Arts Hound

José Cruz grew up dancing in his home country of El Salvador before moving to L.A. 20 years ago, traveling up the coast and settling in Eugene. Locally, Cruz has been teaching dance — mostly salsa — for 16 years with his school Salsersos Dance Company, now housed in the Vet’s Club Building. “Coming here,” Cruz says, it’s “a great thing to teach the dance that I grew up with.” Continue reading 

Arts Hound

Oh, to see what James Gillray might do with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump would be delicious. Considering the British illustrator’s searing and scatological observations of blowhards, we’d expect some orange, bloated mass punctuated with what the internet has succinctly deemed “butthole lips.” But alas, Gillray, considered the father of the political cartoon, passed in 1815. Continue reading 

Dooney & Bourke drenches itself in green and yellow

Student debt? Nah. Rising cost of tuition? Nope. Who can think about that when you’ve got yellow O’s in your eyes? Now, you can put your student loan dollars toward Dooney & Bourke’s (ironically named) $218 NCAA Oregon Hobo bag or the $128 NCAA Oregon Continental Clutch. In fact, when those student loan bills come due, you can store them chicly in the $248 NCAA Oregon Zip Zip Satchel. Continue reading 

Art Under the Sun

A tale of two cities creating art under a blazing hot sun

Last weekend was a tale of two cities creating art under a blazing hot sun. On Saturday, Aug. 15, the Eugene-Springfield Art Project and the city of Springfield hosted the second annual Art & ChalkFest. More than 50 artists signed up, including first-place winner Brandi York, a Washington artist who chalked up re-creations of Art Nouveau master Alphonse Mucha and went home with $600 (and likely a sunburn). In Eugene, Watershed Arts closed out the weekend Sunday, Aug. Continue reading 

Arts Hound

Hot damn, Eugene! Prepare your peepers for overstimulation by all the art (both dead and alive) happening this week, beginning with the Mayor’s Art Show opening reception 5:30 pm Friday, Aug. 14, at the Hult Center’s Jacobs Gallery. While this annual juried show tends to lean heavy on artists of the safe, expected and over-50 variety (i.e. expect pastel landscapes and Ansel Adams wannabes), it’s worth going down to ferret out the innovators and old masters — look for works from Lynda Lanker and Rogene Manas, to name a few.   Continue reading 

Arts Hound

The Arts Center of Corvallis (700 S.W. Madison Ave.) hosts an opening reception 5:30 to 7:30 pm Thursday, July 16, for a fantastic new exhibit, Subtext: An Exploration of Language in the Visual Arts. The show runs through Aug. Continue reading 

Seeing the Light

Erol Chandler leaves a career in education to pursue artisanal lamp making

A dozen years have passed since urban theorist Richard Florida argued that the U.S. has “an economy powered by human creativity.” In The Rise of the Creative Class, Florida writes, “In virtually every industry, from automobiles to fashion, food products and information technology itself, the winners in the long run are those who can create and keep creating.” Continue reading 

Arts Hound

2015 is a year of brand-spanking new features at the Oregon Country Fair: the Dance Pavilion, the dedicated LGBTQI space — Rainbow Village — and the entire 6-acre “New Area” expansion. This expansion will house nine wondrous, wacky, weird, whimsical, whippy-dippy art installations. ArtsHound caught up with Sallie Edmunds, OCF backup manager and head of the new art program, while she prepped at the Fair grounds.  Continue reading