COAST

An invitation to ‘unleash the artist’

Manzanita's Hoffman Center for the Arts responds to the coronavirus shutdown by encouraging artists in all media to participate in a virtual show

April 1, 2020 // COAST, FILM, LANGUAGE ARTS, NW, OREGON //

Like so many others, artist Christine Wichers is feeling a bit out of sorts these days. She and her husband are 72; her mother, 94, lives with them.

“We’re in that high target range” for susceptibility to the novel coronavirus, said Wichers, who lives in Washougal, Wash. “I worry every single day that I am going to make some kind of mistake and cause us harm. I could do something wrong and bring that home or make one trip to the grocery store too many.”

When Christine Wichers saw how her painting, “At Home Day 9,” turned out, she thought, “Dang, that’s how I feel.”  The painting is part of the Hoffman Center for the Arts’ “Creating in Place” virtual show.  Photo courtesy: Hoffman Center for the Arts

But she does take comfort in her afternoon painting routine and recently found herself channeling the anxiety and uncertainty into her art. She’d been working on a series of sea creatures, with a focus on the eyes.

“I just started putting paint on the canvas,” she said. And as the work she has since dubbed At Home Day 9 evolved, she knew she’d captured her stormy spirit. “I said, ‘Dang, that’s how I feel.’”

Then came that moment of serendipity, the place every artist hopes to land – a gallery to share her work.

The Hoffman Center for the Arts in Manzanita is hosting Creating in Place: Connecting in a Time of Uncertainty. The project was Hoffman Center board member David Dillon’s idea.

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Voices from the front: ‘We’re in it for the long haul’

The longtime owner of a Cannon Beach art gallery predicts her business and others will survive the COVID-19 shutdown, with a little help from the community

March 26, 2020 // COAST, FILM, OREGON //

Joyce Lincoln remembers vowing to herself at the age of 9 that one day she would live in Cannon Beach. Even as a child, she appreciated the natural beauty, the fresh air, and the community spirit. The Northwest native saw her wish come true in 1987, when she and her husband, Robert Necker, opened Northwest by Northwest Gallery in downtown Cannon Beach Thirty-three years later, they’re representing some of the biggest names in regional art.

Joyce Lincoln, owner of Northwest by Northwest Gallery in Cannon Beach
Joyce Lincoln says she’s seen hard times before in her 33 years as owner of Northwest by Northwest Gallery.

But now, she said, the place National Geographic named one of the most beautiful places on Earth has posted a closed sign.

The COVID-19 virus has ground life to a halt. Lincoln had to close her gallery during what would normally be a busy week – spring break — after tourists swamped the coast last weekend and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown issued a statewide order closing nonessential businesses and telling people to stay home.

OREGON IN SHUTDOWN: VOICES FROM THE FRONT

“You can walk down Main Street and maybe see six other people,” Lincoln said this week. “Nothing is happening; it’s total devastation. Everyone is frightened out of their wits and frightened for themselves and their families. We’re all losing money every day. People are distracted by fear.”

Nonetheless, Lincoln said she completely understands why businesses have been shut down and tourists asked not to visit. But while health concerns top everyone’s list, Lincoln also worries about the local families who make their living in the restaurant and hotel businesses.

Last year, the local food bank served 9,000 people, she said. “And that was in good times.”

Lincoln’s been through this a time or two. There were the dark days following 9/11 and the drawn-out recession following the 2008 housing market collapse. The gallery pulled through, largely thanks to regular clients and local friends and, Lincoln said, “We learned to live a conservative lifestyle.”

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Joanna Priestley: Discovering where the magic is

The Portland filmmaker, a spring resident at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, calls animation a “fascinating combination of art and science”

March 18, 2020 // ARTSWATCH FOCUS, COAST, CULTURE, FILM, OREGON //

Joanna Priestley’s animated film, “Jung & Restless,” was scheduled to premiere this weekend at the Bijou Theatre in Lincoln City, but fell victim to the COVID-19 outbreak when the showing was canceled. Priestley, a spring resident at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology near Otis, promises she will eventually make it happen. We talked with her about her work as an animator.

Joanna Priestley began her animation career by making films using rubber stamps and index cards. Photo by: Tim Sugden
Joanna Priestley began her animation career by making films using rubber stamps and index cards. Photo by: Tim Sugden

Tell us a bit about yourself.

Priestley: I was born in Portland, a third-generation Oregonian. I spent some time away, but I always come back to Oregon because Oregon is the best. I went to the Rhode Island School of Design, got my undergraduate from Berkeley, and in my 30s, went back to get a masters at the California Institute of the Arts. That’s the school Walt Disney founded.

Did you go to school knowing you were going to be a filmmaker?

I always really, really loved films. I watched everything I could. In high school, I connected to the Multnomah library system and they had a fabulous collection of animated films.

How did you discover it?

My teacher showed them in school. That’s where I was first exposed to animation as an art form.

I’m guessing animation has changed by leaps and bounds since?

It has and it hasn’t. It’s changed technically. People have much more sophisticated technology and techniques of creating animation. But the basic way you create animation is the same. It was invented in late 1880s. It’s been refined, but still, the basic idea is the same.

What is the basic idea?

The basic idea is you study and learn how movement is created. Animation is this really fascinating combination of art and science. You have to understand both. If you look at sports, for example, you see loads of interesting movement. Like in boxing, there’s a preparatory action where you pull your arm back and clench your fist and then you push your fist and arm forward and slam into something, and then there’s a reaction where your hand snaps back a little bit. As you study that motion you can begin to understand how to break it down into individual drawings — or sculpture, if you are doing stop-motion animation.

A forest of hands is among the stream-of-consciousness images in Joanna Priestley’s new film, “Jung & Restless.”

That seems like it would take so many, many drawings.

You just decide how many drawings a second you are going to do to create your motion. You use 12 drawings a second, or 24 a second, if you are a Disney studio. I use 12 drawings a second. Some use eight drawings a second, some, in what we call limited animation, use four. You decide at the beginning what you are going to use. So then, you just go about calculating how far to move things with the drawings. If you’re using stop-motion animation with puppets or sculpture, you have to figure out how far to move the puppet or sculpture. And that’s where the magic is.

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Saturday in Newport: One site, four shows, five artists speak

Opening receptions March 14 at the Visual Arts Center include subjects ranging from high-country landscapes and Dutch whalers to glass jewelry and wet crows

March 12, 2020 // COAST, OREGON //

This Saturday would be an excellent day to visit the Newport Visual Arts Center, as four new exhibitions host opening receptions from 2 to 5 p.m. Featured artists will be present to talk about their work, with times staggered so viewers can hear all presentations.

In the Runyan Gallery, the Oregon Coast Council for the Arts presents A Sense of Place in the Pacific Northwest by Corvallis artist Greg Pfarr. The exhibit features large-scale paintings, prints, and drawings “reflecting on the high-country drama of the Cascades mountain range and Alaska.” The show runs through March 29. Pfarr will talk about his work at 3 p.m. March 14.

“South Sawyer Glacier, Tracy Arm, Alaska,” by Greg Pfarr (etching and woodcut, 24 by 36 inches)
“South Sawyer Glacier, Tracy Arm, Alaska,” by Greg Pfarr (etching and woodcut, 24 by 36 inches)

“I like to witness severe climate and landscapes, around 6,000 to 8,000 feet,” Pfarr said on a recent KLCC radio podcast. “It’s almost a spiritual exploration. The forms of nature at that level can be quite varied, and they can be both abstract and realistic. I like to play off that tension.”

Pfarr’s work recently was honored by the Oregon Arts Commission with an exhibit in the Oregon Governor’s Office, and the Newport show includes some of that work.

In the Upstairs Gallery, an exhibit of photomontages, Postcards from Nineveh, by Portland artist Friderike Heuer continues through April 25. Heuer speaks at 4 p.m.

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A quilt show takes on ecocide, consumerism, and capitalism

Fiber artists explore the toll plastics and the "invisible hand" are taking on the oceans in an exhibit in Newberg's Chehalem Cultural Center

March 9, 2020 // COAST, CULTURE, FEATURED, OREGON, VISUAL ART, YAMHILL //

One does not instinctively think of politics and protest when a quilt show appears in a local gallery, which is why the latest exhibit at the Chehalem Cultural Center in Newberg may catch you off guard. Perhaps the stereotype ignores the versatility to be found in the textile arts, but I suspect that for most people, a quilt conjures up feelings of comfort, warmth, and security —  exactly the opposite of what Shifting Tides: Convergence in Cloth by Studio Art Quilt Associates has to offer.

Shifting Tides, which fills three of the Chehalem Center’s galleries and runs through April 27, is a penetrating look at the planet’s ecological predicament, particularly as manifested in the oceans. It could not come at a more appropriate moment. My visit last week coincided with the publication of a horrifying 7,163-word piece in Rolling Stone: Tim Dickinson’s Planet Plastic: How Big Oil and Big Soda kept a global environmental calamity a secret for decades. It landed in my Facebook news feed just hours before I visited the exhibit, and the introduction highlights the show’s relevance. “Every human on Earth,” Dickinson declares in the opening sentence, “is ingesting nearly 2,000 particles of plastic a week.” It gets worse from there.

“Rings of Eternity,” by Lisa Jenni (33 by 41 inches), incorporates plastic rings from bottles and jugs into its design. Photo by: David Bates

It’s appropriate — no, necessary — then, that many of the more than 40 pieces featured in Shifting Tides actually incorporate plastic. Juried by Ann Johnson of West Linn and overseen by a national panel, the show is an official regional exhibit by Studio Art Quilt Associates based in Hebron, Conn. The program notes make clear what many of the associated textile artists are thinking about:

“As residents of the greater North Pacific region, fiber artists share personal narratives and statements regarding the Pacific Ocean ecosystem, its marvelous natural diversity, and the human activities that both sustain and threaten it. The exhibit is an artistic convergence, where quilting and surface design techniques come together into stunning works of contemporary textile art. The wide variety of viewpoints and artistic styles will delight and challenge viewers to assess their own perceptions regarding the interplay of oceanic and human communities.”

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Making the world smaller through food

Two Mississippi chefs will bring a taste of the Deep South to Astoria as part of Chef Outta Water, a program to expand cultural horizons by cooking

March 3, 2020 // COAST, CULTURE, FEATURED, NEWS & NOTES //

For a short time this month, Astoria will take on a taste of the Deep South as it welcomes two Mississippi chefs for a southern family-style dinner. It’s part of Chef Outta Water, an international consortium aimed at exposing chefs to other cultures.

Chef Chris Holen of Astoria’s Baked Alaska restaurant and Australian economic development executive Simon Millcock founded the group about three-and-a-half years ago.

“Chef Outta Water is a bit of a social enterprise,” Holen said. “We want to get chefs out of their comfort zone. It can be a monotonous profession, so we travel and work with other chefs in other states and countries. The idea is when you go home you are inspired.”

Chef Chris Holen (middle) put on a dinner with Delta Supper Club chefs Stewart Robinson (left) and David Crews in Greenwood, Mississippi, in 2018. On March 14, he will welcome them to Astoria for RIVER2RIVER, a Southern family-style dinner that is part of an effort aimed at exposing the world’s chefs to diverse cultural experiences.  Photo by: Rory Doyle 

Holen and fellow members have worked with chefs in countries including Iceland, Saudi Arabia, China, Mexico, Korea, and Portugal, visiting the foreign locales and bringing chefs here.

“We took seven Chinese master chefs on a road trip in Australia,” Holen said. “They wanted to see where their beef was coming from. We met in Melbourne, flew to Adelaide, and rented a big car and trailer and drove back. It was awesome. What we’re trying to do is make the world a little bit smaller through food and get people out of their normal routines.”  

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Coast calendar: The light shines on youth

The work of young filmmakers, stories inspired by Cinderella and Dr. Suess, and a documentary about Anne Frank are among coastal offerings

February 25, 2020 // COAST, FAMILY, FILM, OREGON //

It’s film festival time in Manzanita, and the light is shining on young filmmakers from around the world. Each of the short films to be screened Friday was honored last year at the Gateway Film Festival, organized and hosted by students and Media Arts Department faculty at Pacific University in Forest Grove. Professor Jennifer Hardacker, who has shown her own films at the Hoffman Center for the Arts, will attend the screening to discuss the films. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28 in the Hoffman Center. Admission is $7. Films to be shown are:

  • Let.Go.Before.Trying, by Anna Mendes of Ashland
  • Istanbul: Home Away From Home, by Selin Tiryakioglu of Florida
  • Double Vida, by Sharlany Gonzalez of the Dominican Republic and Maryland
  • 63 Miles Away, by Emma Josephson of Portland
  • Writer’s Block Party, by Gabriella Sipe of Olympia
  • The Quiet, by Radheya Jegatheva of Australia
  • She, by Felix Koble of South Africa
  • Beacons of Portland, by David Pascual-Matias of Portland
  • Irony, by Radheya Jegatheva of Australia
Mel Brown
Mel Brown will lead his jazz quartet in a concert during Nehalem Winterfest.

NEHALEM IS PREPARING for the annual Nehalem Winterfest March 6-8. Performers are: the Marlin James Band, a country/rock group with influences ranging from Eddie Van Halen to George Strait, at 7 p.m. Friday; Eagles tribute band Eagle Eyes at 7 p.m. Saturday; and legendary Portland jazz band the Mel Brown Quartet at 2 p.m. Sunday. Performances are in North Country Recreation District Performing Arts Center. Tickets range from $18 to $29 and are available here.

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