A FEW GEMS.Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard Every September, for many years now, I've gone with great eagerness to check out the art at the Mayor's Art Show. This is, after all, the big civic art event of the year. Seeing the winners (and later the losers, at the Salon des Refuses) ought to show something about the state of visual art in and around Eugene in a given year. Each year I walk into the Jacobs Gallery and look around. And, to tell you the truth, each year I'm disappointed in some small but consequential way. I finally managed to put my finger on the source of this disaffection the other evening as I was hanging out at the Mayor's Show opening, talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to artists and gallery owners and trying vainly to see past the crowd and get a glimpse of some art. The problem, of course, has nothing to do with the art or the artists or even the jury. The problem has been with my too-lofty expectations about the show and what it means. Except in some broader, almost archaeological sense, the Mayor's Art Show isn't a coherent show at all. It doesn't really say too much about the state of the arts in Eugene in 2007. I've been approaching it like a terrific blind date. In fact, it's more like an evening of speed dating speed dating n → sistema di appuntamenti grazie al quale si possono incontrare in pochissimo tempo diverse persone e scegliere eventualmente chi frequentare . This year's mayor's show has 58 paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints, photographs and other works. If you spent two hours (and, be honest, who spends two hours in an art gallery?) carefully working your way through the show, you'd devote just more than two minutes and four seconds of quality time to each and every art work. No wonder the mayor's show tends to be unsatisfying. With newly lowered expectations, though, I went back and - as always - found enough gems to make the trip downtown worthwhile. As in previous years, technical quality rated high with this year's jury, which consisted of Terrence Carter, Sarah Grew and Sue Keene. You don't find much work here that isn't slickly produced and well polished. Just about everything would be at home in an upscale art or crafts gallery here or in Portland. To continue the speed dating analogy, this is a room full of beauty queens, with perfect manicures and nary nar·y adj. Not one: "Frequently, measures of major import . . . glide through these chambers with nary a whisper of debate" George B. Merry. a smudge in their lip gloss. Whether there's much personality behind the mascara Mascara (măs`kərə, mäs`kärä), town (1998 pop. 80,797), NW Algeria. The town is also known as Mouaskar. It is an administrative center, a garrison town, and a marketplace, noted for its white wine and for its trade in takes a bit longer to determine. Here are a few I might ask out for coffee, in an effort to find out more about them: Heidi Good's "One That Got Away" is a slow burn, and yes, that's a deliberate pun. Her small, very horizontal work is a "pyrographic py·rog·ra·phy n. pl. py·rog·ra·phies 1. The process or art of producing designs on wood, leather, or other materials by using heated tools or a fine flame. 2. A design made by this process. drawing" - read "wood burning" - with colored pencil added for a nicely subtle touch of color not of the white race; - commonly meaning, esp. in the United States, of negro blood, pure or mixed. See also: Color . It shows a couple gnarly (jargon) gnarly - /nar'lee/ Both obscure and hairy. "Yow! - the tuned assembler implementation of BitBlt is really gnarly!" From a similar but less specific usage in surfer slang. looking salmon giving the fisheye fish·eye adj. 1. Of or being a wide-angle photographic lens that covers an angle of about 180°, producing a circular image with exaggerated foreshortening in the center and increasing distortion toward the periphery. 2. to a casually proffered lure, but what's most wonderful about it is the slightly dark atmosphere of what might otherwise be nothing but spincasting whimsy whim·sy also whim·sey n. pl. whim·sies also whim·seys 1. An odd or fanciful idea; a whim. 2. A quaint or fanciful quality: stories full of whimsy. . Sarah Peterman's big, satisfyingly hefty steel "Spoon" tempts any normal minded person to defy the gallery warning labels and touch it. The wall-hung piece of sculpture has a delicious sense of itself, from its reddish brown patina to its graceful depiction of an entirely ordinary object. Geoffrey McCormack's watercolor ``Greek Stones Speak No. 15'' is a beautiful, tightly constructed study of rocks and pottery shards that, on alternate viewings, was either compellingly attractive or an empty piece of perfect technique. I mention it mostly because of this exact pulsation pulsation /pul·sa·tion/ (pul-sa´shun) a throb, or rhythmic beat, as of the heart. pul·sa·tion n. 1. The act of pulsating. 2. A single beat, throb, or vibration. between extremes; good art is sometimes the art that bothers you the most. Emily Schultz's perfect little oil portrait "Resolve." What can I say? A light hand, great drawing and the ability to capture a human expression all contribute to this painting of a young woman. Charles Search's "Sea Sanctuary" is the one piece of black-and-white photography that really moved me. Search has gotten hold of traditional black-and-white technique here and used it well, making a well composed photograph of a natural subject using the full tonal range (a la Adams and Weston) of a subject in difficult light. Unlike many photographic technicians, he also captures a sense of magic in the process. A color photograph (at least, I think it's a photograph; it's labeled simply ``print'') that's worth a second look is Dennis Galloway's ``Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley (pronounced [wɪˈlæ.mɪt], with the accent on the second syllable) is the region in northwest Oregon in the United States that surrounds the Willamette River as it proceeds northward from its No. 3,'' a panoramic landscape in bold colors. Chris Paulson's "Crayola," a fused glass Fused glass is a term used to describe glass that has been fired (heat-processed) in a kiln at a range of high temperatures from 593º C (1100ºF) to 816º C (1500ºF). There 3 main distinctions for temperature application and the resulting effect on the glass. bowl, suggests its bold, simple color scheme in the title. While checking out bowls and the like, check out Ken Standhardt's ``Tendril tendril, slender, sensitive structure of many climbing plants that by a response to contact (see auxin) supports the plant. Tendrils are modified stems, leaves, or leaf parts or roots. Storage Vessel,'' an elegant little ceramic work, across the room. Finally, my own personal Best of Show - the one I'd like to bring home to meet mother, you might say - is Kum Ja Lee's wonderful textile wall hanging, "In the Passage of Time." The unusual work, an abstract design suggestive of suggestive of Decision making adjective Referring to a pattern by LM or imaging, that the interpreter associates with a particular–usually malignant lesion. See Aunt Millie approach, Defensive medicine. tree branches, has a terrific richness and depth and deft use of color that brought me back to look at it again and again. EXHIBIT REVIEW 2007 Mayor's Art Show What: Juried exhibition of work by Lane County artists Where: Jacobs Gallery, at the Hult Center lower level, Seventh Avenue and Willamette Street When: Through Oct. 11 Admission: Free Hours: Noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The gallery is also open one hour before and during Hult Center performances. |
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