Community of Art and Artists

Tonight was the show at Raven Frame Works as the guest of Anne and Terry the owners.

The business is located at 325 W. 4th Avenue in Eugene, Oregon and
Eugene, Oregon, 97401

It's always a good sign to see musicians playing outside...

... and people laughing inside. That's Anne in the purple blouse.

There was a huge crowd and all seemed to be smiling because of the company and the great AECO miniature art on display.

Artist Trading Cards (or ATCs) are miniature works of art created on 2 ½ X 3 ½ inch or 64 X 89 mm card, small enough to fit inside standard card-collector pockets, sleeves or sheets. The ATC movement developed out of the mail art movement and has its origins in Switzerland. Cards are produced in various media, including dry media (pencils, pens, markers, etc), wet media (watercolor, acrylic paints, etc), paper media (in the form of collage, papercuts, found objects, etc). The cards are usually traded or exchanged rather than sold.

An offshoot of Artist Trading Cards are the "Art Cards, Editions, and Originals" (ACEO). ACEOs originated when some artists began to create cards to sell, in addition to trading among themselves. As an example, Michael Leavitt (artist) specifically designed his Art Cards (2001-03) to be appreciated as originals unto themselves. His hand-painted small portraits of artists replicated traditional baseball trading cards in style and format.

ArtCard subjects were drawn from varied genre, with icons such as Vincent Van Gogh, David Byrne, Bob Ross, Frida Kahlo, Jackson Pollock, Laurie Anderson, Björk, and Michael Jackson. The limited editions were hand-packed in wrappers with bubble gum, as Art Cards were sold personally by Leavitt and exhibited as art objects.

The musicians were on a break and the violin was the perfect subject for a photo...

... add the guitar player and the scene was almost complete except for...

... the great audience...

... but then it was time to go in for some presentations by the artists.

I stayed outside for awhile...

... enjoying the music.

Inside this artist was presenting but I missed her name (sorry) but what I heard of the presentation was very good.

My friend Renee Manford also gave a great presentation speaking of her enjoyment of landscapes and coastal scenes...

... at times with great gusto not spilling a drop of her wine...

... then posed for a smile in front of her work.

This is just one of her several work on display.

If you ever wonder how important light is to photography here is a great example. The gentle man is standing under a spotlight and even with a flash you can see the difference in clarity and light. They were all given a paper with a line of poetry making up a poem. As they read you could see the smiles at doing a group poetry reading.

Poetry was part of the evening's theme and cards with short poems were spread around. Peter and Sandy Jensen provided the lead for the poetry part of the show.

I couldn't resist this shot. The picture frame was hanging and the metal stand and camera ( I think) was standing behind. Now the stand actually was in front of the frame and went down to the floor. With a little editing it became a framed camera.

When I was at Raven earlier this week I got a picture of this cool goddess, in fact I printed it and gave a copy to Terry who had created it. Well I got another picture tonight that came out even better.

As I said before there was a big crowd and not only is this their studio it's also Anne and Terry's home decorated beautifully above the work area.

There wasn't a lot of room but it was a warm cozy feeling inside...

Valisa Higman was one of my favorite artists whose work was perfect in this miniature format. Bright and colorful and very distinct...

.. and that's Valisa in the red blouse watching everyone watching her art on display.

So I like flowers and here are the ones on the tables outside without commenting on every one...

maybe I should comment ...

... but what could I possibly add...

... that you can't already see...

... so I won't comment ...

... on the Yellow flowers but this red one is a real beauty.....

... and very delicate.

Finally as I was getting in the car I stopped for a shot of this metal tower on the top of a nearby building satisfied with having been to a truly great show.

Scrabble Score ~ Scrabble Queen 319 - The Contender 325

Quote of the Day ~

"It isn't by size that you win or fail -- be the best of whatever you are." ~ Douglas Malloch