“When I’m painting, I’m in a state of discovery, and it’s always an adventure,” says Eureka abstract artist Aminah Herrman, who creates her artwork using cold wax and oil. “I’m constantly experimenting.” Cold wax is an oil painting medium made of beeswax mixed with a small amount of solvent and resin, forming a buttery soft […]
Art Beat
Artists, galleries, museums, arts nights and shows around the county.
In the News: William Pierson’s photography and ‘Wildfur’ animator Violet Crabtree
Thanks for reading, and have a great Labor Day weekend. In the News Art Beat Culture
Violet Crabtree on Making ‘Wildfur’
Local artist, musician and animator Violet Crabtree has been involved in the local underground scene since she moved to Humboldt County 20 years ago. She first caught my attention with her band The Comix Trip, which usually features Crabtree narrating a story featuring her own comics — with the aid of an overhead projector — […]
‘More of the Moment’
William Pierson recalls his kindergarten teacher giving out brown slabs of rolled clay with which he and his classmates were to form and decorate candy dishes as Mother’s Day gifts. After looking around, he says he picked up a wooden block to form the clay around before trimming and painting the edge. He had, he […]
Fired Up for Flatmo Alley
Three weeks ago, local artist Duane Flatmo went public on social media with some personal health news and an invite to a June 13 party in Eureka: “Hope to see you at this event. Some of you might know already that I have been given some troubling health news and would love to see friends […]
Open Studios 2026
In case you missed a chance to visit some of the studios and galleries of the 150 local artists participating in the 26th annual North Coast Open Studios event last weekend, no worries. There’s still time to visit many of their studios and galleries located between Eureka and Trinidad and east to Willow Creek this […]
Freezing Time
“Have you been to Morris Graves yet?” That’s what a former student asked me, wide-eyed, when I ran into them on the evening of Arts Alive at nearby gallery. “There’s a great sculptural installation show.” They nodded to emphasize the word “great.” Another gallery goer chimed in and agreed, “Really cool and weird.” Then in […]
Every Day Feels Like Low-Fired Clay
Annakatrin Burnham’s Flowstate At first glance, Annakatrin Burnham’s idiosyncratic sculptures are abstract and otherworldly — almost alien. Titling these quirky ceramics Trophies creates an immediate inroad for viewers to recognize their trophy-esque formal qualities: three-dimensional objects designed for display bearing a stable base adorned with a decorative stem or crowning object rising vertically from the […]
Angie Tustison:Award-Winning Quilterof Humboldt Scenes
“Quilting is a very forgiving medium,” says Humboldt fiber artist Angie Tustison. “When I was starting out, my designs didn’t have to be perfect to look nice, whereas the mistakes I made in my drawings or paintings tended to stand out.” She also loved the colors and textures of the range of fabrics available to […]
A Mosaic Elk at Prairie Creek
Those who wander into the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park Visitor Center are in for an encounter with a Roosevelt elk — but not the usual live elk typically found in nearby Elk Prairie. Instead, they’ll find a one-of-a-kind, glass-encrusted bull elk sculpture by Jennifer a’Midi, a local Southern Humboldt mosaic artist. Her 225-pound, life-sized […]
A Different World is Considered
Three artists at CR In the Floyd Bettiga Art Gallery at College of the Redwoods, we all knew what artist Laura Corsiglia meant when she said, “there are so many problems in the world.” These days such a phrase is a dime a dozen but standing there watching the rain come down onto the concrete, […]
‘What Life was Like Here’
At the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, from which Nicolette Reinsmith recently graduated, her Bay Area peers were mostly urban and moneyed, unlike Reinsmith, who describes her family as “lower middle class.” When she told fellow students stories about Humboldt County, they were baffled. They barely knew where it was. “They thought […]
