This week, we’ve got a story years in the making, tracing how a Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputy is back on patrol after settling a wrongful death suit, opening fire on a security guard and commanding a police dog to bite an already restrained subject. We’re also checking out local kinetic sculpture and mural legend Duane […]
Duane Flatmo
Posted inArts + Scene
Photos: Tubas, Chocolate and a Flaming Octopus
For many, it’s not officially the holiday season in Humboldt County until you’ve attended one of the all-brass TubaChristmas performances, which have been led locally by Fred Tempas since 1988. So we headed out early Saturday afternoon to near the gazebo in Old Town in Eureka for the 33rd annual concert and Christmas carols sing-along […]
Posted inArts + Scene
El Pulpo Magnifico to Light Up Arts Alive
Bring your sunglasses to Arts Alive Saturday, Dec. 3, as local artist and Burning Man regular Duane Flatmo will be firing up El Pulpo Magnifico, recently touring heir to the retired legendary kinetic sculpture El Pulpo Mecanico. The enormous mechanical octopus will brandish its flaming tentacles from 6 to 9 p.m. at the foot of E Street, […]
Posted inArts + Scene
The Painting on the Wall
At the block party for the second annual Eureka Street Art Festival, more than a dozen artists hailing from points ranging from Bayside to Buenos Aires were steadily moving toward completion in front of ebullient crowds. Many had been working in public all week — spraying, brushing, gridding and stenciling, shimmying up and down ladders […]
Posted inNews
Flatmo’s Dragon Slays at the Smithsonian
Editor’s note: With Black Rock City once again rising up amid the great sandscape of Nevada’s desert expanse, we thought now would be a good time to take another look at the fantastical work of Humboldt County’s own Duane Flatmo, whose dragon creation is part of the Smithsonian’s No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Duane Flatmo’s Dragon Heads for the Smithsonian
How do you pack a giant, flaming scrap-metal monster on wheels? Artist and Burning Man regular Duane Flatmo has done it plenty of times with his iconic fire-spouting octopus “El Pulpo Mecanico.” But now he’s shipping the fiery dragon he built in 2009 to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. The museum will display the gleaming […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Micki Dyson Flatmo’s Resistance Couture
Micki Dyson-Flatmo was never a political artist. But now her backyard studio in Eureka is crowded with dressmaker’s dummies swathed in tulle, metal and plastic — wearable expressions of life in the Trump era. Her show Dating Chaos: What to Wear opens at the Morris Graves Museum of Art this weekend, combining costuming and abstract […]
Posted inNews
Kinetic Primer: A Photo Essay by Mark Larson
“Kinetics is for everyone,” according to the official rules for Humboldt’s human-powered sculpture race, and Rule A reads, “Amusement is the gift we give and get, so all KGC participants, volunteers, spectators, and innocent bystanders must try their best to have FUN at all times.” This preview guide to the 47th annual Kinetic Grand Championship […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Watch: Flatmo Plays the Fillmore
Duane Flatmo, the demented genius behind El Pulpo Mecanico, opened for Infected Mushroom at San Francisco’s famed Fillmore last night. Flatmo designed the massive animatronic set that tours with the band, and was invited to open the energetic act, which he did with his usual quirky gusto. The goodness was captured on video by former […]
Posted inNews
El Pulpo Blazes the Rockies
Humboldt County’s most famous fire-spewing octopus is at it again, having traveled into the Rockies to flame it up at Colorado’s Telluride Fire Festival. El Pulpo Mecanico, the 26-foot-tall brainchild of local artist Duane Flatmo is one of the festival’s headliners and, with the event dubbings itself a “community celebration of excellence in interactive fire […]
Posted inNews
A Star is Born and El Pulpo be thy Name
Humboldt County’s most famous flaming octopus has fully arrived on the national stage. El Pulpo Mecanico, the brainchild of Kinetic hall-of-famer Duane Flatmo, has for years been appearing at Burning Man, an arts festival in the Nevada desert, and has become a favorite of its cult-like following. But now, the fire spewing machine is going […]