South Coast Trawler

Begin At the Beginning

2012-01-29T18:22:00.000-08:00

There comes a moment in everyone’s life when things just don’t work right, the coffee doesn’t perk, the car won’t start, the dog won’t go out, the cat won’t come in and the inspiration won’t come.
So what do you do? Well you could run around in little circles screaming, “The sky is falling,” or you could look for a way to start things back on the right path.

Show of hands please, how many for right path? And how many for the sky is falling? Oh come on it s not that bad. No matter what you feel at this moment, the sky is not falling.

Okay rule number one, I learned this years ago when I was a telephone support person for HP, is it plugged it? Have you checked? Do you have kids, pets or spouses? Cause of you do odds are they’ve come along and changed things without so much as a sticky note to warn you.

The Long Suffering does this to me all of the time. I sit down to watch TV and the remote is missing or the lamp won’t turn on or I set my glass down on empty air. You’ve really never set a glass down without looking to see if the table was still there? How do you know the table has moved if no one tells you? What do you think people actually look at the rooms they live in?

Okay, okay I should have looked and I did clean everything up, cause the Long Suffering was muttering about Lorena Bobbitt while tapping her foot on the carpet. (Actually we don’t have carpet any more. We pulled it up and replaced it with composite flooring and the house ahs been much cleaner ever since not to mention moving furniture around has been so easy even the Long Suffering can do it without my help, which she would never do cause supervising me is one of those hidden things that are included in the marriage vows like “love, honor and take the blame.”)

So the very first thing you should do when things don’t work is…let’s not see the same hands every time, yes, see if it is plugged in.

This works for almost everything and is a universal rule.

Next, if it doesn’t work try changing the… You have to fill in the blank. It’s not all that hard, like this if the lamp doesn’t work, try changing the outlet where it is plugged in, the bulb, the breaker, etc, etc.

Computers are particularly fond of this sort of thing; they won’t work unless they like the thing you are trying to use.

USB, this stands for Universal Serial Buss or Useable Sucking Bleeper! When the USB works it is a marvel, just think of all the times you have downloaded pictures from your camera and how quickly and easily it went and then remember the bad old days back in 99 when it might work or it might not. Sony made a killing with the Mavica digital cameras which used floppy disks and CDs for this very reason, floppies and CDs always work.

Most of the time now it does work, but if you are having trouble, try using a different USB device. Sure you probably just have the one data chord for the camera, but you can pull the memory card and use a card reader and get your pictures that way.

Printers are notorious for doing this thingy, ever hook one up and it won’t print? Is it plugged in? Is the USB chord connected? Did you read the instructions? HP printers will not work if you plug the USB line in before you load the software and power up the computer. But if you load the software and power up the computer before you try to connect the printer then when you connect the USB line the machine will instantly recognize your printer and all is well. Read the instructions.

Read the instructions. This is one of the ones that everyone skips and pays for, if you don’t read the instructions you won’t know what the maker had in mind for you to do and because you didn’t do it that thingy won’t work. Or the picture won’t come together.

It is amazing how many people believe that art is something you can just sit down and do.

Aside* There are thousands of people in this world who really and truly believe they know more about what you are doing than you do and they are willing to tell you and then shout and scream if you don’t do it their way. If they are teachers or successful artists or business people specializing in art listen, consider and then decide if you should do it their way. If they are not one of the former, ignore them, politely.

You and I know that art is not something that just happens even if you are Jackson Pollack and have a ten square foot canvas stretched out across Highway 101 and slosh paint across it every third car.

Even that took insight and inspiration. And those two things are hard to come by. So, take every chance you get to find inspiration and insight. Talk to other artists, read art blogs, hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, go to shows and read, read, read.

Take inspiration for poetry, music, food and dance, these too are arts and they can be instrumental in kick starting your “little grey cells.”

Is it plugged in? Use another device, outlet and take inspiration where you can find it.

Did you ever wonder why it is so many talented people do so many things well? The artist who cooks, then paints, then runs a business, all with seemingly endless energy and creativity. How do they manage? One thing feeds another. Remember the part about using a different outlet? It works for people too.

So instead of whining about the cold and the wet what are you doing to kick start your brain and why are you still here? Go plug something in and then tell me all about it you mechanical genius.

Spring Planting

2012-01-28T18:42:00.000-08:00

What seeds have you planted for this spring?
Did you weed the beds, put out new seedlings and spray the old so the bugs and the damp don’t get it?

That’s the way it is with growing things, they need constant attention, and so does your art. If you haven’t gotten out and started your spring planting, you are way behind.

Have you started your Independence Day paintings, sculptures, photos? It takes six months led time to get anything in the slick magazines. They don’t look for what is happening right now they are out there half a year ahead doing what needs to be done so that when all of their projects come together they can put out that July issue and have it look right.

Sure it is too cold and wet with all of our rivers overflowing and the pastures sunken under ten feet of water so don’t even think about trotting out and starting something. If you don’t have it in the can you are outta luck!

Valentines Day? You should have thought of that way back in September! Now it’s too late for this year, better start planning for next year and while you are at it make out a calendar with all of the projects you need to start for next year.

You don’t? How can you expect your art to make a living for you if you don’t plan ahead? Sure there are a handful of artists who have such a reputation and following they don’t have to plan. How did they get that way? They worked and planned and got out in the trenches and made it happen.

So you don’t think you want to focus on magazines anyway. That’s commercial art and you are a person with aesthetic vision and don’t pander to the decorative interests of common folks.

Jeeze, you are on an ego thingy aren’t you. Those common folks you are so quick to dismiss are the ones who will be loading up their campers and RVs in the next few months and driving along the Oregon coast where they will buy things to take back to where they came from and hang in their travel trailers and Winnebago’s and it might just be your art if only you had planned ahead and gotten it ready so that they could find it when they got here, but you didn’t do that did you?

You think living here in paradise is all that you have to do to create a reputation so vast and broad that it gets written up in all of the travel magazines? Oh that’s right you don’t think you want to get your art into slick magazines.

The next time you have to go to a doctor, dentist or a CPA, it is coming up on tax season or maybe you have to go see a lawyer and are shaking in your boots because the kid ran the car into the neighbor’s fence and then drove off without saying so much as “sorry” and now that neighbor is suing you for the cost of a new fence made of solid gold and the court costs and lawyers fees which make the teensy little cost of the O.J. trial look like pocket money and there you are sweating and moaning and flipping through magazines which are at least six months old and reading about what you can do to make a pumpkin scary without losing fingers or having to have a transfusion and you suddenly flip a page and see ole Blind Fogy’s duck picture that was in the Public Hanging two years ago and was snapped by an AP photographer covering the event and seen by an art director in San Francisco and now it’s in the magazine and old Blind Fogy is getting paid enough to buy a new Audi 2000 and no one will safe on the streets of Coos Bay and how did it all happen? Old Blind Fogy got his work out there and got it seen, that’s how.

Entering shows is one of the best ways to get your work out where it can do you some good. And because the news folks with the big cameras come and look and get to take pictures which the general public does not because the work is hanging in a museum where there is no photography allowed and the picture goes viral and winds up on Letterman and there you are Old Blind Fogy got a big pay day and what did you get?

Maybe you just don’t like museums and the whole juried show process? It isn’t fair that some get chosen and the rest get cast aside. Does that mean you are out of luck? No of course not. You won’t get as much exposure as Old Blind Fogy but you can still get your work out there, if you plant the seeds.

So where are you showing your work while you are waiting for the next big show so that you can be the one that the UPI photographer snaps and besides you look a lot better on camera than Old Blind Fogy, so it would be much better for Letterman if he had you on the show instead of Old Blind Fogy.

You aren’t? The shows are really the only way to get your work displayed without shelling out beaucoups bucks and you just don’t have the beaucoups right now to spare so you’ll just have to wait for an opportunity which doesn’t require quiet so much beaucoups.

No you will not. The libraries, Coos Bay, North Bend, and Bandon are always looking for art to show in their cases and they get big name artists cause the Big Guys know that not spending your hard earned beaucoups is the best way to go and so they show their work at the library where if you have a card you can get The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and be literary while being a successful artist with imagination.

No library card, try one of the local art shops. There are a bunch of them and they gladly take consignments. They’ll show your work, sell your work and give you the money and you don’t even have to be there to get the job done.

What about one of the free, that’s right free display places? Josie’s On Broadway right in the middle of beautiful downtown Coos Bay or North Point real estate office, both places have lots of space and are artist friendly. But you have to go and check it out.

The Crystal Dolphin will also take art on consignment High Tide Café displays art and Ken and Jane Snoddy at Easy Lane Frames and Select Gallery have just finished one show and are hosting another one. Call or email Jane and see if she has room for your work. Even getting one piece out of the closet and on to a wall will do more than all of the stuff in your closets.

Spring is the time for new planting; make sure that your art garden gets as much attention as the garden at your house. Then this fall it will be you and not Old Blind Fogy showing up on all of the morning shows, getting their picture taken with Sharon and Ozzy Osborne on The Talk and even getting a kiss from Kim Kardashian! Now that’s a spring to look forward to!

The Plug

2012-01-27T17:34:00.000-08:00

I don’t usually give a blatant plug, oh I give a nod to extra good goodie providers or a great sale, but most of the time I just offer the link and let you take a look and decide.

Today will be an exception. I went to our own Art Connection looking for mats. I have a series of prints I wanted to give to a pal but did not want to force her to accept my idea of frame selection so I was just going to mat the little pluckers and be done with it. Then it occurred to me that leaving the print out where the kids and the cats and the weather could get to it was like throwing it in the street and smiling as the cars create a Jackson Pollock.

No, there had to be another layer, that way the pal could stick them in a drawer or a closet and be safe from friction damage.

So I did a little look around the Internet and found that the best and cheapest, (MacMirandastein remember?) method of offering some protection without breaking the bank or stifling the decorating skills of my pal is a poly bag.

After a short but relatively thorough search I discovered if you don’t need a hundred or so and you want then within this lifetime you are going to pay between twenty to forty cents a bag plus shipping. Ouch!

So let’s recalculate, mats, about four dollars and fifty cents plus shipping and bags about thirty cents plus shipping, so my net is…five bucks a print plus shipping and a ten days wait.

Okay, so these are not the mission critical pictures like wedding pictures or children’s pictures or even pet memorial pictures, a few days more or less doesn’t matter, but I did want to get this done before I forget or my pal meets Prince Charming, marries and moves to the Big Apple to live in sinful, decadent luxury for the rest of her natural life.

So I thought I’d give the local guys a shot.

The Art Connection in beautiful, downtown Coos Bay is a place where you can find almost anything you need in the way of supplies. They will even order it in if you can describe it and pay for it and whine enough.

I dashed in while out running chores, had to stop at the bank and drop off a computer that was acting naughty and had to be corrected so that The Man In the Carpeted Office could do his thing, (No it does not even mean that so just get your mind out of the gutter), and bring grants and gifts to all of us in the art world and there I was just across the street from The Art Connection and I said, “Self,” when talking to oneself it is important to maintain the rules of formal conversation, “Self, let’s us just see if they have what I need and maybe I can just swoop in and get it and be back out at the Vet’s before the Long Suffering knows I’m AWOL.”

So in I went and had a look. Fortunately Liv noticed I had no idea what I was doing so she came over and bailed me out and it turns out they did have just what I was looking for at around the same price I could get on the Internet so I bought the little puppies and headed back and yes, I made it before the Long Suffering knew I was gone!

Now later today when I actually got around to using the mats I noticed a curious thing, they were sealed in clear poly bags just like the ones I was thinking of buying. Eureka! The Light bulb went off, (Florescent of course to protect the environment and that probably explains why it took so long to light up) and I said, “Self, we have here a wondrous thing. They have sold me the mats I needed and I got the poly bags included.”

So for the price of a mat I got protection for my prints, made my art look a lot better than it would have, supported the local economy and made my pal happy all in one swell foop!(If you didn’t read BC you’re out of luck on this one.)

The moral of this story is, think before you buy. Sure Internet prices can be really, really good. But they don’t often offer bonus materials.

So guys and dogs, thanks very much for supplying just what I needed and for making the trip such a one-stop shopping stop and for making sure that the end result of all of my efforts looked as good going out as it did in my dusty little mind.

Ava Richey's Art News

2012-01-27T16:09:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

This Monday, January 30, we will meet Old Town Pizza. 12 - 3 p.m.

Hope to see you there.

My phone is 541-347-4643 or cell is 541-297-6118.

Thanks!

Ava

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******This is a farewell, and a salute to our wonderful friend and artist, Dr. Len Rosen. He passed away January 15. Len painted with our plein air groups off and on up through last year. He was truly the youngest 95 year old person I have known.

After college, military service, and a 35 year career as a psychologist, he retired and entered and graduated from the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, then experienced another career as an artist. After moving to California he was a member of the Central Coast Art Association in Carmel, then was chairman of the Seaside Art Commission for several years. He earned many awards and accolades.

He and his wife Tonya moved to Bandon in 2004. In addition to painting and sketching, he loved being involved with ham radio. His warmth and kindness will be missed, as well as his good critiques and observations that he shared with fellow painters. Our condolences to Tonya and the rest of his family. Thanks, Len, for showing us that age doesn't matter---finding what you love and doing it matters.

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Art Information:
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FYI: New listings have asterisks ***** next to the date.

If any of the web links below in blue are not "live", meaning if you click
on it and it doesn't take you to the website,--- right click on it and
choose copy, then open your internet web browser, left click on the web
address window at the top to highlight it, then right click and paste the
web link into your browser and hit enter. The site should open.

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Artists' Accomplishments:
We want to honor the achievements of all you artists, so don't be shy about sending the highlights of your art lives, or those of your artist friends.

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Current Shows:

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Backstreet Gallery, 1421 Bay Street, Florence http://www.backstreetgallery.org http://www.katheryndavis.com/katys_book/qw_publishing.htm

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Bandon Artist Supply, 175 2^nd Street in Old Town , on the PedWay 541-347-4482

Through January

“Rural Farm Delivery” is a vibrant show featuring acrylic and ink paintings and cards by S. L. Donaldson and acrylic paintings by Michael W. Ousley

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Bandon Public Library January 1- 31, 2012

Hallway Gallery: "Nature's Way", oils & pastels by Vicki Afatati.

Cases: Patricia Davidson's small framed photos of Southern Oregon Coast.

Bandon Public Library February 2012

*****Hallway Gallery: "Island Dreams and Coastal Themes", watercolors & oils by Shawn Tempesta

******Cases: Larry Linder's woodcarver collectables.

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Coos Art Museum 235 Anderson Ave. Coos Bay 541-267-3901 http://www.coosart.org
Opening Art Reception for "Wood Art Invitational" in the Mabel Hansen
Gallery, featuring 10 wood artists: Philip Clausen, Thomas Clevenger, Jim
Deardoff, Rick Fox, Steve Kuntz, Kenneth, Kenneth Means, Mitch Rolicheck, Charles Tatum, George Vrana, and Terry Woodall.

"Native American Basket of the South Coast" in the Uno E. Richter Gallery.

And also showing in the Atrium: "Charleston, Images in Paint". Featured
artist & curator Charles of Charleston & Cohorts : Hope Sessions, Joan Goodman Fox, Sally Rolicheck, Sarita Southgate, Jean Adamson, Dutch Mostert, Nancy Berry, Carollee Tucker, Rod Sullens and Curt Hitch. (Organized by Joan Goodman Fox.)
Show runs December 9, 2011 through February 11, 2012

****February BAAA "Artist of the Month" featured in the BAAA display located in the Coos Art Museum lobby is Beth Wegner.

January BAAA "Artist of the Month" featured in the BAAA display in the lobby of the Coos Art Museum is Sherry Howk.

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Coos Bay Library 525 West Anderson, Coos Bay

February

*****Wall Display "The Coquille River"--selected acrylic & ink paintings celebrating the flora & fauna of the Coquille River by SL Donaldson

*****Lobby: Pottery by Catherine Walworth

January

Wall Display : David Castleberry--Vibrant paintings of nature

Case Display: Egyptian Theatre Preservation Association

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Coquille Valley Art Center 10144 Hwy 42, Coquille 541-396-3294

January 9th - 31st

"Oregon the Beautiful" featuring artists from various departments of the Art Center. Hours are Monday - Friday 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

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Coquille Valley Hospital, 940 E. 5th Street, Coquille, OR

Photography show featuring works by Kathy and Dick Chambers of Myrtle Point; Patricia Davidson, Coos Bay; Kelle Herrick, Bandon; Richard Kirk, Myrtle Point; Kathy Phillips, Myrtle Point; David Sinnot, formerly of Coquille; and Tony Spenader, Coquille. A portion of sales goes to the CVHA Auxiliary. Show runs through February.
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Crystal Dolphin Gallery
1901 Sherman Ave, North Bend, 541-756-1989
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Easy Lane Frames & Select Gallery
3440 Broadway, North Bend, 541-756-7638
"What's New?". Features Gallery Artists and their new works.

****February 6 - March 30 "Winter Wonder", Reception Friday, Feb. 10th, 2-4 p.m.
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Emerald Art Center http://www.emeraldartcenter.org
500 Main Street, Springfield 11 a.m. - 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.
Jan 3 - 27th "Four Seasons of Plein Air, Painting the Year Around."

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Evergreen Court
Evergreen Court, Baycrest Village, 451 O'Connell St., North Bend, OR
541-756-7658
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Fairbanks Gallery located on campus at OSU in Corvallis. Free, open to the public Mon.- Thurs. 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Fridays 8 - 12 noon. Contact Douglas Russell at 541-737-5009, or drussell@oregonstate.edu http://oregonstate.edu/fairbanksgallery

Mark Newport "Alter Egos". Hand-knit superhero costumes, embroidered comic book covers and digital prints. January 17 - February 8, 2012

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Florence Events Center
715 Quince Street, Florence Call for more info at 541-997-1994

Gallery One: "Water Media Artists" display of 16 Watercolor Society of Oregon members.

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Langlois Public Library 48234 Hwy 101, Langlois, OR 97450
Hours: Mon. 11a.m.-2 p.m., Tues-Fri. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Paintings of Sheila Oberg continue into the new year.
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Manley Art Center 433 Oak Street, Brookings, OR 541-469-1807

Watercolor Society of Oregon traveling watercolor show.

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Maude Kerns Gallery 1910 East 15th Ave, Eugene, OR 541-345-1571

"Shaping Visions", work by Craig S. Holmes and Maude I. Kerns Show runs through February 10th. Saturday, Jan. 28th, 2 - 4 p.m. there will be a Discussion of the show.
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North Bend Library, Conference Room January 541-756-0400 http://www.northbendlibrary.org
Features : "Ontogeny" --A new series of acrylic and ink paintings that use color and form to explore organism development, by artist S L Donaldson. ---------------------------------------

Old City Hall-- 99 E. Second Street, Corner of Second & Adams, Coquille

January 2012: "TIME" -- A Statewide Traveling Show of Oregon Prison Art.

The first of a series of art/music events in 2012 to celebrate CENTENNIAL 1912- 2012 in Coquille:

February 12, 2012 2:00 p.m. A multimedia show with Jack Ponting. 20 art pieces and 100 minutes of original music. $10 per person--prepaid reservations required at the door. Contact Nella Abbott at 541-824-0779 for reservations and information.

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Pony Village Mall:

ArtWalk: Various artists showing at tables in lobby areas near Katherine's and Harry Ritchie Jewelers. and Artists Loft.

Also in the Mall:

Artists' Loft, 541-756-4088
Gallery Artists Group Show, features jewelry by Hester Solsang. Guest Artist--watercolors by Cindy Horner

East Wing Art Wall (by JoAnn's)
Photography--local color and other works by Dan Hull

Sterling Savings Bank
Fabulous Oils by Carol Turner

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Port Orford Library January-March

Paintings by Susan Lehman, Jane Schmaltz and Ava Richey

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Raincoast Gallery
Featuring work of many local artists.
Gallery is open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily except Tuesdays.
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South Slough Interpretive Center, Charleston -- in the William Q. Wick Auditorium

January 7 - February 29, 2012

Graphite renderings of birds and wildlife by Lance Cox.

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January 11th through March, 2012

Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center
"Down on the Farm" features agriculture related art. Don't miss it!

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Umpqua Valley Arts Center, 1625 W. Harvard, Roseburg

541-672-2532 http://www.uvarts.com

*****Through March 2, 2012 "Student Art Show", 500 works in a variety of media fill all six UVAA gallery spaces.

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U.S. Bank--Coquille

Works by Joanne Drapkin; Victoria Tierney's paintings of Coos County Parks for the 30 Parks by 30 Artists Show; selected works from "TIME" - A Statewide Traveling Show of Oregon Prison Art.

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Whistling Gallery
87456 Ste. A, Whistling Drive, Bandon (located in Laurel Grove, 5 miles
south of Bandon.) A variety of artists showing 2-d and 3-d work.
Also in charge of showing work at Billy Smoothboar's and other venues for
those artists interested in showing their work, contact Vickie.
541-404-7336, or whistlinggallery@gmail.com

****Feb.11 "Valentine's Wine and Art Show" no cover, no-host wine bar. Live auction of art, 10% of proceeds go to Coastal Harvest.
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Classes
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Art 101, The Purple Yurt, 5 miles south of Bandon on Hwy 101, 541-250-1140 or info@washedashore.org

****Saturdays and Sundays, beginning January 21st & 22nd, 1 - 5:00 p.m.

Volunteer Workshops to build "Leo the Leopard Shark" Have a hand in constructing the newest member of the Washed Ashore family. This work is designed to permanently reside at the Chula Vista Nataure Center in San Diego, CA. The sculpture consists of 100% ocean going debris (plastics and more). Help inspire others to do something about this problem by building this eye-catching sculpture.

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Artist Loft Gallery, Pony Village Mall, North Bend. Call for Class
Information at 541-756-4088

If you are interested in taking a Chinese Brush Painting class with Darlene Diehl on April 12, 2012, $67 for 5 hours with all supplies provided, please contact Carol Young at 541-260-4573. Class will be held in the Artist Loft classroom.

Beginning Watercolor with Carol Young, for info call 541-260-4573.

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Bay Be, located in Charleston, next door to High Tide Cafe is now open and offers licensed childcare for kids 3 yrs & up with a focus on nature and art projects. ALSO offer workshops for adults--making lip balm, jewelry, knitting and yoga.

Drop-in Saturdays from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. with only $5 and 5 minutes we can help you create a craft such as paper, a candle, a willow basket, driftwood sculpture or bird feeder. 541-888-3265, Find us on Facebook.

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Brookings Area and more:
various classes are listed at http://wildriverscoastart.com

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Coos Art Museum, Coos Bay 541-267-4877 for more information.
Friday, February 3, 2012 Golden Acrylics and the New Inventions with Corrine Loomis Dietz 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, February 4, 2012 Acrylic's Seductive Surfaces and Palettes of Pigment with Corrine Loomis Dietz 10 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Tuesday - Thursday, April 3, 4, 5th, 2012 Watercolor from Start to Finish with Judy Morris 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Saturdays, May 12th & 19th: Paper Arts with Holly Rodenkirk and Mary Cervantes 10:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.
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Coquille Valley Art Association 10144 Hwy 42, Coquille, OR 541-396-3294 http://www.coquillevalleyartcenter.org
Painting with Pat Weaver 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., Tuesdays & Wednesdays Pat's classes cancelled for now due to illness..

Painting with Anna Crosby 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Thursdays & Fridays

Painting/Drawing 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Mondays

Painting with Bunny Upton 12 - 3 p.m. Mondays
Woodcarving with Larry Roberts 9-12 Mondays 541-396-2579

Woodcarving 6 - 9:00 p.m. Tuesdays
Wood Burning 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Tuesdays
Play with Clay 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Thursdays
Ken Means Carving 9 - 12 noon and 6 - 9 p.m. on Wednesdays

Quilting 10 a.m. on Wednesdays
Appliqué 10 a.m. Tuesdays
Stained Glass 2:30 - 5:00 and another at 6 - 9 p.m. Mondays and Fridays 9:30 - 12:30
Fiber Arts 10 a.m. on Fridays
Yoga 6 p.m. Mondays No Classes during January or February.
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Easy Lane Frames, 3440 Broadway, North Bend, 541-756-7638
Contact for information on a variety of classes.
Fridays, Watercolor Studio with Jane Snoddy, $10 per session.

"Cartooning" with Leo Chiantelli, Thursdays 3:30 - 5:30, Jan. 26 - Feb. 16th.

Creating Textures in Collage with Susan Lehman, Feb.18th, 10 a.m. -2 p.m.

Palette Knife Technique with Acrylics with Carolyn Le Grande, 4 week class in February.

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Freshwater Gallery, 236B Hwy 101, Port Orford (next to Paula's Bistro)
Sundays, 3-5 p.m.: Figure Drawing with Model, $25
Mondays, 5-7 p.m.: Seascape Painting, $20 per class.
For information: 541-332-8019 or 541-236-8077, or wilddoodle@earthlink.net
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Gallery on the Bay
658 S. Empire Blvd, Empire 541-888-3771
Lessons in painting pastel by Darrell Sanders.
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Gold Beach SWOCC Center (on the fairgrounds) 541-247-2741

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Heritage Textile Arts Guild
157#A, Pony Village Mall, North Bend
Lessons available in wearables, kitchen linens and gift items.
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Manley Art Center, Brookings
Call for class and workshop schedules. 541-469-1807
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Rose Palette, Pony Village Mall, North Bend. 541-290-7858
Oil Painting classes by Carol Turner, 2:30 - 5:30 Mondays, $20 per class. You can reach Carol at 541-396-5373 for information on other classes as well.

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Rosie's Art Carnival, 575 B Hwy 101, Florence artcarnival@oregonfast.net www.facebook.com/rosiesartcarnival

New Classes: e-mail for more information.

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Sage Place, 11th & Elmira, Bandon
For a schedule of classes offered go to: http://www.sagegallerybandon.com
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"Studio t" in Bandon presents:

Art Journaling Play Day! with Susan Lehman on Sunday, February 5, 2012. 1 - 4:00 p.m. 3 hours/$35/includes all materials except a journal. Bring a blank book no larger than 12"x16" and get creative. You will be altering photos, stitching and weaving things onto the pages, writing to prompts, doodling, stamping, stenciling and more. For registration and information contact studioblue@mycomspan.com There are still two spaces open in this class--register now if you would like to participate.

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Umpqua Valley Arts Center, Roseburg
1624 W. Harvard, Roseburg, OR 97471 541-672-2532 http://www.uvarts.com
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Wright's Custom Framing 910 Chetco Ave, Brookings 541-469-7625 saradee1@frontier.com

Drop in Art Workshop every Friday Afternoon 1 - 4 p.m.

Individual instruction in any medium; demonstrations in various mediums; critiques of completed work and works in progress. $12 per session. Just drop in and bring something you would like to work on, or need help with. Each week something new is presented during demonstrations.

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Dateline Events:
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*****Sunday, January 29, 2012 1 - 4 p.m.

Roaring Sea Arts Open House: Display art or create on the spot. Musicians include Kammeroque Ensemble, Strider Kachelein and others. Also poetry and prose. New musicians and artists welcome. Refreshments, potluck snacks. Call Donna at 332-4444 or Suzanne at 332-0540.

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**** No meetings until March

Gold Beach Episcopal Church Easternmost end of Moore Street.
Figure Drawing. To confirm & for more information contact Alexandra
alexandra@portraitsbyalexandra.com
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******February 4 - March 18, 2012

Second Street Gallery, Old Town Bandon 541-347-4188 http://secondstreetgallery.net

features annual "Wall of Opportunity" with 50% off regular sales price of local artists' work including 2-d, jewelry, pottery, glass, greeting cards and books. Inventory changes weekly.

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******Saturday, February 11, 2012 11:00 a.m.

Bay Area Artists Association monthly meeting features Pamela Rose Hughes presenting a program called "Learning How to See". NEW MEETING LOCATION at Pony Village Mall in North Bend, in the space next to Heritage Textile Guild (near Macy's).

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Saturday, February 11, 2012 3 - 5:00 p.m.

Backstreet Gallery, 1421 Bay Street, Old Town Florence OR. 541-997-8980 http://www.backstreetgallery.org

GALA reception with featured artist Mary Beers.

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Calls to Artists:

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Deadline February 29, 2012

Applications for members of the local arts to apply for grants from the Coos County Cultural Coalition are due by Feb. 29th. They have $11,000 in available funds. For more information http://www.cculturalcoalition.org

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Deadline for Entries February 16, 2012

Northwest Watercolor Society's 72nd Annua International Open Exhibition (you don't have to be a member to enter) http://.www.nwws.org/ for prospectus. Juror is Thomas Schaller Over $10,000 in awards.

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Application Deadline February 1, 2012

Illahe Studios & Gallery, 215 Fourth St., Ashland, OR 97520 541-488-5072

Third Annual Artist Book Exhibit April 6 - 28, 2012

"April is National Poetry Month and we would like to celebrate the art of the word, in the form of Artist Books. Works submitted should display original design and execution."

We are defining "artist books" as original works of art created as a book. One of a kind books or works from small editions and may be based in any of the following mediums or combinations of mediums: poetry, prose, printmaking, painting, calligraphy, mixed media, photography, sculpture, textile, found objects, and letterpress printing. For this show we will not be accepting blank books or journals. Submitted work must have been created within the past two years.

Must be ready to exhibit and sell. Works may not exceed 16" x 16" x 24". Maximum of three pieces may be submitted for review.

For more information: http://www.illahegallery.com/content/CallforArtists.shtml

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Delivery Deadline January 30th - February 1, 2012

Easy Lane Frames and Select Gallery 3440 Broadway, North Bend, 541-756-7638

Show theme is "Winter Wonder". All welcome, no fee, enter one piece of artwork that reflects the color, temperature or feeling of winter. Show runs Feb. 2 - March 30.

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Deadline 1/31/12 Abecedarian Gallery, Denver, CO

http://www.abecedariangallery.com for Pdf prospectus download.

Annual juried artists' book exhibition. Show runs 4/20 - 6/02/2012.

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Deadline February 4, 2012 for Expressions West 2012

Coos Art Museum, 235 Anderson Ave, Coos Bay, 97420, 541-267-3901

Cash Awards (not purchase prizes), 13 Western States --painters may submit up to three entries in one or more of four media: oil, acrylic, pastel or watercolor.

For prospectus and entry form contact the website: http://www.coosart.org or address/phone above.

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Deadline for entry is February 10, 2012

Maude Kerns Art Center "Variations: Art Expressing Music" Submit images of 2D & 3D artwork in all mediums that is inspired by music or related to the theme of music. Supply five digital images in color at 300 dpi on CD in jpeg format. Work will be selected by jurors from the submitted images. There is a $15 submission
fee.

Application forms & prospectus available at http://www.mkartcenter.org

or call 541-345-1571. Show runs April 6 - May 11, 2012

Maude Kerns Art Center is located at 1910 E. 15th Ave. (corner of 15th &
Villard), Eugene. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. M-F,
Saturday--noon -4 p.m.
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Submission Deadline: February 28, 2012

"Artworks NW 2012" (formerly "Hundred Valleys")

Umpqua Valley Arts Association, 1624 W. Harvard, Roseburg, OR 97471

http://www.uvarts.com

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Submission Deadline: February 28, 2012

"Photoworks NW 2012" (formerly titled "Best Photo")

Umpqua Valley Arts Association, 1624 W. Harvard, Roseburg, OR 97471

http://www.uvarts.com

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Submission Deadline: Friday, April 20, 2012

Maude Kerns Art Center’s
Call for Artists: 2013-2014 Exhibits Schedule
Artists working in all 2- and 3-dimensional mediums, including
installations, are invited to submit images of their work along with an
application form to be considered for the next biennium (2013-2014) of
exhibits at the Maude Kerns Art Center. Submissions may include solo, group,
and/or themed shows. There is a $15 submission fee for individual artists
and a $5 fee per artist for group shows.

The postmark deadline is Friday, April 20, 2012. Application forms and
prospectuses are available at the Art Center or online at
http://www.mkartcenter.org

Call 541-345-1571 for more information.
The Maude Kerns Art Center, located at 1910 E. 15th Avenue at the corner of
15th and Villard, is Eugene’s oldest non-profit community center for the
visual arts. Gallery hours are from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm, Monday – Friday,
and noon to

4:00 pm on Saturday when exhibits are on display.
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Umpqua Valley Arts Association , Roseburg

44th Annual Summer Arts Festival, scheduled for Friday, June 22nd through Sunday, June 24th, 2012.

Look on their website: http://www.uvarts.com starting in January for applications for booths for artists, crafters, food vendors and entertainers.

This is an established, major cultural event in the Umpqua Valley drawing artists and crafters from across the U.S. for the 3 day festival with live music, food from local vendors, and lots of art. The event draws over 16,000 visitors of all ages. Proceeds benefit the UVAA's arts-in-education programs, bringing art instruction to elementary school children in Douglas County.

Those with questions are encouraged to consult the FAQ document posted on http://uvarts.com/summer-arts-festival/ or contact the UVAA by phone at 541-672-2532.

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The Artists' Village, McMinnville, OR Saturday & Sunday, July 14th & 15th, 2012

The McMinnville Sunrise Rotary Club is hosting their 4th Annual Artists' Village. Funds raised from this event go to help develop the arts and help Oregon artists with this event.

This is a juried event to obtain a booth at this show in order to sell your work. 10 ' x 10' booth under a tent, $100 for both days. Jurying fee will be non-refundable $25. Best in Show cash prizes total $1000.

They are looking for a variety of fine art participants including painting, sculpture, pottery, metalwork, dance, music and readings.

Information and applications will be posted in January on their website: http://www.artinmac.org Their email contact is artinmac@gmail.com

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The Spring Show: (April, May, June): “WEATHER REPORT”

Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center, Bandon

Works inspired by the South Coast Weather. We’re a land of wild winds, torrential rains, glorious sunsets, rainbows, waving grasses, threatening clouds and churning (or shining) seas----all fair game for our local artists and photographers. No snapshots please. If you have a really fine photo it must be matted and framed and ready for hanging.

Any questions…..check with Ava Richey at Bandon Art Supply or call Victoria Tierney or Susan Lehman at 541-347-9888.

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The Summer Show: (July, August, September): “GAMES PEOPLE PLAY”

Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center, Bandon

It was Crystal Landucci’s impressive collection of games of Chinese checkers that inspired this one. We’re looking for board games of all sorts that can be mounted on the walls; your own inventions would be great too……you’ve got a little while to work on this one so start inlaying those chess boards or drilling those cribbage sets….(fashioning those dominos?)…….This should be a really fun exhibit for the summer and we hope it will combine collectibles and the fruits of your imagination.

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The Fall Show: (October, November, December) “WHAT I DID ON MY VACATION”

Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center, Bandon

Paintings and Journals created by the travelers amongst us. We already have some folks in mind but if you have some work you think might fit in….please let us know.

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Summer Boardwalk Show at Bandon waterfront: It’s The Year of the Dragon , so start planning now!

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Bandon Library Art Committee is seeking artists for exhibitions in both the
Hallway Gallery and the Glass Cases during the 2013. You can
also put your name on the list in case there are cancellations before then.
The art can be paintings, drawings, mixed media, photography, and the like;
crafts, collections, small sculptures and/or jewelry for the cases. Please
contact Alexis Proctor at alexis2101p@yahoo.com or call 541-329-0530.
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Opportunity to Sell your Work:

Kathy from "Katherine's" in Pony Village Mall (south wing) is seeking
artists to display art on Art Walk Thursdays from 5 - 8:00 p.m. each month.
The upcoming one is February 9th. The Mall will provide easels and tables.
Other stores will be doing music and appetizers. There is no fee, no
commission...it's FREE. Contact Kathy at 541-808-2248.

Play Day

2012-01-27T07:45:00.000-08:00

Not a Football Fan? Come and play with us at Studio T on Superbowl Sunday!

Sign-up deadline has been extended. Bring a blank book and join us for a fun afternoon!

Art Journaling Play Day! with Susan Lehman

Sunday, February 5th, 2012 1-4 PM

3 hours/$35/includes all materials except a journal

If you have a beautiful book with blank pages or if someone has given you a nice handmade journal and you are wondering what to put in it, this class is for you!

Susan Lehman will demonstrate and guide you through countless possibilities for getting in touch with your creative writing and play.

You’ll be altering photos, stitching and weaving things onto the pages, writing to prompts, doodling, stamping, stenciling and more!

Bring your already handmade or purchased journal (at least 6”x 8”, no larger than 12”x16”) and fill it with glowing colors, imaginative images and creative writing!

Minimum of 5 students; maximum of 8
Classes fill quickly! Sign up deadline: Jan.29, 2012

Let There Be Light

2012-01-25T18:29:00.000-08:00

It doesn't matter what kind of art you make the one thing none of us can do without is light and there are probably a few things about light that you've forgotten or never knew. So in a never ending effort to make your life easier I have posted a handy-dandy little pocket guide to light. Print it out and fold it up and stick it in your pocket where it will be handy the next time you are trying to capture an image and something just isn't working. It may be the subject or the artist or it might just be not seeing the light.

Click image for larger view

What Makes You Stupid

2012-01-24T17:06:00.001-08:00

Every painter, stop, let’s change that every artist is looking for the one killer idea, that one thing which comes out of the blue and makes for a prize winning image, or better still an image which will sell.

And because we are always looking it is pretty certain we’ll miss it when it happens. What? How can you miss something you are looking for so hard?

The truth of the story is when you start focusing on one thing, you get tunnel vision.

Back in the wild and wooly days when I was a badge, I used to warn the rookies, “Being shot at makes you stupid.” They never listened, but then it’s one of those things you have to experience before you understand. Oh, the other thing is, you have to survive.

I learned one night working the First Watch. Civilians call this shift the Graveyard Shift and it probably would be if criminals were descent, hard working people who went to bed at night and said their prayers and tucked themselves in in their Doctor Dentons with teddy under their arms, but surprisingly they don’t. Seems they think that everyone else will be doing that so it makes a good time for them to go to work.

It is a well known fact that there are eight hours between four AM and five AM. Okay so maybe it just feels that way. And that is when the bad guys come out to play.

One dark and stormy night I was doing the dawn patrol and saw coming over the hill in front of me two cars, moving fast and beside the one in back were the prettiest little yellow flashes. I watched and watched as they got closer and closer and I could not figure out what those flashes were. They were too high up to be an exhaust or some part dragging on the ground, what the heck were they?

The cars turned and came straight down the road at me and I still watched and watched as the little yellow flashes got brighter and brighter.

I watched until a big fat, slow moving forty-five slug tore a chunk of brick out of the wall by my head and then you can believe I jumped into action. I hit the deck and rolled up against a parked car and tried to be very, very small.

Nope, it wasn’t a bit heroic and looking back some forty years later and having the advantage surviving it, I can tell you I should have figured out those flashes were muzzle blast and ducked my head a good half hour earlier.

But you see I was so focused on figuring out what they were I never gave a thought to the easy answer.

Now stop and think for a second. Are you staring at things like I did at those little yellow flashes?

I don’t advise it. You see a little yellow flash and you duck. You remember the fifties bomb drills, “duck and cover” as though that would do any good when the whole area was being vaporized by an atomic bomb.

No when you see little yellow flashes, think! And don’t reserve this thinking stuff for gunshots alone, you can do it when you aren’t being shot at in fact I recommend it cause as I said a while ago, being shot at makes you stupid.

So are you looking around at all of the stuff we have in Coos Bay and North Bend and Charleston? No I think it would be a bad idea to go out into the middle of the draw bridge at Charleston and try to capture the winds which have been sweeping through our neighborhood.

Yes, the news people do do it and they get paid to do it and it is still stupid. You remember the second part of my little tale, the part about surviving it? That’s a really important thing to remember. You have to survive to benefit from a life lesson.

So look, think but do not try to out do the news people or we’ll see you on the Eleven O’Clock briefly as you blow by on your way to Seattle.

Look all of the time, not just when we get a weather emergency. Sure the power of Nature is magnificent, but it is powerful, try for something more like magical.

Here, I’ll help out. There are two things which we have in abundance around here and which are very likely to be gone in just a few short years, the boats of our fishing industry and the majestic buildings of our past glories.

See, I’m new here, I’ve only been in Coos Bay for six years and the idea of the whole, big wonderful Pacific Ocean being just a coupla blocks from my front door is fantastic. I lived in Texas where a boat is something you take out on the lake to go skiing in if you have more money than brains and a girlfriend twenty years younger who likes to wear barely there bikinis. The ocean is a scary place where there are things which take one look at you and say, “buffet.”

I haven’t heard all I want about what Coos Bay was like half a century ago. But I can make a guess. I can tell there was money here and folks were living large and fast and doing things other small towns could only dream about. How can I tell that? I’ve seen the Egyptian Theater and Old City Hall.

And there are buildings still in use which have stories to tell, like the buildings downtown where they would have been close to the waterfront and the highway. What were they like fifty or sixty years ago?

I can only guess, but I can also make it my job to record what is left to us. Old City Hall is still majestic even in decline and the Hall Building, The Carnegie Library and that deliciously ornate bank building (?) which sits at Central and Second, what was that like in the heyday when this was a lumber empire and port city.

I’ve heard that Empire was a town to be careful in, rough and wild and gone now. No one managed to catch it before it became just a part of the Coos Bay area. That’s a shame. It’s a shame for people like me who weren’t here and for the kids who will grow up not knowing how this place used to jump.

Don’t let tunnel vision keep you from finding the places and things which need to be remembered. Get out there, with a camera and take pictures so you can go back to your studio and paint in warmth and comfort, there’s no need to suffer that much for your art.

Don’t let being shot at make you stupid, use your head and your eyes and let’s keep the Bay Area and all of its wonder alive for generations to come.

Ostriches

2012-01-23T18:41:00.001-08:00

We all have them things in our make-up which limit us, hold us back, just plain get in the way of our becoming better, more successful people.

Now as artists we are given to introspection. It’s the inner workings of our lives which give us the inspiration to create out of the air the art which we hope will become undying, immortal or at least pay the rent.

But if we are tangled in our own little web of handicaps how in the world will all of that introspection help?

It won’t.

Oh that’s painful, but it is true, you can stare at your own navel until you get eye strain and nothing much is going to happen except the ophthalmologist is going to get a new Audi.

I have one, no silly not a navel although I do have one of those, I have a stumbling block which try as I might and truth be told I don’t try very hard, I just cannot overcome.

I don’t like phones. There I’ve said it and in this wireless age, with Facebook and Twitter, the newest Iphone and the android system, I might as well admit that I don’t like bunnies or chocolate.

But that doesn’t change the problem, I just don’t like phones. I never have and since they became small and mobile they have become even worse.

Used to be with a little effort you could hide from them. You could go to church or a nice cheery funeral and not hear that shriek when the bell went off. And that dear friends is another thing, why is it that the people who carry these annoying things have to have the William Tell Overture or the theme from 2001 a Space Odyssey as a ring tone?

And just who decided that it was a ring tone? The bleating and clattering of a mobile phone in a restaurant or store is not a ring tone, it’s a nail in the ear.

I have threatened for years to have my own phone use the line from silence of the Lambs and have Hannibal Lecter say, “Hello Clarice,” every time I get a call. The Long Suffering won’t hear of it and since she is the one who makes ninety percent of the calls I get I guess she does have veto power.

But what could be so important that it needs to be done while in line at the check out at Wally World? I am no great fan of shopping at Wally World and will admit that anything to soften the pain of doing it is a welcome surprise, but why a phone?

My Quacker thinks I have one of those phones which sings and dances like Fred Astaire. I have a phone which makes phone calls. It doesn’t text, surf the Internet, or make the beds. That’s all I need to do with it make phone calls. But the Croaker thinks it has all of the bells and whistles and suggest that I program it to go off like an alarm clock every three hours so I won’t forget that I am a diabetic and have to eat.

Coupla problems with that, I couldn’t program it if it had that feature and it doesn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not technophobe. I like computers and gadgets. I can program a DVD player with one hand tied behind me. But I can’t even store a number in my phone. The Long Suffering had to set up my speed dial and so far it has one setting, hers.

There was a time when telephone skill was necessary to conduct business. If you didn’t have a number then you were out of luck, but now, with the Internet, I can email anyone I need to talk with and not get my own feathers ruffled by having to talk to someone on the phone.

That’s the other problem, if I wanted to talk to someone I’d go find them and talk. I never found the need to talk to a disembodied voice for hours on end about things of no consequence when I could be doing something. Now I am sure that there are times when a phone comes in handy. Like maybe if you are being attacked by the Shropshire Slasher and need the police, except you’d be dead by the time they could get there and with all of the snooping software they have now some nasty little paparazzi will have a scanner and beat the patrol car there and take pictures of your nude and bleeding body for the cover of the National Prespirer and you’ll become an Internet sensation the one time when you cannot enjoy it and that isn’t very fair now is it?

So here I sit with no desire to talk on the phone and a world full of compulsive dialers. (Except there are no dials any more so are you really a dialer or should it be a digitizer? Or maybe you are a keyboard wizard?)

But the truth is even though I hate the phone I have to come to terms with it if I want to promote my art. I still cringe every time I hear the thing ring. (Fortunately half of the time I’ve somehow turned the ringer off so I don’t hear it ring, but just delays the agony so it’s best to man up and face it head on, fingers at the ready and find out who out there is dialing for dollars.)

I struggle with this phobia every day; the only positive thing about it is I am aware of it. I know that left to my own devices I would not have a phone and would not answer it if I had one. What I really need is a machine which makes calls but doesn’t take them.

But then that’s like not answering, isn’t it, just not polite and very destructive to my own business.

What’s your trap? What do you avoid with a purple passion? Do you know it when you see it? Have you given any thought to it or you doing the ostrich thingy? You do know that when you hide your head in the sand that means another body part is sticking straight up? Not your best side and a pretty horrifying picture. Imagine a room full of ostriches all with their heads in the sand and their not heads sticking straight up…no, wait that’s Congress, better not fasten on that image.

Find out what is holding you back and make it your business to come up with a real solution, don’t just hold hearings, but do something. It will free you and the next time the phone rings you can laugh, cause you know there is a big, fat old ostrich with his head in the sand.

Call for Entry - Oil Painters of America 2012 National Exhibition

2012-01-22T14:36:00.000-08:00

Oil Painters of America seeks entries for a juried exhibition, June 22 - July 21, 2012 at the Evergreen Fine Art Gallery in Evergreen, CO. Awards in excess of $75,000, including $25,000 Best of Show. Juror: Quang Ho. Artists must reside in U.S., Canada or Mexico and be a current member of OPA at an annual fee of $60. Deadline: February 24, 2012. $30 for first entry, $15 for second. Download prospectus (PDF format), or send a SASE to: Oil Painters of America, P.O. Box 2488, Crystal Lake, IL 60039-2488. Questions? Contact Rosemary Murray at mail@oilpaintersofamerica.com or call 815-356-5987.

14th Annual Faces Juried Online International Art Exhibition (Posted: 12/20/11) --

2012-01-22T14:21:00.000-08:00

Upstream People Gallery announces a call to artists for an online exhibition, March 1, 2012 - February 28, 2013. Cash Awards, Special Recognitions, Press Releases, Int'l Publicity, Juror Critiques of artworks. Juror: Laurence Bradshaw, Professor of Art, University of Nebraska Omaha, who has exhibited in over 350 one-person, nat'l and int'l shows. Open to all artists worldwide whose artwork is involved with the subject matter of faces of all kinds. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional works including ceramics, sculpture, paintings, drawings, photography, prints and mixed media in all creative processes and forms. $25 for up to 5 images; $5 each add'l. Deadline: February 24, 2012. Visit website for prospectus, or send a SASE to: Upstream People Gallery, 5607 Howard St., Omaha, NE 68106-1257 USA. Questions? Please contact Larry Bradshaw at shows@upstreampeoplegallery.com or 402-991-4741.

White, Black & Shades of Gray

2012-01-22T14:19:00.000-08:00

The South Shore Art Center in Cohasset, MA seeks entries for a juried exhibit at Bancroft Gallery, March 30 - May 6, 2012. $1200 in awards. Open to all artists and all media - no geographical restriction. Work must be recent and not previously exhibited at South Shore Art Center. Work must offer distinctive imagery within the range of White, Black and Shades of Gray. Juror Dina Deitsch, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum. $25/3, $35/4, $45/5 images. Deadline: February 24, 2012. Download prospectus (PDF format), or send a SASE to: South Shore Art Center, 119 Ripley Road, Cohasset, MA 02025. Questions? Please contact Sarah Hannan at shannan@ssac.org or call 781-383-2787.

Spontaneous

2012-01-22T14:15:00.000-08:00

Darkroom Gallery in Essex Jct., Vermont seeks entries for an international photography exhibition, March 22 - April 15, 2012. Free framing/matting, Juror's Choice, Peoples Choice. Juror: Nikos Economopoulos. Spontaneity is the hallmark for great documentary and street photography where the moments of life, often ironic, poignant, emotionally charged, tragic or absurd are frozen. Many of the scenes captured by practitioners of this art, with the possible exception of war and extreme sports documentary, pass before us every day, but we do not see. This exhibit is dedicated to those who strive to see, realize and then manifest vision and moment into an image so that we can all see what is right in front of us or inaccessible in some other way. $24 entry fee. Deadline: February 22, 2012. Visit website for details, or send SASE to: Darkroom Gallery, 12 Main St. Essex Jct., VT 05452. Questions? Contact Ken Signorello at submissions@darkroomgallery.com or call 802-777-FOTO.

SOPA stopped

2012-01-20T16:16:00.001-08:00

"Over the last two months, the intense popular effort to stop SOPA and PIPA has defeated an effort that once looked unstoppable but lacked a fundamental understanding of how Internet technologies work," said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), who has introduced narrower legislation favored by the Internet industry.

Ava Richey's Art News

2012-01-20T10:53:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

This Monday, January 23, we will meet for indoor painting at the classroom in Bandon Artist Supply, in Old Town on the Pedway. 12 - 3 p.m. We will set up a still life to paint. Or you can paint or draw whatever you would like.

And maybe the sun will shine and it will be warm and we can paint outside. You never know. :)

Hope to see you there.

My phone is 541-347-4643 or cell is 541-297-6118.

Thanks!

Ava

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Art Information:

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FYI: New listings have asterisks ***** next to the date.

If any of the web links below in blue are not "live", meaning if you click on it and it doesn't take you to the website,--- right click on it and choose copy, then open your internet web browser, left click on the web address window at the top to highlight it, then right click and paste the web link into your browser and hit enter. The site should open.

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Rosie's Art Carnival, Florence "Used Sale", Jan. 24 -28th This is your chance to sell your gently used stamp and scraping materials, and to buy used at garage sale prices. artcarnival@oregonfast.net

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Artists' Accomplishments:

We want to honor the achievements of all you artists, so don't be shy about sending the highlights of your art lives, or those of your artist friends.

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Current Shows:

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Backstreet Gallery, 1421 Bay Street, Florence http://backstreetgallery.org/

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Bandon Artist Supply 175 2nd Street in Old Town, on the PedWay. 541-347-4482.

Through January

"Rural Farm Delivery" is a vibrant show featuring acrylic & ink paintings and cards by S L Donaldson, and acrylic paintings by Michael W. Ousley.

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Bandon Public Library January 1- 31, 2012

Hallway Gallery: "Nature's Way", oils & pastels by Vicki Afatati.

Cases: Patricia Davidson's small framed photos of Southern Oregon Coast.

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Coos Art Museum 235 Anderson Ave. Coos Bay 541-267-3901 http://www.coosart.org/

Opening Art Reception for "Wood Art Invitational" in the Mabel Hansen Gallery, featuring 10 wood artists: Philip Clausen, Thomas Clevenger, Jim Deardoff, Rick Fox, Steve Kuntz, Kenneth, Kenneth Means, Mitch Rolicheck, Charles Tatum, George Vrana, and Terry Woodall.

"Native American Basket of the South Coast" in the Uno E. Richter Gallery.

And also showing in the Atrium: "Charleston, Images in Paint". Featured artist & curator Charles of Charleston & Cohorts : Hope Sessions, Joan Goodman Fox, Sally Rolicheck, Sarita Southgate, Jean Adamson, Dutch Mostert, Nancy Berry, Carollee Tucker, Rod Sullens and Curt Hitch. (Organized by Joan Goodman Fox.)

Show runs December 9, 2011 through February 11, 2012

January BAAA "Artist of the Month" featured in the BAAA display in the lobby of the Coos Art Museum is Sherry Howk.

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Coos Bay Library 525 West Anderson, Coos Bay

January
Wall Display : David Castleberry--Vibrant paintings of nature

Case Display: Egyptian Theatre Preservation Association

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Coquille Valley Art Center 10144 Hwy 42, Coquille 541-396-3294

January 9th - 31st

"Oregon the Beautiful" featuring artists from various departments of the Art Center. Hours are Monday - Friday 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

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Coquille Valley Hospital, 940 E. 5th Street, Coquille, OR

Photography show featuring works by Kathy and Dick Chambers of Myrtle Point; Patricia Davidson , Coos Bay; Kelle Herrick, Bandon; Richard Kirk, Myrtle Point; Kathy Phillips, Myrtle Point; David Sinnot, formerly of Coquille; and Tony Spenader, Coquille. A portion of sales goes to the CVHA Auxiliary. Show runs through February.

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Crystal Dolphin Gallery

1901 Sherman Ave, North Bend, 541-756-1989

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Easy Lane Frames & Select Gallery

3440 Broadway, North Bend, 541-756-7638

"What's New?". Features Gallery Artists and their new works.

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Emerald Art Center http://www.emeraldartcenter.org/

****500 Main Street, Springfield 11 a.m. - 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.Jan 3 - 27th "Four Seasons of Plein Air, Painting the Year Around."

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Evergreen Court

Evergreen Court, Baycrest Village, 451 O'Connell St., North Bend, OR

541-756-7658

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Fairbanks Gallery located on campus at OSU in Corvallis. Free, open to the public Mon.- Thurs. 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Fridays 8 - 12 noon. Contact Douglas Russell at 541-737-5009, or drussell@oregonstate.edu http://oregonstate.edu/fairbanksgallery

*****Mark Newport "Alter Egos". Hand-knit superhero costumes, embroidered comic book covers and digital prints. January 17 - February 8, 2012

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Florence Events Center

715 Quince Street, Florence Call for more info at 541-997-1994

Gallery One: "Water Media Artists" display of 16 Watercolor Society of Oregon members.

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Langlois Public Library 48234 Hwy 101, Langlois, OR 97450

Hours: Mon. 11a.m.-2 p.m., Tues-Fri. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Paintings of Sheila Oberg continue into the new year.

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Manley Art Center 433 Oak Street, Brookings, OR 541-469-1807

Watercolor Society of Oregon traveling watercolor show.

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Maude Kerns Gallery 1910 East 15th Ave, Eugene, OR 541-345-1571

*****"Shaping Visions", work by Craig S. Holmes and Maude I. Kerns Show runs through February 10th. Saturday, Jan. 28th, 2 - 4 p.m. there will be a Discussion of the show.

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North Bend Library, Conference Room January 541-756-0400 http://www.northbendlibrary.org/

Features : "Ontogeny" --A new series of acrylic and ink paintings that use color and form to explore organism development, by artist S L Donaldson.

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Old City Hall-- 99 E. Second Street, Corner of Second & Adams, Coquille

January 2012: "TIME" -- A Statewide Traveling Show of Oregon Prison Art.

The first of a series of art/music events in 2012 to celebrate CENTENNIAL 1912- 2012 in Coquille:

February 12, 2012 2:00 p.m. A multimedia show with Jack Ponting. 20 art pieces and 100 minutes of original music. $10 per person--prepaid reservations required at the door. Contact Nella Abbott at 541-824-0779 for reservations and information.

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Pony Village Mall:

ArtWalk: Various artists showing at tables in lobby areas near Katherine's and Harry Ritchie Jewelers. and Artists Loft.

Also in the Mall:

Artists' Loft, 541-756-4088

Gallery Artists Group Show, features jewelry by Hester Solsang and paintings by Shirley Sargeant Wilhelmsen

East Wing Art Wall (by JoAnn's)

Saron Bacheus

Sterling Savings Bank

Artists Loft members' paintings

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Port Orford Library January-March

Paintings by Susan Lehman, Jane Schmaltz and Ava Richey

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Raincoast Gallery

Featuring work of many local artists.

Gallery is open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily except Tuesdays.

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South Slough Interpretive Center, Charleston -- in the William Q. Wick Auditorium

January 7 - February 29, 2012

Graphite renderings of birds and wildlife by Lance Cox.

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January 11th through March, 2012

Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center

"Down on the Farm" features agriculture related art. Don't miss it!

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Umpqua Valley Arts Center, 1625 W. Harvard, Roseburg

541-672-2532 http://www.uvarts.com/

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U.S. Bank--Coquille

Works by Joanne Drapkin; Victoria Tierney's paintings of Coos County Parks for the 30 Parks by 30 Artists Show; selected works from "TIME" - A Statewide Traveling Show of Oregon Prison Art.

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Whistling Gallery

87456 Ste. A, Whistling Drive, Bandon (located in Laurel Grove, 5 miles south of Bandon.) A variety of artists showing 2-d and 3-d work.

Also in charge of showing work at Billy Smoothboar's and other venues for those artists interested in showing their work, contact Vickie. 541-404-7336, or whistlinggallery@gmail.com

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Classes

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Art 101, The Purple Yurt, 5 miles south of Bandon on Hwy 101, 541-250-1140 or info@washedashore.org

****Saturdays and Sundays, beginning January 21st & 22nd, 1 - 5:00 p.m.

Volunteer Workshops to build "Leo the Leopard Shark" Have a hand in constructing the newest member of the Washed Ashore family. This work is designed to permanently reside at the Chula Vista Nataure Center in San Diego, CA. The sculpture consists of 100% ocean going debris (plastics and more). Help inspire others to do something about this problem by building this eye-catching sculpture.

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Artist Loft Gallery, Pony Village Mall, North Bend. Call for Class

Information at 541-756-4088

If you are interested in taking a Chinese Brush Painting class with Darlene Diehl on April 12, 2012, $67 for 5 hours with all supplies provided, please contact Carol Young at 541-260-4573. Class will be held in the Artist Loft classroom.

Beginning Watercolor with Carol Young, for info call 541-260-4573.

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Bay Be, located in Charleston, next door to High Tide Cafe is now open and offers licensed childcare for kids 3 yrs & up with a focus on nature and art projects. ALSO offer workshops for adults--making lip balm, jewelry, knitting and yoga.

Thursday, January 26, 2012 Knitting with Nancy: Thursday, 7 - 8:30 p.m., Saturday, January 21, 2012: Yoga with Elka Sky 3 - 4:00 p.m.

Drop-in Saturdays from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. with only $5 and 5 minutes we can help you create a craft such as paper, a candle, a willow basket, driftwood sculpture or bird feeder. 541-888-3265, Find us on Facebook.

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Brookings Area and more:

various classes are listed at http://wildriverscoastart.com/

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Coos Art Museum, Coos Bay 541-267-4877 for more information.

Tuesdays beginning January 24th with Stephanie Tomlin: Drawing One, kindergarten to 2nd graders. 3:45 - 4:45 p.m. Drawing Two, 3rd to 6th graders, 5 - 6 p.m.

Thursdays, starting January 19th with Liv Drahos and Robin Jenkins: Advanced Watercolor 10:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Friday, February 3, 2012 Golden Acrylics and the New Inventions with Corrine Loomis Dietz 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, February 4, 2012 Acrylic's Seductive Surfaces and Palettes of Pigment with Corrine Loomis Dietz 10 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Tuesday - Thursday, April 3, 4, 5th, 2012 Watercolor from Start to Finish with Judy Morris 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Saturdays, May 12th and 19th: Paper Arts with Holly Rodenkirk and Mary Cervantes 10:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.

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Coquille Valley Art Association 10144 Hwy 42, Coquille, OR 541-396-3294 http://www.coquillevalleyartcenter.org/

Painting with Pat Weaver 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., Tuesdays & Wednesdays Pat's classes cancelled for now due to illness..

Painting with Anna Crosby 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays

Painting/Drawing 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Mondays Painting with Bunny Upton 12 - 3 p.m. Mondays

***Woodcarving with Larry Roberts 9-12 Mondays 541-396-2579

Woodcarving 6 - 9:00 p.m. Tuesdays

Wood Burning 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Tuesdays

Play with Clay 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Thursdays

Ken Means Carving 9 - 12 noon and 6 - 9 p.m. on Wednesdays

Quilting 10 a.m. on Wednesdays

Appliqué 10 a.m. Tuesdays

Stained Glass 2:30 - 5:00 and another at 6 - 9 p.m. Mondays and Fridays 9:30 - 12:30

Fiber Arts 10 a.m. on Fridays

Yoga 6 p.m. Mondays No Classes during January or February.

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Easy Lane Frames, 3440 Broadway, North Bend, 541-756-7638

Contact for information on a variety of classes.

Fridays, Watercolor Studio with Jane Snoddy, $10 per session.

"Cartooning" with Leo Chiantelli, Thursdays 3:30 - 5:30, Jan. 26 - Feb. 16th.

Creating Textures in Collage with Susan Lehman, Feb.18th, 10 a.m. -2 p.m.

Palette Knife Technique with Acrylics with Carolyn Le Grande, 4 week class in February.

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Freshwater Gallery, 236B Hwy 101, Port Orford (next to Paula's Bistro)

Sundays, 3-5 p.m.: Figure Drawing with Model, $25

Mondays, 5-7 p.m.: Seascape Painting, $20 per class.

For information: 541-332-8019 or 541-236-8077, or wilddoodle@earthlink.net

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Gallery on the Bay

658 S. Empire Blvd, Empire 541-888-3771

Lessons in painting pastel by Darrell Sanders.

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Gold Beach SWOCC Center (on the fairgrounds) 541-247-2741

******Saturday, January 21, 2012 1 - 5 p.m. "Restore and Rejuvenate" art workshop, instructor Linda Mulvany from Brookings. Make a decorated candle, a colored bead hanging for your window and/or a beautiful mirror. $25, all materials provided. For those with no art experience as well as artists looking for a re-vitalizing art experience. Call by Thursday, Jan. 20th if you plan to attend.

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Heritage Textile Arts Guild

157#A, Pony Village Mall, North Bend

Lessons available in wearables, kitchen linens and gift items.

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Manley Art Center, Brookings

Call for class and workshop schedules. 541-469-1807

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Rose Palette, Pony Village Mall, North Bend. 541-290-7858

Oil Painting classes by Carol Turner, 2:30 - 5:30 Mondays, $20 per class. You can reach Carol at 541-396-5373 for information on other classes as well.

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Rosie's Art Carnival, 575 B Hwy 101, Florence artcarnival@oregonfast.net http://www.facebook.com/rosiesartcarnival

New Classes: e-mail for more information.

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Sage Place, 11th & Elmira, Bandon

For a schedule of classes offered go to: http://www.sagegallerybandon.com/

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"Studio t" in Bandon presents:

Art Doll Workshop! with dorothea tortilla on Sunday, January 22, 2012. 1 - 5:00 p.m. 4 hours/$45/Includes Materials. No sewing skills required. Learn fabric techniques including painting, stamping, inks and transfers while creating one of a kind fantasy art dolls. Deadline to Register is January 14th. Contact studioblue@mycomspan.com for registration and information.

Art Journaling Play Day! with Susan Lehman on Sunday, February 5, 2012. 1 - 4:00 p.m. 3 hours/$35/includes all materials except a journal. Bring a blank book no larger than 12"x16" and get creative. You will be altering photos, stitching and weaving things onto the pages, writing to prompts, doodling, stamping, stenciling and more. Deadline to register is January 27, 2012. For registration and information contact studioblue@mycomspan.com

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Umpqua Valley Arts Center, Roseburg

1624 W. Harvard, Roseburg, OR 97471 541-672-2532 http://www.uvarts.com/

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Wright's Custom Framing 910 Chetco Ave, Brookings 541-469-7625 saradee1@frontier.com

****Drop in Art Workshop every Friday Afternoon 1 - 4 p.m.

Individual instruction in any medium; demonstrations in various mediums; critiques of completed work and works in progress. $12 per session. Just drop in and bring something you would like to work on, or need help with. Each week something new is presented during demonstrations.

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Dateline Events:

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*****Wednesday, January 25, 2012 5-7:00 p.m.

Backstreet Gallery, 1421 Bay Street, Old Town Florence OR. 541-997-8980 http://www.backstreetgallery.org/ http://www.katheryndavis.com/katys_book/qw_publishing.html

After Hours Reception will honor one of the founding members, Patricia Romanov, who is moving to Eugene.

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***** Thursday, January 26, 2012 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Gold Beach Episcopal Church Easternmost end of Moore Street.

Figure Drawing. To confirm & for more information contact Alexandra

alexandra@portraitsbyalexandra.com

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****Saturday, February 11, 2012 3 - 5:00 p.m.

Backstreet Gallery, 1421 Bay Street, Old Town Florence OR. 541-997-8980 http://www.backstreetgallery.org/

GALA reception with featured artist Mary Beers.

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Calls to Artists:

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*****Deadline for Entries February 16, 2012

Northwest Watercolor Society's 72nd Annua International Open Exhibition (you don't have to be a member to enter) http://.www.nwws.org/ for prospectus. Juror is Thomas Schaller Over $10,000 in awards.

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*****Deadline January 23, 2012

Curry County Artists EXHIBITION OPPORTUNITY

Contact: Sally Houck, 541-265-6569, shouck@coastarts.org

Oregon Coast Council for the Arts (OCCA), the Regional Arts Council for the Oregon coast invites mid-career Oregon visual artists from Curry County to submit a proposal for the first exhibit in the Coastal Oregon Visual Artists Showcase (COVAS) scheduled to open on Saturday, February 25, 2012.

As the regional arts council, OCCA wanted to expand exhibition space for its coastal visual artists. Information gathered from recent focus groups for strategic planning, conducted from Brookings to Astoria, indicated that many coastal artists feel isolated in their ability to exhibit broadly and have their work seen.

In the spring of 2011, OCCA received a capital improvement grant from the Ford Family Foundation to build a showcase at the Newport Visual Arts Center to exhibit the work of mid-career coastal Oregon visual artists. With the help of a bequest from a former Newport artist, Anna Lee Davis, a donation from the Nye Beach Merchants Association, and financial support from OCCA and the Oregon Arts Commission, the showcase has been installed.

A touch screen computer to show videos of the exhibiting artist’s work, studio and process, is located in a separate cabinet across from the showcase. The showcase and equipment will allow OCCA to expand its services to its coastal artists and to build a visual archive of coastal artists’ work over time.

Artists who meet the following criteria are invited to submit a proposal: The Artist must be a practicing visual artist currently producing works of art (for sale); must have been a full-time resident of Oregon for at least 36 months prior to the application deadline and, if chosen, remain a resident through the duration of the exhibit; must be 30 years of age or older at the time of application and show evidence, through appropriate documentation, of seven or more years of active professional participation in his/her medium; and may not be enrolled in a degree-seeking program, either part- or full-time.

The deadline for proposals is by postmark on January 23, 2012. An artist will be selected from the proposals submitted by the OCCA Exhibition Advisory Committee. All artists will be notified by email of the committee’s decision by January 31, 2012.

The exhibit will open on February 25 with an Opening Reception from 2pm to 4pm for the artist and a Dedication of the showcase and will be on display through March 31, 2012. Subsequent exhibits will feature artists from the other coastal counties in rotation. The showcase furthers OCCA’s mission to promote arts and culture, to develop arts programs that expand awareness and to assist artists.

Images of the showcase and information explaining how to submit a proposal is available on the OCCA website, www.coastarts.org. Click on the Visual Arts Center tab and then choose Exhibit Proposals from the drop down box. Artists interested in applying can PRINT A COPY OF THE CALL FOR PROPOSALS outlining the procedure for submission. Call 541-265-6569 or email shouck@costarts.org for more information

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Application Deadline February 1, 2012

Illahe Studios & Gallery, 215 Fourth St., Ashland, OR 97520 541-488-5072

Third Annual Artist Book Exhibit April 6 - 28, 2012
"April is National Poetry Month and we would like to celebrate the art of the word, in the form of Artist Books. Works submitted should display original design and execution.

We are defining "artist books" as original works of art created as a book. One of a kind books or works from small editions and may be based in any of the following mediums or combinations of mediums: poetry, prose, printmaking, painting, calligraphy, mixed media, photography, sculpture, textile, found objects, and letterpress printing. For this show we will not be accepting blank books or journals. Submitted work must have been created within the past two years.

Must be ready to exhibit and sell. Works may not exceed 16" x 16" x 24". Maximum of three pieces may be submitted for review.

For more information: http://www.illahegallery.com/content/CallforArtists.shtml

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Delivery Deadline January 30th - February 1, 2012

Easy Lane Frames and Select Gallery 3440 Broadway, North Bend, 541-756-7638

Show theme is "Winter Wonder". All welcome, no fee, enter one piece of artwork that reflects the color, temperature or feeling of winter. Show runs Feb. 2 - March 30.

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Deadline 1/31/12 Abecedarian Gallery, Denver, CO

http://www.abecedariangallery.com/ for Pdf prospectus download.

Annual juried artists' book exhibition. Show runs 4/20 - 6/02/2012.

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Deadline February 4, 2012 for Expressions West 2012

Coos Art Museum, 235 Anderson Ave, Coos Bay, 97420, 541-267-3901

Cash Awards (not purchase prizes), 13 Western States --painters may submit up to three entries in one or more of four media: oil, acrylic, pastel or watercolor.
For prospectus and entry form contact the website: http://www.coosart.org/ or address/phone above.

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Deadline for entry is February 10, 2012

Maude Kerns Art Center "Variations: Art Expressing Music" Submit images of 2D & 3D artwork in all mediums that is inspired by music or related to the theme of music. Supply five digital images in color at 300 dpi on CD in jpeg format. Work will be selected by jurors from the submitted images. There is a $15 submission fee.

Application forms & prospectus available at http://www.mkartcenter.org/

or call 541-345-1571. Show runs April 6 - May 11, 2012

Maude Kerns Art Center is located at 1910 E. 15th Ave. (corner of 15th and Villard), Eugene. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. M-F, Saturday--noon -4 p.m.

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Submission Deadline: February 28, 2012

"Artworks NW 2012" (formerly "Hundred Valleys")

Umpqua Valley Arts Association, 1624 W. Harvard, Roseburg, OR 97471

http://www.uvarts.com/

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Submission Deadline: February 28, 2012

"Photoworks NW 2012" (formerly titled "Best Photo")

Umpqua Valley Arts Association, 1624 W. Harvard, Roseburg, OR 97471

http://www.uvarts.com/

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Submission Deadline: Friday, April 20, 2012

Maude Kerns Art Center’s

Call for Artists: 2013-2014 Exhibits Schedule

Artists working in all 2- and 3-dimensional mediums, including
installations, are invited to submit images of their work along with an application form to be considered for the next biennium (2013-2014) of exhibits at the Maude Kerns Art Center. Submissions may include solo, group, and/or themed shows. There is a $15 submission fee for individual artists and a $5 fee per artist for group shows.

The postmark deadline is Friday, April 20, 2012. Application forms and prospectuses are available at the Art Center or online at

http://www.mkartcenter.org/

Call 541-345-1571 for more information.

The Maude Kerns Art Center, located at 1910 E. 15th Avenue at the corner of 15th and Villard, is Eugene’s oldest non-profit community center for the visual arts. Gallery hours are from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm, Monday – Friday, and noon to
4:00 pm on Saturday when exhibits are on display.

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Umpqua Valley Arts Association , Roseburg

44th Annual Summer Arts Festival, scheduled for Friday, June 22nd through Sunday, June 24th, 2012.

Look on their website: http://www.uvarts.com/ starting in January for applications for booths for artists, crafters, food vendors and entertainers.

This is an established, major cultural event in the Umpqua Valley drawing artists and crafters from across the U.S. for the 3 day festival with live music, food from local vendors, and lots of art. The event draws over 16,000 visitors of all ages. Proceeds benefit the UVAA's arts-in-education programs, bringing art instruction to elementary school children in Douglas County.

Those with questions are encouraged to consult the FAQ document posted on http://uvarts.com/summer-arts-festival/ or contact the UVAA by phone at 541-672-2532.

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The Artists' Village, McMinnville, OR Saturday & Sunday, July 14th & 15th, 2012

The McMinnville Sunrise Rotary Club is hosting their 4th Annual Artists' Village. Funds raised from this event go to help develop the arts and help Oregon artists with this event.

This is a juried event to obtain a booth at this show in order to sell your work. 10 ' x 10' booth under a tent, $100 for both days. Jurying fee will be non-refundable $25. Best in Show cash prizes total $1000.

They are looking for a variety of fine art participants including painting, sculpture, pottery, metalwork, dance, music and readings.
Information and applications will be posted in January on their website: http://www.artinmac.org/ Their email contact is artinmac@gmail.com

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The Spring Show: (April, May, June): “WEATHER REPORT”

Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center, Bandon

Works inspired by the South Coast Weather. We’re a land of wild winds, torrential rains, glorious sunsets, rainbows, waving grasses, threatening clouds and churning (or shining) seas----all fair game for our local artists and photographers. No snapshots please. If you have a really fine photo it must be matted and framed and ready for hanging.

Any questions…..check with Ava Richey at Bandon Art Supply or call Victoria Tierney or Susan Lehman at 541-347-9888.

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The Summer Show: (July, August, September): “GAMES PEOPLE PLAY”

Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center, Bandon

It was Crystal Landucci’s impressive collection of games of Chinese checkers that inspired this one. We’re looking for board games of all sorts that can be mounted on the walls; your own inventions would be great too……you’ve got a little while to work on this one so start inlaying those chess boards or drilling those cribbage sets….(fashioning those dominos?)…….This should be a really fun exhibit for the summer and we hope it will combine collectibles and the fruits of your imagination.

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The Fall Show: (October, November, December) “WHAT I DID ON MY VACATION”

Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center, Bandon

Paintings and Journals created by the travelers amongst us. We already have some folks in mind but if you have some work you think might fit in….please let us know.

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Summer Boardwalk Show at Bandon waterfront: It’s The Year of the Dragon , so start planning now!

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Bandon Library Art Committee is seeking artists for exhibitions in both the Hallway Gallery and the Glass Cases during the 2013. You can also put your name on the list in case there are cancellations before then.

The art can be paintings, drawings, mixed media, photography, and the like;

crafts, collections, small sculptures and/or jewelry for the cases. Please contact Alexis Proctor at alexis2101p@yahoo.com or call 541-329-0530.

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Opportunity to Sell your Work:

Kathy from "Katherine's" in Pony Village Mall (south wing) is seeking artists to display art on Art Walk Thursdays from 5 - 8:00 p.m. each month.

The upcoming one is February 9th. The Mall will provide easels and tables. Other stores will be doing music and appetizers. There is no fee, no commission...it's FREE. Contact Kathy at 541-808-2248.

Springtime in GITMO

2012-01-19T17:22:00.000-08:00

I had no idea that George Lucas grew up in Grand Prairie, Texas. He must have cause anyone who could write, “If there is a bright and shining spot in the universe, this is the place farthest from it,” had to live in Gravel Pit.

Grand Prairie was a community about the same size as Coos Bay/North Bend, thirty-five thousand in 1950. It was on a sliver of land running along Highway Eighty between Ft Worse and Dallas. I say sliver cause all of the bigger towns gobbled up every square foot of land around and left ole Gravel Pit just a twenty mile wide section stuffed between the six towns around it. There was Dallas.

Big D had some pretty aggressive mayors in those days; Bob Thornton lived like a king and even built his own castle over by White Rock Lake. White Rock? It was one of two inner city lakes so the rich folks would have some place to go and cool off on hot summer days and being in Texas there were plenty of hot summer days, some hot fall days, a few hot winter days and oh yes, hot spring days.

On the west there was Arlington, named after Robert E Lee’s estate and at one time proud owner of a race track long shut down by the forces of Tarsus the Good. Arlington was a very progressive place, good for business and inviting to new folks. They had a mall, a community college and sold beer! Yeppers they were just over the county line in Tarrant County and seeing as how Dallas County was dry nothing would do but to put a wet city as close as Ft Worse’s city Council could get it. Made it nice for the locals, right after church on Sundays when the clock struck twelve you could meet all of your friends at the county line.

To the South was Cedar Hill, not much more than a fly speck until “Mean” Joe Greene retired and bought a house there. In my day it was a sleepy rural town with a feed store, a Grange hall and three stills. Shhhhhhhhh, no one was supposed to know about the stills.

In the north there was Irving, sort of a poor step-child to Dallas, but absolutely full of every good-looking, young girl in the whole county. There were two reasons for this, rents where eighty percent lower than in Dallas and Love Field Dallas’ air port was just across the river. What difference could that make you ask and well you should, air port, stewardesses, wink, nudge, hint-hint?

Remember this is my memory and it was way back in the fifties and sixties when all flight attendants were women and if a guy even thought about it he would get the tar kicked out of him and run out of town on a rail.

Okay so that was why Gravel Pit was so isolated, it was surrounded by more progressive, more exciting, more business oriented cities.

One other thing, Gravel Pit had twenty-seven fundamentalists churches, not conservative, Protestant churches mind you but fire-breathing, foot-stomping, tail-pinching, hell and damnation fundamentalist churches.

Okay, I’m getting there, and because there were twenty-seven fundamentalist churches in a town of thirty-five thousand you had to be a hard-shelled puritan to get elected. None of this weak-sister Mitt Romney stuff, he wouldn’t qualify as a Christian anyway, he’s a Mormon, but folks so severe in their beliefs that they made Oliver Cromwell look like a gay pride marcher in the May Day parade. If you don’t know who Oliver Cromwell is, there will be a short history seminar after today’s lesson.

And the Fire-breathingist of them all was Preacher Odom. He didn’t even approve of married couples sitting on the same bench. (No pews in his church cause that’s what Catholic heathens sat on.)

Okay, so finally here it comes; Preacher Odon got the City Council to vote in a ban on women wearing shorts of any kind in downtown. There was some confusion, first because it was hard to tell exactly what qualified as downtown and second because in hundred degree heat there was some question about an Eighth Amendment violation, you know the part about cruel and unusual punishment?

Yes, we can cover that in the seminar too. No it really isn’t part of the Fourth Amendment.

And so you see when the Nation needs some yahoo to come up with a really senseless law, like SOPA/PIPA or the Shorts Ordinance you can always count on a Texan to enact it!

That’s why we can all heave a sigh of relief that Rick Perry dropped out of the race and now all we have to fear is fear itself and the Congress.

And just in case you didn’t get yesterday’s post, let me repeat, the Stop Online Piracy Act/Protect IP Act depending on which loony bin you want to try to understand, House or Senate, is a death sentence for anyone wanting to use the Internet to promote their art or to just express an opinion.

Didja you write your Congressman? You can’t complain when Google goes dark if you didn’t let your opinion be known.

Excuse me; I think I hear the black helicopters circling the house so I’m off to grab my toothbrush. Who knows what kind of amenities they have in GITMO?

HR 3261

2012-01-18T16:15:00.000-08:00

I don't usually pay much attention to politics, they don't do much and they don't address my needs so why should I pay any attention to them? Except every now and then, like right now.

Our legislators have decided to make the Internet one big police state with the guys at Google, Yahoo, and Facebook acting as policemen trying to protect the intellectual property rights of...the MPAA. That's the Motion Picture Association of America and they've decided that they are losing so much money to pirates they have to slap all of us with a new law. If they'd try making movies we wanted to see instead of the mean-spirited, low-brow comedies aimed at twelve year old boys maybe they'd be able to make a buck or two. No matter, as an artist and writer you can bet your sweet assets I want my intellectual property rights protected, but I am not so concerned about the MPAA. I certainly am not concerned enough to give up my rights so that they can get more fifteen buck theater tickets sold.

Yeah, I am pissed.

But I wouldn't want you to make an uninformed decision. So here's a thought, if Google is still working on your machine, they blacked out the service for a while to protest, do a search for HR 3261/S 968 and read up on these little whiny, sniveling, cry-baby, protectionist marvels and see if you think they are a good idea and if your life will be better with them guarding your freedoms.

If you do then I support your right to be wrong...

But if you don't here's a thought, take this link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:CongressLookup?zip=

Look up your representative and tell them what you think. Be nice, even though the other guys on this issue would just as soon shut you up without a fair chance to get in your licks we don't want to be just like them...

Oh yes in case you can't think of anything you want to say except whatintheheckareyouthinkingyoumoron
here's what I had to say...

I am contacting you today to voice my overwhelming opposition to the recently introduced legislation known as the Stop Online Piracy Act HR 3261/Protect IP Act S 968.

I am a writer and artist living on the South Coast of Oregon. My concern about protecting the intellectual property rights of creative people no matter what discipline they work in is no whim but a lifelong passion and commitment. The theft of a person’s creative efforts is the equivalent of murder of the soul. But in so saying I do not in any way compromise the absolute need for freedom of expression and the unrestricted flow of information.

The current legislation would be a devastating blow to the small, local artist trying to use the freedom of the Internet to carve out a financial niche. The cost of creative work is a burden artists accept with pride and they often work many jobs to supply the cash needed to buy the supplies they must have for their art. The Internet with its ability to connect to the greater world has been a boon to these struggling artists.

Under HR 3261/S 968 the artist’s access to tools like web pages and blogging would be barred. No provider could afford the risk of allowing thousands of individuals to build and maintain their own web pages if the supplier is forced to police the content. The physical burden of so much checking would require so many checkers the providers would bankrupt themselves trying to comply.

And comply they must under HR 3261/S 968 for the penalty for not doing so would be the Internet Death Penalty. They would face fines, shut down and permanent exclusion from the resources necessary to conduct their business. Under such conditions they would have no choice but to eliminate the risk of free access.

I write a blog about art. Under the proposed legislation I would be required to obtain and permanently keep prior written consent for every Call to Artists, press release, class newsletter and show announcement. If I repost a newsletter from another artist I would not only have to obtain their permission in writing but the consent of every person submitting an item to their newsletter.

This legislation is supported by the MPAA a desperate ploy to shore up flagging film sales by punishing the people who are not going to their movies. The MPAA has a long and sorry history of trying to promote Draconian legislation to protect an industry which insists on producing films that the public does not want to see.

Because this legislation does not benefit your constituents and because it is virtually un-enforceable and would wreck havoc on the Internet I urge you refuse to support HR 3261/S 968.

Roland Miranda

South Coast Trawler

http://demosthenesclub.blogspot.com/

And yes, you can copy it, distribute it, bend, fold, spindle and mutilate it with my blessing. You might think about changing the signature and not use The South Coast Trawler as your contact information, but then you might not.

I have said many times on this blog I support the rights of every artist to control their creations as they see best and to take vigorous action against those who would use property not their own for any purpose without obtaining the correct permissions. But I cannot see how preventing me from posting Ava Richey's newsletter will make art work more secure. I hope that Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter and the rest are successful in their attempt to turn back this dreadful legislation. How 'bout it, "We Shall Over Come" anyone? Darnit! I guess I should have gotten a release from the folks at BMI or is it ASCAP?

Student Art Show

2012-01-18T12:29:00.000-08:00

Student Art Show Opening This Friday,

5-7pm at UVAA

The Umpqua Valley Arts Association will be holding the opening reception for the All Douglas County Student Art Show this Friday, January 20th from 5pm till 7pm.

This exhibition features artworks created by elementary, middle school, and high school

students throughout Douglas County. The exhibit, featuring approximately 500 works in a variety of media, will fill all of UVAA's six gallery spaces. The Hallie Brown Ford Gallery, UVAA's main gallery, will exclusively feature the work of local high school students. Works in this gallery have been juried by art instructors; there will be cash awards for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes.

The reception is open to the public. Refreshments will be served. The Student Art Show will be on display at UVAA until March 2nd, 2012. Come by and check out Douglas County's young talent!

Afraid of the Dark

2012-01-17T18:12:00.000-08:00

Dark days and darker nights, just the sort of thing to take the drive out of an artist, where’s the golden light of summer?

You can stick your head in the sand and wait for the brighter days of spring to appear or you can start doing some of the drudgery that gets put off when things are sunny and the light is good.

Have you checked all of your frames? Sure you do. You have a bunch of frames just waiting for some new work of art and they’re there for the taking. How? Just take that picture out, the one that’s been in the frame for the last five years and been to every show and art fair up and down the coast and you still love it, but darnit it just won’t sell.

You can’t let your affection for a piece cloud your judgment and supplies are hard to come by. If every artist could frame every picture they produce and keep that frame on the image even when it doesn’t attract any attention the frame shops would be gold mines. I think if you ask Ken and Jane Snoddy they’ll tell you artists are a penurious lot, they don’t like to let go of a dime until they have to and even then they squeeze and pinch it’s no wonder Liberty has nothing to wear but a gown and had to be retired and let Mercury have a turn cause we only get to see his head and that’s not all that shocking even if it does get nekkid.

No, frames are a resource in short supply and if you let your old images take up all the space between the slats there’ll be no room for your new and even better images.

So maybe when the days are dark, it’s time to put on the work gloves, get out the miner’s light and excavate the closet and see if there are any frames you can salvage.

Don’t toss the images you take out of those frames! You might just need them in the future, but now is the time to take them out of the frame and roll them up if they are prints or canvas which can be freed from the stretcher and label them carefully and in a place which you can see without moving all of the furniture in the room and put them in the space cleared by moving the frame out.

Now you see, you have a frame. It probably isn’t the nicest frame, might have a dent or two or a scrape and you’ll need to take care of that before you put some new art in it.

Rule 1, if it has been sitting for any length of time it is dusty so clean it. You know that closet is full of dust bunnies and you’ve avoided it for just that reason, a heard of dust bunnies can be dangerous. They charge if they get spooked and turning on the light is just the thing to spook them.

If the frame has been dinged or scratched you have to fix that before you can use it again. If you put fresh art in it, nothing will stand out like a big, ole nasty scrape. Don’t wait until you are carrying your work into a gallery to see and gasp. Fix it now before you re-use it.

Buy two cans of shoe polish. I know, I know that’s just not the right way to do things and maybe a more exacting and aesthetically driven artist wouldn’t even think it, but in truth I’m just a yeoman and do think it and with one can of black and one can of brown, or ox blood, I can make an emergency repair on most wooden frames and some metal frames which will pass even under gallery lighting.

This is where I urge you to standardize your work. I know because I’ve done it a lot, some pieces just scream for gallery-sized canvas. There’s nothing like seeing a wall-sized bit of art headed for the culture starved eyes of the public. But for you, the artist, gallery-sized work is full of pitfalls. You will have to order a custom frame. No one makes a 40 X 65 frame and they certainly don’t stock it so that it will lie around their show room gathering dust. They do love it when you order it cause they can charge you an arm and a leg for making it and then ship it out so that storing it becomes your problem.

Try to work in standard sizes. For a photographer, oh, that’s me, standard is the name of the game, 11 X 14 fits nicely in a 16 X 20 frame and for eye-catching work 16 x 20 will work in a 20 X 24 frame and that is what I try to target my images at.

But if you paint, the bigger the better, until you have to frame it, maybe gallery wrap is the way for you to go. Give it some thought.

So you’ve emptied out the closet, changed out the frames, standardized your work, what’s left? Review, review, review.

All of those images you took from the frames need to be looked over. Some will be scrap and maybe you should consider painting over them. Some will still call with a siren’s song and you probably need to keep them until the pounding in your brain and the rushing of your blood go away.

But look at them. You can’t make a decision if you have no earthly idea of what you have.

Of course if you take time, right now, to get out your camera and set up a flat lighting space and record all of these images digitally so that you can load them on your computer and make an index for quick search and recovery then you won’t need to do this all over again next January.

And while you are at it you can get Giclees made of the best ones, set up a Zazzle shop to link to your web page and start trying to bring in some money.

Yes, it is never ending, the artist’s quest for money to feed the supply demands of your art. But if you take the time now when the light is lousy and the days are wet then when you get that glorious spring you’ll be ready for Teddy.

Timing is Everything

2012-01-16T18:13:00.000-08:00

There’s an expression in Stand-up, timing is everything. That’s true for a lot of stuff, like art for instance.

Timing, doing the right thing at the right time is what makes the difference between getting the laugh and playing to a cold house. Now you probably have never had to stand in front of a group of people who are not listening, not paying attention or not giving a rat’s rear about what you are doing, but it is one of those special times when if you die at that, moment you would live happily ever after.

Fortunately in visual art that rarely happens. We create our “kids” send them out into the cold, cruel world and wait while they do or die and we, the smug, secure artists never have to watch what happens.

That’s like seeing “Old Yeller” and never getting to the part about the damned bear, like “Bambi” with mom coming home from the grocery store or “Marley and Me” with Marley getting his own show on HBO, it ain’t never gonna happen but wouldn’t it be nice?

No we just don’t have to worry about the timing of our art; we can do pretty much whatever we want.

Unless we want a wider audience and then we have to man up and get with the program and try to find that niche market where what we do will be just what the doctor ordered.

Yes, I’m talking about taking into consideration where our art will eventually be hung. Now maybe you are a show painter, creating all of your art for the juried shows and living on the income you get from bringing home the winnings. You don’t have to think about anything but what that still, secret little voice whispers in your ear.

You know if you weren’t a painter hearing Voices in your head would get you a first-class ticket to Bellevue. So maybe trusting to your inner muse isn’t always a good thing. At least keep the part about Voices to yourself.

If you don’t count on winning the show Lotto, then you have to be aware that someone else will ultimately decide what your art is good for, that bare place over the couch, the spare room where the folks sleep when they come in for the holidays, the office where you make people sit and sweat it out while you play Angry Birds.

All of those uses for art require a thought or two about timing.

But let’s say that you have been such a great painter and have been working at your trade for so long you have a following and don’t need to think. Whatever you choose to do will get bought and hung and that’s an end to that.

So maybe you paint only flowers.

They don’t move, they don’t fidget, and they don’t need bathroom breaks, but how many times can you make a meal on something which everyone has seen? An artist can take what Nature offers and make it something new and different but how different can you make a flower before it stops being a flower and becomes something else?

This is where timing comes in; every so often Nature comes along and says, “That poor painter has been doing Iris so long that if he does just one more I am going to Ralph. I’ll just give him a dusting of snow, or maybe ice and that’ll let him have a different look for his Iris.”

And that’s just what happened the last two days here in Coos Bay.

Now I don’t do Iris, although I don’t have anything against Iris they just don’t speak to me, but I do like a lot of things, things like an abandoned bird feeder with a cob still there even though the little pigs picked it clean months ago.

Oh yes, timing, well yesterday I was out, camera in hand, what you thought after the spectacular sunsets I caught the other day I’d forget my camera, and the ice storm hit while I was shopping at Safeway.

Not a good thing at all, even someone as crafty, clever and devious as am I couldn’t figure a single way to make an ice coated parking lot look like anything but a parking lot. It was a very nice ice coated parking lot but just a parking lot after all and I managed to get pretty cold trying to see something new and fascinating in it. Bad timing. I was in the wrong place at the right time with my equipment ready and a weather eye out and nothing happened.

And that is life. Sometimes no matter how prepared you are things just won co-operate.

But I got another chance. This morning the weather Gods came back with more icy stuff and it fell on my place where I happened to be with my cameras ready and my boots on, Okay, okay, I had on my bunny slippers and had to swap them out before I could go out and get the pictures I spotted from inside my nice warm kitchen.

And I did just that, I whipped on my heavy weather gear, hey I’m from Texas cold and wet means hats and gloves and goulashes and maybe a Union suit just for good measure, and I went out and got my picture.

That’s timing. Two days back to back, both times I had a camera and the desire but on one occasion I had nothing I could make into a picture. And timing is everything.

So, make sure you have all of your tools where you can get your hands on them. These events, little weather hiccups don’t come along every day and if you want to take advantage of what Nature serves up you have to be ready. Don’t get caught with old jokes and a hostile house, you won’t enjoy what comes next.

Lemon Shark Alert

2012-01-16T16:49:00.000-08:00

Click image for larger view

The Best Day Ever

2012-01-15T15:12:00.000-08:00

In this country we have a whole industry devoted to “The Best Day Ever” it’s called the Bridal Consultant and they can clean out the father of the bride faster than an IRS audit.

But they do make for wonderful memories, those beautiful flowers, lovely gowns, fantastic settings, and horrible brides’ maid dresses.

There is no corresponding career path for folks who want to make men have that magical experience, well there is the stripper at the Bachelor party, but we’d probably be better off just to skip that and move on.

Okay there is the moment in every boy’s life when he sees the ONE for the first time, that body, that look, that grace, there’s just no substitute for the first time a boy see the car of his dreams.

Kids get to have this experience all of the time and we as adults tend to ignore their enthusiasm, “They’re just kids, what do they know?” But they do know, they get excited by bunnies and peacocks, rainbows, Barney and ice cream and that isn’t something we should discount. There is plenty of time for them to become cynical.

Wait until they have to vote… There’s a Texas politician turned humorist which may strike you as strange the rest of the country taking Texas politicians as pretty funny guys no matter what they call themselves, but it’s true, Jim Hightower turned in his hat and became a writer of funnies and did the rest of the state a big favor. One of the books he wrote in his new life as a humorist is called, “If God had wanted us to vote, he’d have given us candidates!”

Didn’t seem as funny ten years ago when it was first on the shelves, but now…

Anyway, the best day ever gets away from most adults. We’re so serious. You don’t believe that, just ask an artist to tell you about their work, within the first ten seconds your eyes will roll back into your head and you will loose the will to live. And heaven help the artist who says, “I don’t really know what I’m doing, I just kinda go with the flow.”

Quick get back there’s going to be a whole Special High Intensity Training storm of brick bats and jeers cause the one thing an artist cannot abide is someone who is doing better than they are at creative stuff, selling more and not taking it seriously. Go on fess up, you might as well come out in favor of free love and those funny smokes that they sell at the Herb shops.

And more than likely a person who doesn’t take themselves all that seriously will do better cause they won’t have lost that sense of wonder which allows kids to spend a whole day chasing and being chased by an Emu and thinking it really is the best day ever.

Can we talk? Would you even notice if you happened to have the best day ever? I mean just what makes a day, any day, the best day ever? Did you create something special? Did you meet someone special? Did you win a prize, get a big check, secure a valuable commission? What makes a day the best day ever if you aren’t ten?

Even more important are you ready for the best day ever?

Whaddya mean ready? I’m ready it just that that day keeps skipping right over me.

No, it doesn’t and being ready means keeping your heart and soul open to all of the wonderment that ten year olds see and adults don’t. It means having the right tools at hand so when you get the best day ever you can latch onto it with both hands clinging by tooth and toenail like a man going over the falls and not letting go until you figure out a way to capture, hold, freeze that day.

Do you carry a sketchbook with you? What about a camera? I know, I know you’re a painter and never stoop to taking photographs, so I hope you are fast cause around here, at this time of the year, things can change in a blink and if you aren’t ready that very moment, it’s gone.

You know the spring show is coming up at the Southern Coos Hospital. Yes, those nice folks, Ava Richey, Susan Lehman and Victoria Tierney are letting those of us who can comply with their objectives hang art, in a public place, for free and all we have to do is read the requirements and get it ready, like for their Spring show, “Weather report”.

I am ready I just have to decide which image I want to enter. How did I do that? It wasn’t hard, in fact I was doing something else entirely and just happened to be coming home when it happened, I had the best day ever!

Yeah that’s what I thought, it don’t get much better than that…

Or does it?

Could this be the one?

Too cool, maybe something with brighter colors…

Then again maybe the cool shades were the one that will make the mood just right, it is supposed to be a weather thingy…

You see I hadn’t expected to have the best day ever; I was coming home from an artist’s reception, minding my own business when there on the Bar God worked his wonders with light and shadow. And I happened to have a camera.

You can say its cheating and maybe it is, taking a slice of time with a camera seems pretty easy, you point and shoot and let the camera do all of the work. But knowing where to point and when to shoot takes a little bit of experience and most of all you have to have the camera with you.

You see this time my best day ever happened when I was ready and now I get to share it with you.

Studio t. Susan Lehman

2012-01-15T13:10:00.000-08:00

"Dare to be remarkable!" Gentry

"It's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years!" Lincoln

"Life is short. Eat dessert first!" Torres

You get the idea! Using quotes, haikus (I show you how), images, "found poems" and your imagination we learn to fill page after page with our inspired art play! Get in touch with the inner muse; express what is in your heart of hearts...

Join me at Studio t. in Bandon for a fun afternoon; bring a journal and join in! The registration form is in the attachment.

Art Journaling Play Day! with Susan Lehman

Sunday, February 5th, 2012 1-4 PM

3 hours/$35/includes all materials except a journal

If you have a beautiful book with blank pages or if someone has given you a nice handmade journal and you are wondering what to put in it, this class is for you!

Susan Lehman will demonstrate and guide you through countless possibilities for getting in touch with your creative writing and play.

You’ll be altering photos, stitching and weaving things onto the pages, writing to prompts, doodling, stamping, stenciling and more!

Bring your already handmade or purchased journal (at least 6”x 8”, no larger than 12”x16”) and fill it with glowing colors, imaginative images and creative writing!

Minimum of 5 students; maximum of 8

Classes fill quickly! Sign up deadline: Jan.27, 2012

Baked Art

2012-01-14T18:08:00.000-08:00

And while we’re on the subject of alternate definitions for art, let me suggest baking.

Oh sure, we all do it, even the Ole Trawler himself has been known to whip out a Brownie pan and bake some cream cheese swirl Brownies. But even in my most self-serving moments I wouldn’t call them art. They taste good and I’ve never seen any get thrown out, but art, not so much.

Shhhhhhhhh! You want my doctor to hear? I have never baked nor eaten a Brownie since I became an Insulin Dependant Diabetic.

But that doesn’t keep me from remembering or appreciating the fine art of baking.

This brings me to Charleston,

http://www.cantrellsbakery.com/

Cantrell’s Bakery has just opened in Oyster Square and you should go there and buy a ton of stuff and eat until your eyes bulge cause I can’t, but I’d like to and if you do then maybe I won’t make funny little animals noises every time I drive past the shop cause I have to do it almost every day because it is between me and my post office box.

And if you time it right you can stop at Miller’s at the Cove which is right next door and get a huge 10oz Miller burger to make a balanced and proper meal out of all of the sweets which you are going to get at Cantrell’s bakery.

The Long Suffering has declared that Cantrell’s Bakery should be put on the list of National Monuments and I think she just might get Congress to do it seeing as how she is a registered voter and this is an election year and the politicos are out looking under leaves, and rocks and twigs beating the bushes, which is not to be confused with the Bushes, cause even though the Georges are dorks, Laura is pretty special and Barbara is the National Grandma so you won’t see any Bush beatings around here, for votes which is why the Long Suffering just might get her way.

Now I recommend you go to Cantrell’s Bakery site where you will find a flock of wonderful pictures of the food that Laura whips up taken by her Long Suffering Michael who is an excellent camera type guy photographer person. If that doesn’t get your motor running you have a serious problem. With all of the long dark days this time of year you need a load of sugar to keep the Blues away even though playing the Blues on your entertainment center CD player is an excellent way to motivate yourself to work long and hard in the studio and then after all of that work you know you need a piece of cake to keep your energy up, so go to Cantrell’s Bakery and buy a coupla muffins cause you know that when the rest of the county finds out that you’ve been to the bakery they’ll drop by unexpectedly and eat you out of house and home and then there you’ll be with nothing, but a plate full of crumbs and a burning desire to go back to Charleston.

Which is a good thing cause Charleston has a lot of nifty, neat and cool places for you to eat lunch while you are there shopping at Cantrell’s Bakery like High Tide Café.

And while you are High Tide eating yourself silly be sure to take note of the art on display and then since life has been exceptionally good to you letting you eat at all of these good places and getting treats from the bakery you can make a donation to the Charleston Food Bank, cause there are a lot of people who are not as fortunate and who need food to keep warm and don’t have a pocket full of loot to blow on lunches out and treats from the bakery.

And if you buy any of Carol Miranda’s art there at High Tide 20% goes directly to the Charleston Food Bank so you can get some great art for your house to make it more attractive while you are stuffing your face with baked goods and watching all of the mid-seson replacement programs on TV. And if you do you’ll be doing a good turn for those who can’t do for themselves.

Charleston is a wonderful boutique community with a rich and interesting history and it is home to none other than Charles of Charleston himself, who happens to have a show of his own at the Coos Art Museum and that is another reason for you to go to Charleston and take in all of the special sites and sounds so that when you see the work of Charles and all the rest of the Plein Air painters group, you didn’t really think Charles did it all by himself did you, no matter what he says, you will know where all of the goodies came from.

And now you should be hungry and restless and on your way to Charleston, but remember Cantrell’s Bakery doesn’t open until Wednesday so you actually have three days to kill and doing all of the other things I mentioned will get you in the mood for some of that baked wonderfulness.

Or you could go out on a crab boat and work the pots for a month or more and lose all of the weight you gained over the holidays and come back lean and mean and ready for a trip to the bakery. Whaddya think?

Ava Richey's Art News

2012-01-13T16:16:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

Join the Plein Air painters for lunch and/or painting this Monday, January 16th, 2012 at Rancho Viejo Mexican Restaurant, 12 - 3 p.m.

It is located on the northeast side of the intersection of Hwy 101 and Hwy 42S in Bandon (across the street from the coffee kiosk in Ray's Food Store parking lot).

Come prepared to paint skies....from your head, or bring photo resource. Or you can paint or draw whatever you would like. :)

Hope to see you there.
My phone is 541-347-4643 or cell is 541-297-6118.

Thanks!
Ava
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Art Information:

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FYI: New listings have asterisks ***** next to the date.

If any of the web links below in blue are not "live", meaning if you click on it and it doesn't take you to the website,--- right click on it and choose copy, then open your internet web browser, left click on the web address window at the top to highlight it, then right click and paste the web link into your browser and hit enter. The site should open.

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For Sale: Amaco Clay & Craft Oven Used Once Cost $63. Make offer, will consider barter. Contact Carolpj37@gmail.com

Art in the Mountains Workshop in Bend, OR-- Watercolorist Charles Reid, June 11 - 15th three spaces left. If you are going and want to ride with another artist, contact Linda at lindamecum@wildblue.net

Rosie's Art Carnival, Florence "Used Sale", Jan. 24 -28th This is your chance to sell your gently used stamp and scraping materials, and to buy used at garage sale prices. artcarnival@oregonfast.net

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Artists' Accomplishments:

We want to honor the achievements of all you artists, so don't be shy about sending the highlights of your art lives, or those of your artist friends.

Congratulations to Victoria Hodgetts Tierney who has work currently on display at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, CA. It is a photograph of an installation piece she did with Judy Chicago's Woman House project in the early 1970's. Victoria's part of the project was called Nurturant Kitchen..

Victoria has a wonderful past filled with art and the making of it, as well as her current and future art endeavors. She also works hard to provide spaces for other artists to show their work. She is a wonderful asset to our art community.

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Current Shows:

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Backstreet Gallery, 1421 Bay Street, Florence http://backstreetgallery.org/

Opening reception for Mary Beers' beaded jewelry and jeweled objects. January 14, 2012

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Bandon Artist Supply 175 2nd Street in Old Town, on the PedWay. 541-347-4482.

Through January

"Rural Farm Delivery" is a vibrant show featuring acrylic & ink paintings and cards by S L Donaldson, and acrylic paintings by Michael W. Ousley.

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Bandon Public Library January 1- 31, 2012

Reception on Sunday, January 15th, 2 - 4:00 p.m.

Hallway Gallery: "Nature's Way", oils and pastels by Vicki Afatati.

Cases: Patricia Davidson's small framed photos of Southern Oregon Coast.

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Coos Art Museum 235 Anderson Ave. Coos Bay 541-267-3901 http://www.coosart.org/

Opening Art Reception for "Wood Art Invitational" in the Mabel Hansen

Gallery, featuring 10 wood artists: Philip Clausen, Thomas Clevenger, Jim Deardoff, Rick Fox, Steve Kuntz, Kenneth, Kenneth Means, Mitch Rolicheck, Charles Tatum, George Vrana, and Terry Woodall.

"Native American Basket of the South Coast" in the Uno E. Richter Gallery.

And also showing in the Atrium: "Charleston, Images in Paint". Featured artist and curator Charles of Charleston and Cohorts : Joan Goodman Fox, Sally Rolicheck, Sarita Southgate, Jean Adamson, Dutch Mostert, Nancy Berry, Carollee Tucker, Rod Sullens and Curt Hitch. (Organized by Joan Goodman Fox.)

Show runs December 9, 2011 through February 11, 2012

January BAAA "Artist of the Month" featured in the BAAA display in the lobby of the Coos Art Museum is Sherry Howk.

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Coos Bay Library 525 West Anderson, Coos Bay

January
Wall Display : David Castleberry--Vibrant paintings of nature

Case Display: Egyptian Theatre Preservation Association

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Coquille Valley Art Center 10144 Hwy 42, Coquille 541-396-3294

January 9th - 31st

"Oregon the Beautiful" featuring artists from various departments of the Art Center. Hours are Monday - Friday 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

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Coquille Valley Hospital, 940 E. 5th Street, Coquille, OR

Photography show featuring works by Kathy and Dick Chambers of Myrtle Point; Patricia Davidson, Coos Bay; Kelle Herrick, Bandon; Richard Kirk, Myrtle Point; Kathy Phillips, Myrtle Point; David Sinnot, formerly of Coquille; and Tony Spenader, Coquille. A portion of sales goes to the CVHA Auxiliary. Show runs through February.

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Crystal Dolphin Gallery

1901 Sherman Ave, North Bend, 541-756-1989

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Easy Lane Frames & Select Gallery

3440 Broadway, North Bend, 541-756-7638

"What's New?". Features Gallery Artists and their new works.

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Emerald Art Center

500 Main Street, Springfield 11 a.m. - 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

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Evergreen Court

Evergreen Court, Baycrest Village, 451 O'Connell St., North Bend, OR

541-756-7658

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Florence Events Center

715 Quince Street, Florence Call for more info at 541-997-1994

Gallery One: "Water Media Artists" display of 16 Watercolor Society of Oregon members.

Winter Folk Festival at Florence Events Center http://www.winterfolkfestival.org/

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Langlois Public Library 48234 Hwy 101, Langlois, OR 97450

Hours: Mon. 11a.m.-2 p.m., Tues-Fri. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Paintings of Sheila Oberg continue into the new year.

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Manley Art Center 433 Oak Street, Brookings, OR 541-469-1807

Watercolor Society of Oregon traveling watercolor show.

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Maude Kerns Gallery 1910 East 15th Ave, Eugene, OR 541-345-1571

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North Bend Library, Conference Room January 541-756-0400 http://www.northbendlibrary.org/

Features : "Ontogeny" --A new series of acrylic and ink paintings that use color and form to explore organism development, by artist S L Donaldson.

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Old City Hall-- 99 E. Second Street, Corner of Second and Adams, Coquille

January 2012: "TIME" -- A Statewide Traveling Show of Oregon Prison Art.

The first of a series of art/music events in 2012 to celebrate CENTENNIAL 1912- 2012 in Coquille:

*****February 12, 2012 2:00 p.m. A multimedia show with Jack Ponting. 20 art pieces and 100 minutes of original music. $10 per person--prepaid reservations required at the door. Contact Nella Abbott at 541-824-0779 for reservations and information.

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Pony Village Mall:

ArtWalk: Various artists showing at tables in lobby areas near Katherine's and Harry Ritchie Jewelers. and Artists Loft.
Also in the Mall:

Artists' Loft, 541-756-4088

Gallery Artists Group Show, features jewelry by Hester Solsang and paintings by Shirley Sargeant Wilhelmsen

East Wing Art Wall (by JoAnn's)

Saron Bacheus

Sterling Savings Bank

Artists Loft members' paintings

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Port Orford Library January-March

Paintings by Susan Lehman, Jane Schmaltz and Ava Richey

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Raincoast Gallery

Featuring work of many local artists.

Gallery is open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily except Tuesdays.

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South Slough Interpretive Center, Charleston -- in the William Q. Wick Auditorium

January 7 - February 29, 2012
Graphite renderings of birds and wildlife by Lance Cox.

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January 11th through March, 2012 Artists' Opening Reception Sunday, January 15th from 1 - 3:00 p.m.

Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center

"Down on the Farm" features agriculture related art. Don't miss it!

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Umpqua Valley Arts Center, 1625 W. Harvard, Roseburg

541-672-2532 http://www.uvarts.com/

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U.S. Bank--Coquille

Works by Joanne Drapkin; Victoria Tierney's paintings of Coos County Parks for the 30 Parks by 30 Artists Show; selected works from "TIME" - A Statewide Traveling Show of Oregon Prison Art.

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Whistling Gallery

87456 Ste. A, Whistling Drive, Bandon (located in Laurel Grove, 5 miles south of Bandon.) A variety of artists showing 2-d and 3-d work.

Also in charge of showing work at Billy Smoothboar's and other venues for those artists interested in showing their work, contact Vickie.

541-404-7336, or whistlinggallery@gmail.com

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Classes

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Artist Loft Gallery, Pony Village Mall, North Bend. Call for Class

Information at 541-756-4088

If you are interested in taking a Chinese Brush Painting class with Darlene Diehl on April 12, 2012, $67 for 5 hours with all supplies provided, please contact Carol Young at 541-260-4573. Class will be held in the Artist Loft classroom.

Beginning Watercolor with Carol Young, for info call 541-260-4573.

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Bay Be, located in Charleston, next door to High Tide Cafe is now open and offers licensed childcare for kids 3 yrs & up with a focus on nature and art projects. ALSO offer workshops for adults--making lip balm, jewelry, knitting and yoga.

Thursday, January 26, 2012 Knitting with Nancy: Thursday, 7 - 8:30 p.m., Saturday, January 21, 2012: Yoga with Elka Sky 3 - 4:00 p.m.

Drop-in Saturdays from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. with only $5 and 5 minutes we can help you create a craft such as paper, a candle, a willow basket, driftwood sculpture or bird feeder. 541-888-3265, Find us on Facebook.

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Brookings Area and more:

various classes are listed at http://wildrivercoastart.com/

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Coos Art Museum, Coos Bay 541-267-4877 for more information.

*****Tuesdays beginning January 24th with Stephanie Tomlin: Drawing One, kindergarten to 2nd graders. 3:45 - 4:45 p.m. Drawing Two, 3rd to 6th graders, 5 - 6 p.m.

******Thursdays, starting January 19th with Liv Drahos and Robin Jenkins: Advanced Watercolor 10:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

******Friday, February 3, 2012 Golden Acrylics and the New Inventions with Corrine Loomis Dietz 7:00 p.m.

******Saturday, February 4, 2012 Acrylic's Seductive Surfaces and Palettes of Pigment with Corrine Loomis Dietz 10 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

*****Tuesday - Thursday, April 3, 4, 5th, 2012 Watercolor from Start to Finish with Judy Morris 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

*****Saturdays, May 12th & 19th: Paper Arts with Holly Rodenkirk and Mary Cervantes 10:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.

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Coquille Valley Art Association 10144 Hwy 42, Coquille, OR 541-396-3294 http://www.coquillevalleyartcenter.org/

Painting with Pat Weaver 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., Tuesdays and Wednesdays No class Dec. 14 - Jan. 17.

Painting with Anna Crosby 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays

Painting/Drawing 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Mondays Painting with Bunny Upton 12 - 3 p.m. Mondays

Woodcarving 6 - 9:00 p.m. Tuesdays

Wood Burning 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Tuesdays

Play with Clay 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Thursdays

Ken Means Carving 9 - 12 noon and 6 - 9 p.m. on Wednesdays

Quilting 10 a.m. on Wednesdays

Appliqué 10 a.m. Tuesdays

Stained Glass 2:30 - 5:00 and another at 6 - 9 p.m. Mondays and Fridays 9:30 - 12:30

Fiber Arts 10 a.m. on Fridays

Yoga 6 p.m. Mondays

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Easy Lane Frames, 3440 Broadway, North Bend, 541-756-7638

Contact for information on a variety of classes.

Fridays, Watercolor Studio with Jane Snoddy, $10 per session.

"Using the Pouring Technique in Watercolor" starts January 9th with Sherry Howk

"Cartooning" with Leo Chiantelli,
Thursdays 3:30 - 5:30, Jan. 26 - Feb. 16th.

"Silk Paper" a how-to class with Liz Brende. Workshop Thurs. Jan. 19th from 1 - 3:00 p.m.

Creating Textures in Collage with Susan Lehman, Feb.18th, 10 a.m. -2 p.m.

Palette Knife Technique with Acrylics with Carolyn Le Grande, 4 week class in February.

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Freshwater Gallery, 236B Hwy 101, Port Orford (next to Paula's Bistro)

Sundays, 3-5 p.m.: Figure Drawing with Model, $25

Mondays, 5-7 p.m.: Seascape Painting, $20 per class.

For information: 541-332-8019 or 541-236-8077, or wilddoodle@earthlink.net

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Gallery on the Bay
658 S. Empire Blvd, Empire 541-888-3771

Lessons in painting pastel by Darrell Sanders.

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Heritage Textile Arts Guild
157#A, Pony Village Mall, North Bend
Lessons available in wearables, kitchen linens and gift items.

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Manley Art Center, Brookings

Call for class and workshop schedules. 541-469-1807
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Rose Palette, Pony Village Mall, North Bend. 541-290-7858

Oil Painting classes by Carol Turner, 2:30 - 5:30 Mondays, $20 per class. You can reach Carol at 541-396-5373 for information on other classes as well.
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Rosie's Art Carnival, 575 B Hwy 101, Florence artcarnival@oregonfast.net www.facebook.com/rosiesartcarnival
New Classes: e-mail for more information.
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Sage Place, 11th; Elmira, Bandon

For a schedule of classes offered go to: http://www.sagegallerybandon.com/

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"Studio t" in Bandon presents:
Art Doll Workshop! with dorothea tortilla on Sunday, January 22, 2012. 1 - 5:00 p.m. 4 hours/$45/Includes Materials. No sewing skills required. Learn fabric techniques including painting, stamping, inks and transfers while creating one of a kind fantasy art dolls. Deadline to Register is January 14th. Contact studioblue@mycomspan.com for registration and information.

Art Journaling Play Day! with Susan Lehman on Sunday, February 5, 2012. 1 - 4:00 p.m. 3 hours/$35/includes all materials except a journal. Bring a blank book no larger than 12"x16" and get creative. You will be altering photos, stitching and weaving things onto the pages, writing to prompts, doodling, stamping, stenciling and more. Deadline to register is January 27, 2012. For registration and information contact
studioblue@mycomspan.com
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Umpqua Valley Arts Center, Roseburg

1624 W. Harvard, Roseburg, OR 97471 541-672-2532 http://www.uvarts.com/

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Dateline Events:

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Saturday, January 14, 2012 10:30 a.m.
Rosie's Art Carnival, Florence artcarnival@oregonfast.net
Artist Trading Card Swap
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Saturday, January 14, 2012 4 - 7:00 p.m.
Second Saturday Art Walk, downtown Brookings. Many venues, Art, entertainment, delicious food and interesting people.
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Saturday, January 14, 2012 11:00 a.m.
Eden Hall on SOCC campus, Coos Bay.
Bay Area Artists Association monthly meeting. Presentation features Yvonne Ousley demonstrating and leading a group participation hands-on fiber project. Bring small amounts of yarn with you, if you like. Public welcome. For information contact Sherry Howk at 541-404-5059.
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Saturday, January 14, 2012 3-5:00 p.m.
Backstreet Gallery, 1421 Bay Street, Old Town Florence OR. 541-997-8980 http://www.backstreetgallery.org http://www.katheryndavis.com//katys_book/qw_publishing.html
Opening reception for Mary Beers' beaded jewelry and jeweled objects.
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Sunday, January 15, 2012 1 - 3 p.m. Opening Reception
Southern Coos Hospital and Care Center, 900 SE 11th St, Bandon
Opening reception for "Down on the Farm". Live music by "Slow Ponies", refreshments and ART! The show is sponsored by AVK Arts, and runs through March 2012.
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Sunday, January 15, 2012 2 - 4:00 p.m. Opening Reception
Opening reception for Vicki Afatati and Patricia Davidson at Bandon Public Library.
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***** Thursday, January 19, 2012 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Gold Beach Episcopal Church Easternmost end of Moore Street.

Figure Drawing. To confirm & for more information contact Alexandra
alexandra@portraitsbyalexandra.com

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Calls to Artists:
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Application Deadline February 1, 2012
Illahe Studios; Gallery, 215 Fourth St., Ashland, OR 97520 541-488-5072
Third Annual Artist Book Exhibit April 6 - 28, 2012
"April is National Poetry Month and we would like to celebrate the art of the word, in the form of Artist Books. Works submitted should display original design and execution.

We are defining "artist books" as original works of art created as a book. One of a kind books or works from small editions and may be based in any of the following mediums or combinations of mediums: poetry, prose, printmaking, painting, calligraphy, mixed media, photography, sculpture, textile, found objects, and letterpress printing. For this show we will not be accepting blank books or journals. Submitted work must have been created within the past two years.
Must be ready to exhibit and sell. Works may not exceed 16" x 16" x 24". Maximum of three pieces may be submitted for review.

For more information: http://www.illahegallery.com/content/CallforArtists.shtml
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Delivery Deadline January 30th - February 1, 2012
Easy Lane Frames and Select Gallery 3440 Broadway, North Bend, 541-756-7638
Show theme is "Winter Wonder". All welcome, no fee, enter one piece of artwork that reflects the color, temperature or feeling of winter. Show runs Feb. 2 - March 30.
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Deadline 1/31/12 Abecedarian Gallery, Denver, CO

http://www.abecedariangallery.com/ for Pdf prospectus download.
Annual juried artists' book exhibition. Show runs 4/20 - 6/02/2012.
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Deadline February 4, 2012 for Expressions West 2012
Coos Art Museum, 235 Anderson Ave, Coos Bay, 97420, 541-267-3901
Cash Awards (not purchase prizes), 13 Western States --painters may submit up to three entries in one or more of four media: oil, acrylic, pastel or watercolor.

For prospectus and entry form contact the website: http://www.coosart.org/ or address/phone above.
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Deadline for entry is February 10, 2012

Maude Kerns Art Center "Variations: Art Expressing Music" Submit images of 2D; 3D artwork in all mediums that is inspired by music or related to the theme of music. Supply five digital images in color at 300 dpi on CD in jpeg format. Work will be selected by jurors from the submitted images. There is a $15 submission fee.

Application forms; prospectus available at http://www.mkartcenter.org/
or call 541-345-1571. Show runs April 6 - May 11, 2012

Maude Kerns Art Center is located at 1910 E. 15th Ave. (corner of 15th; Villard), Eugene.
Gallery hours are
10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. M-F,
Saturday--noon -4 p.m.

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Submission Deadline: February 28, 2012

"Artworks NW 2012" (formerly "Hundred Valleys")

Umpqua Valley Arts Association,
1624 W. Harvard, Roseburg, OR 97471
http://www.uvarts.com
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Submission Deadline: February 28, 2012
"Photoworks NW 2012" (formerly titled "Best Photo")

Umpqua Valley Arts Association, 1624 W. Harvard, Roseburg, OR 97471
http://www.uvarts.com/
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Submission Deadline: Friday, April 20, 2012
Maude Kerns Art Center’s

Call for Artists: 2013-2014 Exhibits Schedule

Artists working in all 2- and 3-dimensional mediums, including
installations, are invited to submit images of their work along with an application form to be considered for the next biennium (2013-2014) of exhibits at the Maude Kerns Art Center. Submissions may include solo, group, and/or themed shows. There is a $15 submission fee for individual artists and a $5 fee per artist for group shows.

The postmark deadline is Friday, April 20, 2012. Application forms and prospectuses are available at the Art Center or online at
http://www.mkartcenter.org/
Call 541-345-1571 for more information.

The Maude Kerns Art Center, located at 1910 E. 15th Avenue at the corner of 15th and Villard, is Eugene’s oldest non-profit community center for the visual arts. Gallery hours are from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm, Monday – Friday, and noon to 4:00 pm on Saturday when exhibits are on display.
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Umpqua Valley Arts Association , Roseburg
44th Annual Summer Arts Festival, scheduled for Friday, June 22nd through Sunday, June 24th, 2012.
Look on their website: http://www.uvarts.com starting in January for applications for booths for artists, crafters, food vendors and entertainers.

This is an established, major cultural event in the Umpqua Valley drawing artists and crafters from across the U.S. for the 3 day festival with live music, food from local vendors, and lots of art. The event draws over 16,000 visitors of all ages. Proceeds benefit the UVAA's arts-in-education programs, bringing art instruction to elementary school children in Douglas County.

Those with questions are encouraged to consult the FAQ document posted on http://uvarts.com/summer-arts-festival/ or contact the UVAA by phone at 541-672-2532.
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The Artists' Village, McMinnville, OR Saturday; Sunday, July 14th; 15th, 2012
The McMinnville Sunrise Rotary Club is hosting their 4th Annual Artists' Village. Funds raised from this event go to help develop the arts and help Oregon artists with this event.
This is a juried event to obtain a booth at this show in order to sell your work. 10 ' x 10' booth under a tent, $100 for both days. Jurying fee will be non-refundable $25. Best in Show cash prizes total $1000.
They are looking for a variety of fine art participants including painting, sculpture, pottery, metalwork, dance, music and readings.

Information and applications will be posted in January on their website: http://www.artinmac.org Their email contact is artinmac@gmail.com
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The Spring Show: (April, May, June): “WEATHER REPORT”
Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center, Bandon
Works inspired by the South Coast Weather. We’re a land of wild winds, torrential rains, glorious sunsets, rainbows, waving grasses, threatening clouds and churning (or shining) seas----all fair game for our local artists and photographers. No snapshots please. If you have a really fine photo it must be matted and framed and ready for hanging.

Any questions…..check with Ava Richey at Bandon Art Supply or call Victoria Tierney or Susan Lehman at 541-347-9888.
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The Summer Show: (July, August, September): “GAMES PEOPLE PLAY”
Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center, Bandon
It was Crystal Landucci’s impressive collection of games of Chinese checkers that inspired this one. We’re looking for board games of all sorts that can be mounted on the walls; your own inventions would be great too……you’ve got a little while to work on this one so start inlaying those chess boards or drilling those cribbage sets….(fashioning those dominos?)…….This should be a really fun exhibit for the summer and we hope it will combine collectibles and the fruits of your imagination.

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The Fall Show: (October, November, December) “WHAT I DID ON MY VACATION"

Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center, Bandon
Paintings and Journals created by the travelers amongst us. We already have some folks in mind but if you have some work you think might fit in….please let us know.
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Summer Boardwalk Show at Bandon waterfront: It’s The Year of the Dragon , so start planning now!
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Bandon Library Art Committee is seeking artists for exhibitions in both the Hallway Gallery and the Glass Cases during the 2013. You can also put your name on the list in case there are cancellations before then.

The art can be paintings, drawings, mixed media, photography, and the like; crafts, collections, small sculptures and/or jewelry for the cases. Please contact Alexis Proctor at alexis2101p@yahoo.com or call 541-329-0530.

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Opportunity to Sell your Work:

Kathy from "Katherine's" in Pony Village Mall (south wing) is seeking artists to display art on Art Walk Thursdays from 5 - 8:00 p.m. each month.

The upcoming one is February 9th. The Mall will provide easels and tables.

Other stores will be doing music and appetizers. There is no fee, no commission...it's FREE. Contact Kathy at 541-808-2248.

Undeniable Art

2012-01-11T17:47:00.000-08:00

Define art.

Yeah I know you do but try it anyway. It isn’t as easy as it seems. There are things that people do every day that are art, but they just don’t realize it.

Take our own Abby Wambach. You don’t know who that is? Have you been living under a rock, out of the country, sick in hospital or captured by aliens? Even if you don’t millions of people all over the world know Abby Wambach. Ms Abby is the star striker of the U.S. Women’s Soccer team and soon to be headed to London to set the world afire once again with play that makes every other soccer player weep with envy.

Ms Wambach is the first soccer player, male or female to win the AP’s annual sports award for Best Player of the Year since it started in 1931. Whip out your calculator that’s the first player, man or woman to win the award in eighty years!

Did she deserve it? Without a doubt. Wambach has never given up for a second while the game clock was ticking, she crashed, pushes, fights and struggles with two or even three of the opposing teams markers, because even if you don’t know it they do, Abby is the Terminator.

When all hope was lost last summer at the World Cup and time was running out in overtime, Megan Rapinoe, not such a bad player herself made a heroic cross and there on the end of it was Abby, flying in, whipping her head and crashing the ball into the back of the net. Captain America came through again.

She didn’t come home a winner, the U.S Women lost to Japan in a nail-biter, but Abby was magnificent in defeat and completely unaware of what an effect she had on the game, the sport and the girls who will play in the years to come. She was so good that even in defeat the soccer fans couldn’t wait for her to come home, home to a hero’s welcome which frankly left Abby bewildered, “I lost.” That’s all she had to say when a hometown crowd in Rochester gave her a standing ovation.

And that is part of what makes Abby Wambach an artist. She doesn’t know that what she is doing is so special that even those who play the game play at the International level play the men’s game whisper her name with reverence.

Of the thousands of soccer players in the world there are only two who are her betters, Leo Messi of Barcelona and Wayne Rooney of Manchester United. They happen to be the best players on their squads.

This year 2012 Abby will take the U S Women to London to play for Olympic gold. I hope she wins it, at 31 the days of her career are coming to a close.

But win or lose Abby Wambach will be there and be ready and be terrifying for she is the Terminator.

Not since Babe Ruth swung a bat has there been a sports hero so selfless, so unassuming, so devoted to her team, her sport, her art.

If you haven’t seen her play, you should mark your calendar; this might be the last chance. And what a shame it would be to miss this opportunity to see the greatest living soccer player in her final battle.

Fire the guns, strike the gong, make way, make way, look out London Captain America is coming…

Trash or Treasure

2012-01-10T18:02:00.000-08:00

There’s one in every house, maybe it’s the laundry room or the mud room, (A curious expression used often by the Long Suffering and apparently indigenous to the North East), the hall closet or the garage, maybe you have a shed, it doesn’t matter, it is where all of the junk that should get thrown out collects.

You know it does anything to avoid a trip to the recycle center. They are nice folks at the recycle center, but the trip is one more thing in a painfully overcrowded life and you just don’t have time and it takes time away from the stuff you’d rather be doing.

And that is where the answer lies. It takes time away from the stuff you’d rather be doing. Not the stuff you ought to be doing or the stuff you were assigned to do or even the stuff you’re curious about, its stuff you rather be doing, anything but attend to chores.

So there it sits while the trash gets taken out and the house gets painted and the roof gets fixed and the car gets serviced and before you know it there’s a huge pile of stuff, most of which you don’t even recognize anymore and the Long Suffering is threatening to change your way of living with the pinking shears if you don’t get rid of all of it, right this very moment.

So you dig out the work gloves hitch up the trailer or back up the SUV and try to figure a way to load all of this cock-a-doodle-dodo.

Stop! Don’t move another muscle. You are throwing away a golden opportunity. Before you trash that trash take another look.

Ever wanted to try your hand at sculpture? There’s a lot to be said for recycled trash as a medium. Look at what Angela Pozzi has been able to do with the beach trash she collects. If you don’t know about Angela, you need to make a trip down to Bandon and the big, purple yurt and see what a creative artist can do with discarded junk.

But maybe that’s setting the bar too high? You can start smaller and have just as much fun, avoid a trip to the recycle center and get the Long Suffering off your back all at the same time and while you are at it make some cute and saleable stuff out of all of the free junk.

Yeah I said free. You were just going to take it to the recycle center or try to pass it off at Goodwill or the Salvation Army, you know you were and it hurts your soul to lie to folks trying their best to do good with your cast offs so why not just save the sin for something important and use the junk?

I have on my desk a crane made from a pulley, hook and some bent spoons for feet. My pal the Good Doctor made it when he wasn’t doctoring the hurt heads of the over-stressed worker bees in the big hive of Dallas. Now if a Doctor person can be that creative or you saying you can’t find something in that pile of trash that would work with just a bit of effort?

Like this which came around a box of Neiman Marcus tea cakes, whcih are not on my meal plan but I ate them anyway and then noticed the box and said, "By gad! I think I've got it!"
But you aren’t a sculpture, you’re a painter. So paint. Junk piles make a good still life and if they happen to have some interesting background stuff that’s all to the good.

Every weekend in this depression burdened land there are garage sales. People trying to sell off enough of their household goods to make the next week’s grocery bill, no, I don’t think you should add to the pile at home by buying their junk although if you see something that might come up later you might just want to whip out the phone and snap a picture of it. Don’t even go there, every phone in this country has at least a camera and most of them can wash your car, compete on American Idol and whistle Dixie or some less controversial tune.

There is no excuse with a camera in every hand just there in your phone, when you see something good; you ought to have a picture. And to prove my point Shutterbug magazine has a monthly item called Picture This!

http://www.shutterbug.com/category/picture

This is last month’s but some of the images are beyond beautiful and they are ordinary objects made breathtaking by a clever cameraperson.

This month the assignment is At The Flea Market. Now I know that that junk room isn’t really a flea market, but there are images to be had from a pile of junk which can look a lot like the piles of treasures at a flea market, and you know where one of those piles is, right?

This one came from a wonderful day I spent with the Charleston plein air painters at the boatyard. I found this cable head lying in the grass and trust me it isn’t a flea market item but it will be going to Shutterbug for the Picture This page. They probably won’t choose it, so what else is new? But they might and that’s what it is all about, finding new and exciting images which with the right audience will get your name and work out there.

Or would you rather just wait for the flowers to come in this spring so you’ll have something pretty to paint?

Go Forth

2012-01-09T18:10:00.000-08:00

Let’s take a moment to review some of the things we talked about over the holidays, shall we?

Now I know that all of you went out and laid plans for next year’s holiday season and those envelope stuffer calendars you know you need. You did do that right?

Be serious, this is one of the best ways to promote your business and it coasts next to nothing. You can do the work yourself as described in one of my thoughtful posts on how to make envelope stuffers or you can trot down to Staples and have them do all of the work for $10.99 for 10 or you can use Vistaprint and get the job done for $7.99 for 10 which is so cheap you should already have your design worked out.

Now I admit to being cheap. My old pals insist my name should be MacMirandastein, 99 parts Scotch by absorption and 1 part miser by inclination, but for those prices even I might crack open my musty, dusty ole wallet. Might I said.

On the other hand I might just make them myself like I suggested at Christmas, but since I made that suggestion I have come across a nifty, neat and cool tool which will make your life much easier if you decide to print your own and give your calendars a finished and professional look. What is it? A corner rounder of course, nothing says finished like a rounded corner and I have just the thing you need.

http://www.xacto.com/Product/X2009

Yes, once again our good friends at Xacto have stepped into the breech and have made a little corner rounding tool so simple that even an old computer tweaker/photographer can use it.

Now you may hesitate to buy sucha thing because you aren’t certain that you will ever print a calendar and in that case would never use a corner rounder, but wait, there’s more…when you do a print, (You painters are doing Giclees and will have prints you want to distribute) what better way to indicate it is a print and not an original than to round the corners? What about those dreamy, romantic, boudoir shots? They could use a rounded corner and that way when the thoughtful partner with the inspiring pictures sends them to a loved one far, far away they will have no sharp corners to rip the envelope when handled a thousand and ten times by the troglodytes who brutalize the mail and what about those serving in the military, do you think that once mail is safely out of the hands of the USPS it can rest easy? Not on your life and think about it, a service person sentenced to forced labor in the mail room won’t have any inclination to take a peek at a package from home whose corner got ripped by a sharp edge and now is an open invitation to be ogled and what more tempting an ogle than a tasty boudoir scene?

But with the corner rounder from Xacto, there will be no rips, tares or mutilated edges to give away the contents.

Next on my list of things I’ve found out, is there are commercial services doing a bang-up job of making a do-it-yourselfer weep bitter tears.

Now in addition to envelope stuffers I have wailed long and loud about postcards. And I want to go on the record and say that I still think you should make your own and once again I did post a complete guide to doing just that, but since I did all of that research I’ve run across Vistaprint.

Okay, a gifted artist of my acquaintance sent me one of their postcards done by Vistaprint and it blew me away. Now I think you can do a bang-up job with just an ink jet printer and some card stock, but if you have a reputation to uphold, maybe Vistaprint or Staples is the right answer for you.

Yes, I am grinding my teeth, but I can’t deny the truth nor will I conceal it from you in an effort to make my earlier suggestions more valuable, no, the two commercial services do a first-rate job and have a template to guide you through so that even if you let your idiot brother from Milwaukee do the set-up it will turn out to be something you can be proud of.

http://www.vistaprint.com/search/postcards.aspx?ta=1&rt=10

And it seems that if you like a face-to-face sort of relationship with your vendors, Staples will do almost as well.

http://print.staples.com/postcards.aspx

I had a long look at both sites and it seems to me they are using the same template for the work, so there’s nothing but cost to base a decision on and that of course goes to the Internet guy Vistaprint cause without a brick and mortar storefront to support they can do the same thing much cheaper and if you can live with the guilt of not buying local then they are the way to go, but of you want to talk to a real, live, living person then you’d best pick Staples.

Vistaprint will run off a hundred cards for $29.99 and Staples will do the same job for $39.99 so you can save a dime a hundred if you go with Vistaprint.

But that is up to you and your conscience I have bared my soul, corrected the error of my ways, said ten Hail Marys and five Our Fathers and promise to go forth and sin no more.

Cop's Eye View

2012-01-08T18:48:00.000-08:00

What did you find today that you wanted to use as the subject for your art?

What, you spent the day in front of the TV doing nothing, but eating bonbons and flipping through channels? You’ve wasted a day and it was a day with sunshine which is rare for Oregon this time of year, so why on earth would you want to waste it watching television?

You should be looking with a cop’s eye every day. What pray tell is a cop’s eye? In another life I was a working badge, that is what police folks call guys On The Job, they don’t much like cops because you see that word has some very bad connotations and it has been used by the talking heads on television to mean bad things and so the people out on the streets don’t care for it much.

Now I don’t want you to get all flustered and nervous like some people do around a badge, I wasn’t out on the STREET. I worked in dispatch, for two very good reasons, no one gets shot in dispatch and I am not very event motivated. Police guys are event motivated.

If for instance you have a radio call saying, “Naked woman running on highway,” you will have ten cars check out on it cause seeing a naked person is pretty interesting and most of the time patrol work is not interesting, in fact it isn’t even mildly interesting, it is boring and seeing a nekkid person is a lot better than being bored. On the other and if you have a call which says, “domestic disturbance in…take your pick, the projects, the slums, the 888 prefix," you will have every car in town go ten-seven for coffee. Well, see domestics are squishy, they can’t get out of hand pretty quick, they can get violent even quicker and no matter what you do someone is going to be mad and you’ll be the one they are mad at cause with a domestic it ain’t ever going to be them.

But back to having a cop’s eye, it means being observant, always being on the lookout for trouble or anything that disturbs the normal air waves or something that just looks wrong. My brother-in-law has it, he worked for thirty years as a Travis County District Attorney’s investigator and he can scan a street in about half a second, but you don’t have to have a career in law enforcement to develop it nor does it have to be crime oriented, it just means having your antenna up so that you see everything that just might be interesting in your neighborhood and might make for a great image.

See a cute kitten trying to kill a piece of lint? Why aren’t you sketching it? See a leaf lying on the ground next to a feather, why aren’t you sketching it? See a kid, a girl, a tired fisherman looking like the weight of the world is on their shoulders, why aren’t you sketching it? Or if you can’t sketch it at that moment why haven’t you snatched a picture of it for later?

There just aren’t so many rare moments you can let one escape. Get it down on something. You might break a leg in the next half second and not be able to get out for weeks and then what would you paint?

Did the neighbor kid leave his bicycle out? Does that tick you off or does it kick start your creative juices? What kind of bird is that on the telephone line? Can a discarded fishing lure make a great image? It did for S.L. Donaldson. Of course she is a great artist and might just be able to see things you don’t.

Did your package from Aunt Liz come from Nordstrom’s or Macy’s and have a big red star on the box? Did you save that paper for a project later in the year? You can bet Susan Lehman did. She puts all of her odd bits of paper and scraps together in wonderful collages. Have you heard of Angela Pozzi? She’s cleaning up the beaches one bit of trash at a time and then taking it and making it into Fine Art. What about you? Why didn’t you think of that?

There are as Howard Carter famously said on opening Tut’s tomb, “Wondrous things,” all about us every day, all we have to do is see them. Have you developed your “cop’s eye” can you see what is there just waiting for you to make it into art?

I was trying to make up an image for the Ancient Americas show at OSU. Now I don’t happen to have any pyramids or totem poles living next to me in the wilds of Charleston, maybe Charles of Charleston or Ava Richey know of some, they get out and search the rocks and leaves and twigs of the area for their plien air group so maybe they see things I don’t, but I do see seagulls. In fact I take a lot of pictures of those ole gulls all of the time, so maybe I could get one of them to stand in for Native American boids or for some Mesoamerican designs? How to do it?

No that won’t work.

What about this?

Nope, not that either.

Yikes! That went too far.

That’s better!

Hey, I think you’re on to something.

Try this

Yes, that’ll work!

But it all started with an open eye. So what have you been seeing?

This book should be a part of any artist's or museum's library.

2012-01-08T12:54:00.000-08:00

Eustace Paul Ziegler was a man of great spiritual depth and artistic vision whose talents called him to the Pacific Coast at a time when Alaska and the Native Americans of the Northwest were as strange and exotic as the peoples of myth. Through his drypoint and woodcut prints Ziegler made a world of hardworking individuates assessable to the greater American public.

Ziegler went to Alaska as a lay missionary and for the next 60 years created images which told the story of the peoples, places, and wildlife that he encountered.

Throughout his life he struggled with his callings never, completing resolving whether he should be a minister or an artist. E. T. Stannard changed the direction of Ziegler's life when in 1911 he purchased a landscape painting for $150.00 which equaled 20% of Ziegler's annual income. The painting became part of the Alaskan steamship's company decor and Ziegler became a regularly employed artist for the company.

This book covers the entire working life of the artist along with generous illustrations of his work and informative text which leaves only one insufficient flaw, in the beginning of the book Sidney Laurence's name is misspelled.

Mr. Steven Broocks rescued the important work of this American artist with his vivid narrative and well chosen images. This book should be a part of any artist's or museum's library. Good read, enjoy.

A View from the Top

2012-01-07T18:12:00.000-08:00

What, you thought I was going to throw out a challenge and not stick my own neck out? No a chance, I do what I say and say what I do and here for one and all to see is my own attempt to celebrate the follically challenged.

Doesn't do ole Ramses, my father, justice, but it was the best I could do while he was alive and even that was risky. You see he was a GREAT artist, a master with colored pencils and on a drafting table he was the Willie Moscone of plans, and to attempt a drawing while he was alive to critique it, let's just say a root canal without anesthesia would have been a better pick.

But I did do it and now I have it to remember him with and that's not at all such a bad thing.

Now get out there and find a head of your own to immortalize!

Let's Blog

2012-01-07T18:01:00.001-08:00

There are those among you who have lived exemplary lives and never brought harm to anyone nor missed an important date nor lost their keys, the dog never ate their homework and they have accomplished all of their deepest dreams.

And I hope they get athletes foot or the heartbreak of psoriasis.

But since they do exist I will offer them a chance to experience all of the pain and sorrow that the rest of us did when passing through the cruelest detention center of all, High School.

Let’s Blog.

You want to start a blog and you don’t know a thing about how to do it. You’d better think twice cause once it’s done it goes on and on forever.

And Lord can it eat; a blog has an appetite for words like a teenage boy does for pizza. So if you are going to do this thing, better be prepared to write and write and in your spare time write.

Now there are people out there who have so many things in their lives that they can fill up a blog with just the minutia of their lives and never have to write a word. Being a Kardashian isn’t just a career it’s a whole universe of its own.

(You do know that the Gabors did it all first. Three beautiful sisters and a fiercely controlling mother come from Hungary with nothing, but good looks and a fabulous sense of style. They did have class and two of them had wit and that is a helluva lot more than a dozen Kardashains.)

So I’ll assume that you don’t have a reality show of your own and you are not paid to go to clubs and party, wait that sounds like a lot of fun and they get paid for it too. I’m in the wrong business.

So since you don’t have a life filed with adventure you will have to find something which you are knowledgeable about, like a bunch and can find new and interesting things to say three hundred and sixty-five days a year.

Okay, that’s one thing out of the way; a Blog about crumpets will do just fine for starters. Just be sure you are talking about baked goods and not an unsavory class of street professionals cause if you are this will be a very popular but short-lived blog.

Now that you know what you are going to talk about, let’s figure out where you are going to put it.

There are two very popular and easily used free blog hosting services, Blogger, the parent site for the Ole Trawler and WordPress. I know a bunch about Blogger cause I’ve been using it for nearly three years. WordPress has a bunch of fans and I am sure that it is easy to use too.

I do know that with WordPress if you have a product that you want to flog and it isn’t a Kardashian you can probably just use it as your blog address. I tried several this afternoon and was able to get Jamoulks, the title of my unpublished novel, to pass and that would be wonderful if I wanted to blog about a novel that hasn’t been published and probably never will. But I haven’t given up hope yet and want to hold on tight to my Copyright so I can’t just stick it out there anywhere where anyone and their dog can copy it and later claim it as their own although I can’t imagine why cause I haven’t been able to figure out how to market it to agents yet and I can’t see how someone who didn’t write it could do any better, so I’m probably just being silly, but that’s why I didn’t finish the process to set up a WordPress blog.

So if you have a product which lends itself to instant marketing, maybe WordPress is the way for you to go.

https://en.wordpress.com/signup/

But for me Blogger has always worked just fine. I have the Trawler, and umpirsongs, a web site and Mycroft Art another web site and they are all set up under Blogger which should indicate just how easy it is to do cause if I can manage to create three different sites you ought to be able to do just one.

https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount?hl=en&continue=http://www.blogger.com/create-blog.g&service=blogger&naui=8

So Blogger or WordPress they are the top dogs and both have nifty online tutorials which should guide you through the set up.

The simplest way to describe the difference is a web site can do many things like flog merchandise and hold pictures. A blog can do the same things but it needs words and a lot of them on a regular basis.

Do you have things to say about a bunch of subjects? Choose a blog. Do you have something you want to share with the rest of the world and possibly sell, choose a web site?

Or you can do the reverse and use a blog to sell and a website to publish. Hey, it’s the Internet and there are no rules.

I have enjoyed the heck out of trying to find something new and different to say every day and I plan on doing it till they cart me away to the old fart’s home.

Whatever you choose, send me the link. I had a bunch of good folks help me by allowing a link and I’d be happy to return the favor.

Outdoor Photo Contest

2012-01-07T09:49:00.000-08:00

Enter Now

Call to Artists and New Classes

2012-01-07T09:40:00.000-08:00

Easy Lane Frames & Select Art Gallery

3440 Broadway, North Bend, OR

Call to Artists:

You are invited to participate in an art show entitled:

“Winter Wonder”.

Find a piece of artwork that reflects the color, temperature or feeling of winter. All mediums are accepted. There is no size restriction. Please bring your artwork to the gallery on Jan. 30 – Feb. 1st to become a part of this show. It is always exciting to see how everyone responds to a theme. There is no entrance fee charged for any show in our gallery. The show will remain up from Feb. 2nd to March 30th. Please mark your calendar and become a part of this show!

New Classes at Easy Lane Frames & Select Art Gallery:

Call or stop by the gallery to sign up and pick up your supply list.

Class size is limited to 7 or 8…so don’t wait.

3440 Broadway, North Bend Call Jane at 541-756-7638

-“Using the Pouring Technique in Watercolor” with Sherry Howk.

Mondays in January starting on the 9th from 10:00 to 12:30 at the gallery. Students will learn the basics of pouring and how to utilize it in a finished watercolor. Class is open to all levels. The cost is only $60 for all four classes.

-“Cartooning” with Bandon artist Leo Chiantelli.

Leo has worked in advertising and education. He welcomes all ages and abilities. The class will be divided into four sessions on Thursdays from 3:30-5:30PM starting on Jan. 26th and continuing until Feb.16th. Each week will emphasize something different: heads, bodies, action and animals. Cost is only $60 for all four sessions.

“Silk Paper” – A How to Class with Liz Brende.

This is a workshop on Thursday, Jan. 19th from 1:00-3:00 PM. Cost is $40. This class offers the basic techniques for making this lustrous “paper” / fabric. It can be used to make pouches, clutches, ornaments, elements for collage, bowls art pieces and much more.

“Creating Texture in Collage” with Susan Lehman

Workshop offered Saturday, Feb. 18th from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Take your collages to the next level through the use of various acrylic products and handmade papers. This class is suitable for all levels of painters and collagists. All materials are included for a fee of only $45.

“Palette Knife Techniques with Acrylics” with Carolyn Le Grande

This four week class will be offered in February. More details to come!

Hairy thoughts

2012-01-06T18:37:00.000-08:00

What’s so hot about hairy?

There are a lot of things I just don’t understand. I mean just what is Congress supposed to do? Why are women’s shoes so important to women and nothing at all to men? What the heck is texting all about? If you have a phone and want to talk to someone why not just talk?

And who decided hairy was hot?

I came along in the late forties, snoozed through the fifties and survived the sixties and saw a complete range of hair from flattops to skunk Mohawks and I still don’t get it. Okay, sure, I get beards. If you are shaving five times a day just to beat back the Five o’clock shadow, beards come in handy, if you work out on the ocean where the wind and the rain beat against your face a beard is the next best thing to a full-face mask and if the Gyrene look you got on Paris Island makes you shiver you might want facial hair just to fight off PTSD.

But long, flowing, silky hair on men, pretty silly stuff, sure you people of the female, lady type persuasion might like to run your fingers through it, but what do you do after that? It can’t carry on a conversation, can’t sing or dance or open the door for you. It’s almost certain that a guy with long hair isn’t going to be working for fortune 500 company and might not survive working on an oil rig out on the middle of the ocean so what’s the big deal?

Yes, I know all about biology. If you are a hunter/gatherer and want a healthy mate for the child producing years a hairy man might indicate youth and vigor all of which are nice things to have in a guy you expect to run down antelope for you, or kill off a wooly mammoth or two when the in-laws come a visiting, or yank the Big One out of the water and since the refrigerator won’t be invented for another seven hundred and fifty thousand years, fresh meat on the table isn’t such a bad idea.

But come on, that’s why we invented Safeway. There are those of us, male, guy-type, hunter/gatherer sort of people who just failed the antelope running down test, couldn’t herd much less kill a mammoth even to avoid hearing just how much below your folks expectations you married and still might just have other talents which you come to enjoy and cherish like opening jars, reaching the shelf at the top of the closet and programming the DVD player.

Just explain how hairy makes one bit of difference.

Sure blame it on David Cassidy or Sir Mick or even the most feared hairy guy of all time, Fabio. Think of how all that mane would look before Head and Shoulders came along. It would make nests for the little birds and homes for rabbits, not the silky locks you see of the cover of Romance novels and why is it that you are reading romance novels in the first place, cause you know it is all crap and fiction and a guy with hair that long in a sword fight would get it caught in the nearest sconce and then where would your Mr. Belvedere be?

And while I am thinking about it, just how many antelopes have you served up lately. There isn’t a single, solitary Microwave Antelope on the store shelves and probably won’t be in the foreseeable future.

Besides having a gatherer who can run one of those new single cup Latte makers is a much more useful skill. You can get up and get moving in the morning without an antelope, but just try it without that cuppa Joe.

So who said hairy was the picture of masculine perfection?

I blame most of it on the classical artists of the Renaissance. Imagine what the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel would look like with two retired Army drill sergeants, makes you shudder right or the Pieta, lying supine in his dying agony with a buzz cut.

It just don’t work.

So should we all get on the bandwagon and make all of our paintings and sculptures have hairy guys?

Okay, here’s one more aside before we answer that question, scruffy as sexy? Get real, a blue chin is like an open fly, you ought to be ashamed and fix it as soon as someone points it out. Don’t go around with half a day’s beard sticking out like a hedgehog in training. Do one or the other.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, no hairy guys shouldn’t be in every picture or sculpture, for one thing we are long past the hairy as a guide to mate potential, why do we need Eharmony if all it takes is a guy with hair down to there?

Then there’s the guys who have made being bald a good thing. Look, Bruce Willis got Demi Moore, okay he didn’t get to keep her, but then Ashton Kutcher is pretty hairy and he didn’t keep her either. Patrick Stewart stepped into one of the most difficult parts an actor has ever faced; he followed James T Kirk on the Enterprise for heavens sake. (See when the first Star Trek came along it was during the hairy sixties, but by the time Patrick took command it was bad to the bone Piccard of the shiny head.

Artists have selected models for all kinds of reasons, some because they were the only ones available. Many a prostitute has lived forever in the art of a painter who might have wished for a more elegant subject, but could not find a lady of good birth who would disrobe and lie around in his drafty Paris studio. Think about it, all of that nekkid painting got done before central heat. Even a tart with a heart ought to have enough heat to stay warm

Many a model was way beyond what we think of as fashionable. Would Rubens be remembered if he had painted Size 0 models? I can’t speak for my brother and sister artists, but I can tell you that for a photographer, the more flaws the better. Babies and young girls are like trying to capture a grape on a cloudy day, they have nothing, but smooth surfaces and nowhere for the light to eddy.

So if women insist on working twenty-four hours a day trying to recapture that perfectly smooth skin they had when they came from the factory is it any wonder that a bald headed guy might just offer more to work with?

I’m thinking we ought to celebrate the guys who have survived the Sixties, the wars, and the wild life of their youth, not to mention sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll and give them their place in the sun.

The next time you are stuck for a subject, try a bald-headed guy. It’s the expression which makes a portrait and some older guys have good face. Take a look the next time you’re stuck for a subject.

Ava Richey's Art News

2012-01-06T16:07:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

Join the Plein Air painters for lunch and/or painting this Monday, January 9th, 2012 at Old Bandon Golf Links, 12 - 3 p.m. Maybe it will be nice enough to paint outdoors. The forecast says high of 61 degrees.

It is located east of (directly behind) the Best Western Inn at Face Rock on Beach Loop Drive. Turn into their parking lot and follow the golf course signs to the clubhouse.

My phone is 541-347-4643 or cell is 541-297-6118.

If you have any good ideas of places to paint in bad weather, please let me know. :)

Thanks!

Ava

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Art Information:

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FYI: New listings have asterisks ***** next to the date.

If any of the web links below in blue are not "live", meaning if you click on it and it doesn't take you to the website,--- right click on it and choose copy, then open your internet web browser, left click on the web address window at the top to highlight it, then right click and paste the web link into your browser and hit enter. The site should open.

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****Ad: For Sale: Amaco Clay & Craft Oven Used Once Cost $63. Make offer, will consider barter. Contact Carolpj37@gmail.com

****Art in the Mountains Workshop in Bend, OR-- Watercolorist Charles Reid, June 11 - 15th three spaces left. If you are going and want to ride with another artist, contact Linda at lindamecum@wildblue.net

****Rosie's Art Carnival, Florence "Used Sale", Jan. 24 -28th This is your chance to sell your gently used stamp and scraping materials, and to buy used at garage sale prices. artcarnival@oregonfast.net

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Artists' Accomplishments:

We want to honor the achievements of all you artists, so don't be shy about sending the highlights of your art lives, or those of your artist friends.

****Congratulations to Victoria Hodgetts Tierney who has work currently on display at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, CA. It is a photograph of an installation piece she did with Judy Chicago's Woman House project in the early 1970's. Victoria's part of the project was called Nurturant Kitchen..

Victoria has a wonderful past filled with art and the making of it, as well as her current and future art endeavors. She also works hard to provide spaces for other artists to show their work. She is a wonderful asset to our art community.

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Current Shows:

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Backstreet Gallery, 1421 Bay Street, Florence http://backstreetgallery.org/

Opening reception for Mary Beers' beaded jewelry and jeweled objects. January 14, 2012

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Bandon Artist Supply 175 2nd Street in Old Town, on the PedWay. 541-347-4482.

Through January

"Rural Farm Delivery" is a vibrant show featuring acrylic & ink paintings and cards by S L Donaldson, and acrylic paintings by Michael W. Ousley.

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Bandon Public Library January 1- 31, 2012

Hallway Gallery: "Nature's Way", oils & pastels by Vicki Afatati.

Cases: Patricia Davidson's small framed photos of Southern Oregon Coast.

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Coos Art Museum 235 Anderson Ave. Coos Bay 541-267-3901 http://www.coosart.org/

Opening Art Reception for "Wood Art Invitational" in the Mabel Hansen Gallery, featuring 10 wood artists: Philip Clausen, Thomas Clevenger, Jim Deardoff, Rick Fox, Steve Kuntz, Kenneth, Kenneth Means, Mitch Rolicheck, Charles Tatum, George Vrana, and Terry Woodall.

"Native American Basket of the South Coast" in the Uno E. Richter Gallery.

And also showing in the Atrium: "Charleston, Images in Paint". Featured artist & curator Charles of Charleston & Cohorts : Joan Goodman Fox, Sally Rolicheck, Sarita Southgate, Jean Adamson, Dutch Mostert, Nancy Berry, Carollee Tucker, Rod Sullens and Curt Hitch. (Organized by Joan Goodman Fox.)

Show runs December 9, 2011 through February 11, 2012

January BAAA "Artist of the Month" featured in the BAAA display in the lobby of the Coos Art Museum is Sherry Howk.

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Coos Bay Library 525 West Anderson, Coos Bay

January

*****Wall Display : David Castleberry--Vibrant paintings of nature

******Case Display: Egyptian Theatre Preservation Association

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Coquille Valley Art Center 10144 Hwy 42, Coquille 541-396-3294

January 9th - 31st

"Oregon the Beautiful" featuring artists from various departments of the Art Center. Hours are Monday - Friday 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

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Coquille Valley Hospital, 940 E. 5th Street, Coquille, OR

Photography show featuring works by Kathy and Dick Chambers of Myrtle Point; Patricia Davidson, Coos Bay; Kelle Herrick, Bandon; Richard Kirk, Myrtle Point; Kathy Phillips, Myrtle Point; David Sinnot, formerly of Coquille; and Tony Spenader, Coquille. A portion of sales goes to the CVHA Auxiliary. Show runs through February.

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Crystal Dolphin Gallery

1901 Sherman Ave, North Bend, 541-756-1989

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Easy Lane Frames & Select Gallery

3440 Broadway, North Bend, 541-756-7638

"What's New?". Features Gallery Artists and their new works.

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Emerald Art Center

500 Main Street, Springfield 11 a.m. - 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

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Evergreen Court

Evergreen Court, Baycrest Village, 451 O'Connell St., North Bend, OR

541-756-7658

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Florence Events Center

715 Quince Street, Florence Call for more info at 541-997-1994

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Langlois Public Library 48234 Hwy 101, Langlois, OR 97450

Hours: Mon. 11a.m.-2 p.m., Tues-Fri. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Paintings of Sheila Oberg continue into the new year.

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Manley Art Center 433 Oak Street, Brookings, OR 541-469-1807

Watercolor Society of Oregon traveling watercolor show.

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Maude Kerns Gallery 1910 East 15th Ave, Eugene, OR 541-345-1571

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North Bend Library, Conference Room January 541-756-0400 http://www.northbendlibrary.org/

Features : "Ontogeny" --A new series of acrylic and ink paintings that use color and form to explore organism development, by artist S L Donaldson. Artist's reception is scheduled for ArtWalk night, Thursday, January 12th. 5 - 8:00 p.m.

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Old City Hall--Coquille runs through January 2012

"TIME" -- A Statewide Traveling Show of Oregon Prison Art.

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Pony Village Mall:

ArtWalk: Various artists showing at tables in lobby areas near Katherine's and Harry Ritchie Jewelers. and Artists Loft.

Also in the Mall:

Artists' Loft, 541-756-4088

Gallery Artists Group Show

East Wing Art Wall (by JoAnn's)

The Artist Loft Gallery

Sterling Savings Bank

Artists Loft members' paintings

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Port Orford Library January-March

Paintings by Susan Lehman, Jane Schmaltz and Ava Richey

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Raincoast Gallery

Featuring work of many local artists.

Gallery is open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily except Tuesdays.

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South Slough Interpretive Center, Charleston -- in the William Q. Wick Auditorium

January 7 - February 29, 2012

Graphite renderings of birds and wildlife by Lance Cox.

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January 11th through March, 2012

Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center

"Down on the Farm" features agriculture related art. Don't miss it! Artists' Opening Reception Sunday, January 15th from 1 - 3:00 p.m.

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Umpqua Valley Arts Center, 1625 W. Harvard, Roseburg 541-672-2532 http://www.uvarts.com/

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U.S. Bank--Coquille

Works by Joanne Drapkin; Victoria Tierney's paintings of Coos County Parks for the 30 Parks by 30 Artists Show; selected works from "TIME" - A Statewide Traveling Show of Oregon Prison Art.

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Whistling Gallery

87456 Ste. A, Whistling Drive, Bandon (located in Laurel Grove, 5 miles south of Bandon.) A variety of artists showing 2-d and 3-d work.

Also in charge of showing work at Billy Smoothboar's and other venues for those artists interested in showing their work, contact Vickie.

541-404-7336, or whistlinggallery@gmail.com

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Classes

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Artist Loft Gallery, Pony Village Mall, North Bend. Call for Class

Information at 541-756-4088

If you are interested in taking a Chinese Brush Painting class with Darlene Diehl on April 12, 2012, $67 for 5 hours with all supplies provided, please contact Carol Young at 541-260-4573. Class will be held in the Artist Loft classroom.

Beginning Watercolor with Carol Young, for info call 541-260-4573.

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Bay Be, located in Charleston, next door to High Tide Cafe

is now open and offers licensed childcare for kids 3 yrs & up with a focus on nature and art projects. ALSO offer workshops for adults--making lip balm, jewelry, knitting and yoga.

Drop-in Saturdays from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. with only $5 and 5 minutes we can help you create a craft such as paper, a candle, a willow basket, driftwood sculpture or bird feeder.

541-888-3265, Find us on Facebook.

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Brookings Area and more:

various classes are listed at http://wildrivercoastart.com/

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Coos Art Museum, Coos Bay 541-267-4877 for more information.

April 3, 4, 5th, 2012, Judy Morris Watercolor Workshop "From Start to Finish"
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Coquille Valley Art Association 10144 Hwy 42, Coquille, OR 541-396-3294 http://www.coquillevalleyartcenter.org

Painting with Pat Weaver 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., Tuesdays & Wednesdays No class Dec. 14 - Jan. 17.

Painting with Anna Crosby 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Thursdays & Fridays Painting/Drawing 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Mondays Painting with Bunny Upton 12 - 3 p.m. Mondays

Woodcarving 6 - 9:00 p.m. Tuesdays

Wood Burning 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Tuesdays

Play with Clay 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Thursdays

Ken Means Carving 9 - 12 noon and 6 - 9 p.m. on Wednesdays Quilting 10 a.m. on Wednesdays

Appliqué 10 a.m. Tuesdays

Stained Glass 2:30 - 5:00 and another at 6 - 9 p.m. Mondays and Fridays 9:30 - 12:30 New Class starts Jan. 9th.

Fiber Arts 10 a.m. on Fridays

Yoga 6 p.m. Mondays

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Easy Lane Frames, 3440 Broadway, North Bend, 541-756-7638

Contact for information on a variety of classes.

Fridays, Watercolor Studio with Jane Snoddy, $10 per session.

"Using the Pouring Technique in Watercolor" starts January 9th with Sherry Howk

"Cartooning" with Leo Chiantelli, Thursdays 3:30 - 5:30, Jan. 26 - Feb. 16th.

"Silk Paper" --a how-to class with Liz Brende. Workshop Thurs. Jan. 19th from 1 - 3:00 p.m.

****"Creating Textures in Collage with Susan Lehman, Feb.18th, 10 a.m. -2 p.m.

****Palette Knife Technique with Acrylics with Carolyn Le Grande, 4 week class in February.

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Freshwater Gallery, 236B Hwy 101, Port Orford (next to Paula's Bistro)

Sundays, 3-5 p.m.: Figure Drawing with Model, $25

Mondays, 5-7 p.m.: Seascape Painting, $20 per class.

For information: 541-332-8019 or 541-236-8077, or wilddoodle@earthlink.net

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Gallery on the Bay

658 S. Empire Blvd, Empire 541-888-3771

Lessons in painting pastel by Darrell Sanders.

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Heritage Textile Arts Guild

157#A, Pony Village Mall, North Bend

Lessons available in wearables, kitchen linens and gift items.

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Manley Art Center, Brookings

Call for class and workshop schedules. 541-469-1807

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Rose Palette, Pony Village Mall, North Bend. 541-290-7858

Oil Painting classes by Carol Turner, 2:30 - 5:30 Mondays, $20 per class. You can reach Carol at 541-396-5373 for information on other classes as well.

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Rosie's Art Carnival, 575 B Hwy 101, Florence artcarnival@oregonfast.net http://www.facebook.com/rosiesartcarnival

New Classes: e-mail for more information.

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Sage Place, 11th & Elmira, Bandon

For a schedule of classes offered go to: http://www.sagegallerybandon.com/

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"Studio t" in Bandon presents:

\Art Doll Workshop! with dorothea tortilla on Sunday, January 22, 2012. 1 - 5:00 p.m. 4 hours/$45/Includes Materials. No sewing skills required. Learn fabric techniques including painting, stamping, inks and transfers while creating one of a kind fantasy art dolls. Deadline to Register is January 14th. Contact studioblue@mycomspan.com for registration and information.

Art Journaling Play Day! with Susan Lehman on Sunday, February 5, 2012. 1 - 4:00 p.m. 3 hours/$35/includes all materials except a journal. Bring a blank book no larger than 12"x16" and get creative. You will be altering photos, stitching and weaving things onto the pages, writing to prompts, doodling, stamping, stenciling and more. Deadline to register is January 27, 2012. For registration and information contact studioblue@mycomspan.com

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Umpqua Valley Arts Center, Roseburg

1624 W. Harvard, Roseburg, OR 97471 541-672-2532 http://www.uvarts.com/
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Dateline Events:

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DELIVERY DATE: Wednesday, Januaary 11, 2012 9:00 a.m.

Artists: please deliver paintings to Southern Coos Hospital for the "Down on the Farm Show, if you plan to participate.

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Thursday, January 12, 2012 5 - 8:00 p.m.

ArtWalk: a self guided tour of various art venues. Map locations available at http://www.oregoncoastartists.com/

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***** Thursday, January 12, 2012 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Gold Beach Episcopal Church Easternmost end of Moore Street.

Figure Drawing. To confirm & for more information contact Alexandra

alexandra@portraitsbyalexandra.com

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*****Saturday, January 14, 2012 10:30 a.m.

Rosie's Art Carnival, Florence artcarnival@oregonfast.net

Artist Trading Card Swap

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******Saturday, January 14, 2012 4 - 7:00 p.m.

Second Saturday Art Walk, downtown Brookings. Many venues, Art, entertainment, delicious food and interesting people.

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Saturday, January 14, 2012 11:00 a.m.

Eden Hall on SOCC campus, Coos Bay.

Bay Area Artists Association monthly meeting. Presentation features Yvonne Ousley demonstrating and leading a group participation hands-on fiber project.. Bring small amounts of yarn with you, if you like. Public welcome. For information contact Sherry Howk at 541-404-5059.

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Saturday, January 14, 2012 3-5:00 p.m.

Backstreet Gallery, 1421 Bay Street, Old Town Florence OR. 541-997-8980 http://www.backstreetgallery.org/ http://www.katheryndavis.com/katys_book/qw_publishing.html

Opening reception for Mary Beers' beaded jewelry and jeweled objects.

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Sunday, January 15, 2012 1 - 3 p.m.

Southern Coos Hospital and Care Center, 900 SE 11th St, Bandon

Opening reception for "Down on the Farm". Live music by "Slow Ponies", refreshments and ART! The show is sponsored by AVK Arts, and runs through March 2012.

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Calls to Artists:

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Delivery Deadline January 30th - February 1, 2012

Easy Lane Frames and Select Gallery 3440 Broadway, North Bend, 541-756-7638

Show theme is "Winter Wonder". All welcome, no fee, enter one piece of artwork that reflects the color, temperature or feeling of winter. Show runs Feb. 2 - March 30.

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Deadline 1/31/12 Abecedarian Gallery, Denver, CO

http://www.abecedariangallery.com%20for%20pdf%20prospectus%20download./

Annual juried artists' book exhibition. Show runs 4/20 - 6/02/2012.

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The Winter Show: (January, February, March -2012): “DOWN ON THE FARM” Drop off art entries for hanging at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, January 11th

Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center, Bandon

From Victoria Tierney:

Victoria Tierney and Susan Lehman, who are organizing the exhibit, are looking for works by local artists, and are also interested in showing works from local private collections. If you have a piece that fits into the theme, you can contact Tierney by email at victory7777@hughes.net or telephone 541-347-9862. The works will have to be brought to the hospital on Wednesday, January 11th at 9 am. The show itself will open on Sunday , January 15th with a reception from 1-3 pm, featuring music by Shannon and Susan Applegate and friends, with their group "THE SLOW PONIES." The show, which is sponsored by A.V.K. Arts, will remain on display through March of 2012.

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Deadline February 4, 2012 for Expressions West 2012

Coos Art Museum, 235 Anderson Ave, Coos Bay, 97420, 541-267-3901

Cash Awards (not purchase prizes), 13 Western States --painters may submit up to three entries in one or more of four media: oil, acrylic, pastel or watercolor.

For prospectus and entry form contact the website: http://www.coosart.org/ or address/phone above.

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Deadline for entry is February 10, 2012

Maude Kerns Art Center "Variations: Art Expressing Music" Submit images of 2D & 3D artwork in all mediums that is inspired by music or related to the theme of music. Supply five digital images in color at 300 dpi on CD in jpeg format. Work will be
selected by jurors from the submitted images. There is a $15 submission fee.

Application forms & prospectus available at http://www.mkartcenter.org/

or call 541-345-1571. Show runs April 6 - May 11, 2012

Maude Kerns Art Center is located at 1910 E. 15th Ave. (corner of 15th & Villard), Eugene. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
M-F, Saturday--noon -4 p.m.

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Submission Deadline: February 28, 2012

"Artworks NW 2012" (formerly "Hundred Valleys")

Umpqua Valley Arts Association, 1624 W. Harvard, Roseburg, OR 97471

http://www.uvarts.com/

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Submission Deadline: February 28, 2012

"Photoworks NW 2012" (formerly titled "Best Photo")

Umpqua Valley Arts Association, 1624 W. Harvard, Roseburg, OR 97471

http://www.uvarts.com/

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Submission Deadline: Friday, April 20, 2012

Maude Kerns Art Center’s

Call for Artists: 2013-2014 Exhibits Schedule

Artists working in all 2- and 3-dimensional mediums, including
installations, are invited to submit images of their work along with an application form to be considered for the next biennium (2013-2014) of exhibits at the Maude Kerns Art Center. Submissions may include solo, group, and/or themed shows. There is a $15 submission fee for individual artists
and a $5 fee per artist for group shows.

The postmark deadline is Friday, April 20, 2012. Application forms and prospectuses are available at the Art Center or online at

http://www.mkartcenter.org/

Call 541-345-1571 for more information.

The Maude Kerns Art Center, located at 1910 E. 15th Avenue at the corner of 15th and Villard, is Eugene’s oldest non-profit community center for the visual arts. Gallery hours are from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm, Monday – Friday, and noon to 4:00 pm on Saturday when exhibits are on display.

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Umpqua Valley Arts Association , Roseburg

44th Annual Summer Arts Festival, scheduled for Friday, June 22nd through Sunday, June 24th, 2012.

Look on their website: http://www.uvarts.com/ starting in January for applications for booths for artists, crafters, food vendors and entertainers.

This is an established, major cultural event in the Umpqua Valley drawing artists and crafters from across the U.S. for the 3 day festival with live music, food from local vendors, and lots of art. The event draws over 16,000 visitors of all ages. Proceeds benefit the UVAA's arts-in-education programs, bringing art instruction to elementary school children in Douglas County.

Those with questions are encouraged to consult the FAQ document posted on http://uvarts.com/summer-arts-festival/ or contact the UVAA by phone at 541-672-2532.
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Bandon Area Open Artist Studio Tour

October 2012!!! IDEAS & Participants wanted!

Your input needed now for advance planning!

Contact Susan Lehman at studioblue@mycomspan.com

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The Artists' Village, McMinnville, OR Saturday & Sunday, July 14th & 15th, 2012

The McMinnville Sunrise Rotary Club is hosting their 4th Annual Artists' Village. Funds raised from this event go to help develop the arts and help Oregon artists with this event.

This is a juried event to obtain a booth at this show in order to sell your work. 10 ' x 10' booth under a tent, $100 for both days. Jurying fee will be non-refundable $25. Best in Show cash prizes total $1000.

They are looking for a variety of fine art participants including painting, sculpture, pottery, metalwork, dance, music and readings.

Information and applications will be posted in January on their website: http://www.artinmac.org/ Their email contact is artinmac@gmail.com

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The Spring Show: (April, May, June): “WEATHER REPORT”

Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center, Bandon

Works inspired by the South Coast Weather. We’re a land of wild winds, torrential rains, glorious sunsets, rainbows, waving grasses, threatening clouds and churning (or shining) seas----all fair game for our local artists and photographers. No snapshots please. If you have a really fine photo it must be matted and framed and ready for hanging.

Any questions…..check with Ava Richey at Bandon Art Supply or call Victoria Tierney or Susan Lehman at 541-347-9888.

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The Summer Show: (July, August, September): “GAMES PEOPLE PLAY”

Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center, Bandon

It was Crystal Landucci’s impressive collection of games of Chinese checkers that inspired this one. We’re looking for board games of all sorts that can be mounted on the walls; your own inventions would be great too……you’ve got a little while to work on this one so start inlaying those chess boards or drilling those cribbage sets….(fashioning those dominos?)…….This should be a really fun exhibit for the summer and we hope it will combine collectibles and the fruits of your imagination.

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The Fall Show: (October, November, December) “WHAT I DID ON MY VACATION”

Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center, Bandon

Paintings and Journals created by the travelers amongst us. We already have some folks in mind but if you have some work you think might fit in….please let us know.

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Summer Boardwalk Show at Bandon waterfront: It’s The Year of the Dragon , so start planning now!

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Bandon Library Art Committee is seeking artists for exhibitions in both the Hallway Gallery and the Glass Cases during the 2013. You can also put your name on the list in case there are cancellations before then.

The art can be paintings, drawings, mixed media, photography, and the like; crafts, collections, small sculptures and/or jewelry for the cases. Please contact Alexis Proctor at alexis2101p@yahoo.com or call 541-329-0530.

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Opportunity to Sell your Work:

Kathy from "Katherine's" in Pony Village Mall (south wing) is seeking artists to display art on Art Walk Thursdays from 5 - 8:00 p.m. each month.

The upcoming one is January 12th. The Mall will provide easels and tables.

Other stores will be doing music and appetizers. There is no fee, no commission...it's FREE. Contact Kathy at 541-808-2248.

Studio t. winter classes-sign-up deadline!

2012-01-06T15:03:00.000-08:00

Just a reminder that the sign-up deadline (Jan. 14th) for dorothea's art doll class (on Jan. 22nd) is coming up very soon! You'll learn how to make a couple of these creative dolls-- each one unique-- using techniques she will share with you! She has lots of samples to help your imagination run free! Come and PLAY! : )

Greetings!

Our class offering for Winter 2012! Please note the printable registration form on the separate attachment above.

studio t. Winter Classes 2012

Art Doll Workshop! with dorothea tortilla

Sunday, January 22, 2012 1-5 PM

4 hours/$45/includes all materials

No sewing skills required! In this creative workshop you will make two original art dolls to take home or give as gifts (if you can bear to part with them!)

Learn an exciting range of fabric techniques including painting, stamping, inks and transfers while creating one-of-a-kind, fantasy art dolls.

Enjoy a winter afternoon workshop with a group of happy art doll creators!

Minimum of 5 students; maximum of 8

Classes fill quickly! Sign up deadline: Jan.14, 2012

________________________________________________________________________

Art Journaling Play Day! with Susan Lehman

Sunday, February 5th, 2012 1-4 PM

3 hours/$35/includes all materials except a journal

If you have a beautiful book with blank pages or if someone has given you a nice handmade journal and you are wondering what to put in it, this class is for you!

Susan Lehman will demonstrate and guide you through countless possibilities for getting in touch with your creative writing and play.

You’ll be altering photos, stitching and weaving things onto the pages, writing to prompts, doodling, stamping, stenciling and more!

Bring your already handmade or purchased journal (at least 6”x 8”, no larger than 12”x16”) and fill it with glowing colors, imaginative images and creative writing!

Minimum of 5 students; maximum of 8

Classes fill quickly! Sign up deadline: Jan.27, 2012

dorothea tortilla @ studio t.

PO Box 1353

Bandon OR 97411

541-252-1336

Classes are designed for those over 18 years of age. They are filled on a first come, first serve reservation basis. Reservations will be cashed one week prior to the class; they are non-refundable, but you may give your reservation to another person to attend in your place.

You may mail a check to the address above, payable to Max Hand or call 541-252-1336 with your credit card number. Credit card charges on your statement will be listed as a purchase from Max Hand. Please do not send credit card information in an email.

If fewer than 5 people reserve for a class, it will not be held and your deposit refunded. If reservations exceed the maximum number of students for a class, a waiting list will be created to fill a cancelled reservation or, if demand warrants it, to fill a duplicate class.

Please print and mail this form to the address above with check

or to place charge on a credit card, call 541-252-1336

Name__________________________

Address_________________________

City, State, Zip___________________

Phone____________________

email_____________________

Class(es) you wish to take___________________________________________________

Amount enclosed__________

OR:

Credit card information:

Name as it appears on card (please print)____________________________

Card Number: VISA_______________________(OR)

Mastercard_______________________

Expiration Date_________________ V-code on back of card (last 3 digits)__________

Zip Code that the card statement goes to______________________

Looking around

2012-01-05T18:14:00.000-08:00

There’s a line from a very clever film, Without a Clue, in it Sherlock Holmes is really just an actor and the brains behind the detective belong to Dr. Watson, Holmes tells the press to guess how many windows are in the house behind him. When it turns out they can’t do it because they have been too busy trying to trip him up Holmes says, “You see, but you don’t observe.

That is true for a lot more than those poor reporters in a film which has been all but forgotten, you see, but you don’t observe. How many of us do that every day.

If we really took the time to look around us the work of so many other fine artists would be terrifying and overwhelming. It is best not to look at all.

But if you do that you exclude all of the things in the world which might serve as subjects for your art. Can you afford to exclude so many things? Do you have a complete backlog of subjects just waiting for your attention? If you do, head straight for Facebook and skip the rest of this post.

Now I don’t have the luxury of subjects running out my ears. I’ve found a lot more art to be had since I started twisting my photos about and it has opened up my eyes and brain and now I see things which I would have passed over just a few years ago.

Truth be told I was a photographic snob. I thought an image not pure as it appeared on the ground glass of the viewfinder was just so much twaddle and shouldn’t be allowed much less accepted. Boy was I wrong.

Now I know that many times the image you start with is just the foundation for what it will become. I’ve taken pictures of what I thought was a great image only to discover in the image processor a whole new look.

Sometimes it takes someone who isn’t even a traditional artist to show me the way. My hairdresser, poor girl, she tries to make a mountain out of what is rapidly becoming a barren plain, my head. I’ve had hair on my head since way back about the time I was hatched and haven’t paid much attention to it in all of these years.

My dad went bald in his late twenties and I never knew him with much more than a silver fringe around his skull.

I grew up in the fifties when men had no hair and were proud of it, survived the sixties when men had more hair than women and were proud of it and settled into the eighties with more hair than most of my school mates and was secretly smug about the rug.

But lately, since my stay in the hospital there has been a bit of roof showing through the thatch. Now I don’t give a rat’s posterior, hair or no hair it is still my head and so long as it offers a safe place for my brain that’s enough, but my hairdresser is getting more and more distressed trying heroically to hide the hide. And I don’t want her to be distressed, she’s my inside man on all of the scoop on Coos Bay and I want her happy, healthy and talkative so that I will keep getting the scoop, you see. The scoop on things like her boss having a whole wall for art and no artists coming around to hang art on it.

That’s a big deal for me cause I am not as in demand as some of the other artists in the area and might not have a chance to hang my art in just any old venue so it is really important that I know about places which other artists might turn their artistic nose up at, but which are fine for me cause I just want to see my art up somewhere so I try not to distress my hair dresser. And that brings me around to what I learned from her boss who likes red and black as a color scheme.

Seems that Josie of Josie’s on Broadway likes red and black and prefers her art in those colors and by working to conform to her color sense I have managed to create some art that folks in juries like which means I have gotten some nice ribbons and awards and Josie has gotten some art, isn’t that interesting?

Yes it is. I wouldn’t have thought of it. I’m not at all a visual person. Things as they appear to be when seen by the naked eye are pretty okay with me. But oddly enough artists find that sort of boring so if I hadn’t been trying to keep my hairdresser from being distressed I wouldn’t have heard about her bosses preferences and no red and black art would have come from my photos and I wouldn’t have gotten all of those pretty ribbons because you see I saw, but I didn’t observe.

So my question for you today is are you just seeing or are you observing too?

Maybe there are things around the ole bay area which you pass by every day that should be popping up on your radar? Do you run your errands and never talk to the people you depend on to keep you hair on your head or your plate full or the car serviced or the groceries bagged or kids educated or do you occasionally stop and ask what is new and different in their life?

I’ve had a coupla moments over the holidays when my mind got opened by the nice folks I deal with most of the time.

I had an occasion to visit a pal who was holding an open house and needed a photo or two to record the work which was selling so fast that there wasn’t any left to make up advertising with and there I was with my camera in my hot, little hand and the ability to do just that, record the image of work that someone else was buying like hot cakes so that later in the year my pal would have images of things no longer in inventory.

Or the lucky break I got leaving another pal’s place of business with my arms full of goodies produced by their talents designed to make my season bright when lo and behold I found just the image I wanted for next year’s Christmas card.

Or the Fine Art cards I received from some of my artist pals who have actually used their own art for greeting cards and seasonal wishes and which they gave not so much as one whit about, but to me were considerably more cherished than a bag full of cash. Okay so maybe I was waxing a bit poetic and if any of you are planning to give me a five pound box of money I would be just as happy if you went ahead with your plans, but if you were just thinking of giving me your art in the form of cards then, please go ahead and do it.

Because I have learned to see and observe and there are so many things in our area to be seen and considered that there isn’t space enough on my hard drive for all of them and I have a pretty big hard drive so let me tell you when I say there isn’t room for them all I am not just whistling Dixie, which isn’t really politically correct any more, but Dixie is a fine little marching tune and I don’t mean anything by it except it is a great tune. So when I say see and observe, maybe you should just do it and not whistle anything so inflammatory, or whistle at all for that matter cause all of that puckering might be taken for a completely different gesture and you wouldn’t want to be misconstrued just when you were getting the hang of all of this observing business, right? So eyes wide open, head clear and onward into the fog!

The Price of Tea in China

2012-01-04T17:52:00.000-08:00

It’s quiet in here, too quiet, why is there no sound coming form the house? Oh, that’s right, the holidays are over, all of the family have gone home and the Big Guy or the Professional woman, (Cause no one in their right mind would call any woman The Big Woman, and even though the phrase Professional Woman might imply less something less than a proper career path for a lady, we’ll over look those narrow minded individuals and say Professional Woman cause this is an artist’s blog and filled with open-minded and generously spirited folks who would never allow a words connotation to influence their opinion.), have gone back to work and so when the television is off, because there is absolutely nothing on right now seeing as how all of the networks are running re-runs to make every buck they can squeeze out of the season, the house really is quiet.

And that means you have time to think, think about how you are going to spend all that money on, the cash you got for Christmas. Oh come on you know you did, fess up, the kids were too busy to shop and the old fossil couldn’t get off the sofa and relatives you haven’t seen since you were too young to stay up for Letterman have all kicked in and cashed out cause they know that graduation is just around the corner and they want to make sure that their little Johnny or Johnnyette get their money when the invitations are sent out and if they don’t kick in at Christmas they’ll give you just the excuse you need to toss that cream-colored blackmail note in the trash.

So there you are alone in an empty house with a handful of cash and questions about what and how to spend it.

Sure, you could do like Clark Howard thinks people do and invest it. So that the fat-cat bankers who plunged us into this depression can buy a new Mercedes or give out one of those shockingly vulgar bonuses and get their names on CNN, but you are far too smart to do that, if anyone is going to get their hands on this money it’s going to be you.

And you best do it before the kids realize just how much you took in or they’ll have a hand out for a cut of the swag.

So what to spend it on?

Again you could do the sensible thing and buy supplies for your studio, that mat cutter you’ve been dreaming about, a wide format printer or a coupla dozen stretched canvases, that’s what you could do, but I’m thinking you won’t.

Here’s why, you are just as vulnerable to television advertising as the average six year old only you have better impulse control and won’t give in at the drop of a hat, which is why you still have money ten days after Christmas. You’ve seen all the holiday advertisements and the shiny new stuff and all of the bells and whistles that they pack into products now days because they know that the one that you have is perfectly good and you have no reason to replace it unless it breaks or there’s a something which they convince you you have to have in order to live a full and complete life.

Like 3-D television. Yeah, I didn’t buy into it either, the last thing I need is Kim Kardashian in 3-D or Survivor, shudder… I just want to vote the whole program off the island. So if you aren’t buying a new television with 3-D what are you going to spend your wad of loot on?

Of course, I could have told you that, a tablet computer is just what you need and Steve Jobs is laughing in his grave knowing you will be eating cat food for a half a year to buy the newest Apple Ipad.

But before you commit to that tablet can we talk? Sure it does some pretty amazing things. It consumes media like the plant in Little Shop of Horrors, “Feed me, Seymore!” You’ll have to have games and Itunes and Netflicks and live at the App store just to keep the beastie running and well fed. But is that why you got it or have you actually given any thought to why you got it or maybe you should give some thought to whether or not you should get it at all?

So let’s take a look.

Tablets do what they were designed to do famously. They play music, movies and games like nobody's business. But does that help you with your art?

Now tablets with their touch screens are wonderful for making small art. You can use something like Corel Draw and paint the picture right in your Iwhatsit. Just be careful, one of the things tablets had to sacrifice for their portability is space, hard drive space, in fact they may not even have a hard drive. They probably have a solid state memory unit from 16 to 64 GB. That sounds like a lot, but remember your computer has one hundred and fifty to three hundred GB and you know how fast that filed up.

My boids I posted yesterday, well the one I posted isn’t the only example I made, and the files run from 9MB to 25MB so they’d fill up a drive pretty fast if I had to start working on them. Those Photoshop manipulations eat up a lot of space and even though the other guy’s software isn’t as space hungry, it does take a lot of room.

So you have the app itself and then the file it creates and before you know it you have run out of space, (Probably because of all of those files you downloaded from Itunes cause you had to have the original YouTube of Sonny and Cher singing “I Got You Babe”) and you can’t just run down to the computer Jedi and have them add another hard drive.

But if you had spent that money on a laptop, you could.

And I’ll tell you a little secret, it hasn’t happened yet, but it will, before this year is over, prices on laptops are
going to fall. Seems people want a shiny, new, Apple Ithingy. And then watch out the cost of a laptop will drop like the Hindenburg. But you’ll have to be quick because like I mentioned in a year or maybe eighteen months people will realize the mistake they have made and will want a laptop again and then the prices will soar and all of the folks in Japan who have been eating fish heads and rice will be back driving Toyotas or Lexuses, (Even though a Lexus is nothing but a re-badged Camry which you have to paid eighteen thousand additional dollars for, but you are a rich American, [They haven’t heard about my complaint about Staties calling themselves Americans like they were the only ones living on the whole double continent.] and never pay any attention to what you spend foolishly.)and buying overpriced condos in Hawaii.

So before you spend your hard earned money, you did earn it by sucking up to all of those relatives all year, think about what you are getting a portable computer for. Maybe an older laptop will do fine for what you want and it will save you hundreds of dollars and then you can re-supply the studio or buy that chase lounge you saw at the auction house next to the half-column and wouldn’t that make a great prop for a tableau, so why not get a new computer, only let someone else break it in for you and then you can have your studio and props so that when you get a chance to paint/sculpt a naked pop tart you’ll have a chase lounge for them to recline and repose and drape themselves on and a nifty, neat and cool computer to store the image on until you are ready to use it.

And if you do decide to buy that new, bright and shiny tablet, why not give me your old laptop? I know just what to do with it!

From Susan Lehman

2012-01-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

Click image for larger view

Call To Artists

2012-01-04T08:25:00.000-08:00

The Giustina Gallery at Oregon State University seeks artists to participate in the Ancient Americas show

http://oregonstate.edu/lasells/gallery

Click on the link and choose the Call to Artists/Exhibit Applications which will take you to this link. But because I am an exceptionally helpful sort of guy I'll just post the call here.

http://oregonstate.edu/lasells/call-to-artists

And since I covered this a few days ago I'll give you the link to that item and you'll know almost everything there is to know about the good folks at OSU.

http://demosthenesclub.blogspot.com/2011/12/call-to-artist-february-march-cultural.html

Call to Artist

Giustina Gallery Exhibit Application Form

Annual Cultural Art Show – Ancient Americas

Show: February 21- March 26, 2012

Deadline: January 27, 2012 @ 4:00 pm

Ancient Americas: 2012 is the end of the Mayan Calendar, a calendar which utilizes art in language, architecture and decorative beauty... eventually attempting to explain our past, present and even imagining a future beyond ourselves. Digging through our past we often encounter some of our most basic feelings. It is in this spirit we wish to inspire all artists of 2012!. This is a time to understand An ancient point of view of life and the world around us. Through art we as well as our ancestors explain what is life, how the world works, how we see the world as individuals and even expressing our ideas of what is beyond life. This is an opportunity to show original and cultural art work based on a primitive outlook or an influence of the ancient Americas. This is a collaborative show juried by Clark Studios, Pegasus and Giustina Galleries.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Submission Process:

Entry Form: Complete entry form and submit up to three (3) digital images on or before the deadline date on CD .

Work must be less than 48” in width or height /Contact gallery for 3 dimensional space

Preparation of Art Work: All work must be matted, framed and/or ready to hang.

Selection Process: The selection will be done from digital images weekly. Do not send original work. Contact gallery for Questions.

Notification: A message of acceptance will be sent via email or by phone. (There is a $20 reception fee for work that is accepted into the show, due with delivery of art.)

Commission & Payment: A 35% commission will be retained from all sales. Payment for works sold will be sent to the artists within 60 days of the end of the exhibit.

Schedule:

Last day for submissions: January 27 @ 4:00 pm

Notification of selection by: February 1 @ 4:00pm

Accepted works delivered/Payment due:

February 9- 16, 2012

Exhibit opens: February 21, 2012

Reception: TBA from 6:30 – 8:30 pm

Exhibit closes: March 26, 2012

Art work to be picked up: March 27- 30th 2012

- - - - - - - - CUT - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Email submission to Tina Green-Price: tina.green-price@oregonstate.edu or mail CD to: Attention: Tina Green-Price, OSU LaSells Stewart Center, 100 LaSells Stewart Center, Corvallis, OR, 97331.

An asterisk (*) notes required personal information.

Name: * _________________________________________________________________________________

Address: *________________________________________________________________________________

City *____________________ State Zip _____________Phone *___________ W. Phone _____________

E-mail: *_________________________________________________________________________________

Entry #1: Title: ___________________________________________________________________________

Medium Dimensions ___________ Price $_________

Entry #2: Title: ___________________________________________________________________________

Medium Dimensions ___________ Price $_________

Entry #3: Title: ___________________________________________________________________________

Medium Dimensions ___________ Price $_________

Throwing Christains to the lions

2012-01-03T18:22:00.000-08:00

About a million or so years ago, back when the Romans were throwing Christians to the lions, (which should have been reported to the ASPCA cause all that fatty Mediterranean could not have been proper nutrition for growing cats and having such sensitive ears the crying and pleading as they were torn limb from limb probably scared the tar out of kitty, so let’s all get those nasty Romans), a fellow came to Dallas from Neuw Yark City. Yeah that guy the one who gets his hot sauce from Neuw Yark City and he knew just about as much about Dallas as the guy in those commercials knows about hot sauce.

He was so slow he went out and leased 37 acres of property way out in the wilderness beyond Loop 12. Now being as ya’ll are Oregonians and not familiar with Dallas, Loop 12 was a roadway built as an outside loop around the city so that truck traffic wouldn’t disturb the natives and everyone knew that no one would ever live outside the Loop.

But not the Neuw Yark City guy and even worse he contacted the best local architect and drew up plans for a brand new, completely different kind of shopping center way out there in the boondocks.

If you ever travel through Texas on your way South to Mexico or North from the Gulf to Oklahoma although why anyone would want to go to Oklahoma is beyond me, you’ll see that place on the side of Central Expressway, just drive till you see Jerusalem.

It does kinda look that way, but for those who don’t want to have to ask stupid questions, its name is Northpark Center.

http://www.northparkcenter.com/

And for heaven’s sake don’t call it a mall. Mr. Nasher designed it to be the town hall for a Southwestern city without a town hall, or even a city center.

And that is just what it became. When it opened in 1965 it was the premier shopping address in all of North America. For the first ten years Northpark Center out sold by the square foot all of the other retail shopping spaces combined, now it just outsells all of the retail spaces in Texas.

Every year someone comes along and says they are going to build a Nothpark killer. A store so big, a shopping center so grand, a destination address so fantastic that Northpark Center will just be a memory, yeah right, and Santa’s sleigh will be pulled by flying pigs.

One of the many things which set Northpark Center apart from the beginning was Mr. Nasher’s belief that art had to be shared. Those who through industry, zeal and dedication had become wealthy enough to acquire Fine Art must not hide it away, but must share it with the public even if the Public might not want it shared or care what it was.

Now way back in 1963 two years before Northpark Center opened for the public I got my first look at it and as a sixteen year old boy, growing up in Texas, with nothing, but babes and football and cars on my mind I was not impressed. (How did I manage a pre-view? My dad was the job captain for Northpark Center. He was for forty years the senior architectural building supervisor in Dallas and he happened to work for the firm which designed and planned Northpark.)

I was even less impressed when it opened and Mr. Nasher hung his art. Why he put up scarves in frames and called that art. Much later when the worst of the testosterone poisoning had passed I learned that they were in deed art, Miro scarves and much desired by rich and fashion conscious folks around the world. (Sorry Mr. Nasher, you tried to tell me.)

That was my first introduction to textile art. It took a long time to become a part of my artistic life, but I have to say that it is now and will never be set aside. And I’m wondering how many of you have considered making your art into textiles?

Why not? Great beauty can be found in all aspects of life. MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art has brought in many things not ordinarily considered Fine Art and the hard-a**ed, excuse me, bitten critics of New York City have embraced MOMA with a passion. I have to admit that I always thought the beautiful brute, the 1963 Ferrari GTO was one of the most incredible sculptures ever made and it’s impact on vehicle design has influenced cars great and small ever since.

But let’s get back to fabrics; they ain’t just Joanne’s any more.

Do you have something that you’ve done which might make a great textile? Why haven’t you given a thought to working it up and letting the market tell you if it is a great design or just art?

I’ve been thinking about a show coming up at Oregon State University, it’s called Ancient Americas; it’s for art inspired by ancient American works of art. We have a wealth of art from primitive peoples all along this great land mass we live on, from the Inuit culture in the far North to the Native Americans of the South continent. Yes, they are Native Americans, they just aren’t North Americans.

The Maya, Aztec and Incas had culture while Europeans were still refusing to bathe and bleeding sick people as a sovereign cure for every disease. Course that sort of treatment killed off a lot of Europeans so maybe it was a good thing we weren’t more advanced and able to spread our influence on other peoples so that some of them could survive to be the folks we live and work with today.

I’ve been looking at some Native American art and I think I’ve found what might just fit the prospectus for the Oregon State show. Oh and by the way I think it makes a pretty good design for fabric.

That’s it. I’m pretty happy with it and I hope it fits the show regulations. I’ll let you know when I get the prospectus. I’ll publish it right here and maybe some of the South Coast artists will take a swing at the show.

But if you don’t want to enter the show and still have a good print that could become a great fabric maybe you’d like to do something about it?

http://www.spoonflower.com/welcome

Spoonflower will make up your art into fabric and let you test it out on those wonderful people who make so many beautiful things, the quilters and sewers who do so much for the craft of art.

http://www.karmakraft.com/

Karma Kraft does the same sort of thing on a larger scale. So maybe you want to run up a sample on Spoonflower and then take the proofed fabric to Karma Kraft and get a bunch run off?

Textiles have played a huge part in the story of art. Artists in this century have largely forgotten them but they still serve and useful purpose or artists. You know you aren’t going to get a commission to re-do the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, you know that don’t you? But maybe you can work with some other heavenly body like Jlo or Gwen Stephanie. Think about it, no paint in your eyes or a crick in your neck and within a week more people will see your art textile than ole Michelangelo got in the first three hundred years.

Zone Defense

2012-01-03T14:53:00.001-08:00

Comfort zones put padlocks on the doors to growth.

Head Start

2012-01-02T18:08:00.000-08:00

Are you ready to sell your work?

It’s too expensive, too labor intensive, too many materials to make it worth while.

Nonsense.

Selling your work is the thing you should be striving for. How else will you fund your art? How will you buy the necessary advertising, find the right markets show at the right shows? Sure if you are independently wealthy then there’s no problem, but if you are like the generations of artists who can before, you are never in the money, or at least not enough so that you can do all that needs doing without growing strange herbs or performing acrobatic contortions for fun and profit.

No, save your sacroiliac and avoid a length stay in one of Oregon’s fine permanent rest facilities, show, promote and sell your art.

And it so happens I have a plan for you. No, I wasn’t able to find one which was free, but I did come across some things which you might be able to use which are so low coast that they are alibi busters.

http://www.documounts.com/content/home

This is the gateway link to Documounts. These guys have everything you need to mount, display and sell your art.

But that’s not the part I wanted you to see. No the really good stuff is here:

http://www.documounts.com/builders/precuts/40

Under Pick a Product scroll down to 11 X 14 double (mat) white and take a look. They are selling a 25 pack of double white mats, with clear envelopes for $66.25! That my friends is $2.65 a package. If you are printing your own or going through Iprintfromhome

http://www.softworksroes.com/ROES/labs/iPrintfromHome/index.html

where an 8 X 10 Glossy is $2.00 and an 8.5 X 11 is $3.00 you can put together a complete package of image, clear bag and mat for less than six dollars. That means you can turn it around for ten bucks if you want to fly on the cheap or fifteen if you want to go out for dinner after the show.

Think about it a complete package ready to market and you don’t need a twenty dollar bill. You can give out full-sized samples of your work and not break the bank. The only sad part is at that price when you write it off as a tax deduction you only stick Uncle Sam for the price of a Grande Carmel Macchiato.

Yes, I know you do REAL art, you’re a painter. And I have been nagging and begging and pleading for you to get Giclees made of your work so that when opportunities like this come along, you’ll be ready. You should have done this weeks ago and this will only help get your name out there.

You can never be too ready to make a sale. If a top=notch artist like Dutch Mostert will do the little coastal fairs and festivals are you too good to follow suit? Best not.

What about those opportunities to exchange your work for someone else’s skills? Do you want to bear the price of a frame which may or may not be compatible with the other guys taste? A matted print allows the recipient to make their own decisions about framing and still let’s you come off as a professional.

Tuck one of those logo enhanced business cards we talked about yesterday into the package or if you are the prissy type, spray it with spray mount and stick it to the outside of the envelope. There you did a good deed and got your product out into the market place.

A new year means a new chance to make an impact on the world. Take it by the horns and get off to a good start, get your motor running, head out on the highway, looking for adventure and whatever comes your way…

Logo

2012-01-01T15:41:00.000-08:00

Did you go out and get wild and crazy last night and stay up till the cows were home in bed and the sun was high on the horizon and now all you want to do is lay quietly in a dark room with something cool on your head while the football game blares in the background and make little whimpering noises?

Get up! There’s no time to waste, it’s a new year and half a day is gone already. Have you no ambition, self-respect, drive? You have important work which needs doing and you can’t lie around all day and expect it to get done.

You have to get up and get moving, you have to create a Logo for your studio and a new and exciting name for your art. Any more wasted time and it will be too late, the shows will be taking in art and you’ll have nothing on your work, but a name and address. How can you hope to stand out if all you use is your name?

I’m sure your parents were proud and why not? You come from a long line of successful people who accomplished great things and you are carrying on the family tradition by producing the most exciting and beautiful art imaginable.

But is your name enough? I mean we did survive the fifties and sixties and those were not at all good times for parental judgment. Did you get a traditional family name? One of those names handed down by generation after generation that is so horrible any sensible person would have tossed it years ago, but you just can’t do that to the honored memory of all those ancestors who did all of that striving and warring and succeeding.

I have a pal who has one of those names, a truly terrible name, both ethnic and biblical, and frankly not something that should be done to a third-world dictator much less an innocent child, but it was done to his father and grandfather before him and the family would have insisted he do it to his children, but he fooled them by being a dedicated and confirmed bachelor and so the horrible, terrible family name will die with him.

And that horrible, terrible name isn’t even one of those dreadful sixties, drug-induced names like Moonunit or Dazzel. My own legal name is Roland, a perfectly sound and traditional name for males of European descent. It worked really well for my father, a proud and dignified man with great genes who aged well and carried himself with aristocratic grace and charm. But for a fat kid from the fifties growing up in Grand Prairie, Texas, the absolute, cultural Bermuda Triangle of North America it was a curse and a cross to bear and torture every single day of school where the teachers took great delight in making everyone use their given legal names and were completely oblivious to the snickers and jeers of the cruelest population known to man, children.

So by the time I was granted my parole from public school, the very sound of Roland was like pouring salt into a wound which had never properly healed and makes me flinch and cringe to this very day and would not ever be suitable for my use as anything other than self-flagellation.

So no legal name for my logo, and then of course the Feds went and made a big, grand Supreme Court case out of Miranda/Escobedo and ruined my last name for any use beyond jurisprudence, cause when they make it a law they drop the State case, Escobedo and just use the federal case and so it becomes Miranda and not Miranda/Escobedo and every grade-school child knows Miranda is the warning they give to people under arrest and not to art projects under consideration and that means I am totally screwed.

What to do?

Fortunately the first time I needed an identifier it was for a different kind of art, performance art, theater art and even popular art and I was free to choose any silly thing I liked, which is why I called my company Poison Pen Murder Mysteries, not to be confused with the folks working at the Red Lion calling themselves Poison Pen Players or some such.

And having decided on a name, all I needed was an instantly identifiable image to go with it. I had a wonderful shot of myself as a dead body, but that was probably too morbid, so I went off and sat and thought and pondered and came up with an idea that worked and wasn’t morbid, or creepy.

Yeppers, that’s my logo and I think it does a pretty good job of letting folks know just what they are in for.

Thank you, I like it too and yes, it does look a lot like the logo used by the ABC program Castle, except I was using it nineteen years before Castle came on the air and besides I like Castle and so I won’t sue them for Copyright infringement I’ll just say that they might have been influenced by something they saw while traveling through Dallas.

That’s what you have to do when you create a logo; it has to shout your message immediately. It should give some idea of what you are doing and it wouldn’t hurt if it hinted at what you produce.

You don’t want to be Deerstalker Studios if you aren’t talking about hunting or Sherlock Holmes. Take a look at Monte Rogers’s business card or Kelle Herrick’s; ya don’t have to be an Egyptologist to decipher what they do.

Maybe you have a great piece you’ve just completed and think it would be a wonderful ambassador for your art. Talk to one of the dozens of photographers living in and around Coos Bay and get them to take a picture. Once you have the digital file, the graphic design can be worked up by one of our local folks or if you’ve got the nerve you can use Print Shop or Microsoft Word or even the high-priced spread, PhotoShop and do your own. (I’ll just bet S.L. Donaldson knows how to use GIMP for this and might be willing to hold your hand while you find your way. Ask it’s cheaper than paying a graphic designer).

Maybe you don’t know what you want, but you won’t get any closer to finding out if you don’t start looking. We have a brand new year and time’s a wasting. Branding your art won’t do a bit of good if you don’t have a way to flog that brand whenever and wherever they’ll let you!

What’s my pal’s horrible, terrible name? I can’t tell you. That’s for him to share if he wants to, I can tell you that he goes by Jack, like his father and grandfather before him.

2012-01-01T10:57:00.000-08:00

Plans

2011-12-31T17:55:00.000-08:00

Wanna make God laugh? Tell him your plans.

And at the risk of once again being a laughing stock, I will fearfully venture forth with a list of New Year’s Resolutions for the artist in everyone and for the divine spark which provides the courage to go where no one has gone before…

1).Do you spend enough time on your art?

Use your sketchbook at least five days out of seven. Be meticulous about getting ideas down in concrete form instead of conning yourself that you’ll remember them.

Do you devote energy to your art just like you do for other serious projects in your life? If you don’t you need to change your schedule.

2). Deal with Obstacles

What keeps most people from painting? (Aside from the fact that I don’t paint, but I’m trying to relearn sketching and anatomy and proportions.) Chances are it's the many obstacles that get thrown in our way (or that we create on our own)--things like distractions, demands from work, family and friends, and lack of support from people around us.

3). Manage Your Time

I'll allocated at least half-an-hour a day to do something creative or inspiring that's not focused on an end result: playing with mixing mediums, being adventurous with a troublesome painting, paging through a monograph on my favorite artist or a book on painting, popping into an art gallery or museum, reading something about painting.

4). Brainstorm on a regular and repeated schedule.

On New Year’s Day you have to have black eyed peas or cabbage depending on which side of the Mason-Dixon line you are from and of course you watch forty-six football games all at once on the new High-Def TV you got for yourself as a Christmas present because no one else would do it and now they want to come over and horn in on your television, so fox’em all and watch futbol which is better for you anyway and much more interesting than trying to decide which team’s wide out will run under a thrown football.

And during commercials I will hold my annual brainstorming session. On New Year's Day or the day after, I get out a pen and notebook (my computer just doesn't seem to work well for this) and brainstorm ideas for art projects for the rest of the year. I write a different month on a different sheet of paper and then brainstorm ideas appropriate to each month; I then try and locate markets for each of the ideas and determine when during the year they'd need to receive my appropriate card/entry/wall-sized mural.

5). Change It Up

I'll regularly do at least one painting in size/shape that's outside my norm, whether extreme landscape format, a square canvas, a tiny canvas, or a huge one.

Or do one that is in a different medium. I do lots of bi-color photographs, but I’m working on a new technique and I want to fully explore the possibilities in 2012.

6). Break into New Markets

Do you keep sending your entries/paintings/collages to the same events? Do you find yourself working with the same juries time and time again? It may be time to expand your horizons! You want to keep relying on those events that have been successful for you in the past, but you also want to break into new ones. The New Year is the perfect time to do this.

Since I create for myself, I consider the galleries and shows I’d like to be hung in, selected for, singled out or just awarded ribbons and prizes for during the next year--even if they seem out of my reach. Then I make realistic plans for having success with those events

7). Live Large

On my birthday, I will treat myself to something I've always considered an extravagant luxury, such as the newest megapixel camera or an extra-large print on canvas. Or any other day especially if I have just been rejected by some moribund jury without enough brains to blow their collective noses and I will do it without accumulating the guilt I usually wallow in when doing something exclusively for myself.

8). Be Professional

I firmly believe that professionalism is one of the major keys to success. You must devote yourself to being a professional in every aspect of your life and business.

9). Talk It Up

Instead of just thinking about it, I'll post more comments on the South Coast Trawler. There are artists who are actively seeking comments on their work, and I'll support them by voicing my opinion.

10). GIVE IT UP

I'll share the most helpful thing I've ever learned about painting. I’ll relentlessly promote art and artists in my own community and in the rest of the country. I’ll offer support to everyone I encounter and will if asked lend a hand by taking art to shows, picking it up and working with the organizers to make the shows run smoothly and the artists entering comfortable and confident.

Now go out and have a wonderful, creative and successful New year and Ill see you back here...next year.

Last Glance

2011-12-31T11:03:00.001-08:00