Visual Arts: Page 42

Bright Young Skinny Things

What’s the skinny on skinny jeans for men?

Fashion

In nature, colors communicate: Red means danger and avian mates are selected based on the hue of their feathers. In fact, when it comes to birds, the males almost always display brighter plumage and greater ornamentation than their female counterparts; think ducks, peacocks and birds of paradise. Charles Darwin concluded that sexual dichromatism (the color differences between sexes in species) is caused by an evolutionary-honed female preference for bright colors in males.  Continue reading →

Honed on the Prairie

Kansas jewelry designer brings her sustainable line to Eugene

Fashion

Midwestern jewelry designer Kylie Grater doesn’t find her materials in a bead shop — the majority of her pieces are harvested “afoot” on nature ambles or hikes through knee-deep grass, whether that’s feathers, bones, stones or leather. The Kansas-born-and-bred Grater has brought her prairie-tinged line, Early Jewelry, to Eugene, where she features pieces at The Barn Light’s monthly The EUG Pop Up Shop in addition to selling online. Continue reading →

Romance of the West

Local photographer sets out to capture the fading glory of the Western frontier

Visual Arts

Never mind DeLoreans, phone booths or Einstein’s theory of relativity, local photographer Dmitri von Klein has cracked the secret to time travel: a 60-year-old Graflex camera. The lens of his 4X5 large format camera is like a wormhole into the history of the American West, rediscovering places like the “almost ghost town” of Shaniko in northern Oregon or the full-blown ghost town of Bodie in central California. Continue reading →

Arts Hound

Visual Arts

• Instead of bringing art to lobbies, bring the lobbying to art. April 25 is Advocacy Day, and arts and culture advocates from around Oregon will be heading to Salem to put pressure on the legislature to renew the Cultural Trust tax that is set to expire. See oregonculture.org to get involved. Continue reading →

Arts Hound

Visual Arts

• The Arts & Business Alliance of Eugene hosts Arts After Hours, a schmoozing event for the arts and business communities, 5 to 7 pm Thursday, April 18, at the Lord/Leebrick Playhouse, 174 W. Broadway; $8-$10 members; $15-$20 non-members. • Thanks to the McDonald Theatre and the UO Outdoor Program, it’s time for the Banff Mountain Film Festival at 7 pm Thursday, April 18, reminding you once again to get off your couch and into the outdoors, or at least into a plush theater seat; $11-$13. Continue reading →

Vampires of Oregon

Springfield Museum hosts Portland artist Anna Fidler’s haunting exhibit

Visual Arts

Vampires are not dead (OK, technically they’re undead). Even with the final nail in the Twilight coffin, they still walk among us: True Blood’s sixth season premieres this June, Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires in the City will be released in May, a remake of the 1992 cult classic Buffy the Vampire Slayer is in the works and an adaptation of the video game Castlevania is slated for 2014. Continue reading →

Familiar Frontiers

Explorer-photographer Jason Rydquist captures what the bygone becomes

Visual Arts

Abandoned homesteads on plains of matted golden grains. A door’s once glorious enframement, now peeling like an onion, pieces of its papery skin withering at its feet. A pristine cerulean bedroom, empty save for squares of sunlight from a four-pane window. Forgotten houses collapsing under the weight of moss, mold and time. These are the images that photographer Jason Rydquist seeks in his visual exploration, from Michigan to the forsaken corners of Oregon, and they will be on display in his show Retrospect starting March 29 at Sam Bond’s. Continue reading →

Jell-O, More Than A Snack

Maude Kernes celebrates 25 years of edible art

Visual Arts

Eating Jell-O is so passé. At Maude Kerns Art Center, it is art. In its 25th year, the Jell-O Art Show captivates audiences with its jiggling creativity. This time around, the theme for the benefit — hosted by Maude Kerns and Eugene’s Radar Angels — is “iJell-O.”  “The iPhone or the iPad is the iJell-O,” says Michael Fisher, the exhibit coordinator at Maude Kerns. “But the artwork doesn’t necessarily have to do with the theme. It can be anything.”  Continue reading →