The Last Stand

Every two years the Coos Art Museum opens its doors and walls to Oregon artists with a public hanging. They call this the CAM Biennial, cause it happens once every two years. Doesn’t that work out nicely?

Any artist living and working in Oregon can bring in their art and it will get displayed.

Now you would think, and I certainly did when I first heard of this insanely wide-open exhibit, that it would attract a bunch of junk. No limits, no boundaries, no taste.

But I was, am and continue to be completely wrong. This show attracts some of the best art and most gifted artists in the whole country, much less in little ole Oregon.

The range, style and execution of the art in this show is boundless. There are brilliant landscapes, wonderful still life, excellent photography, some amazing digitally manipulated photography, (What you thought I’d skip over my own area of interest?), fantastic sculptures and some of the most delicate and magical watercolors I’ve ever seen.

There is a small pen and ink nude, more of a wash really, that is just breath-taking, a large nude reflected in a mirror which is amazing in execution and style, a watercolor of flowers in the front gallery which is so vivid that it is like a photograph but not and both impressions are correct and wonderful, there is sculpture which defies understanding. How did the carver find the image in that block of wood?

But I won’t tell you about it you’ll have to see it for yourself. And time is short, the exhibit is closing in only a short time, so don’t delay, get down there and look. You will be amazed.

And if you are an artist you will be depressed, dismayed and in denial, how could there be so many gifted artists all working in Coos County?

And they want you to come take a look, cause there is a People’s Choice Award waiting on your opinion. That’s right, how many times have you said, “These shows would be so much better of only the judges would ask me first.” Here’s your chance to be asked first. Just see the show, fill in a ballot and you get a say in who has the best piece in the exhibit.

No, you will not be subjected to the Florida method, there is no waiting, not recounts, your decision is final…unless you go back to the museum and take another look and get a chance to vote again, just in case you are of two or more minds.

Just because your invisible friend whispers in your ear, that doesn’t mean you are completely crazy, it just means you have an understandable bit of indecision which is the natural result of seeing the CAM Biennial.

Now you do want your vote to count don’t you? You don’t want this sort of thing to devolve into Super PACs and attack ads? No, we’re artists and have nothing but positive things to say about art and can do so without the television telling us that one artist is a litterer or an environmental enemy and drops spent sunflower seeds all over the sidewalk or watches reality shows in secret and claims they were watching Oregon Art Beat on PBS. No, we don’t want that and the only way you can prevent that from happening is to get off the La-Z-Boy and go vote.

Worse yet, you don’t want this to be like so many of the art programs we’ve lost? They only appeal to the soft, elitist, intellectual snobs of the East Coast and have nothing to offer the rugged, adventurering, pioneer spirits of the West!

Think about it, every year we lose more and more of the cultural base of our country. The schools have virtually given up anything which can’t produce a revenue stream the size of a George Lucas opening. They toss out art and music and dance and keep only the athletic programs which they must have to comply with Title IX or the ones which generate enough income to make an oil rich person of unspecified middle-eastern descent, (Can’t be throwing around stereotypes or ethnic profiling), blush, no we just can’t have that.

But if you don’t go to see the CAM Biennial, the Man in the Carpeted Office might just decide that it isn’t pulling its weight and needs to be replaced by something with more public appeal, like baseball cards or paparazzi photographs.

Oh my!

We won’t even think about that dreadful possibility.

The CAM Biennial is a wonderful show in its own right, even if you aren’t going to vote. And if you are a right thinking, red, white and blue-blooded, normal, American person willing to face the dangers of all of nature and man to get out and exercise your eights as an American citizen and vote, then seeing the show is a must.

Don’t be like the kid standing in the empty street as the circus leaves town, crying your little eyes out, go, see and vote and you’ll sleep better knowing that you lived up to your civic duty and voted!