In Full Bloom at Franklin Crossing, Art & Craft at Atelier, Saxophonist Dan Leonardo at Bella Moda, Environmental Art at City Hall, Powskichic at Hot Box Betty, Anniversaries at Karen Bandy & Tumalo Art, Larissa Spafford & Janice Rhodes at Red Chair.
1. Atelier 6000 2. Bella Moda 3. Bend Premier Real Estate 4. Cascade School of Music 5. City Hall 6. Desperado 7. Douglas Fine Jewelry 8. Franklin Crossing’s Art in the Atrium 9. Haven Home Style 10. Karen Bandy Studio 11. Red Chair Gallery 12. Sage Custom Framing & Gallery 13. Tumalo Art Co.
Art in the Atrium at Franklin Crossing 550 NW Franklin, celebrates First Friday, with a show of varied genre of floral imagery, In Full Bloom, with works by Natasha Bacca, Joanne Donaca, Annie Ferder and Mike Kelly as well as other works by gallery artists.
Bacca, adjunct professor of art at Central Oregon Community College, pushes the bounds of conventional photography. Granted a US patent for her process, Bacca works in complete darkness using beams of light to create her paintings on photosensitive paper. Following photo-chemical processing, both abstract and expressionistic images of plant material and other subjects appear. OPB’s Oregon Art Beat featured her process and her art appeared in numerous national exhibitions.
Donaca presents floral landscapes and still life in oil. Her former impressionistic style of bold brushwork and heavy impasto often yields to more expressionistic imagery featuring carefully integrated brushwork but with continued use of a bold, realistic palette. The artist is a member of the Oil Painters of American and a sustaining associate member of the Watercolor Society of America. Her art appears in collections of Sunriver and Pronghorn resorts.
Ferder shows her complex, intricate and accurately detailed watercolor images of flowers. Her fascination with botany began early and continued with college classes. The artist’s paintings, such as Indian Blanket, reveal that interest through astoundingly small, accurate detail, layers of myriad hues and values as well as profuse involved compositions depicting the intricacy of nature. A prizewinner of the Watercolor Society of Oregon, International Artists Magazine also featured her images.
Kelly, whose Irish grandparents hailed from the western County Clare and spoke Gaelic as well as English, has traveled to Ireland three times. One adventure found him in Tralee, home of the Irish National Theatre and subject of the song, The Rose of Tralee. Painstakingly, he painted a Tralee rose for a friend and continued to explore this subject in his style of both expressionistic and abstract imagery. A graduate of the Art Institute of Boston, his work appeared in exhibitions around the U.S.
Members of the Spotlight Chamber Players, the High Desert Chamber Music Educational Outreach program, will provide chamber music for the evening with members Mateo Garza and Hannah Ortman on violin, Ben Kroeker, viola and Jonah Rosberg, cello. Bella a cappella, a local singing group for women of all ranges and ages, directed by Connie Norman, will also perform. Ceylon Blue, a wedding and event planner located in Franklin Crossing, will organize appetizers and wine. Turner provides additional information at 541-382-9398.
Atelier 6000 389 SW Scalehouse Ct. Suite 120. 541-330-8759, www.atelier6000.com. Art & Craft opens First Friday with a 6pm ArtTalk and Demonstration by Jeffrey Baker and Clare Carpenter, representatives from Oregon College of Art and Craft. Baker will discuss OCAC activities in Portland and here in Central Oregon along with the import of arts and crafts in Oregon’s cultural dialogue. Carpenter will demonstrate a printmaking technique.
Is there a line between fine art and contemporary craft? When six artists re-imagine basic craft traditions to show beside their art the results include: Amy Royce encaustics and painterly jewelry; Myrna Massey Brooks found object assemblages and carved ceramic pendants; wood, metal and found object paintings and Lost and Found jewelry by Denise Rowcraft; abstract and photographic canvases and fashions by ALXSw; famously quirky bug art and insect laden garden pots by Tara Doherty and Lloyd McMullen’s found object 2- and 3-D paintings and Castaways upcycled clothing line.
Bella Moda 1001 NW Wall St, 541-550-7001 Saxophonist Dan Leonardo at Art Walk. As a founding member of the Smooth Jazz group Avenue H, Leonardo has been writing and recording music, and entertaining audiences for over a decade. After the release of the band’s first album last year, Leonardo is excited to have the opportunity to share his own solo material with audiences this year. His contemporary, passionate sound blends his Soprano Sax and Flute with elements of R&R, Jazz, World Beat and Instrumental Pop. The result is a smooth, relaxing listening experiences that goes especially well with a glass of wine and good company.
Bend City Walls at City Hall 710 NW Wall Street. 541-388-5517 City of Bend Arts, Beautification and Culture Commission, INSIDE::OUT Art Show at Bend City Hall. Fourteen artists were paired with The Environmental Center and its members to interpret the theme: Bend’s external environment inspires our internal environment (mental, physical, emotional & spiritual). www.ci.bend.or.us/city_walls_at_hall.html.
Bend Premier Real Estate 550 NW Franklin Ave. Ste #108, 541-306-8711, www.chasingthelight.zenfolio.com. Best of the West, a collection of images by Bend landscape photographer Stuart L. Gordon who will be available to discuss his work during the Art Walk.
With this exhibit, Gordon for the first time will be showcasing prints of images from recent trips to western Colorado, the Oregon coast, California’s Big Sur coast and the red-rock country of Sedona, Arizona.
“I focus most of my time on Central Oregon landscapes because it is a real cornucopia of photographic opportunity. However, I also travel extensively looking for magical landscapes to bring home and share with others,” Gordon said. “I’ve been waiting for the right venue to bring these images together because they share two things in common: one, they’ve never been seen in print; and two, they are all of stunning landscapes, many of which were taken at national and state parks.” The Colorado images were taken during the peak autumn colors of the giant aspen forests around Crested Butte, Meeker and Ridgway. The Central Oregon locations featured in the exhibit are Proxy Falls and Sparks Lake.
“The fall colors in the aspen forests were phenomenal this past October. People are going to have a hard time believing their eyes when they see how rich, vibrant and vast these aspens are,” the photographer said. All the matted and framed prints in the exhibit are made with archival inks. All the images are available in a variety of sizes, both framed and unframed.
Gordon said he sees the camera as a tool to express his personal vision of and emotional response to the beauty of the natural world. “Through photography, I feel that I become part of the magic of nature,” he said. “It’s about being a participant, rather than merely an observer, in a singular and unrepeatable moment when light, weather, location and subject combine to produce a magical scene; a spark of eternity.”
Gordon has had several exhibits of his images in Bend, and his photographs have been selected for display at Redmond-Bend Airport in several juried exhibits. He also produces an annual calendar of Central Oregon images, sales of which benefits the Environmental Center. He currently is working on a book of images of Oregon.
Cascade School of Music 200 NW Pacific Park Lane, on the Deschutes River just upstream from the Portland Ave. Bridge. 541-382-6866 First Friday Parents’ Night Out…call to hold your spot. Kids age 4 to 12 enjoy supervised art and music-related activities, then end the evening with a musically-inspired, age-appropriate movie (with popcorn).
Desperado Contemporary & Nostalgic Western Store 330 SW Powerhouse, Old Mill District. 749-9980. Barbara Slater exhibits fanciful and endearing animals including elegant roosters, soulful horses, beloved dogs and other creatures. Her affection of them and her skillful grasp of their nature is apparent in the imagery. “Animals bring something special to our lives and give us inspiration for paintings that we all treasure,” she says. Slater’s paintings are an ongoing exhibit at Desperado at the Old Mill.
Hot Box Betty 903 NW Wall. Featuring Brenda Reid Irwin: Powskichic of Bend through May. There are three things in life that Brenda is most passionate about: art, music and literature. “Painting is my bliss. I get lost in it for hours at a time and often work non-stop out of pure enjoyment.” Other passions that require her uninterrupted focus are snow skiing, yoga, mountain bike riding and photography.
Living in Bend is the perfect fit for Irwin and her husband having just moved here from Seattle. “The beauty of moving to an artistic community is that you get to reinvent yourself as an artist. I’ve never felt so welcomed, thanks to a lot of support from The Source Weekly. My photos have become a favorite in Lightmeter.” An admirer of Picasso, Van Gough and Paul Klee, she has a deep sense of style and color. “I’m fascinated with design.” Burst, 36”x54” is an energetic acrylic painting on recycled posterboard. Her acrylic works are also done on canvas and paper. This is her first exhibit. http://powskichicofbend.wordpress.com/author/powskichicofbend/, photos: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjyuAPh7. 541-550-7174.
John Paul Designs 1006 NW Bond St., 541-318-5645. Custom Jewelry and Signature Series. Specializing in unique, one-of-a-kind wedding and engagement rings in a variety of metals. www.johnpauldesigns.com.
Karen Bandy Design Jeweler 25 NW Minnesota Ave. #5, 541-388-0155. Karen Bandy celebrates 25 years designing in Central Oregon with an anniversary celebration at her studio on First Friday. Live music by Deb Yager and Bo Reynolds 6-8pm. To mark the occasion, she is donating a custom-designed carved horse pendant, selling raffle tickets with 100 percent of funds raised going to Healing Reins charity. (Raffle tickets may be purchased through Bandy and Healing Reins volunteers. The drawing will be held July 6 at First Friday. An equestrian herself, Bandy knows first-hand that “the horse is a symbol of solidity and power; Healing Reins empowers people through horses. I thought it very fitting that I make and donate a horse pendant to help this cause.” www.karenbandy.com or karen@karenbandy.com.
Lahaina Galleries at the Old Mill 541-388-4404, www.lahainagalleries.com. Featuring local artists Katherine Taylor (impressionist), Mollie Jurgenson (mixed-media abstract, Mytchell Mead (metal sculpture) and Jason Waldron (high desert/Manzanita wood sculpture).
Lubbesmeyer Studio & Gallery The Old Mill District, 2nd Story Loft, 541-330-0840, www.lubbesmeyer.com.
Mockingbird Gallery 869 NW Wall St, 541-388-2107, www.mockingbird-gallery.com Quiet on the Western Front features two premier Utah artists; Steven Lee Adams and Joseph Alleman. Adams is a master at seeing what ordinarily goes unseen. He chooses to look past the spectacular vista, and focuses instead on the quiet but equally spectacular scenery nearby. His strong sense of color and composition carry his paintings toward a deafening crescendo that barely makes a sound. His goal is not to portray the majesty of Nature, but rather to bring attention to the majestic in the deceptively ordinary. Steven’s landscapes paintings are tactile and seemingly chiseled from bits of sky, earth and fauna with a delicate and subtle color palette. Alleman, an important motive to paint lies in understanding his surroundings. Working in both oil and watercolor, Joseph’s work has become recognized for its visionary portrayals of the West.
Old Mill District Exhibits Architects in Schools Exhibit Architecture Foundation of Oregon at 503-542-3825. First Friday in the empty space between Jimmy John’s and Desperado, soon to be the registration headquarters for Pole Pedal Paddle. Bend area elementary school students will showcase projects developed over the past few months during time spent with architects learning about architecture. This school year, eleven classes and nine volunteer architects from Central Oregon participated in the Architects in Schools program. Schools participating are Amity Creek Magnet School, Buckingham Elementary, Elk Meadow Elementary, Ensworth Elementary, Friday School Coop and Ponderosa Elementary from Bend and Tumalo Community School from Tumalo. Participating architects represent Neal Huston and Associates, BBT Architects, BLRB Architects, Hara Shick Architects, Pinnacle Architecture and Blaise Cacciola Architect LLC.
QuiltWorks 926 NE Greenwood Ave. 541-728-0527. Featured Quilter will be Dianne Browning who designs and creates unique, contemporary art quilts with graphic, impressionistic and realistic styles. The group exhibit is A River of Quilts, twenty-five quilts side by side which will cover 50 feet of gallery space. The quilters are the Sew-Ciety Quilt Guild from Redding, California.
Red Chair Gallery 103 NW Oregon Ave. in the historic O’Kane Building, 541-306-3176 Larissa Spafford, jewelry designer, meticulously crafts each bead from molten glass in the flame of a torch. She uses these beads to create unique jewelry that is colorful, whimsical and fun to wear. Janice Rhodes creates encaustics which are layers of melted wax that are fused to a hard surface. Working in this medium is challenging, but the results are vivid creations, lasting centuries, that are always original….that even she cannot duplicate.
Sage Custom Framing & Gallery Exhibits 834 NW Brooks St., 541-382-5884 Gordon and Kay Baker, Bend artists and husband and wife, will be showing a selection of their latest works during May. Both predominantly paint landscape and can be seen painting on location throughout the Central Oregon area. Gordon is a geologist and an environmentalist and worked in many different countries and environments before retiring. He tries to reflect these varying perspectives in his oil paintings. Kay’s work in this display includes plein air and studio paintings. “Painting on site gives me a joy and a freedom to express my feelings about our beautiful area.” She sometimes uses these studies to create larger works in her studio and enjoys working in watercolor, pastel and oil.
Thump Coffee 25 NW Minnesota, 541-388-0226, www.ThumpCoffee.com. Push Tunisia, a collection of recent skateboarding photos, art decks and other mixed media works from Tunisia, birthplace of the “Arab Spring” revolutions. Push Tunisia is a project of local non-profit collaborative theBedouins, a group of mutli-national skaters, filmers, photographers and artists with a focus on the middle eastern youth. “The crew used skateboarding and art as a way to interact with the local Tunisian youth and captured the energy of post-revolution Tunisia,” explain Nathan and Esther Gray, founders of theBedouins. www.pushtunisia.org and www.thebedouins.org.
Townshend’s Bend Teahouse 835 NW Bond Street, 541-312-2001. If you haven’t been in Townshend’s Bend Teahouse lately – look UP when you arrive. A two-part mural was recently painted for the teahouse. Two sets of four connecting panels flow into one scene around the skylights. This new installation is the second permanent art fixture in the teahouse. The first, by talented local painter, Sarah Hubbard, is a whimsical take on a Wonderland-esque tea party. The newest addition is by Kenny Spurlock, a muralist who has worked all over the state of Oregon, in Washington and California.
Tumalo Art Company at Old Mill District, 450 SW Powerhouse Dr. #407, 541-385-9144, www.tumaloartco.com. Tumalo Art Co. will celebrate their 10 year anniversary with a Retrospective show during May. An artist-driven gallery, they opened their doors in the Tumalo Junction before restructuring and moved to downtown Bend on Greenwood Ave. Almost three years ago they moved to the heart of the Old Mill District. Many of Central Oregon’s most respected artists have taken part in the gallery, and it now exhibits over 20 local artists with a diverse array of mediums and styles. Around 40 will have art in the Retrospective show. Along with all current gallery artists, May’s Retrospective show will include Marta Batha, Pam Jersey Bird, Kim Chavez, Janet Guiley, Deanna Hansen, Cheri Lee Helfenstein, Judy Hoiness, Ingrid Lustig, Karen Piedmont, Barbara Speck, Katherine Taylor and Gary Vincent.