FAMILY

Having it all: Seven days of art in six Wine Country cities

The week's offerings include lesbians eating quiche, plants eating people, safari-animal art, High Fiber quilts, Russian art song, and "The Barber of Seville"

November 5, 2018 // CULTURE, FAMILY, LANGUAGE ARTS, VISUAL ART, YAMHILL //

I’ve looked at the calendar, done the math, calculated driving distances, and something hit me: Over the next week in six cities sprawled across three counties in Oregon wine country, there’s enough going on in the arts scene — live theater, exhibitions, artist receptions, and music — to keep you busy every day. If you do it right, you can hit every single one. There’s some overlap, but we’ll take ‘em in chronological order. Try to keep up.

Andi Moring (from left), Mindy Mawhirter, and Phoebe Medler are three of the “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche” in Western Oregon University’s fall play, which opens Thursday at the Rice Auditorium in Monmouth for a two-weekend run.

WESTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY OPENS THE FALL THEATER SEASON Thursday with a serving of double entendres and quiche in the comedy 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche, by Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood and directed by the university’s Kent Neely. The show follows five women in the midst of Cold War 1956 to the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein Annual Quiche Breakfast, only to discover that they are not widows — they’re lesbians! The show runs two weekends through Nov. 17 and includes matinees and two performances interpreted in American Sign Language. General admission is $14. For more info, click here.

Lorrie Quimby’s paintings and sculptures in the Seufert Winery Tasting Room focus on safari wildlife.

IN DAYTON ON FRIDAY, Seufert Winery Tasting Room is showing off a new art exhibit of painting and sculpture by Lorrie Quimby. Her acrylics and bronze statues feature safari wildlife. Best of all, she’ll be there herself from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. If you need directions, check this out.

PENTACLE THEATRE IN SALEM on Friday night opens Little Shop of Horrors, by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman and based on the Roger Corman film. Directed by Robert Salberg, the show runs through Dec. 1. You can buy tickets here. Be careful making that left turn off Oregon 22 if you’re coming from the west.

MISSED THE YAMHILL COUNTY Art Harvest Studio Tour? Or, do you miss the Yamhill County Art Harvest Studio Tour? No worries. Willamina has you covered Friday and Saturday with the 27th annual Willamina Coastal Hills Art Tour. Artists featured from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the downtown walking tour include Rosemary Heuser, Lorri Maynard, the Grand Ronde Art Guild, Coastal Hills Quilters, William Lindberg, Reflections Photography, and many more.

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Forecast: Rain likely with a strong chance of fine art

This weekend's 31st Stormy Weather Arts Festival draws visitors to Cannon Beach to tour galleries, hear music and shop, no matter the weather

October 30, 2018 // COAST, CULTURE, FAMILY, MUSIC, VISUAL ART //

I first attended the Stormy Weather Arts Festival in 2002, and from the start, the name amused me. Stormy Weather. Who called attention to the one variable that might well keep people away?

As a travel writer, I was more accustomed to festival organizers exaggerating everything good and downplaying the rest. I quickly came to see, however, that the name actually was very clever. It got your attention. And it celebrated what the Oregon Coast winter (as well as spring, fall, and sometimes, summer) is known for. It also lent itself to some great poster art: mermaids with umbrellas, painters in wellies, wind-whipped waves, and yes, the ray of light through the darkest of clouds.

Brian Blackham’s minimalistic still lifes, such as “Water in Glass” (oil on panel) are at White Bird Gallery in Cannon Beach.

“We’re telling you up front this is a stormy weather season, so expect it,” said Jim Paino, executive director of the Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce. “If it does rain — of course in Oregon, it rains quite often — it’s right in the title, so you should expect it. Rain or shine, it is a great event. We have indoor backup, so even if it is raining horribly, you can still get out and enjoy it.”

This year marks the 31st anniversary of the festival that began as a fundraiser for the Cannon Beach Chamber, a celebration of the arts, and a way to draw people to the north coast during months that can be pretty quiet. The festival runs Friday through Sunday, Nov. 2-4.

Artist and gallery owner Jeff Hull recalls the first time he heard about the festival idea. “What I remember is the director of the chamber, Nancy Littell, walked through our gallery door and said, ‘We are thinking about what we can do to have some off-season thing visitors will enjoy. What do you think?’”

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Have an old-fashioned Dia de Muertos — with Aztec dancing

In Newberg, the Mexican holiday is greeted with dance and a memorial offering. Meanwhile, Linfield College welcomes two authors and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"

October 29, 2018 // DANCE, FAMILY, LANGUAGE ARTS, MEDIA, NEWS & NOTES, THEATER, YAMHILL //

When Jose Carlos came to Oregon in the mid-1990s, he didn’t see much of his own Mexican culture in the community. Other Latinos attended his Woodburn high school, but public displays of culture from south of the border? No. “I didn’t see those things here,” Carlos told me recently. “I didn’t see celebrations of Day of the Dead, I didn’t see marches or Mexican celebrations, and now I see a lot. A lot of people are learning, sharing, teaching, and doing.”

Carlos and his wife, Kelly, are doing all four of those things with their Woodburn-based Aztec dance group, which increasingly finds itself in demand around Mexican holidays, particularly the annual Day of the Dead celebration. They’ve been regulars for the Chehalem Cultural Center’s Dia de Muertos celebration in Newberg the past few years, although they missed 2017 because they were in The Dalles with their company of more than a dozen dancers, helping with that community’s first public celebration.

Jose and Kelly Carlos of Woodburn will bring Aztec dancing to the Chehalem Cultural Center in Newberg for a free performance at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2.

They return Friday, Nov. 2, for a 5:30 p.m. performance that’s free and open to the public.

Jose started the group and is lead dance captain, while Kelly is executive director for Ritual Azteca Huitzilopochtli (pronounced wee-chee-zo-polsh-tlee), which does educational outreach and performances around the Willamette Valley and Southwest Washington. Jose credits Rigoberto Hernandez, a Chemeketa Community College teacher whom he met when Jose was a Woodburn High School junior yearning both for his own culture and fellowship. He and Hernandez started doing Chicano theater and Aztec dancing.

“In the beginning, I was shy,” he said. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to wear those kinds of clothes, I don’t want people to see my stomach.’” Today, Jose is the teacher. While you probably wouldn’t have found Aztec dancing in Oregon when he started learning it in the 1990s, now, at pow-wows, he’s accustomed to seeing nearly a hundred participants, including his group of about 17.

“Every dance we do has a meaning for the time,” he said. “We have dances that are only for the Day of the Dead, and we have dances for other holidays. These dances have been passed on to us from teachers who learned from their families.” Who, he added, have been passing dances and other traditions down through hundreds of years.

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Hispanic Heritage Month, Russian theater and music, and more

Upcoming Yamhill County events range from Aztec dancers and Day of the Dead celebrations to Gogol and the Hermitage Piano Trio

October 10, 2018 // CULTURE, DANCE, FAMILY, FILM, LANGUAGE ARTS, MEDIA, MUSIC, THEATER, YAMHILL //

Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, is designated as a time to celebrate the contributions — not just in arts and culture, but in all human endeavors — of Hispanic and Latino Americans. It started as Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968 under President Johnson and, thanks to legislation by U.S. Rep. Esteban Edward Torres, a California Democrat, was expanded by President Reagan to a month-long observance in 1988.

Perhaps due to the proximity of Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations as October turns into November, public events fill out the calendar during this month. That, at least, is true in Yamhill County, where — no surprise here — the Chehalem Cultural Center in Newberg has packed October full of Hispanic theater, music, and dance. Linfield College in McMinnville and George Fox University in Newberg are also getting into the act, so let’s take them in chronological order.

Curtis Acosta speaks Oct. 15 in Newberg on defending the rights and education of Chicanx/Latinx youth.

Oct. 15: PROFESSOR CURTIS ACOSTA is a teacher with a story to tell, one that has made the pages of Yes! magazine and was the subject of the documentary Precious Knowledge. He was among those who developed a Mexican Studies program serving 1,500 high school students in Tucson, Arizona, in 1998. Although it was successful by a number of measures, it generated a politically motivated backlash in 2010, culminating in a law that banned the class. Long story short: Teachers, parents, and students got mad, got organized, and filed a legal challenge that was ultimately successful, with the curriculum being reinstated three years later.

Acosta, who is on the University of Arizona faculty, will speak Oct. 15 in the Canyon Commons of George Fox University in a presentation titled Victory in Arizona: Defending the Rights and Education of Chicanx/Latinx Youth in an Era of Hate and Anti-Intellectualism. Seems like a timely topic. The talk is scheduled for 7 to 8 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

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Astoria show features trash-talking artists

Winners of the Coastal Oregon Artist Residency received a stipend, studio space and access to materials to create recycled works of art

October 9, 2018 // COAST, CULTURE, FAMILY, VISUAL ART //

On Saturday, when artists Cara Mico, Stephen Shumaker and Wenda Vorce welcome guests to their art gallery opening, they’ll be sharing their interpretations of what it means to truly turn one man’s trash into another’s treasure.

Winners of the Coastal Oregon Artist Residency — Wenda Vorce (left), Cara Mico, and Stephen Shumaker — will exhibit their work made from trash in a show that opens Saturday in Astoria. The residency is co-sponsored by Astoria Visual Arts (AVA) and Recology Western Oregon. Photo by: Agnes Field

The three are this year’s winners of the third annual Coastal Oregon Artist Residency, a collaboration between Recology Western Oregon and nonprofit Astoria Visual Arts to raise awareness of recycling and the creation of art through the use of repurposed and discarded materials.

The artists, who began their work July 2, received a monthly stipend, access to materials and dedicated studio space at Recology’s Astoria Recycling Depot and Transfer Station over three months.

Here, they talk about their passion for making the Earth a better place, one piece of trash at a time.

Cara Mico

Mico is the program director for the Cannon Beach Arts Association. Her show is called Broken Records, a reference, she said, “to all of the changes that have taken place in my lifetime.” It includes nine paintings, four sculptures, an installation piece, and “a bunch of Christmas ornaments.” All will be for sale.

Mico, who lives in Nehalem, describes herself as a “kind of a magpie.”

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Art Harvest Studio Tour of Yamhill County reaps as it sows

The art, in many media, is for sale, but the real bounty lies in the dialogue between artists and visitors about the creative process

September 30, 2018 // CULTURE, FAMILY, VISUAL ART, YAMHILL //

Given the confluence of autumn colors and great art, it’s tempting to employ hyperbole when talking about Yamhill County’s Art Harvest Studio Tour, but I’ll spare you a Thesaurus Drop and just lay out the facts.

The 26th annual event includes 40 artists, working in virtually every medium imaginable: watercolor, oil, acrylic, bronze, copper, steel, glass, stone, pastels, charcoal, silver, wood, paper, clay, fiber, tiles, beeswax, digital, and mixed media. It kicks off Friday and runs six days over two weekends. You can visit one, a dozen or all 40 artists if you have time. They’re concentrated in Yamhill County’s two largest cities, McMinnville and Newberg, but you’ll also find artists in Amity, Dundee, Carlton, Yamhill, Sheridan, and Willamina.

The cost to jump into this self-guided tour of local color and creativity? Eight bucks.

Sure, on any weekend, you can spend a day visiting galleries and exhibitions, but this is the one time of year when local artists invite the public into their studios (which often are also their homes), where they answer questions, educate, do demonstrations. Yes, you can buy stuff, but that’s not ultimately the point.

Last week I reached out to a handful of participating artists, both new and returning, to get their take. Of those, none illustrated the point quite so well as paper carver Doug Roy. He’s been working his magic with paper for more than a quarter-century and has participated in Art Harvest for two decades.

Paper carver Doug Roy cuts colored paper into impossibly tiny pieces and turns them into intricate pictures such as this one, titled “Reefers.”

He told me this story.

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Shoring up Toledo’s Centennial Celebration Mural

Nature has taken its toll on the 13-year-old public artwork commemorating 100 years of the city's history

September 25, 2018 // COAST, CULTURE, FAMILY, MUSIC, VISUAL ART //

This seems to be the season for kids and art — a topic that naturally came up earlier this month when the Newport Performing Arts Center celebrated its 30th anniversary. Talk of old times (and new) called to mind for many all the students of dance, music and theater who benefited from the PAC. I’m no expert, but it seems obvious that art opens doors, expands horizons and stretches imaginations. Art, like kids themselves, is about possibility — for everyone.

Thirteen years ago, then Toledo Mayor Sharon Brandstiter saw the possibility for honoring Toledo’s 100 years of history by creating a public work of art. Lawrence Adrian, the artistic director and founder of the Oregon Coast Children’s Theatre and Oregon Coast Children’s Center for the Arts, designed the project and lead the charge to build it. Local residents and companies pitched in, raising something over $10,000 for the project, Adrian said. Students from every school in Toledo had the opportunity to share their creative spirit in what would become the largest mosaic mural in the state.

The Centennial Celebration Mural stretches 96 feet long and stands more than 15 feet high on a stepped retaining wall at the Toledo City Hall parking lot. The design was inspired by more than 100 photos from a century-plus of Toledo history.

The mosaics of the Toledo Centennial Celebration Mural record memorable events of the city’s past 100 years, such as the 1970 filming of scenes for “Sometimes a Great Notion,” based on Ken Kesey’s novel. Photo courtesy: Oregon Coast Children’s Theater and Oregon Coast Children’s Center for the Arts

“One great aspect of the project was meeting many of the people pictured on the mural, or the children or grandchildren of those same individuals,” Adrian said. The mural and the community support it garnered were among reasons Adrian moved the OCCT/OCCCA from Lincoln City to Toledo, he said.

But the years have taken their toll on the mosaic mural. Mud, rocks and debris fall from above, chipping and otherwise damaging tiles. There’s been some vandalism, too, Adrian said. But mostly the problems come from nature — albeit exacerbated by folks climbing on the structure.

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