Wednesday, July 31, 2013

People's Choice Winner






Tony Adams is Voted People’s Choice Winner

Art by the Sea Gallery and Studio in Old Town Bandon has tallied all of the votes and is pleased to announce the winner of the People’s Choice Award for the Miniature and Small Works 2013 Show. Allen A. (Tony) Adams was overwhelmingly chosen as the favorite and will be featured with an exhibition of his paintings at Art by the Sea Gallery during March/April in2014. His beautiful acrylic paintings of the baby chimpanzee, cattle and blue jay are what garnered him the majority of the votes. Tony, who studied at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles and worked as a graphic designer, uses considerable skill as a realist to produce paintings of wildlife, landscape and portraiture. His art work has been displayed frequently throughout the area and he had a one person show at the Coos Art Museum in 2010.
Art by the Sea wishes to thank all of the artists who participated in the Miniature and Small Works Show and all of the visitors to the gallery who voted for their favorite artist. The public is invited to stop by Art by the Sea Gallery and Studio in the Continuum Center in Old Town Bandon to see the new show, including featured artist Donna Cox and to pick up a copy of the new class schedule.
Summer hours are daily from 11-5 pm.

New Members



Local Co-operative Gallery Welcomes Newest Members

Art by the Sea Gallery and Studio is pleased to announce that four additional artists are joining their co-operative venture: John Butler, an oil painter; Eric Wyatt, a photographer; Deborah Fisher, an altered book and jewelry artist; and Karen Stillwagon, who works with charcoal and pastels, specializing in pet portraits.
These four artists will have work displayed beginning August 4th when Art by the Sea will also be featuring the mixed media creations of guest artist Donna Cox. Her unique art work often utilizes garage sale “finds” and other creatively repurposed materials that she fabricates into her colorful mixed media paintings and sculptures.
Art by the Sea Gallery, located in the Continuum Building at 175 2nd St SE, is open from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily during the summer. Artist made cards, prints and original art are featured in the gallery; classes and play days are on-going.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Art Happenings





Show off your talent!
Paintings, collage, photography, sculpture, pottery, fiber, etc....
If you are interested in having your artwork featured as the header for the emailed edition of Art Happenings newsletter,
please send a high quality image (no less than 600px wide x any height) to info@artliaisonconcepts.com.  
In the body of the email include your name, the title of the artwork and the media.
 

Share your art info! 
Announcements, accomplishments, exhibits, classes & workshops, calls to artists....
If you are interested in spreading the word about your event or art venue,
use the submission form at http://artliaisonconcepts.com/art_happenings/ or email info@artliaisonconcepts.com
Art Happenings is published weekly. Emailed version and printed copies distributed on Fridays.
NEWSLETTER Deadline: Tuesdays 11:59 PST for Friday same week publication.
Editor reserves the right to modify content for layout purposes.
 


This newsletter is funded in part by a grant from the Coos County Cultural Coalition.


Click this link for active .pdf





Click image for larger view


Copyright © 2013 Art Liaison Concepts, LLC, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you subscribed to Ava Richey's art newsletter titled "Art Happenings", you signed up via the Art Liaison Concepts, LLC website, or you signed up via the MailChimp subscription form. If you have received this email in error, click the Unsubscribe link provided within this email.
Our mailing address is:
Art Liaison Concepts, LLC
PO Box 643
Coquille, OR 97423

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Meet And Greet

Second Street Gallery


Artist Meet & Greet

S L Donaldson

Saturday, July 27th, 12-4 PM





"Look Deeply Into My Eyes"

S L Donaldson

Artist S L Donaldson will be at Second Street Gallery in Bandon on Saturday, July 27 from 12:00-4:00 PM (varies). Ms. Donaldson is known for her vibrant creature-themed artwork and whimsical paintings of gulls in hats and costumes. Come "Meet and Greet" the artist and watch her demonstrate as she works on additional gull paintings while at the Gallery.

S L Donaldson was born in Germany in 1973. the vibrant cultural history of Europe was a catalyst to her artistic endeavors. Her talent was quickly recognized, leading to an opportunity to study under Italian artist, Ricardo Blaszczyk. It was through his mentorship that she learned strength of line and color.

Academically, she pursued animal Science, earning both her B.S. and M.S. Over the years, painting and artistic innovation were never far from her mind. Drawing upon her animal science background, she began painting both traditional and unconventional creature-themed images. Second Street Gallery is proud to represent her work!


Second Street Gallery

210 Second Street SE

Bandon, OR 97411

(541) 347-4133

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Garrett Life

It’s a struggle to carry the week’s groceries up the five flights of stairs to your cold water walk-up, that’s what we call a garret in ‘Merica, but it’s the life you wanted, the hard, unforgiving life, the artist’s life.

But you always knew it was going to be hard. Way back in Mrs. Dinglebreathe’s class when she told you to get married or join the Army or both because an artist would never amount to anything and then when you wanted to take a year off college and travel around Europe and your parents said, “NO, no and hell no!”, and then when you told your partner and they gave you that deer in the headlight stare of complete confusion and you had to explain again and they never did really get it and they still don’t and they keep interrupting you just at the critical moment and maybe you should have stayed single like all those turn of the century artists and just had lovers and affairs and drank red wine in street cafes…

But all of that is part and parcel of an artist’s life, you have to struggle and strain, strive and sweat blood, sacrifice and suffer cause if you don’t you can’t make Great Art.

But what happens if it comes easily?

Oh God! I’m a hack! How did this happen to me. I believed n all the right things, did all of the right stuff, took all of the right classes, studied with all the right teachers, read all the right books, visited all the right museums and it still comes easily. What will become of me?

You’ll manage.

I know, I know it’s just not the right-thinking, red, white and blue-blooded American way, you have to fight for what you want and if you get it without putting up a life or death struggle what can it possibly be worth?

Did the settlers stop in St Louis and say, “My goodness they have streets and schools and stores and indoor plumbing we should stay here.” No they did not, they crowded into cramped, dusty, hot, bone-jarring wagons and struck out across the barren plain braving Indians, (Now of course we know that they were Native Americans and not red savages which was surely a comfort to the guys in the Seventh Cav when they ran into that nice, friendly group of indigenous peoples intent of keeping their own land), starvation, thirst, blizzards and cannibalism. (No doubt after the first taste they came to the conclusion that blizzards were much the better than cannibalism which is why Dairy Queen offers the former and not the latter and considering the obesity epidemic it is much better to eat dairy than all that fatty meat so now you know all about why Dairy Queen offers Blizzards.)

Back to the pioneers, just look at Seattle they don’t have a Nester’s Square, no siree, they have a Pioneer Square to salute all of those brave, long suffering striving fiercely independent thinkers who settled in a place where there was no Starbucks and had to wait a hundred and fifty years for a mocha cappuccino.

So struggling to achieve is part of the DNA of being a Statie. We just don’t believe that anything which comes easily is worth a thing.

That’s too bad. There are a lot of things which come easily and we never even notice and would be devastated if they went away just because we didn’t work all that hard to get them in the first place. Don’t believe me; try watching television with your eyes closed. Sure you came by vision just by being born but that was pretty easy, at least for you, and once you had vision you didn’t have to do much with it beyond see, so why have it at all. Or how about hearing? Now there are a lot of people who don’t have the gift of hearing and they get along just fine, but having had it for low all these many years I would be howsomeever pissed off if it went away just because I didn’t have to do anything to get it.

Sure those examples are of things which are inherent to being human and don’t take any education or development to hone or perfect. So what wanna toss’em?

Not me, not for a second and not any of the other things I’ve managed to collect along the way as I aged or grew depending on who you talk to, I like all the bits and pieces and just because they come easily I don’t feel the least bit cheated.

Let’s take a look at something which doesn’t come from the factory, stock so to speak, language. Now we all learn to talk and most of us can write a bit, so long as there are no English teachers lurking about or  worse yet a close encounter with the feared Grammarian, we can manage email and twitter and even something a bit longer and we didn’t have to do all that much to get it and keep it.

Sure, there’s always a nay-sayer or two, my college Freshman English instructor opened the second semester of his class with the cheery introduction, “All of you, except Mr. Miranda will have by now managed to learn how to write a simple English sentence…” He never did take a liking to me, can’t imagine why?

But for the most part, Freshman English aside writing has always come easily for me. I can string together a word or two with the best of them and it is a huge kick and I would do it even if I weren’t getting paid, which is a good thing cause I’m not. So there is a reward or two to be had from things which come along without a whole lot of effort.

The trick is to notice, enjoy and develop them so that a gift which you got for free becomes a skill which you can rely on for the whole of your life. They don’t come often and when they do you have to grab them cause boys and girls they will certainly get away if you don’t hang on tight. And with all of the fighting and striving and sacrificing don’t you want an easy every now and then?

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Copper Mesh Journal


  • Don't miss this opportunity; class size is limited!
  • Tues. Aug. 6   Vintage Copper Mesh Journal with Deborah Fisher   12:30-4:30   $45 plus $15 materials
  • at Art by the Sea Gallery and Studio, Continuum Center, Old Town Bandon
  • call 541-347-5355 to register or stop by the gallery

Friday, July 19, 2013

Art Happenings




Show off your talent!
Paintings, collage, photography, sculpture, pottery, fiber, etc....
If you are interested in having your artwork featured as the header for the emailed edition of Art Happenings newsletter,
please send a high quality image (no less than 600px wide x any height) to info@artliaisonconcepts.com.  
In the body of the email include your name, the title of the artwork and the media.
 

Share your art info!
Announcements, accomplishments, exhibits, classes & workshops, calls to artists....
If you are interested in spreading the word about your event or art venue,
use the submission form at http://artliaisonconcepts.com/art_happenings/ or email info@artliaisonconcepts.com.
Art Happenings is published weekly. Emailed version and printed copies distributed on Fridays.
NEWSLETTER Deadline: Tuesdays 11:59 PST for Friday same week publication.
Editor reserves the right to modify content for layout purposes.

 


This newsletter is funded in part by a grant from the Coos County Cultural Coalition.

lick link for active.pdf




Click image for larger view

Copyright © 2013 Art Liaison Concepts, LLC, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you subscribed to Ava Richey's art newsletter titled "Art Happenings", you signed up via the Art Liaison Concepts, LLC website, or you signed up via the MailChimp subscription form. If you have received this email in error, click the Unsubscribe link provided within this email.
Our mailing address is:
Art Liaison Concepts, LLC
PO Box 643
Coquille, OR 97423

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Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Día de los Muertos Exhibit

Maude Kerns Art Center

Call to Artists

Día de los Muertos Exhibit

October 18 – November 8

Submission Deadline: Friday, August 16, 2013



The Maude Kerns Art Center invites artists to submit to the 20th annual Día de los Muertos exhibit,

October 18 – November 8, featuring two- and three-dimensional work related to the theme of the Mexican Day of the Dead. The Día de los Muertos celebration blends the ancient harvest rituals of the Aztec god of death and the Christian holidays of All Saints and All Souls days.

Submissions must be postmarked by Friday, August 16. Entries will be judged from five images on CD in jpeg format (preferably sized to 4” x 6” at a resolution of 300 dpi or higher). There is a $10 submission fee. For a prospectus/application form, visit the Art Center’s website at www.mkartcenter.org or contact the Art Center at 541-345-1571.







Saturday, July 13, 2013

Mixed Media



Donna Cox Featured at Art by the Sea Gallery and Studio during August/September 2013

Local mixed media artist Donna Cox will be the Guest Artist at Art by the Sea Gallery and Studio during the months of August and September. Her unique art work often utilizes garage sale “finds” and other creatively repurposed materials that she fabricates into her colorful mixed media pieces. Her abstract and figurative paintings have been exhibited frequently at the hospital, Sage Gallery, and Bandon Library shows as well as at Truffles and Two Loons Deli. Along with these playful acrylic collages Donna will be exhibiting a few of her Pendleton wool 3-dimensional sculptures.

People's Choice



Bandon Miniature Show
People’s Choice Award

Art by the Sea Gallery and Studio, owned and operated by 17 local artists, is hosting Bandon’s 5th Annual Miniature and Small Works Show during June and July.  Coos Bay artist Pat Snyder was the judge who awarded prizes and ribbons in both miniature and small works categories at the show's opening.

The public is invited to choose the Peoples’ Choice Award, so while you are in Bandon please come into the Gallery to vote for your favorite artist.  The ribbon will be awarded at 6 p.m. on the night of the July ArtWalk on Friday, July 16th.  Please join us for the award presentation at that time. 

Art by the Sea Gallery is located in the Continuum Building at 175 2nd St SE, on the Pedway in Old Town Bandon.  Hours are 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. every day.  541-347-5355 for more information.  Find us on Facebook and at artbytheseagalleryandstudio.com

Bandon Public Library Art

2 Views 2 Alpha Artists
Robin Jenkins and Sarita Southgate collaborate again.
 
A new exhibit at the Bandon Public Library for the month of August will feature fresh, engaging work. 
 
 Both artists have long histories of involvement with the arts: both have taught art to children and adults, both are experimenters and seekers, and both have had numerous exhibits.
 
Robin and Sarita enjoy working together; the synergy is exciting.
There will be a reception on Saturday, August 3rd from Noon to 2:00pm

Friday, July 12, 2013

Art Happenings




Show off your talent!
Paintings, collage, photography, sculpture, pottery, fiber, etc....
If you are interested in having your artwork featured as the header for the emailed edition of Art Happenings newsletter,
please send a high quality image (no less than 600px wide x any height) to info@artliaisonconcepts.com
In the body of the email include your name, the title of the artwork and the media.

 

Share your art info!
Announcements, accomplishments, exhibits, classes & workshops, calls to artists....
If you are interested in spreading the word about your event or art venue,
use the submission form at http://artliaisonconcepts.com/art_happenings/ or email info@artliaisonconcepts.com.
Art Happenings is published weekly. Emailed version and printed copies distributed on Fridays.
NEWSLETTER Deadline: Tuesdays 11:59 PST for Friday same week publication.
Editor reserves the right to modify content for layout purposes.

 


This newsletter is funded in part by a grant from the Coos County Cultural Coalition.

Click this link for active .pdf




Click image for larger view

 
Copyright © 2013 Art Liaison Concepts, LLC, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you subscribed to Ava Richey's art newsletter titled "Art Happenings", you signed up via the Art Liaison Concepts, LLC website, or you signed up via the MailChimp subscription form. If you have received this email in error, click the Unsubscribe link provided within this email.
Our mailing address is:
Art Liaison Concepts, LLC
PO Box 643
Coquille, OR 97423

Add us to your address book
Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp
 

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Now Showing at the Pacific Park Gallery

Now Showing at Pacific Park Gallery


1957 Thompson Rd., Coos Bay

Artists’ Reception 5-7 p.m., Friday, July 12

Sam Dantone is an emerging artist whose work is a thought provoking look at the hypocrisy and foibles of modern man. Come meet the artist and see this collection of paintings, drawings, upcycled collage and sculpture.



Also showing in the Mezzanine: the work of photographer Paula Reis and hand-drawn prints and drawings by Pat Snyder.



Just added: Model tall ships created from found materials by hermit artist David.



Live music by Stacey Rose on hammer dulcimer

1957 Thompson Road is just west of the hospital in Pacific Coast Medical Park, first building the left.

From Janne LaValle:  "You will LOVE his Nonetheless series and Neo-Goth.  Very edgy.
..hermit artist David whose work is all made of whatever he can find, all bits and pieces of stuff picked up along the road."

Monday, July 8, 2013

Big Noise


So you were watching the Mark Twain Awards show and you saw Mr. Cosby get his richly deserved honor and you clapped wildly, laughed at all of the jokes and felt very satisfied with yourself.

There were many things to watch and many incredibly talented people to see, not the least among which was Wynton Marsalis. Mr. Marsalis is a master trumpeter, composer, director and scorer of music. He can do just about all there is to do with music and if you happen to find something he hasn’t done yet, it is just because he is too busy.

Now you would think, I certainly would if I were such an accomplished young man, that basking in the glow of all of that accomplishment would be a full-time job. But Mr. Marsalis keeps finding new places to direct his considerable talents.

Ax men, trumpeters to ya’ll are supposed to be egotistical snots, cause it takes a lot of talent to bend an ax and while you are doing it you have to do it right cause you hear every note. It ain’t like the clarinets or the guy on the string bass, you miss a lick and everyone hears.

Unless you are playing with Mr. Marsalis.

He has done one of the most generous, brilliant and simple things any band leader has ever done and it not only makes his group sound so much richer it takes the guy in the back and gives him a place at the front of the bandstand.

Now I suppose you never gave much thought to the guys in the rhythm section, the string bass, the drums, the keyboard and maybe the Vibraphone. They do a lot of work, get very little credit and go home at the end of the day without so much as a single paparazzo in tow.

And in truth the guys in the rhythm section never gave much thought to what goes on up front where the spotlights glow and the screams rend the air. They never expected to be in that sort of thing cause if you play a base or a drum set you just don’t get all that many chances to shine unless you are Gene Krupa or Buddy Rich. Okay so every now and them someone pulls out  dog-eared copy of Big Noise From Winnetka and the bass and the drums get a chance to show the horns how it is done. But that doesn’t happen very often.

I know what I speak; I carried a tuba for Ole Gravel Pit Indoctrinational Reeducation Center and was proud of it. I always wanted to play like Mingus, but then I wanted a Ferrari until I found out what it would cost to insure it.

About the same time I heard Take Five and Eugene Wright became my MAN.

I never did manage to play well enough to play jazz. It’s still hard to admit, but I sure put in enough practice. Couldn’t afford or house and upright bass but I had a nifty little tone-hole strung practice stump with a cleat so you could hold it in the right place while you scrubbed the prints off your fingers.

Hurt like hell but Lawd it was grand.

Guess you still want to know about what Wynton did, or maybe that was so log ago you lost interest?

Wynton took a delicate, expensive and terribly sensitive Dynamic mic,the kind they use for singers, ( looked a lot like a Neuman TLM49), and placed it just a foot away from the bridge and tuned so that all of the lovely tone could come out and play with the rest of the kids.

And the result was just brilliant. The bass could be heard clearly in the background, not just felt like a good bass should but heard. And the rest of the instruments benefited from the increased richness of the rhythm. Now that’s a lot of bang for just a little buck and it makes you wonder why didn’t anyone else think of this?

Maybe because they don’t have all of the talents that Wynton Marsalis brings to the party, maybe they just didn’t care enough, maybe they wanted the bass to stay in the back where it belonged. (Ask a Rocker about that and see how hard they laugh.)

One little thing for a guy who knew he came to be ignored and the whole ensemble gets a big boost and no one every bothered to do it before.

And maybe there were just a dozen old broken down bassists like me watching and we are the only ones who cared at all. But it was done and done by a guy who knows a whole bunch about music and what makes it good, great and dazzling. And Wynton thought it was a good enough idea to do it.

Now what has this to do with you, you don’t play jazz, don’t much like jazz, don’t give a rat’s behind about the bass and the guys who play it on the back of the bandstand.

It matters because by doing one small thing, which did not enhance his own position, he enriched the whole group's sound and made them more than they could have been without that lovely rhythm line.

What have you overlooked in your search to make your own art good enough so that people stop in their tracks when they see it? Do they gasp, do they weep, do they linger and pull their friends over for a look? If they don’t then maybe there’s one little thing you have forgotten.

It takes so much effort to make great art that it is easy to skip over the tiny things because you have too much to deal with in the first place. Take a look, take a close look and find that one thing which can drag you from the back of the bandstand and put you up in the spotlight.

Now would you like to hear a rousing version of Big Noise From Winnetka?

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Celebrate The Shore

Call for Photographs for "Celebrate the Shore"


..Posted: 6/27/13

Updated: 6/27/13

The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) is holding a photo contest to celebrate 100 years of Oregon’s public shore! The contest is open to non-professional photographers 18 years and older. New or historic photos should feature people involved in recreation activities on the Oregon coast. Images must be original scans or digital photos of at least 2 MB in size saved in .jpg or .jpeg format. Submitting your photo means you’ve received permission from all of the subjects to display their image online and you have documented release from the parents or guardians of any minors. It also means that you give OPRD the rights to reproduce and adapt your images in future materials.



The contest begins July 1 and runs for the entire month. OPRD welcomes multiple entries. The winner will be the “people’s choice,” or the photo with the most votes awarded by the public through online voting during the first two weeks of August. OPRD will display the top photo, as well as three runner-ups/honorable mentions at the 2013 Oregon State Fair.



n/a

Deadline: 7/31/13 Visit Website ...

Pink

I’m getting things ready for yet another trip to Seattle. This means among other things having the car serviced, making sure my Advance Directive is up-to-date, and loading the traveling CDs in the truck.

Yes I do still use CDs. I could spend an amount equal to the defense budget for fiscal ‘14 and get an ipod, but I won’t. I’ve always believed Apple products are overpriced and I’m funny, I don’t want to listen to a bunch of jumbled tunes, I want them to play in album order just like they did on the CD.

Yeah that’s why I am still using CDs.

So there I was changing out my selections, from around town mellow to hard driving, road-eating, rock stuff. Usually I listen to jazz and seldom play it above the level necessary to hear the words, but on a seven hour trip I need something to rock my world, shake me awake and get me in the zone so that I can get to Seattle in as little time as the law allows and get back.

And because of that I was listening to my baby Pink as I took the truck in for its pre-trip inspection.

Now maybe you don’t know Pink, if you are over twenty-five you might not, but she is the original, demon-child of R & B and makes parents squirm every time they hear their kids fire her music up. Course now that almost everyone listens to MP3 players with personal ear buds you have no idea what your offspring is listening to and that is a wonderful advance made possible by technology.


Pink has made her career on being the most outrageous, over the top, wild-assed rocker since Keith Moon first trashed a hotel room.

She has a public persona of the worst, wildest, nastiest, most out of control problem child ever. Even her stage name is designed to make mothers cringe and grown men shudder. Sufficient to say Pink does not describe her favorite lip gloss.

Pink has managed to kiss a girl, in public, no less than the Feminator Kristanna Loken, long before Katie Perry sang about it; she scandalized the set of her music video for Lady Marmalade by appearing ready for action except for a slight draft in the southern region. Yes, she joined the long list of starlets caught going Commando when common sense would demand at least lip service to convention.

Pink isn’t your Momma’s kind of child and I do feel sorry for Alicia Moore’s parents cause they had to try to navigate some kind of order out of this wild and crazy shooting star.

But, and this is the important part, when you cut through all of the hype and the flack and the glitz of the music biz, Pink has lived a very conventional life.

She is close to her father and even made a cut with him on her I’m Not Dead CD. She found and romanced and married a guy, okay so Motorcross racing is not the same as banking or a stock broker but I’m sure that doesn’t matter a whit. She, the demon- child of R&B married!

Now it took a coupla tries before they managed to get it completely right, but that’s not unusual even among conventional couples. Then she had a baby. Does this sound like the antisocial, gangster, doper, sexual adventurer?

Not bloody likely. It sounds just like atypical American girl doing what generations of American girls have done, making a family.

By now you are scratching your head and saying, “What the hell does this have to do with art?”

The answer is pretty simple; it is all about how what you project and how you market yourself may have nothing at all to do with who and what you are.

I’m pretty sure you don’t need to die your hair pink or create a scandalous story about how you got your stage name, but it won’t hurt a bit if you have an image that attracts newspapers and television to you. You need them to get the word out about what you are doing and maybe you have been so successful at doing it so well that you no longer have any mystery or color.

That’s not good, not good at all.

The image you project need not be wild and crazy, but a bit of dash and flair won’t hurt a bit.

Who gets the television cameras turned on his work on a regular basis? David Castleberry. Now much of that is because the work is pretty dynamic and stunning, but David can spin a pretty good yarn about his work and his process.

That should be something you are working on, finding the right persona to project élan and delight into your work. That way when the TV crews come to get a story for the local news, maybe you’ll be it.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Art Happenings


Show off your talent!
Paintings, collage, photography, sculpture, pottery, fiber, etc....
If you are interested in having your artwork featured as the header for the emailed edition of Art Happenings newsletter,
please send a high quality image (no less than 600px wide x any height) to info@artliaisonconcepts.com
In the body of the email include your name, the title of the artwork and the media.

 

Share your art info!
Announcements, accomplishments, exhibits, classes & workshops, calls to artists....
If you are interested in spreading the word about your event or art venue,
use the submission form at http://artliaisonconcepts.com/art_happenings/ or email info@artliaisonconcepts.com.
Art Happenings is published weekly. Emailed version and printed copies distributed on Fridays.
NEWSLETTER Deadline: Tuesdays 11:59 PST for Friday same week publication.
Editor reserves the right to modify content for layout purposes.

 


This newsletter is funded in part by a grant from the Coos County Cultural Coalition.

click this link for active .pdf




Click image for larger view

Copyright © 2013 Art Liaison Concepts, LLC, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you subscribed to Ava Richey's art newsletter titled "Art Happenings", you signed up via the Art Liaison Concepts, LLC website, or you signed up via the MailChimp subscription form. If you have received this email in error, click the Unsubscribe link provided within this email.
Our mailing address is:
Art Liaison Concepts, LLC
PO Box 643
Coquille, OR 97423

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Thursday, July 4, 2013

Independence Day

What is liberty, freedom, independence? We all know, I mean good God we know, but what about them? Do they have any idea what it means to be a free country, an independent society or a liberated culture?

In Egypt this week they overthrew the theocracy of Mohamed Mursi and the military took over the reigns of government and in that troubled country and that was a good thing. The people trust the military which has ruled since the early fifties and they do not trust the religious fanatics who have lately been working so hard to take Egypt back into the sixteenth century.

We of course wouldn’t stand for that here. The military ruining the government, the only organization less likely than Congress to be able to run a bake sale is the military. They haven’t yet figured out how to protect the service women from sexual assault and that seems to be fairly simple. We do it in civilian life most of the time.

So what do we think about when we think about liberty, freedom and independence?

Do you see the faces of George, Tom and Ben superimposed on an American Flag, fifty star version, with the Star Spangled banner playing softly in the background?

I’m afraid that just won’t get it, talk to one of the troops back from the Sand Lot and see how often they thought of Tom, Ben and George.

Like a lot of people thrown into a situation where life is at risk every moment and the days are unrelieved misery, they mostly think about how the hell they can get out. And no I do not mean any disrespect for our military, when you are getting your ass shot off or blown up that pretty much takes up all of your free time.

Now I know you’ve seen the jolly television programs filled with happy soldiers doing all sorts of interesting things, chasing tail, smoking dope and smuggling contraband so that they can make a nest egg for themselves when they get the hell out. And I am sure some of that happens but I am also sure that the vast majority of our troops do not have a jolly time in the combat zone.

But don’t take my word for it go talk to the lucky ones who came back. Don’t be surprised if they don’t want to talk or if they are wary and standoffish, what they went through as not the stuff of happy dreams.

The troops who make it back come in all sizes and varieties. Some are battle scared and shell shocked, some are just hollow on the inside and some, the lucky ones come back with no wounds inside or out.

But all of them have a story.

Maybe you can help them get it out. It will help them kill off the demons and it will make you feel like you actually accomplished something.

An artist has a unique ability to express in visual terms emotions a person may not even know they have. How do you describe the loss of a whole patrol, the pain and guilt of surviving and horror of knowing that on any other day you would have been the one dead and someone else would be feeling the gut tearing agony of guilt, guilt, guilt.

Any of the guys guilty? In the whole course of the war yes, probably, but for the average soldier no way, no chance, not ever. They went in to do an impossible job, with so many rules that they had their hands tied behind their backs and they did it for the most part and lived to tell the tale.

That is nothing to feel guilty about.

But if you don’t believe it look into the eyes of the next veteran you encounter. They have a way of masking their pain and making it to sundown in spite of the pain, but they can’t keep it out of their eyes, the dull, hooded, haunted eyes of someone who has seen far too much, been asked to do far too much and been treated to far too little praise for doing it.

How about trying to capture that look? You’re an artist surely you can do it. You may have to actually approach the subject and talk to them for a while to establish a working bond, but wouldn’t it be worth it?

Many years ago, when I was young and stupid I worked as an orderly at the county hospital. One of the people I met and a met a clutch of wonderful, genuine people, was a surgical nurse. Now she did most of the meeting, I was going through a severely autistic phase and wouldn’t have recognized an invitation from a traffic citation. This nurse used to run into me in the halls of this monolithic county hospital or in the surgical elevators or in the morgue and she’d tack a clamp to my shirt and be gone before I could say a thing.

This went on for sometime and eventually I caught on and managed to speak and discovered that she was a Brit who had survived the Blitz and later fell in love and married a Luftwaffe pilot. Needless to say things at home were a little tense for such a romance so they came to North America where they could live like human beings and not have to worry about some drunk starting a fight every time they went out.

I was lucky, I got to know Gunner fairly well, he was a soft spoken, descent sort of guy who had done what every other young man in Germany had done he joined the military. He spoke about how things where s much better in America and how he and Bette could now make a life and I listened and did my young and stupid best to be understanding and supportive.

But I could see in his eyes that the memories of what he had done in the war would never be totally gone and they would follow him night and day for the rest of his life and that was when I knew that even the lucky ones, the ones who make it back, the ones with all of their arms and legs intact, they never really heal.

I think every artist in Coos County should make it a priority to record the faces of our vets and get those expressions locked down so that they can be seen by the friends and families who are struggling to understand. They went to a hell hole so that we could barbecue.