage guitars while tugging at scruffy beards. A token petite blonde with amazing pipes singing backup over sweeping, rootsy tales about vagabonds is standard fair. But if you can wade past all the skinny jeans and saddle shoes you will find your way to Hey Marseilles, and you won’t be sorry. Continue reading →

Portraits and Perseverance

Arts

When Peggy Kelsey met a group of 14 Afghan women in the fall of 2002 in Austin, Texas, she was inspired by their strength, motivation and activism. In 2003 Kelsey traveled to Afghanistan, and from her experience there grew her photography project “Portraits of Afghan Women.” Kelsey says that when she first arrived in Afghanistan, she was discouraged by the political events affecting the country. Upon meeting the women, however, she experienced a feeling of optimism. Continue reading →