artsy
Gallery hosts
student show
From left: Tyler Perus, Savannah Duncan and Cade Bybee
Students from the Taft High Art
program will display an exhibit of their
recent work at the Pacific Artists’ Co-op
Gallery in Lincoln City, with an opening
reception this Friday, Dec. 13.
The reception will run from 5 to 7 pm,
offering light refreshments and the chance
to chat with the young artists.
The exhibit showcases the students’
exploration of various media, resulting in
surreal collage imagery, colorful storyboards,
linoleum stamp carving, digital design
techniques and more, offering a host of new
perspectives.
The Taft High Art program consists of
one fine arts class and two digital design
classes. Students explore projects from clay
sculpture and painting to 3D printing,
digital fabrication and t-shirt screen
printing. The program is fueled by student
leadership, engagement and creativity.
The exhibit will be on display throughout
December, available to view from 10 am to
5 pm daily at 620 NE Highway 101.
In the early ‘90s Bailey took a long break
from making images to pursue a new career
and raise a family. He works at University of
Oregon as an administrator unrelated to art
or photography.
In 2009, he resumed his personal
photography with the steam plant project,
which concluded in 2015.
Bailey had just begun a project of the
Eugene Civic Stadium just weeks before
it burned to the ground. He is currently
working on a portfolio entitled “Eugene Civic
Stadium — The Last Days.”
The show will run through Monday, Jan.
6, at the Chessman Gallery, located inside
the Lincoln City Cultural Center at 540 NE
Hwy. 101.
For more information, call 541-994-9994
Full steam ahead
Chessman Gallery’s new show
is generating excitement
The raw beauty of mid-century industrial
design is the focus of a new exhibit by
photographer James Bailey, opening at
Lincoln City’s Chessman Gallery this Friday,
Dec. 13.
“EWEB Steam Plant — A Photographic
Study” by James Bailey chronicles three
decades of early industrial design at a Eugene
Water and Electric Board steam power plant
that has been preserved in a pristine state for
20 years.
Friday’s opening reception will run from
5 to 7 pm, offering the chance to view the
artwork and chat with fellow art lovers while
enjoying wine and light refreshments
The plant, located on the Eugene
Riverfront, was constructed in phases from
1930 to 1952 and designed to serve as backup
power generation for the utility’s hydroelectric
plants. It continues to be protected from
deterioration and is considered surplus
property. Some areas of the plant are intact,
but other large areas have been removed for
purposes of decontamination. The plant is
now decommissioned and listed for sale.
Bailey’s photographic work from the plant
is most closely aligned with the industrial
landscape genre of photography.
“Industrial spaces, particularly from the
early- to mid-20th Century, are created
almost entirely with function in mind,” he
said. “Form follows function and while some
consideration may be given to the aesthetics
of given machine, the work space as a whole
has, at best, random and untended aesthetics.”
“Spaces created with little or no regard
to visual aesthetics generate their own
aesthetics,” he added. “Photography can make
accidental visual aesthetics intentional ones
and present them to a viewer. Regardless of
how austere an industrial space may be, it
consists of shape, texture, light and shadow
and that is fertile ground for a visual artist.”
Bailey was born into a photographic
household. His mother operated a small
portrait and wedding studio in southern
Indiana. His interest in personal photography
developed in high school when he was
attracted to the abandoned farms in the
neighboring countryside.
He earned an MFA in photography
from Ohio University and went on to
complete a one-year residential workshop
with photographer Minor White. He was
a teaching assistant at Ansel Adams’ 1976
Yosemite workshops and taught photography
in the California Community College
System from 1975 to 1985.
oregoncoastTODAY.com • facebook.com/oregoncoasttoday • December 13, 2019 • 7