It’s December and it’s snowing outside. The beginnings of the season have been unleashed by nature and though the air is a bit nippy snowcaps off to the venerable glass artist and entrepreneur Henry Hillman, Jr. for seriously stepping up to the plate, backed by an arsenal of artists to make things a bit more merry. Bandied together, the community has seen to it that our art center in this fair city shall not simply survive - but thrive, no matter what. The above, titled The Forest (for the trees), represents my contribution to the Portland Art Center’s PDX Panels. This is the actual debut presentation of my ‘drip drawing’ work I’ve been at since early Summertime (another pair of works on paper I made are going up the following week at Artists Space, NY). This particular piece was completed in three or four studio sessions: spraying, dripping, masking, dripping, remasking, brushing, drawing…and voila. It reminded one artist of work by Klimt, who I would never have imagined. Perhaps there’s just a touch of old Gorky Park. For me it’s about the spatial glint of light when you pass by trees or buildings while driving along the highway. The spaces in between, emitting light at 60MPH+.

So here it’s three-hundred artists strong participating. Pure intra-cultural patronage. Now it is your turn dear reader. Yes, for a mere $300 you can proudly stroll home (or even take the bus since they are quite portable) with a true work of art by a large selection of truly gifted artists. And, when celebrating the season this way, know that you have supported the city’s emerging center for contemporary visual art. Hear this…some participating include Stephen Hayes, Ellen George, Hilary Pfeifer, Abi Spring, Brian Borello, Mazana Bruggeman, Paul Francis Fukui, Laura Ross-Paul, Jenevive Tatiana, Gabriel Liston….and so many others. This season, if you are going to give, this is a great opportunity.

P4P: Still in the art buying mood, and want to support the growth of contemporary art in the realm of performance? The 5th Annual Prints 4 PICA is being held on December 15 at TodayArt Studios (ie: the place I make things). I am very much looking forward to hosting a master printer and artists working in my space, a great way to celebrate our very first public event. It was a huge blast last year! An amazing roster of artists should be released soon, and expect it to be a wide selection of well known to evocative new names in the art scene here in the region. Save The Date…..

And in a completely ‘other’ realm of unusual (and a bit sudden) arts news, something I am participating in has everything to do with something I have nothing to do with, sports. Tennis to be specific. Not “just” tennis but the coveted Davis Cup, one of the most prestigious competitions in the game itself, being held here in Portland. No, I don’t play, in fact, you may have heard of ‘tennis elbow’ - well I have blistered thumb from my participation. It was like cobbling together shoes as I hammered many a tiny nail into the vinyl and lambda print imagery on the face of this objet d’art. I was sort of commissioned to make a work of art from a plywood panel shaped like a racket, only standing a handsome 6′ tall. I couldn’t help but think of Picasso’s harlequins while piecing it together. My piece simply titled net will be hung at the Portland Coliseum. So, if you aren’t attending the games, perhaps you might spy a quick glimpse on the coverage provided by ESPN? BTW: US leads Russia 2-0 (where the panels may travel in the coming week!). This project sort of reminded me of that neverending cow thing. But I figured if they are potentially going to the land of the hammer and sicle, in the name of “World Peace” then it might be a small way of making an appeal. In the name of other like projects (and), it seems to fire the soul a bit.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 1st, 2007 at 12:49 am and is filed under Sights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.