April 2009 Art Walk

From 7th Avenue I pulled onto Willamette Street and immediately found a parking place next to Joggers, a local Bar & Grill. I got a good picture of the Smeed Hotel Building:

Built in 1884, the Smeed Hotel served as a hub of the city’s social life. The metal canopy was added several decades later. The original facade was in brick Italianate style, but was replaced by a stucco finish in the early 1900s. There is a Vintage Sign Painted on the north side of the building in the alley proclaiming it as the Hotel Smeed It also houses Café Perugino a Specialty coffeehouse and wine bar set against the backdrop of an Italian ceramics gallery.

Since I was in front of the Karin Clarke Gallery I stopped in to see who the gallery was showing tonight. George Johanson's "Recent Work" was as diverse as any artist I've seen and ...

... some of his music themes made me think of a time in the early 70's Sharyn and I took off on a weekend lark to New Orleans and roaming around the French Quarter and Preservation Hall known as “the house that jazz built” on St. Peter Street. I can look at this painting and almost hear the Preservation Hall Jazz Band filling the night with music of the soul.

It was pretty rocking in the "House that Karin Built" with a full house, refreshments and some wonderful art.


There was color and form and viewers who relished the opening...


and the work of George Johanson.

I have to say on First Friday there is an official Art Walk I don't participate in because I create my own walk in pictures. I get so involved it shooting pictures I don't really have the time or concentration to fully appreciate the art as much as I'd like during the walk. I do, however, fully take in the experience of the galleries, patrons, the setting in downtown Eugene and the art as part of my life. I do go back to the galleries from time to time to more closely view the art and at times like tonight I get to meet the artists I so admire.

Speaking of the venue of downtown Eugene I always take a picture of this parking structure's elevator and stairways, perhaps I'm more weird than I realize.


After crossing 7th Ave, I popped into the Jacobs Gallery for a look at the Hader Collection.

"The Haders (Berta and Elmer) were noted for their "careful coordination of text and pictures," and the love of animals and nature that permeated so many of their works. Unlike many of their contemporaries, they did not anthropomorphize their animal characters but presented them in their natural environments behaving realistically. In 1949, the Haders won the Caldecott Award for The Big Snow, an animal story set during a hard winter that movingly delineated and illustrated their deep appreciation of nature and love of animals."

I got to meet Joy Rich, a niece of the Hader's who told me the story of finding many books and illustrations in the attic of the Hader home. She is the woman second from the left in this picture.
Joy Rich is the current steward of the collection, Rich believes that her aunt and uncle would want people to continue to enjoy their work.

Karen Tolley, the owner of Lost and Bound Books in Roseburg, spends her days repairing children’s classics and has long admired the Haders’ work. Karen on the left here talking with Beverly Soasey Gallery Director at Jacobs was a pleasure to talk with and is truly kind and generous with thoughts on the collection.

Billy Cook not here was a children’s librarian in Glide, Oregon for more than a decade and is fascinated with the Haders’ lives and their many connections in that day to such people as Helen Hayes, Dorothy Parker and Rose Wilder.

These three women, Joy, Karen and Billy, are dedicated to resurrecting the Haders’ work. They have established a nonprofit group called The Hader Connection with the purpose of developing exhibits, republishing some of the books and writing a biography about the couple.

A great look back at the books I was read as a child.


Next I was off to Opus Six gallery also packed ...

... and with an eclectic blend of art...

...from brilliant graphic design...

... to Barry Geller's "Artists in Cars" exhibit in the "Back Gallery" featuring Marilyn Monroe and Andy Warhol in a Campbell's Soup Mobile ...

... and DaVinci's "Creation of Adam" in a NASCAR Race - Wow!


I headed off on Willamette determined to get to DIVA during this Art Walk getting another view of some stairs up to the parking garage...


... and the sun setting behind an alley.


Ken Kesey square was well lit by the fading sun and worth another shot.


Sometimes the best pictures are of the things we never see. I happened to look up and back to get the sunset reflected on this building.


Up Broadway a couple of blocks I reached DIVA (Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts) and another gaggle of patrons of the arts.

DIVA's mission is to be a catalyst for the visual arts in downtown Eugene. The DIVA center is a non-profit, membership supported organization. The membership being a collaboration of volunteers that include artists, business people and community leaders.

Out front at DIVA there were some painted chairs that are part of a Student Health Fundraiser. Great project and great chairs.


Inside there was a display from the 18th Annual Colored Pencil Show of the Portland Chapter it was very nice.

A must see is a collection of photographs taken with a digital camera by Michael Wherley. I visited with Michael finding out this collection was all reflections in the water. He finds fairly smooth water gets low to get the reflections of objects. The diversity and beauty of his work is amazing.

Well on my way back to Willamette I couldn't help but take a picture of this hole in the side of a building, in fact it's the same building I got reflecting the sunset.


I kind of rush through Fernario Gallery but this was my favorite tonight.



I got back to the Karin Clarke Annex gallery to find a big change inside. The annex gallery had taken on the look of an artist's studio showing to works by Mark Clarke.


I also ran into Vern who looked over this work and almost became part of the art.


Renee was answering a few questions on the art in the gallery and said Mark Clark may start using the gallery as a demonstration studio in the future. Now how cool is that seeing a great artist at work.


I had seen this painting before and the more I see it the more I like it.


This is two pictures of the same work one with a flash (right) and one without (left) its a negative relief sculpture that is amazing different depending on the camera settings.



I met with Vern, Renee and Craig Spillman after the walk for coffee and the music at Perugino included a dancer in the hall. She was kind in allowing me to photograph her dancing. Like with the sculpture I did the Flash ...


... no flash still learning the limitations of both.


Months ago I had gotten a picture through the window looking in at the dancer (not sure if it's the same one) next to Perugino's. The picture wasn't very clear so I played with it digitally to produce this image.

Scrabble Score is non-existant

Quote of the Day

"We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams." ~ Albert Einstein