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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 14, 2003)
visuat ar,s BY JAMjE GORBET We have t1,e-W Raw Meat diet options to help improve your pet's health. Come by and check it out. r- Organic meals Offers care for ~ 1/2-6 year olds rning, afternoon, ,..... .,€THE-- 252West7thAve. th::~{f!!~:et "'HepJ\hY 302-1606 • 1901 Pierce Street (18th & Chambers) caring for your pet, naturally Lincoln & Charnelton M-F 10-6pm • Sat 10am -5pm • FR££ PARKING The Gift of Insight Printmaker Barry Cleavin explores vulnerability and connection. .Limited Seated Dance Hall_ with NORMA FRASER 8pm Door 9pm Shaw W hen I was growing up in Curry County, 95 percent of the area was designated wilderness area. As teen- agers in Gold Beach, my friends and I threw ourselves against the sides of the cage and railed against the injustice of being raised in a town bereft of big city attractions. After hightailing it out of Curry County the day after high school graduation, I could finally see the degradation of the landscape at large and knew that my experiences back home had been special and rare. A healthy environment affects the mental and physical health of the hwnan and animal members who live in it, and for this rea- son amol)g others, the work of New Zealand artist Barry Cleavin bears the gift_ of insight for Eugene. Barry Cleavin's prints are on display at the White Lotus Gallery through August. They are one of the no-cost activities remaining for you to do that will deliver more than the investment you make in time. Cleavin is a printmaker who uses many lay- ers; colors, and viscosities of ink, as well as pre- cise printmaking techniques, to masterfully ex- pr@Ss layers of opinion, conviction, questions, ✓ and feeling. He works in many ways and creates surfaces with great complexity and range. As a New Zealand artist, Cleavin allows us a glimpse of his perspective on his own world, as · well as -sharing invaluable perspective on our culture as an as an outsider looking in. He has participated in prestigious international invita- tional shows for the past 35 years. He is doing for us what he and others have done back home: showing that our will to connect as people through common challenges is stronger than our disparate ·communities. Cleavin shows the similarities between the impact of human immigration upon New Zealand's precious ecosystems and animal pop- ulations and the impact of bad leadership upon h~an relationships. The common ground in all relationships is the need to conduct those rela- . - ---- - - - - tionships without abusing power. Cassandra Fused, a New Zealand art critic, notices, "He is not obsessed with the dark side of our natures, but acutely alert to visual and , verbal connection and how these can comment on hwnan absurdities." Cleavin does not judge how we conduct ourselves. He shares with us our common posi- tion in the world along with humor to manage s9me of the bitter ,truths. He asks some impor- tant questions about the wisdom of war and our interactions with other iluman~ and other species. And Cleavin does this all successfully because of his technical mastery of drawing and print. One of the critics who writes regularly about this artist, T.L. Rodney Wilson, of the Auckland · Museum, comments that Barry Cleavin ad- dresses "the print as illustrator, the print in com- bination with words, prints plentiful and acces- sible, the print as agent of social commentary ~d opinion, in service of science, as descriptor, as definer .... " Cleavin creates a mood and authority on his subject through technical proficiency. He ac- complishes this by tapping into the tradition of scientific illustration in print. It is obvious that - he has an intense love and loyalty of nature. He sometimes talks about threatened or extinct species and uses anatomically correct simian and avian skeletons from musewn exhibits. He places skeletons and other images in peculiar ways. The interplay between literature and vi- sual art is also a central theme in Cleavin's · work. He uses word phrases, visual and verbal puns, palindromes, and literary references to re- inforce his visual offerings. He tries to convey something unique about our "location" in time and history. · Barry Cleavin is an artist with great insight · .onto the ~lnerability of all life. At this time in history, when resources are dwindling, we could use some this insight to inform our own choices. IIW www.eugeneweeKLv
