She brings local arts scene to TV.

Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard

You say you didn't make it to last month's First Friday Art Walk? Perhaps you didn't have time to take in the Mayor's Art Show or the Salon des Refuses?

Don't worry. You still have a chance to see those events - or just about every other visual arts show that's taken place in Eugene for the past decade - thanks to a dedicated amateur videographer who is recording the arts scene here entirely as a labor of love.

Hedda, who has gone by that single name for four decades, has missed no more than a couple First Friday Art Walks since she started videotaping them on her own 10 years ago and showing them on Eugene's community access television.

Go to the art walk that begins at 5:30 p.m. this Friday at the downtown public library and you'll no doubt run into her, lugging a digital video camera and tripod.

The 61-year-old artist had been showing her own art around town but not, let's say, getting much fame or fortune when she got the idea of taping art openings and putting them on television.

"I was getting recognition, but I wasn't selling anything. Sound familiar?" she said. "And I had time to do the videos. I realize more people see my art this way. It's on television every week."

Hedda, who grew up in the Midwest, came to Eugene in the late 1970s and, like many people, just stayed. She loved the local art scene and the access to the outdoors long before Robb Hankins thought up that wacky Eugene motto: ``World's Greatest City for the Arts and Outdoors.''

As a videographer putting her work on the air, she has been in the unique position of learning her craft in public.

"At first it was pretty amateurish," she said. "But I have been learning as I went along, just trial and error by doing it. That's one thing that's nice about community access television."

Hedda edits her work in iMovie software on her iMac computer, a process that has also been self-taught.

One challenge she faces is her health; she suffers from osteoarthritis, which often makes it difficult to carry a camera and tripod around.

Unlike many journalists, she never inserts herself into her work.

As a result, "Arts Journal," as her program is called, has a slightly dreamy, reflective quality as her carefully composed images of artworks, sometimes with a slow zoom, build one on the other, always with no narration.

"I do it that way for a number of reasons," she said. "I don't have a very good voice for voice-over. But mostly I prefer people just to form their own conclusions."

Hedda has also taped the free Thursday noon concerts at the Hult Center lobby for years. That's a technical challenge, as she has to shoot performers backlit by the Hult's huge windows.

She also shoots the city's free concerts in the parks.

By selling DVDs of her shows, usually to the artists whose work is shown in them, she makes a small amount of money, just enough to pay for her equipment.

But other than that, she lives off a trust fund, giving her the time and inclination to give something back to the community.

So who are her favorite artists in town?

"I won't answer that one," she said. "Critics get paid. I'm not paid. I let the viewer decide."

ARTS JOURNAL What: Hedda's weekly 60-minute television program about the Eugene arts scene Where: Comcast cable channel 29 When: 4 a.m. and 4 p.m. Wednesdays; 9 p.m. Thursdays; 9 a.m. Fridays FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK What: Free walking tour of downtown art spaces When: 5:30 p.m. Friday Where: Starts at Eugene Public Library, 100 W. 10th Ave., with works by Tallmadge Doyle, Bob DeVine, Madeleine Liepe, Bev Soasey and Mike Van, as well as the Bookend Project, in which 35 local artists have created bookends inspired by literary themes. EARLIER ART WALKS ON DVD You can purchase a DVD of a past art walk, along with other Eugene arts events, for up to $30 for the first copy of a one-hour program; call Hedda at 345-3965 for details.