Visual Arts: Page 31

Prepare to be Mesmerized

Harmonic Laboratory and Quixotic Fusion team up for an explosive arts festival at the Hult

Visual Arts
Quixotic Fusion’s ‘Gravity of Center’

Sitting on the carpet of the Hult Center lobby on a misty February evening, a group of artists strain to look up at the towering ceiling with its jumble of M.C. Escher-like angles, balconies and staircases. They toss around terms like scrim and pulley and trapeze.  The group decides they want to fasten a net to the wood beams where aerial dancers can twist and twirl. One artist, Mica Thomas, describes the scene as “that big moment that kind of shocks you a bit before the ending.” Continue reading →

This Mural’s Got Potential

The Cannery teams up with local artist Erik Roggeveen to create an innovative mounted mural

Visual Arts
Erik Roggeveen's new mural ‘Potential’

Local artist Erik Roggeveen picked up a paintbrush for the first time only two-and-a-half years ago.  Today, you can see his 112-square-foot hand-painted mural — his first ever — on the east-facing wall of The Cannery at 11th and Mill Alley. The Cannery pub unveiled the mural March 6 and it’s hard to miss: The vividly colored, forced-perspective painting evinces a comic book-style and depicts a woman holding a jar of alien-looking pickled foods, like garlic, carrots and purple broccoli. Continue reading →

Arts Hound

Visual Arts

Creative disruption: As PIELC (the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference) wraps Eugene in a big green hug March 5-8, one of the conference panelists, writer Mary DeMocker, is “condemning” her neighborhood with an interactive public art installation. DeMocker has run a 300-foot faux liquified natural gas pipeline through the yards along the 21st avenue block between Agate and Emerald, which will be up through Sunday, March 8. “I started out just thinking it would be on my front lawn,” DeMocker says, but then neighbors warmed to the idea. Continue reading →

Arts Hound

Visual Arts

The last weekend in February is full of dance, beginning with the performances of Ballet Fantastique’s The Odyssey: The Ballet at 7:30 pm Friday and Saturday, Feb. 27-28, and 2:30 pm Sunday, March 1, at the Hult’s Soreng Theater. Expect to see many of Homer’s classic characters — Odysseus, nymph-goddess Kalypso, Queen Penelope, Athena, a siren and the cyclops — on their twinkle toes, but in true Ballet Fantastique fashion, the dance company has put its own spin on the Greek epic poem: Hermes, the messenger god, is now a female character. Continue reading →

Arts Hound

Visual Arts

Head to downtown Springfield for the Second Friday Art Walk 5 to 8 pm, Feb. 13, and see the latest creations in silk, cotton and wool of fiber artist Tylar Merrill at the Thimbleberry Felt Designs pop-up shop at L’Etoffe Fabrics (329 Main St.). Continue strutting your stuff for the South Willamette Second Saturday Art Walk 3 to 7 pm, Feb. 14, with stops at Wild Birds Unlimited, 16 Tons Café, Tsunami Books and more.   Continue reading →

Pressing On

In the Schnitzer’s new exhibit, Under Pressure, more than contemporary art is on display, but also a challenging reflection of our times

Visual Arts
‘The Pastoral or Arcadian State: Illegal Alien’s Guide to Greater America,’ Enrique Chagoya, 2006

Playing devil’s advocate, I ask art collector Jordan Schnitzer how contemporary art can possibly fulfill us in an age of flickering screens and attention spans. Immediately I regret siding with the devil, even if only momentarily. Schnitzer’s response is so passionate, so righteous and, frankly, so absolutely correct that his indignation at the thought that art could ever be irrelevant reverberates through the phone.  Continue reading →

Arts Hound

Visual Arts

Comedian Brian Regan is beloved for the same reasons Jerry Seinfeld became a household name: He does observational comedy without relying on profanity to edge-up his act. But don’t confuse “clean” jokes with boring — fellow funnyman and f-bomb launcher Marc Maron has said Regan is the favorite comedian of other comedians. Need a refresher or an introduction? Regan’s appearance on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Seinfeld’s latest show, is a good start (watch at wkly.ws/1vj). See Regan’s act 7:30 pm Thursday, Jan. Continue reading →