Bringing Art Back

A student mural at Oaklea Middle School created with the help of Lane Arts Council’s artist residency program

Walking through the dark empty corridors of Oaklea Middle School on a muggy August day, Principal Brian Young opens a door and flicks on the light. The classroom that comes into focus is filled with tables, colorful cabinets and student artwork tacked to the walls — all covered in the patina of art projects lingering from yesteryear. “It’s kind of sad coming in here knowing,” Young pauses. “I think it’s probably been seven to 10 years since Oaklea had an actual art elective as a class.” Continue reading 

Arts Hound

We are excited to announce the winners of our inaugural ArtsHound on Broadway EW distribution box art contest: (Clockwise) Cortney Grim (1), Samuel Clatterbuck (2), Bayne Gardner (3), Elizabeth Blue Currier (4) and Anna Helena Jackson (5). Here’s a sneak peek of the winning designs, but to see the boxes in all their glory come out for the guided First Friday ArtWalk tour Sept. 5 when the artists will introduce their work on boxes scattered around downtown.  Continue reading 

Arts Hound

Eugene Ballet Company hosts the Sept. 7 “Ballet, Beer & Barre-BQ Bash,” a benefit with barbecue, refreshments, outdoor games (including a pointe shoe toss), dance performances and new company members Brian Ruiz, Jun Tanabe and Kaori Fukui introducing the 2014-2015 season, which kicks off with Cinderella, joined by OrchestraNEXT, Oct 25-26 at the Hult. Contact Karen Warner, 485-3992, or karen@eugeneballet.org for tickets.   Continue reading 

Arts Hound

A new fashion duo is taking the reins of the Whiteaker Block Party Fashion Show this year and they’ve got some tricks up their secondhand sleeves. Briah Izreal and Oblio Stroyman, new owners of the Whit boutique Redoux Parlour, will host a resale runway show with the help of St. Vinnie’s Creative Projects Manager Mitra Chester at 9 pm Saturday, Aug. 2, at the Cornerstone Glass Stage (1068 W. 2nd Ave.) preceded by a performance from the darkwave ensemble Black Magdalene. “We’re not working with designers this year,” Izreal says. Continue reading 

Arts Hound

The Hult Center is reviving its former Wildly Wicked Women of Comedy series, kicking off July 19 with comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer, an LGBT pioneer who starting doing standup in New York City in the early ’90s. Raised in Pennsylvania Amish country, Westenhoefer is definitely a trailblazer: She was the first openly gay comedian to land an HBO special and the first to appear on Late Night with David Letterman. Continue reading 

The Queen of Critters

Shanna Trumbly’s magical world continues with the 2014 Oregon Country Fair poster

Shanna Trumbly was sitting in a cave roasting hotdogs when she saw the hummingbird. The Eugene artist was visiting Yachats with her family and, while on a hike, they had taken shelter from the rain.  “Out of the corner of my eye, I see this little bzzz,” she says, fluttering her hands. “There are no flowers around or anything. It was just like rock walls and the ocean … It was so bizarre because it wasn’t even a place where a hummingbird would be hanging out.” She adds, “Right when it flew off, the rain stopped.” Continue reading 

Summer Strut

Celebrate your body and America with made-in-USA Allihalla swimwear and lingerie

Allison Ditson

Nothing says ’Merica like star-spangled hot pants.  Allison Ditson flips through a stack of her handmade garter shorts and swimwear while Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U” fills her warm attic studio. Fabric is draped over every nook and cranny — in stars and stripes, neons and florals, glittering golds and black mesh — making the cozy space look like the shared dressing room of Wonder Woman, Betty Grable and Katy Perry. Continue reading 

Relative Pursuits

Meet the Beyers — sibling artists featured at Art and the Vineyard

‘Lotus, closed’ by Ian Beyer

Sculptor Ian Beyer tells me with a wry smile that his sister, painter Erika Beyer, is the smart one, what with her dual college degrees in scientific illustration and architecture. This is the sort of affectionate ribbing that commonly passes between siblings; what’s not so common is the level of talent that unifies the Beyers in their separate creative endeavors. Continue reading 

Arts Hound

The sixth annual Degenerate Flame Off, a festival for “functional art glass from the underground,” runs June 27-29 at the Cornerstone Glass campus in the Whit. Sixteen glass artists from across the country will compete in a 10-hour “flame-off” to make the most gnarly art pipe in the categories of Most Creative, People’s Choice and Most Technical. Continue reading 

Pillars of the Community

Artist Esteban Camacho brings an environmental focus to the murals of the WJ Skatepark

Photo by Todd Cooper

Esteban Camacho weaves through the skateboard jungle that is the new WJ Skatepark + Urban Plaza, finding some smooth invisible path while I stumble after him, jumping out of the way of teens on wheels. It’s clear the artist is a seasoned veteran of the site. We sit on a bench carved into a ramp, skateboarders whirring around us. Hands leathery with green paint, Camacho points up at the murals developing on two pillars buttressing I-105.  Continue reading