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AGA May-June Visual Arts News

Ashland Gallery Association logo AGA

Ashland Galleries
May Visual Arts News

May = Art Opportunities

In this month’s AGA May Visual Art News, we’re excited to share a handful of fun and diverse art opportunities that are being offered this month—and next—to foster your inner creativity. 

May Visual Arts News: Great Grey Owl, Oil on canvas by Terri Arino at Lithia Artisans Market in Ashland, Oregon
Terri Arino, Great Grey Owl, Oil on Canvas

Lithia Artisans Market
Support Local Artists in Southern Oregon
Saturdays and Sundays, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Join the Lithia Artisans Market and support local artists in Southern Oregon. Located on Calle Guanajuato in Downtown Ashland, come take a look at some of the finest work made by our talented artists and crafters. Featuring well over twenty individuals, there is everything from clothing and accessories, to pottery, photography, woodwork, and more.

For those who are interested in participating, please click here for more information. 

May Visual Arts News: Grants Pass Museum of Art - Corbin Brashear,
Needle Felting Turtles with Corbin Brashear. Image is of a needle felted turle by Corbin Brashear
Corbin Brashear, Turtle, Needle Felt Sculpture

Grants Pass Museum of Art
Needle Felting Turtles with Corbin Brashear
Saturday, June 3, 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Join the Grants Pass Museum of Art and Corbin Brashear to learn more about creating sculptures using needle felting. In addition to discovering how to create fun shapes and forms, individuals will also learn how to add lots of fun colors and details. All materials will be provided and no experience is necessary. 

For those who are interested in participating, please click here for more information. 

Sarah F. Burns, Butler Perozzi Fountain in Ashland, Oil on Panel. Featured image for Schneider Museum of Art and Sarah F. Burns
Art Beyond Plein Air Painting Event, June 2023
Sarah F. Burns, Butler Perozzi Fountain in Ashland, Oil on Panel

Schneider Museum of Art and Sarah F. Burns
Art Beyond Plein Air Painting Event Saturday, June 17, 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Join the Schneider Museum of Art and Sarah F. Burns for Art Beyond’s Plein Air Painting Event at Lithia Park. Paint outdoors throughout the day while engaging with the general public and sharing more about concepts and processes. Even more exciting, the first thirty artists who register will be invited to show one piece that was created at the event at the Crystal Ballroom at the Ashland Springs Hotel on Saturday and Sunday, June 24 and June 25.

For those who are interested in participating, please click here for more information. 

GA May Visual Art News:  Pocket of Scraps, Mixed Media by Roxanne Evans Stout
Roxanne Evans Stout, Pocket of Scraps, Mixed Media

Roxanne Evans Stout
Pocket of Scraps Flexible Dates and Times (Online Workshop)

Join Roxanne Evans Stout to learn more about collage making using scraps of paper and fabric. Choosing a variety of textures, colors, and materials, individuals will cover small pieces of paper that are small enough to fit into a personalized and decorative pocket. 

For those who are interested in participating, please click here for more information.

Ode to my Denim Shirt

Ode to my Denim Shirt        

 

Thirty-three years, you held up—

while my arms held high-school books,

tropical shells, college art supplies,

graduate thesis poems, European

train tickets, shovels and rakes, 

my first love and my last.

Thank you for waiting to tear—

until unwearable—until

I’d learned to hold each moment

with a sturdy gratitude.  

Southern Oregon Guild May 2023 Event & Classes


Spend time with a Mother or caregiver in your life while enjoying fine art, local wine, homemade chocolates, and live music by Terry D. Davis. Let her pick out a gift from the variety of local art and fine crafts on display, or treat her to a gift certificate. In-person class sign-ups will be available for our upcoming Citrus Beeswax Candle workshop held on May 20. Attend together and make candles to enjoy and take home!  Our Mother’s Day event is FREE with no prior registration needed. Donations are always appreciated. The Guild Gallery & Art Center is located in the historic Kerby Belt Building at 24353 Redwood Highway Kerby, OR 97531.

Are you looking for an opportunity to learn a fun new craft this spring? We invite you to join us at the Guild Gallery & Art Center on Saturday May 20 from 1-3pm to learn how to make Citrus Beeswax Candles with Alyssa Babin of Fireheart Candles. During this 2 hour hands-on workshop led by Guild Member and local artisan Alyssa Babin, you’ll make and take home your own citrus beeswax candle using high-quality organic ingredients. Beeswax doesn’t contain any toxic chemicals, and because there are no additives or chemicals, beeswax burns clean and doesn’t produce unsightly black soot. When burned, beeswax candles produce negative ions which bind with air pollutants (positive ions) and drop to the floor, removing them from the air and leaving it cleaner!

All candles will be made inside a large citrus peel of your choosing which emits an uplifting natural citrus scent when used! Learn how DIY candle-making can be easily adapted to your own unique tools that you have available at home. This is a wonderful opportunity to treat Mom or a caregiver to the class for Mother’s Day and make a candle together!

Class fees are on a sliding scale $35-$55 and include all materials. When you register, please honestly self-select your contribution. If the sliding scale would be a hardship and you’d like to request a scholarship, please send an email to [email protected] or call us at 541-592-5019.

ABOUT ALYSSA BABIN

Guild Member, Alyssa Babin, is a poet, musician, independent parent, and candle maker currently living on the beautiful Southern Oregon Coast. Alyssa was inspired to create her business, Fireheart Candles, when her child Alex was still in the womb. Driven by a desire to express herself creatively and spend as much time as possible with Alex, Fireheart Candles was born! Fireheart, Alex’s middle name, was chosen by Alyssa’s niece and means fire and love all at once–a metaphor for the warmth and beauty that candles offer us. Alyssa makes every candle by hand, beginning with mixing and pouring concrete for each container. After curing, they are then hand painted with her unique marbling technique and laser etched with her own designs created by Adobe Illustrator and laser etching robots. Local beeswax is then mixed with organic essential oils and poured into each unique container to create her one-of-a-kind candles! Every candle she makes is infused with love and the special bond between mother and child is felt! To learn more about Alyssa and Fireheart Candles, visit www.fireheartcandles.com. Alyssa’s beeswax candles, in various sizes and scents, are also for sale at the Guild Gallery & Art Center.

Laughing Earth

Letting Emerson (and the daffodils) say it best: “The earth laughs in flowers.” 



What a thing is spring

In this season of greening—

of already-but-not-yetness,

of muddy possibility,

of rainy enrichment,

of hungry wild ones

of pale tame ones—

I marvel at what comes up

seeking sun, seeking sky.

I give thanks for all

endings & beginnings. 

What a thing is spring. 

 

Winter Trees, Winter Reads

I have been diving into creative solitude this winter by writing, reading, and watching trees. One of my many book companions was May Sarton’s luminous Journal of a Solitude. Her wisdom on poetry alone astounds me. But so does her more general wisdom, some of which I decided to share on this first day of Lent: 

 

“Under the light of eternity things, the daily trivia, the daily frustrations, fall away.” (54)

 

“It is only when we can believe that we are creating the soul that life has any meaning, but when we can believe it—and I do and always have—then there is nothing we do that is without meaning and nothing that we suffer that does not hold the seed of creation in it.” (67)

 

“[S]olitude is one of the ways toward communion.” (73)

 

“I have said elsewhere that we have to make myths of our lives, the point being that if we do, then every grief or inexplicable seizure by weather, woe, or work can—if we discipline ourselves and think hard enough—be turned to account, be made to yield further insight into what it is to be alive, to be a human being, what the hazards are of a fairly usual, everyday kind.” (108)

 

“[R]eal joy. It is becoming exceedingly rare among artists of any kind. And I have an idea that those who can and do communicate it are always people who have had a hard time. Then the joy has no smugness or self-righteousness, it is inclusive not exclusive, and comes close to prayer.” (182) 

 

 

May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude. W. W. Norton & Company, 1977.

 

 

Oregon Fringe Festival Announces This Year’s Participating Artists!

The Oregon Fringe Festival Announces This Year’s Participating Artists!

Artist Credit: Sculpture/4D Collective
Image Credit: Marvin Walder
Artist Credit: Sculpture/4D Collective
Image Credit: Marvin Walder


The wait is OVER! After receiving over 90 applications, we are thrilled to announce that this year’s festival will include over 45 talented and diverse artists ranging from some of your favorite local legends, to students, faculty, and alumni from Southern Oregon University. There are also a handful of regional artists who will be traveling to present their creative work with us. 

Participants include Alex Brehmer, Allan P. Jones II, Amanda Berlind, Amanda Esser, Annie Murrell, Balladir, Bart Tveskov, Benjamín Roberto Moreno Ortiz and Robert Arellano, Bryan Jeffs, Catherine Venegas-Garcia, Connor Babbitt, Danielle Silkes, Dean Kyle, Dean Kyle and SOU Percussion, Delaney Jai, Derek Keller, Destery Epling and Cash Wickert, Elizabeth Adkisson, Ella Park, Erika Marquez, Jacob Bernstein and Calido Marquez, Jadi Dicksa, Keri Clement, Lillian Pichardo, Livia Eddins, Mary Snelgrove, Merlin Maurieni, Michael Namkung, Michael Stahler, MUSIX, Nick Simmons, Rebecca Mmm Davis and Mx. Pucks A’Plenty, Rebeca Ramm, Renee Zamudio, Rhiannon Chavez, Rita Redd, M.R. Wiard, and Parker Boom, Rosemary Kesselring, Sam Hicks, Sidney Reha, Siena Morgan Schofield, Sophie Chin, SOU Drag Collective, South Fork Four, Stara Being, Tate Stine, Tatum Hazelton, The Next Best Thing Improv, Townsend’s Solitaire, and Untitled Titled Improv.

In the coming weeks, we will also announce this year’s honorarium recipients. Artists who receive an honorarium exemplify creativity that is boundary-breaking, unconventional, excites discussion, and explores different perspectives of a held position, principle, and/or belief. 

For more information about the 2023 Oregon Fringe Festival, please click here or visit www.oregonfringefestival.org

Ashland First Friday ArtWalk – February 2023

First Friday Art Walk: February 3, 2023
5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Join us for First Friday Art Walk!


We’re excited to share a diverse array of wonderful artwork on display this month and created by our very talented artists. Don’t forget to visit their websites for more information about business hours, current exhibitions, and upcoming creative opportunities. 

Here is a sampling of our February Spotlight Galleries and Artists. 

www.ashlandgalleries.com

Hanson Howard Gallery
Mixed Media Work by Dennis McNett

Dennis McNett, Black Witch Moth, Wood Carving on display at  Hanson Howard Gallery in February 2023
Dennis McNett, Black Witch Moth, Wood Carving


Currently featured at Hanson Howard Gallery is mixed media work by Dennis McNett. Drawing inspiration from fantasy, folklore, and pop culture, Dennis incorporates bold colors and patterns with refined linework that is inventive and respective of traditional techniques. With over twenty years of experience specializing in illustration, woodworking, and printmaking, Dennis always begins with patterns and lines, and then slowly builds upon them, continuing to add both depth and complexity to his narratives that are personal beliefs about the world. 
Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday: 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Address and Contact Information: 
89 Oak Street, Ashland, OR 97520
541-488-2562
www.hansonhowardgallery.com

Art & Soul Ashland
Say it With Red

Charlotte Peterson, R is for Roses, Watercolor

This month’s exhibition at Art & Soul Ashland features Linda Boutacoff, Judy Richardson, Charlotte Peterson, Betty Barss, and Eve Margo Withrow. With February being the month of cupids, hearts, and romance, each artist has chosen their best artworks that include the passionate color of red in this color-themed exhibition. 

Hours: 
Tuesday – Saturday: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. 
Sunday: 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Address and Contact Information: 
247 East Main Street Street, Ashland, OR 97520
541-880-4100
www.artandsoulashland.com

Ashland Art Works
February Artist Members Showcase

Marydee Bombick, Untitled, Ceramic

This month’s exhibition at Ashland Art Works features a diverse selection of artwork made by each of their artist members. Including everything from ceramic mugs, to silk scarves, sterling silver jewelry, original paintings, and outdoor garden sculptures, there is a little bit of everything for everyone to enjoy.

Hours: 
Wednesday – Saturday: 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. 

Address and Contact Information: 
291 Oak Street, Ashland, OR 97520
541-488-4735
www.ashlandartworks.com

Fiber Arts Collective
Fiber Art by Kathleen Coolidge

Kathleen Coolidge, Untitled, Fiber Rug


Currently featured at Fiber Arts Collective is work by Kathleen Coolidge. Weaving rugs and wall hangings on a Navajo Loom, Kathleen’s designs are original while drawing inspiration from native sources and traditions. Using wool from sheep, she maintains the natural color or pigments it with synthetic dyes to create brighter colors. Alternatively, for more muted and softer tones, she uses vegetable and insect dyes. 

Hours: 
Wednesday – Saturday: 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Address and Contact Information: 
37 North Third Street, Ashland, OR 97520
541-708-6966
www.fiberartscollective.com

Other First Friday Art Walk Participants


   American Trails Gallery
   American Trails Gallery features arts and crafts of the  indigenous peoples of the Americas.
   250 East Main Street, Ashland, OR 97520 

   CatalystAshland

   CatalystAshland is a community based space that offers technology and features monthly art exhibitions.  
   357 East Main Street, Ashland, OR 97520

   Creekside Pizza
   Creekside Pizza features diverse artwork made by locally  renowned artists. 
   92 1/2 North Main Street, Ashland, OR 97520

   Gallerie Karon
   Gallerie Karon features artwork and photography along with antiques, artifacts, and jewelry.
   
300 East Main Street, Ashland, OR 97520

   John Pugh Studio
   John Pugh Studio is the working space of muralist and artist,         John Pugh. 
   
255 Helman Street, #1 C / D, Ashland, OR 97520

   K.S. Wild
   K.S. Wild features monthly art exhibitions and events with an emphasis on the environment, land, and water conservation. 
   
562 A Street, Ashland, OR 97520

   Oak Leaf Studio
   Oak Leaf Studio is the working space of painter and illustrator, Leif Trygg.  
   
247 Oak Street, Ashland, OR 97520

   Schneider Museum of Art
   The Schneider Museum of Art is a vital force that stimulates nspiration and curiosity through engagement with artists.  
   
555 Indiana Street, Ashland, OR 97520

   Siskiyou Gallery House
   Siskiyou Gallery House features original artwork by local  artists and fine art reproductions.  
   
2475 Siskiyou Boulevard, Ashland, OR 97520

   The Crown Jewel
   The Crown Jewel is a thoughtful and imaginative store featuring jewelry, art, decor, and gifts.  
   
266 East Main Street, Ashland, OR 97520

Click Here for First Friday Art Walk Map

The "is" in this


All the swallows sing of sky,

& I try to wintry listen

to the is of this

the is in this. 



Solstice Song

Inspired by reading Wintering this Solstice morning…

Solstice Song


Winter comes, kind & slow—

unseen behind the glitter of other gifts.

Outside, the trees root deeper.

Inside, the fire glows brighter.

And further inside, the spirit asks to rest—

asks for fewer shoulds & more stillness.

For less noise & more silence

 

& more silence

 

 

& more silence

 

 

& the winter lovers listen.