Art
Saturday, July 6, 2019
Bubbling Over: Photos from the Fourth in Arcata
Posted By Mark Larson on Sat, Jul 6, 2019 at 5:50 PM
The only things exploding on the Arcata plaza for the 4th of July Jubilee were thousands of soap bubbles, as the Bubbles Promenade kicked off the event with a crowd of children and adults blowing bubbles. The soapy parade that also included a few rhutabaga Queens for Life and a mix of Kinetic Race vehicles, looped around the plaza a couple of times,followed a pause for the national anthem.
The family-friendly event then offered a long afternoon of live music, fun activities for the children, lunch options from food and drink vendors and an autograph session with Humboldt Crabs players. See the slideshow below for highlights of the bubbly festivities.
Thursday, July 4, 2019
Photos of the Fairy Frolic
Posted By Mark Larson on Thu, Jul 4, 2019 at 3:15 PM
It was another "Frolick of Fairies" at the magical second annual Fairy Festival on the Arcata Plaza on Saturday. The large turnout of mystical fairies and other life forms for the costume contests, live music, belly dancing, a parade with a dragon, and other activities probably exceeded even the most optimistic expectations of everyone except Shoshanna Rose. She helped organize the fundraiser event, along with help from the Bureau of Fantastical Spectacles, the city of Arcata and Arcata Main Street, as a benefit for CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates).
Attendees at the long afternoon and evening of entertainment had their choice of food and drink vendors, as well as face painting, airbrush or henna tattoos, book sellers and various clothing and jewelry vendor tables. See the slideshow below for fae highlights.
Wednesday, July 3, 2019
Photos from the Sand Sculpture Fest
Posted By Mark Larson on Wed, Jul 3, 2019 at 3:33 PM
The 24th annual Sand Sculpture Festival turned the Samoa Drag Strip into a packed parking lot on Saturday, as the Friends of the Dunes fundraiser attracted a large crowd to the nearby ocean beach. Nineteen teams of artists working in the medium of ocean beach sand competed for fun, cash prizes and various awards, while attendees who made donations got flags to post in the sand and “vote” for their favorites. (Dig the photos of the sculptures and sculptors below.)
“We created this event as a way to share the dunes with our community in a fun, creative way,” said Mike Cipra, executive director of Friends of the Dunes. “It’s another way to get local artists and others out here to enjoy the ocean shoreline.”
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
This Crab is Metal
Posted By Jennifer Fumiko Cahill on Wed, Apr 24, 2019 at 12:46 PM
In case the giant silver crab raising its pincers above the chain link fence around Spaulding Construction’s parking lot off U.S. Highway 101 by Kristina’s in Eureka has you wondering, you aren’t hallucinating and you didn’t miss the Kinetic Grand Championship. The shining crustacean on wheels is the work of metal artist Dan McCauley of Dan’s Custom Metals — you may have glimpsed his scrap metal sentinel standing in the same lot or the massive, rusty T-rex gnashing its metal teeth outside his Eureka business on Redmond Road, which is soon to become an outdoor sculpture garden and gallery. For that matter, you may have seen the crab at a 4/20 celebration at Forever Found — yeah, that wasn't the edibles.
Monday, February 11, 2019
This is Going to Hurt a Little: Photos from the Inked Hearts Expo
Posted By Mark Larson on Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 8:31 PM
The 10th annual Inked Hearts Tattoo Expo at Blue Lake Casino hosted 35 tattoo artists and other vendors last Thursday through Sunday. Organizers Ted and Amy Marks brought in a familiar line up of tattoo artists, including Liz Cook, Lisa Hower, Tye Harris and Liz Venom, among others, as well as a good mix of new faces. See the slideshow below for highlights of the festivities.)
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Photos from the Beaver Sisters
Posted By Mark Larson on Wed, Dec 19, 2018 at 6:26 PM
The Beaver sisters (played by local artists Sarah McKinney, Maggie Lally and Janessa Johnsrude) transformed Eureka’s Synapsis Nova on Friday into a setting for an angst-ridden fundraiser telethon with a major problem: No one calls in to donate money. The plot’s backstory for The Beaver Sisters Present: The Beaverettes is that the toxin-laden river is threatening to destroy their lodge unless they raise enough money to prevent it. See the slideshow below for the boozy highlights.
Due to the lack of callers throughout the telethon, Marge, Musty and Betty Beaver are frantic and at interpersonal odds with each other at times in coming up with individual fundraising ideas (allowing each of these talented performers a full range of funny moments). And a bonus throughout the comedy show: It turns out the Beaver sisters have fantastic singing voices.
The Beaver Sisters Present: The Beaverettes was created in residence at Dell'Arte International, where the artists are graduates in physical theater. The show next heads out a December tour to San Francisco and Los Angeles. Do not miss the next chance to catch them locally.
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Photos from Ohana Comic Con
Posted By Mark Larson on Wed, Oct 31, 2018 at 8:43 PM
A surprisingly large crowd of costumed cartoon, movie and anime fans (estimated between 800 and 1,000) filled the Sapphire Palace at the Blue Lake Casino and Hotel on Saturday for its first ever Ohana Comic Con. Organizers of the event used the Hawaiian word “ohana,” meaning “family,” to attract families. The cheap tickets (in contrast with big comic con events) also helped bring in a crowd.
The two-day event hosted two costume contests, a wide mix of vendor tables, special guest artists and a few local artists. Event organizers were surprised and pleased at the attendance and hinted at a return event next year. Check out the scene in the slideshow below.
The two-day event hosted two costume contests, a wide mix of vendor tables, special guest artists and a few local artists. Event organizers were surprised and pleased at the attendance and hinted at a return event next year. Check out the scene in the slideshow below.
Wednesday, September 19, 2018
Tattoos and Suspension: Photos from the Native Ink Expo
Posted By Mark Larson on Wed, Sep 19, 2018 at 8:15 AM
Needing a break from the North Country Fair late Saturday afternoon and looking for an opportunity to renew my interest in our daughter's profession as a tattoo artist, I headed south to the first (promising to be annual) Native Ink Tattoo Expo event at the Bear River Casino Resort. The event ran Friday through Sunday.
The all-ages tattoo expo in the large rec center building hosted a few local and several national tattoo artists who were busy with bookings on Saturday, along with a few cannabis-related, art and clothing vendors. See the slideshow below for highlights of the day.
I was distracted from looking at tattoo flash and a few examples of "Native ink" by watching the Captain's Side Show and the new-to-me aerial-suspensions performances — a form of body modification that involves hanging a human body by hooks attached to ropes that is considered a therapeutic experience by some. (Warning: While not bloody, images of suspension, which appear at the end of the slideshow, freak some folks out.)
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Katy Warner and Madelyn Covey Geek Out at the Sanctuary
Posted By Gabrielle Gopinath on Tue, Sep 4, 2018 at 8:35 PM
“This is about otaku-dom: intense, obsessive fandom,” Katy Warner said, using the Japanese word that fans worldwide have adopted to describe obsession. She was referring to the screenprints and collages she is showing at the Sanctuary in Arcata through Sept. 6, dense with snippets of text, “based on the plot of the Japanese role-playing game I invented in high school.”
Otaku of every stripe will find their enthusiasm mirrored by the works in Cosplay / Larkspur, a two-person show at the Sanctuary that features prints and collages by Warner and paintings by her fellow Mills alumna Madelyn Covey. Covey lives in Oakland and works at Creative Growth, a nonprofit serving artists with developmental, mental and physical disabilities. Warner supervises arts programming at the Sanctuary in Arcata and manages the print room there.
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Photos from the 56th Klamath Salmon Festival
Posted By Mark Larson on Tue, Aug 21, 2018 at 7:06 PM
The tasty smell of fresh Klamath River salmon cooking the traditional way over an open fire mingled with the tangy smell of smoke from wildfires at the Yurok Tribe's 56th annual Klamath Salmon Festival on Sunday. The Yurok tribe had canceled serving salmon in 2016 and 2017 due to low fish runs.
The event's annual parade featured two grand marshals who are military veterans, Joe Pitt (89) of Klamath, and Irving Wilder, of Weitchpec.
In a new addition to Sunday's usual family fun, live music, car show and a wide array of vendors and information booths, seven expert traditional basket weavers from different local tribes worked in a tent area filled with different types of ceremonial regalia, basketry and other cultural objects. See the slideshow below for highlights.
