Art Beat

Looking at artwork in the studio is special. It’s like glimpsing a bird in the wild instead of studying a captive specimen or seeing a racecar on the factory floor instead of in a showroom. Otto Von Bismarck famously observed that no one wants to know how laws and sausages get made. However, the growth […]

At first glance, the pencil strokes on the canvas look like the outlines of an unfinished project. “So, what do you see?” Brent Eviston asks, pointing to the abstractly posed figures of the drawing. Then it starts to pop out. It’s a rabbit. Or maybe it’s people dancing. Or maybe they’re fighting. Regardless, the figure […]

Two exhibits at Humboldt State University’s First Street Gallery in Eureka bring social identity issues to the fore this month. All or Nothing, paintings and videos by San Francisco-based artist Ana Teresa Fernàndez occupy the main space. A group exhibition titled Labeled features the work of HSU art majors and alumni in the adjacent gallery. […]

Billowing clouds promise something powerful as a storm seems to erupt from the sky. The darkness opens through a quiet grey day like an inverted mountaintop. An eye of light recedes from the center as you watch, and evergreen treetops in the foreground relate the scene to earth. The photograph, “Vortex above the Forest,” is […]

Lacey mist clings to the forested watersheds that circle the city of Jingdezhen. Spindly smokestacks puncture the skyline like branchless trees, competing with modern high-rise apartments. Sports cars speed past endless shops filled with vases, bowls, cups, teapots, Buddha sculptures and any other shape that can be made from clay. Jingdezhen, like most cities in […]

Andrew Daniel likes to stare. “I love looking at people,” he says. “I like studying their gazes and faces and fashion. You can’t stop and do that, usually. It makes people uncomfortable. But when you’re doing portrait work you can stare for a long time. I don’t think of it as voyeuristic. It’s humanistic.” Daniel […]

“I swear from my very being by what I’m doing,” says John Motian. “You’ve gotta do what you are.” And Motian is a painter. Sitting on a simple twin bed, a glass of wine by his side, Motian is unabashed about a life lived through the end of a brush. Behind a strong Armenian nose […]

Settling onto a wooden stool, artist Lauryn Axelrod relaxes her shoulders and breathes in slowly. Exhaling, she clears her mind and dips her fingers into a bowl of water. Beneath her, a small lump of clay whirrs quietly. She leans forward and presses into the spinning mass, feeling it push against her frame, letting the […]

Art enthusiasts are a tough bunch. Despite endless holiday events, a new year and buckets of rain, we’ve still got to get our fix. Arts Alive in January can seem like a chore, but it doesn’t have to be. Across from the Eureka Theater, one art house hums with excitement, color and mediums of every […]