Wednesday, January 17, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 9
Zinke to reconsider Oregon drilling?
By Andrew Selsky
Associated Press
PHOTO PROVIDED
Panel three depicts the ascendancy of the Spanish in colonial Mexico.
“He had the benefit of
mythology working for him,”
Armstrong mused.
The mythic stature of
the new arrivals gave them
a foothold in Mexico, and
when the conquest turned
militant, their technology
— especially armor and the
horse — gave them a mili-
tary edge. The Spaniards also
formed alliances with native
peoples eager to throw off
Aztec rule.
The action and violence of
the conquest roars across the
panels in a diagonal line, with
mounted conquistadors fairly
bursting out of the wood.
“This is the story of cul-
ture clashing with culture,”
Armstrong said. “It’s a big,
epic story. The horse and the
rider became the dominant
battle differentiation between
the two cultures… The diago-
nal is the action line.”
Bringing the clash to an
individual level allows the
valor of individuals of both
cultures to shine through.
“I couldn’t depict it any
other way than just chaos,”
Armstrong said. “The battles
are not equal, because tech-
nology is on the side of the
Spanish.”
The second panel depicts
the Aztec world, with the top
of the panel dominated by
the great city of Tenochtitlan,
the Aztec capital that would
become Mexico City. Across
the bottom of the triptych
runs the Mayan underworld,
which becomes smaller and
more compressed as the
might of the Spanish state
and especially of the Church
is brought to bear.
Through the depiction of
such deep cultural elements,
the story becomes more
than a historical tale and
delves into the realms of the
spiritual.
“It’s an imaginative, cre-
ative work, and it requires
a creative mind to read it,”
Armstrong said.
The third panel repre-
sents the ascendancy of the
Spanish aristocracy in colo-
nial Mexico, with the danc-
ing figures in the center rep-
resenting the client and his
wife in a Mexican hacienda.
Not only does the carving
tell an epic tale — the work
itself is epic in scope. The
three panels are made of alder
wood from Mill City, Oregon
— beams that are glued and
clamped together to make up
the panels.
Alder is a “soft hard-
wood,” very stable and per-
fect for carving. The panels
will have to be crated up,
then trucked to a port and put
on a ship for Belize — no
small undertaking in and of
itself.
“It’s epic all around,”
Armstrong acknowledged.
Before the work departs
for its ancestral home at the
end of the month, Armstrong
plans to host an open house
and unveiling at his studio, so
that the public can see the art
in person and hear the story
behind it.
The open house is set for 2
p.m. on Sunday, January 21,
at 68105 Peterson Burn Rd.,
2.5 miles up Edginton Road
southwest of town.
SALEM (AP) — Interior
Secretary Ryan Zinke agreed
to consider exempting Ore-
gon from the Trump admin-
istration’s offshore drilling
plan after speaking with Ore-
gon Gov. Kate Brown, her
office said Friday.
Brown previously criti-
cized Zinke for the plan
to resume drilling for oil
and gas off the shores of
the United States, saying it
would endanger Oregon’s
coast.
Several other states have
objected, but so far Florida
has been the only one to
receive an exemption.
Zinke spokeswoman
Heather Swift said Friday
his office would provide no
further information about the
conversation with Brown.
The Interior Department
said earlier in the day that
Zinke had set up calls with
the governors of Rhode
Island, Oregon, California,
Washington, Delaware and
North Carolina to get their
input.
Zinke and Brown, a Dem-
ocrat, spoke for 28 minutes,
said her spokesman, Bryan
Hockaday.
“Regarding the offshore
drilling ban, Gov. Brown
asked for the same consider-
ation for Oregon’s ‘people’s
coast’ as was given Florida,”
Hockaday said. “Secretary
Zinke agreed with concerns
about the economic risks that
offshore drilling could bring
HEAVY
EQUIPMENT
REPAIR
and
t
n
i
a
M
e
c
n
ena
to Oregon and committed to
work with the governor.”
Brown, in an interview
with CNN earlier this week,
noted that Oregon’s 362-
miles (583-kilometers) of
coastline have been publicly
accessible for over 100 years
and are important to the
state’s economy, with 22,000
jobs on the coast.
“We are outraged; this is
absolutely unacceptable,”
she said of the drilling plan.
“There has been no drilling
off the Pacific Coast for three
decades.”
The governors of Califor-
nia and Washington have also
told Interior they strongly
oppose any new leasing off
their coasts and asked to be
removed from the plan.
Washington state Gov. Jay
Inslee said he spoke Friday
with Zinke and reiterated his
opposition to the offshore oil
drilling proposal.
“I told him the concerns
of Washingtonians and West
Coast residents deserve (to)
be treated with the same
consideration and delib-
eration as those in Florida,”
Inslee said in a statement.
“Secretary Zinke did not
provide that commitment,
unfortunately.”
In California, Gov. Jerry
Brown’s office would not
say what Zinke told Brown
about offshore drilling during
their 20-minute phone call on
Friday.
White House press sec-
retary Sarah Sanders denied
the administration gave spe-
cial treatment to Florida Gov.
Rick Scott, an ally of Presi-
dent Donald Trump who is
considered a likely Senate
candidate later this year.
Industry groups praised
the announcement to drill
offshore, while environmen-
tal groups denounced the
plan, saying it would harm
America’s oceans, coastal
economies, public health and
marine life.
The Trump administra-
tion’s plan would open 90
percent of the nation’s off-
shore reserves to develop-
ment by private companies.
Most Democrats oppose
the plan. South Carolina
Gov. Henry McMaster has
also requested that his state
be withdrawn from the
plan.
M c M a s t e r, o n e o f
Trump’s earliest supporters,
told reporters that risks asso-
ciated with drilling pose a
serious threat to South Caro-
lina’s lush coastline and $20
billion tourism industry.
Frontiers In Science
MONTHLY SYMPOSIUM IN SISTERS
The New Genetics:
cs:
Promises and Pitfalls
tfalls
Barbara Pettersen, MS,
S, CGC
Genetic tests: What can they tell
ell you?
hich are
What do they NOT tell you? Which
pe?
legit and which are mostly hype?
Barbara Pettersen, MS, CGC, is a
certifi ed Genetic Counselor in
Bend. She is an expert on the
benefi ts and risks of genetic
testing for inherited medical
conditions, and her talk will
address the pros and cons
of available direct-to-consumer genetic tests, including
those for ancestry, health-related risks, diet and exercise,
matchmaking, and others – separating those based on le-
gitimate science and those that are mostly hype
and marketing. She’ll also explain the very
new genetic tools such as CRISPR that can
actually edit human genes. Please join us for
this fascinating discussion on the frontiers of
genetic science and the ethical issues raised
by powerful new technology.
Tuesday, January 30
At The Belfry, 302 E. Main Ave., Sisters
One-hour lecture begins at 7 p.m.
Doors open at 6 p.m. for community hour!
506 N. Pine St.
541-549-9631
Sales • Service
Rentals • Accessories
www.sistersrental.com
Admission: $5;
Science Club Donors,
Teachers and Students - FREE
Save the Date: Tues., Feb. 27
Dr. Jerry Freilich,
aquatic biologist
Bring your curiosity and an appetite for food, drink & knowledge!
