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About Oregon Coast today. (Lincoln City, OR) 2005-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 2020)
artsy Manzanita is the natural choice There’s s’mooch to see in ‘The Kiss of Life’ A multimedia art installation will be open to view at the Newport Visual Arts Center starting this Friday, March 6, combining photographic imagery by Graece Gabriel with instrumental audio by Walking Bird/Mark Beckwith. “The Kiss of Life: For the Love of Water” will have a public reception from 2 to 5 pm on Saturday March 14, with the artists talking about their work at 4:30 pm. “I’ve added a subtitle to the installation,” said Gabriel. “I think of it as peering through liquid to the soul of the natural world, one droplet at a time.” Many of the images in the 15-minute installation will be drawn from Gabriel’s collection of macro photographs capturing water in stop motion. An Oregon Coast based-photographer, Gabriel has immersed herself in nature photography since late 2013. Raised in the Pacific Northwest in a family of naturalists and artists, she translates her eye and talent for composition into opulent nature shots ranging from abstract macros, to playful crow portraits, to waves exploding against the rocks. “Fine-art photography should be psychoactive,” she said, “transporting the viewer, momentarily silencing the inner dialogue.” Gabriel’s work was recently exhibited in the 2020 Mayors’ Show at the Newport Visual Arts Center and at the Angst Gallery in Vancouver, Washington. In 2019, she received a 3rd-place award from the Columbia Council of Camera Clubs as part of the group’s monochrome invitational. Mark Beckwith, a certified music practitioner from Newport, plays and composes music for the Native American- style flute. He has recorded various albums using the moniker Walking Bird/Mark Beckwith. For the past several years, Beckwith has been playing his flutes in the homes of many hospice patients. He acts as a compassionate presence in the room, observing patients and specially tailoring his music as patients respond. “For me, playing music is a meditation,” he said. “For others, it is a calming experience. My music has been described as ‘organic,’ ‘earthy,’ ‘healing’ and ‘soulful,’ to name a few. What it boils down to is that I play what the muses of the universe dictate. Many people have purchased my music with the intent to use it in their massage boutiques or in their place of meditation.” “The Kiss of Life: For the Love of Water” will be on display through April 25 in the Media Room at the Newport Visual Arts Center, 777 NW Beach Drive, available to view noon to 4 pm Tuesday through Saturday. 14 • oregoncoastTODAY.com • facebook.com/oregoncoasttoday • March 6, 2020 The latest art show on display at Manzanita’s Hoffman Center for the Arts features paintings by Jenny Stanley and acrylic paintings and prints by Christine Harrison alongside works by ceramics artists Shane Sjogren and Leverng Thomas. “Inspired By Nature” opens this Friday, March 6, available to view from 1 to 5 pm, and will remain on display through March 29. An opening reception will be held Saturday, March 7, from 3 to 5 pm featuring light refreshments. Christine Harrison is a painter, printmaker and sculptor living and working in Tillamook. She is a founding member of Art, Accelerated, a nonprofit artist-based organization promoting the arts in Tillamook County. The group’s first successful show was held in August 2015, and the organization continues to support contemporary artists with exhibitions, performances and education programs for youth and adults. Jenny Stanley lives in the Oregon coastal town of Oceanside, where she paints in oils, watercolor, acrylic and also does encaustic work. “I feel such a connection to the land and sea in this part of the country” she said, “with its wild winter storms, spring rains and the way the clouds chase each other across the sky above the sea. The graceful waves of reeds along our waterways — I’ve tried to capture some of these images in my work.” Stanley majored in Fine Art in college and has studied throughout the United States and Europe. In addition, she is an award-winning illustrator of children’s books, currently published by Barron’s of New York. Her paintings can be found in private and corporate art collections throughout the United States and Europe. The Hoffman Center’s clay program is celebrating its 13th year at the center, growing from a handful of clay enthusiasts to a busy, full-fledged studio of creative and accomplished artists. Today, the open studio receives more than 2,000 visits a year and offers individual and group workshops as well as exhibits throughout the year. Christine Harrison Jenny Stanley For the Hoffman Gallery’s March show, North Coast artists were challenged to create clay works that were ‘Inspired by Nature.’ All works are handmade, or thrown on a wheel and sculptural, ornamental or functional in purpose. The Hoffman Center for the Arts is located at 594 Laneda Avenue, with the gallery open 1 to 5 pm Friday through Sunday. For more information, go to https:// hoffmanarts.org/hoffman-gallery.
