The first Friday of every month a group of folks, mostly artists get together and go for a walk through the Art Galleries in Eugene, Oregon's Downtown. I was invited by Vern Wright to join the group and decided I'd try something new. Being a night person it seemed like a great idea although my evenings are usually at home on my computer or enjoying the stillness of the night air.
The place to meet was the Jacobs Gallery at the Hult Center in Eugene at Willamette Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. I was a little late arriving and had never met Vern so I went to the Jacobs Gallery.
Looking back down Willamette from the Hult Center was kind of interesting with the wet streets and the light reflections. By the way that's the mini-musemobile fourth car on the left.
The Hult Center for Performing Arts is actually a complex of buildings with a huge hall for performances and several other spaces for meetings and other activities. The Jacobs Gallery is a part of the complex.
I liked the lights and the angles on the roof across from the gallery.
This metal sculpture was rather interesting and looked a little like an anchor and a fallen TV antenna. I'll go back some time to get some information on the work. I did think it was pretty cool.
I walked into the Jacobs Gallery looking for Vern and asked one of the gallery people if they knew him. There were a couple of gentlemen there and she said one was the husband of one of the artist and she thought the other was one of the artists on display. I kind of hung around and viewed the art and especially liked the work of
Claire Flint a local artist with a wonderful style that reminded me of the Greek Orthodox Church I went to when I was very young and the Iconic Art that was there. Click on Clair's name above to see her art.
The next place on the tour (from the information I got from Vern was the OPUS
6IX gallery.
The OPUS
6IX was much larger and is across 7th Ave. from the Hult just west of Willamette. They even had wine at the door and were very crowded with the sophisticated set. Now you have to understand the sophisticated set in Eugene are not the same as that group in NY, LA or even Portland, they are a pretty nice group of pretty normal group folks that enjoy art and doing interesting things. So I felt very comfortable in my jeans hanging out there. I talked to a wonderfully talented artist named
Kirk Lybecker whose work could easily be confused for photography from a distance. I enjoyed talking to Kirk for a short while before I moved on. When I left I noticed that gentleman that was the "artist" from the Jacobs gallery and started to wonder if he might just be Vern but by the time I finished talking to Kirk Lydecker he was gone.
Next I went to the main gallery of the two Karin Clarke galleries on Willamette.
Renee Manford, who was in an earlier blog when she gave me an artist's tour of her two shows, works at the Clarke gallery. I enjoyed the art there then walked across the street to the...
White Lotus Gallery where a photographer was on exhibit and there answering questions, he was so busy I never got to talk to him but he had some nice petroglyph photographs and other shots from foreign lands.
I stopped to take this shot of a covered walkway that goes between the Karin Clark Gallery and the M. Jacobs Furniture store.
Across Willamette from the Main Clarke gallery and next to the White Lotus is the Karin Clarke Annex gallery. My favorite artist of the evening was
Adam Grosowsky this is one of his pieces through the window.
Next I walked a couple of blocks to the Fenario Gallery. I had visited there about a week ago to check into their printing services.
The art there was very colorful and very creative and I got a chance to talk with person who actually does the technical side of the print services.
I then hung out taking pictures of various things like this grill work on the building at the NE corner of Broadway and Willamette.
I especially like this bicycle.
... and the view down Willamette looking south.
The corners at Broadway and Willamette have these interesting posts and cobblestone sections of the roadway.
There were some stairs going down from the sidewalk near Fenario Gallery but I think it was forbidden territiry.
Eugene is a big bicycle community with miles of bike paths and therefore lots of biclyle racks like these on Willamette near 8th Avenue.
Finally I went back to the Clarke Gallery Annex and found Renee and guess who was there Vern (the man in the middle - he was the person I saw in all the other galleries) and I also got to meet Larry an artist with the Frist Friday Group. We all went to Zenon's for coffee and a little desert [actually Renee had tea] and after a great conversation with them all, we read Renee's tea leaves and decided her art career was about to explode with success. Vern graciously invited me to a First Saturday artists meeting to show and critic each others art. If I can I'll go. They are all very nice folks.
Scrabble Score - No Scrabble since I was out past Scrabble Queen's bedtime.
Quote of the Day ~
"Art is best when the artist creates their life rather creates to live" ~ pviel
