Art Beat

One of the most challenging shows you’ll see around town right now is John Mahony’s photography at the First Street Gallery. As a river kayaker, Mahony is witness to the increasingly evident fact that there are few wild spaces left on the planet that are untouched by humanity. "You rarely go on a river without […]

When you read about an artist as well known as David Groth, you find a lot of "artspeak." Being an art historian, I am, of course, familiar with artspeak and have a basic understanding of it, but it still puts me off. It put me off when I was in school, and I might have […]

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the 15 years Eureka’s Arts Alive! has been in existence, it’s that some of the most interesting art is often found in unexpected places. I considered this fact as Scott Brown led me toward the back of Eureka Books, weaving his way through shelves, tables, chairs and boxes […]

It seems to me that there are generalists and there are specialists. I’ve always been a generalist — I’m interested in so many things that I’ve never taken the time to get really good at anything. My life is a litany of unfinished projects and grandiose dreams that never come to fruition. It’s frustrating at […]

Making art is more about what you do with your eyes than what you do with your hands. I came to the conclusion some years ago, and that theory has been confirmed over and over again in my conversations with painters. “What I get out of painting is looking,” says Judy Evenson. “I see things […]

It’s a cold and rainy afternoon. Christmas is upon me, and then the New Year. A time to reflect, and what I’ve been thinking about is why I write this column (roughly) every two weeks. I often feel like I’m shouting in the wind. Why do I bother writing about art and artists when people […]

The Winter Solstice is a week away and the storms have already begun, but there are summer flowers in our midst. Hollyhocks, gladiolas, sunflowers and roses in a blaze of sunshine and color. "How can this be?" you ask. Well, it’s an art show, of course, with work painted at the height of the flowering […]

Considering the rumor that Hobart Brown’s last words were, “Alert the media,” chances are you’ve heard the sad news: Ferndale’s world-renowned artist died from pneumoniain the early morning hours of Wednesday, Nov. 7, at Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna at the age of 73. Best known as the “Glorious Founder” of the Kinetic Sculpture Race, […]

Jeanne Scranton got her first camera when she was 8 years old and she’s been taking pictures ever since. However, she did not use a camera at all for her current show. Jeanne has recently discovered a new technique that is fascinating her — scanner photography. Jeanne fitted her flatbed scanner with a box spray […]

Born in 1917, Marcel Duchamp turned a manufactured urinal on its side, signed it R. Mutt, called it Fountain and entered it in an avant-garde art show. Predictably, there was a great hue and cry from fellow avant-gardists as well as traditionalists, and this clamor was exactly what Duchamp was after. It is clear that […]