Art Beat

Smoke blackens the sky. Men with guns point them at men without. Those who can flee, do — but most lie dead or captured. "Occupation" is one of a series of large woodcut prints depicting the Iraq war as filtered through American media, currently hanging at Humboldt State’s First Street Gallery. Sandow Birk’s work expands […]

Old Town Eureka shimmered with energy, as it typically does the first Saturday evening of each month. Hundreds of people swarming the streets, absorbing not only the art but the ambiance, the thrill of being out and about in a creative community. The north wind didn’t chill enthusiasm in the slightest. Arts Alive! is as […]

There was an eerie hush as crowds of people filed quietly past Karen Sullivan’s drawings and paintings during Arts Alive! at First Street Gallery. Three good sized spaces offered pen and ink drawings, gouache paintings, 3×5-inch drawings enclosed helter-skelter in a glass case center stage with their digital counterparts across the way and an installation […]

What the heck is culture anyway? It’s a slippery term referring to anything from yogurt to blue fuzzy stuff in Petri dishes to hip hop to classical music. So when Tim Smith of the Baltimore Sun stated that "One of the best ways to promote and preserve the cultural health of this country would be […]

Throughout history, the primary function of art has been to represent the world as we see it. It has been a way to cheat the relentless forward march of time and hang on to an image that does not age or fade away (well, at least not as quickly as humans do). We have painted […]

On the table are several half-empty bottles of cheap wine and sparkling pear cider, a plate of brie and strawberries (or the remnants of what was), as well as a fancy chocolate cake in honor of Jeff Hunter’s 27th birthday. It also happens to be November Arts! Arcata. “This is our third Arts Arcata event […]

This past summer, for days on end, I looked up at the night sky and saw the moon glowing red. From the perspective of humans, the fires that created that red moon were among the worst on record, with nearly 300 square miles burned and 16 firefighters killed. The roaring flames were relatively short-lived compared […]

What do you think of when you hear the word “propaganda”? Lies? Deceit? Politics? Dictionary.com defines it as, “information, ideas or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.” Wikipedia states that propaganda “often presents facts selectively (thus lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives […]

Art doesn’t come out of a vacuum. It comes from influences, inspiration and experience of those who came before, of those who are your contemporaries. California-based photographer Edward Henry Weston was no exception. Born in Highland Park, Ill., in 1886, Weston received his first camera when he was 16. Only a year later, his photographs […]

It’s a funny thing about education. Of course it’s necessary, but when it gets too formalized, it can become limiting. A person who relies only on the education of institutions may gain a lot of knowledge, but will not gain wisdom. Wisdom comes from life experience — hard knocks and intimate relationships, meeting other cultures, […]