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Visual Arts
A Modest Man:
Quiet passion for the work.
Performance
Exploring Racism:
Original performances offer authentic viewpoints on history, racism.
Wine
Blue Days Gone:
Zins, sins and grins.
PLUS: Booknotes.
A Modest Man
Quiet passion for the
work.
By Lois
Wadsworth
Mark Clarke has been making art for more than 40 years now, but his
solo exhibition opening this weekend at Alder Gallery in Coburg is his first in this
area. I've seen Clarke's work in many local group shows and know Eugeneans who have
long collected his paintings. He said he just never got around to a one-person show
here until now. "A Northwest Mood" includes 30 acrylics of Oregon landscapes,
seascapes, buildings and figures. The exhibit runs from Feb. 1 - March 31, with an
artist's reception from 1 to 4 pm on Saturday, Feb. 2 at the gallery.
For more than 20 years, Clarke has sold his work through the Portland
Art Museum Rental/Sales Gallery, primarily landscapes that he called "easy-to-get-along-with
in homes and commercial buildings." He also shows his work in McMinnville at
Anderson's Gallery. "I might have 100 pieces out there right now," Clarke
said, "spread around small town galleries."
He's modest, as befits a native son of Oregon, but his work is
subtle and exceptional. Alder Gallery owner Candy Moffat described his work as "mature,"
noting that customers are attracted because of the moody or brooding quality of his
landscapes and seascapes, characteristics that are absent in this peaceful artist.
Clarke, who was born in Oregon City and grew up in Junction City, is an MFA graduate
(with honors) of the art department at the UO. He also worked for many years at the
UO Museum of Art. Now that he's retired, he paints full-time. He's prolific, and
he makes it sound easy.
"I've been working the last two or three years on this body
of work," Clarke said, "which is unusual for me." He showed me abstract
collages and a large number of paintings not included in the show. Clarke called
the making of his art "a relaxing process." He spoke of collage as a process
of exploring color, shape and composition by cutting or tearing shapes from various
scraps of previously painted paper, pushing the shapes around, painting, glazing,
going back in with a watercolor brush to soften some areas, adding a final transparent
glaze to end up with several layers of different papers. He talked about using black
in what he called "an old Matisse sort of thing," adding depth and contrast
to the work.
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Process is central to all artists: It is their work. Perhaps
watching his father work in his machine shop gave Clarke a love for making things.
"My dad is an unusually interesting guy," he said. "At 87, he still
loves to work. He had a trucking business and manufactured different kind of equipment
for farmers and loggers. I was always around rusted, painted metals." Clarke
still makes the frames for his own work as well as for the work of his wife, painter
Margaret Coe. Coincidentally, Coe also has a show this month, at the LCC Art Department
Gallery. It runs Feb. 4 to March 1, with a lecture at 10:30 am on Feb. 6 in the gallery.
As Clarke talked about individual pieces that will be at either
Alder Gallery or in a large solo show in May at Maude Kerns Art Center, he recalled
when Lawrence Fong of the UO Museum of Art asked him to give a painting knife demonstration
at the C.S. Price exhibit several years ago. "It reintroduced me to the painting
knife," he said. Now Clarke uses a knife in most of his work. He may first apply
paint with a brush but then mush it out with a painting knife, add more paint, push
it around. Looking at a head study he remembered "hitting it with a wall of
paint here, then piling on more paint and mushing it around." The thing about
working with acrylic rather than oil is that there's not much time to manipulate
it before it hardens, he said.
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For some landscapes, Clarke chooses to work with a limited palette
of earth colors and blacks. When he wants a "harder edge," he applies paint
with a brush, using the knife to create a softer focus. Sometimes he refers to a
gesture as "buttered on" with the knife. He puts paint on and scrapes it
off to expose layers below. Using a dry brush technique in a particular piece, he
said, "I worked it and worked it until something began to happen. Then I pumped
up the color." He may leave the face unfinished in a figure, and he "simplifies"
his barns.
Limited palettes and specific techniques allow Clarke to "thoroughly
investigate" what he's doing, he said, while challenging him to see how far
he can go. Some pictures of the coast were painted on site, but others are painted
in the studio, memories of certain places where a dark rock juts out into the ocean
just so, or how fog looks around the rocks, or the different colors of sand and silt
when the tide comes in.
Several colorful landscapes were inspired by an autumn trip through
the Columbia River Gorge. Bright yellow and red trees blaze near the canyon's dark
rock wall; multiple layers of blue violet hills recede in the distance; a sentinel
rock stands near the river's shore. His cloud-filled or cloudless skies are not just
blue but also pale green, a creamy, magic yellow (vanilla sky, I called it) and stormy
gray and black.
As painter Jon Jay Cruson notes, this year provides two great opportunities
to see Clarke's latest work. "With a modest smile and hands that have seen work,
Mark carries a quiet passion for his work," Cruson said of his friend of nearly
40 years. "Mark's aesthetic is not easily categorized. It transcends the general
label of 'painterly,' evoking a deep love for the Northwest landscape in its many
moods and his love for the exploration of the material itself." Don't miss Alder
Gallery's show by one of Oregon's most accomplished painters.
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Exploring Racism
Modern dance and gamelan
create memorable evening.
By Aria
Seligmann
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Awele Makeba.
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With the onset of February, Black History Month, come two performances
that give voice to minority viewpoints. The first performance is "Rage is Not
a 1-Day Thing," a one-woman play written and performed by Awele Makeba, a former
first-grade teacher.
The play examines a brief moment in history-- the Montgomery Bus
Boycott of 1955-56, an event so significant it changed history. It is a storyteller's
attempt to tell an untold story-- not the master narrative, nor the perpetuation
of a myth, but the truth of a single moment when a black woman named Claudette Colvin
sits in the white section on a segregated bus. The story is told through the voices
of history makers of the time, young people and women who were neither bystanders
nor silent witnesses, but ordinary people who stood up for something they believed
in. The play is based on interviews, court transcripts, memoir and biographies.
Reviewer Pat Holt wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle,
"Awele has the authority of a Maya Angelou and the dramatic gifts of an Anna
Deveare Smith." Awele told Holt she was "looking for true stories of young
people to tell to students of all ages-- to get them excited about life, to ask them
what their vision is, what their purpose for being is."
The performance is at 7 pm Sunday, Feb. 10 at Central Presbyterian
Church. Donations will be accepted. A post-performance dialogue immediately follows
the performance.
The second performance is "My Own Story," an evening of original works
written and performed by UO students who have participated in a five-week-long workshop
that has allowed them to explore the ways in which their cultural heritage, family
dynamics, racism and other factors have affected their lives. Each student developed
a piece of performance art that culminated from the workshop process.
"The work is significant in that it validates their unique
individual lives and voices, as well as powerfully countering the stereotypical portrayals
of minorities in the media," says workshop leader Alex Luu. Luu is a Los Angeles-based
performance artist and filmmaker whose works have been seen and praised throughout
the United States. "These are non-professionals doing high-caliber work."
he says. The performances begin at 6 pm Wednesday, Feb. 13 in the Arena Theatre,
Villard, UO. Seating is limited and admission is free.
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Blue Days Gone
Zins, sins and grins.
By Lance
Sparks
On the way to my office, I almost danced down the hallway, dodging
patches of broken linoleum, trying not to touch the grimy walls of the old high-rise.
I had just come off a drive in the country, zipping through fields
turning electric chartreuse, alders already in first flush, spring lambs stumbling
behind their mothers, even the first golden burst of daffodils, lovely contrasts
against the snow-dusted Cascade foothills gleaming under a low-slanting sun. All
I missed was lovely Kat beside me in our old Ruby, a red '68 Rambler American convertible,
wind blowing through her glossy black hair. Eva Cassidy's cover of "Blue Skies"
kept humming through my head, tragically sweet and tender as the pale skies and scudding
white clouds. I whistled a riff, "blue days all of them gone."
My office door, the pebbled glass bearing the single word "Investigations"
in flaking black, stood open a few inches. Not a good sign. With one finger, I widened
the gap, leaned around the frame. The sight that greeted me cut short the song on
my lips.
In dark silhouette before the window stood Kat, dressed in blacks
and grays, arms crossed. At the creak of the hinge, she turned and cut those hazel
eyes at me, ominous as a winter storm. I doffed my fedora, tried on a grin, "Hey,
Babe, didn't expect ya but ya look great."
She touched her hair but didn't smile, just strode toward the laboratory,
pulled open the gray steel door. "Lance Sparks ..."-- uh-oh-- "...
look at this mess, this, this wreckage!" I peeped into the lab, catching a glimpse
of Mole, head low, scuttling toward the wine closet at warp speed. "Anthony,"
Kat hissed. Froze him solid. I heard his heels skid. He bobbed a few times, choked
out his laugh-- heunh-heunh-- muttered, "Hiya, Kat, I wuz, um, jes, er--"
"Save it," she said. Her voice went through him like
a needle through a butterfly. He was pinned. So was I. "Both of you," she
continued, "this place looks like a landfill." She raised an elegant arm
toward a clutter of bottles, beakers, boxes, open magazines, scattered scraps of
paper, assorted corks and other debris. "I'll be back in one hour. I hope to
find improvement." She spun, trailed fingers across my cheek, was out the door
before I could speak. I breathed deeply a faint whisp of Aqaba.
Mole and I cycloned into action, transforming chaos. It was gruesome
work, part excavation, part archeology. We salvaged fragments and shards and a small
number of vital wine notes and clues:
Last month, I raved about Zinfandel crimes and glories, but I missed
two Oregon GREATS. Note: I've been a Zin-fiend all my adult life (lotta years) and
the best I've ever had were from Oregon, Siskiyou Vineyard 1985 Troon Zin, which
won Diamond-Double Gold in national competition, and 1985 Hood River, a monster of
extracted fruit, alcohol, layers of spice and sandalwood. Two more have come to me
as gifts: Sineann 2000 Old Vine Zinfandel ($35), big, bold, robust but beautifully
structured and balanced fruit, spice, wood notes, alcohol, from very old vines in
the Columbia Valley; King Estate 1998 Zin ($35), grapes from venerable The
Pines vineyard in The Dalles, deep in flavors of dark fruits, rich notes of oak,
cedar, sandalwood, plenty of power but a touch of elegance-- imagine Shaq in a tux.
Here's a bottle of fab bubbles, from whodathunkit, Italy: Monte
Rossa Fanciacorta Brut ($27), shockingly good, bright apple/citrus/toast flavors,
fine bubbles, perfect balance, as good as or better than some Champagnes costing
twice as much. Sundance Wine the only place I've seen it.
Chile produces some super wines at bargain prices. Our latest find:
Santa Ema 1998 Reserve Merlot ($10) from the heart of the Maipo Valley, origin
of their best vinos. This is no flabby-fleshed Merlot; it's firm, sultry, rich in
flavors of black cherry and blueberry, smoky oak, a whiff of butterscotch, exceptional
value.
I'm not fond of big-box discounters as wine purveyors, but, credit
where it's due, Costco scores now and then and their buying muscle can't be denied.
Case in point, Castello di Gabbiano 1997 Chianti Classico ($10); 1997 was
a great year for Tuscan wines and most have long ago blown off retail shelves (but
'99s are also very good), so it's a mystery how Costco has cases of this delish Riserva.
Got a card, friend with a card? Back the Ram up to the door, load up.
Found a brown bag outside the office door and was about to call
FEMA, SWAT, Bomb Squad. Saw the note: "Eh Sleut, I taught youz might wanna be
da foist ta try da '99 Briggs. Regahds, Ron." Inside, a lovely bottle of Briggs
Hill 1999 Pinot Noir, still unreleased. Briggs '98 was (is) terrif, so we rushed
ta pop da top. Shoulda waited. Pinot is da woild's fussiest grape, on the vine but
especially newly in the bottle. Even a great one will be sulky and closed-up as an
adolescent, then after a few months suddenly emerge like Cinderella from the scullery.
Briggs '99 has all the elements-- deep fruit, toasty oak notes, good balance-- but
it's still angular and awkward. Just as well that Ron Kuhn is keeping it at home
for now. But when it's released ("someday"), don't miss it (est. $25).
Ok, dat cleared da decks-- and da shelves, tables, sinks, patches
of floor. Place gleamed, though Mole and I were sweating bullets. Heard the screaming
hinges, caught a whisper of Aqaba. Big smiles.
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Booknotes
Through Feb. 28
Memoirist Sallie Tisdale will speak on "Truth, Memory and Daring:
Is All Fair in Love and Memoir?" at 7 pm Feb. 7 at Amazon Community Center.
Free to members Mid-Valley Willamette Writers; $5 donation others. ...Ingrid Wendt
and Alice Evans, contributors to The Unsavvy Travelers: Women's Comic Tales
of Catastrophe, will read at 7 pm Feb. 8 at Mother Kali's Books. Free. ...Molly
Gloss will lead a writing workshop on Feb. 9 under the auspices of the Lane Literary
Guild. For info contact hana@mindspring.com. ...Rick Steves, author of Europe
Through the Back Door, talks about traveling in Europe at 2 pm on Feb. 10 at
the McDonald Theatre. Tickets $10. Call 686-1234. ...On Feb 11, sponsors including
the Eugene Public Library will announce events related to a communitywide reading
of Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion. Local bookstores are stocking up, the
publisher is donating at least 50 copies to the library, and the film will play at
the McDonald Theatre. Stay tuned. ...Poet Doug Spangle and writer Larry
Brooks (Darkness Bound) will speak at 7 pm on Feb. 16 at the Performing
Arts Center in Newport. (541) 574-7708...Ashland poets Jonah Bornstein and
Steve Dieffenbacher and Keiser short fiction writer Gina Ochsner will
read at 7 pm on Feb. 19 upstairs at the Eugene Public Library.
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