Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 2004)
Summer Glee to Thee Pretty Silver Jewelry Candles • Aromatherapy • Yoga Mats Garden Statues RUBY CHASM 152 W 5th @ Charnelton (Farmer's Union Marketplace) M-Sa 10-6 • Su 12-5 • 344-4074 TO THE EDITOR if the truth is to be allowed to live or set us free, let us heal her and save her defenders. The mas- ters of the past have set a timeless standard for art; this has been recently pointed out by her ad- vocates. Art needs to be revered as the launch- ing pad for greatness in our own time. Are there still non-artists out there who recognize real art? Art is buried, like so many layers of hard candy hiding the soft truth in the center. How long will our curiosity be piqued by layers of fake flavoring and corn syrup, before we start looking for the chewy, chocolate truth inside? Art takes work, in- sight, spirituality and more work. Let’s not look to the mislabeled to show us what we want to see; let us look to the past and to real standards to show us where we are. Want to know if someone is correctly la- beled an artist? Compare his work, drawings, notes, to a venerable hero of the past. The truth is objective, and there are methods of proving it. Eugene, be unafraid! Yes, art is here, and we can all share her truth. How many more licks is it going to take to get to the center of this Tootsie Pop? Willie Paradis Elmira ART HAPPENS ! ! " W i l l am e tt e • Eu ge n e # O R ! $% &' ( %( ) !* * ' 50 TH SEASON • EUGENE EMERALDS BASEBALL CLUB CIVIC STADIUM WHACK YAKIMA TONIGHT IS EUGENE WEEKLY NIGHT WITH THE EM’S • GAME 7:05 PM PRE-GAME ENTERTAINMENT STARTS AT 6:15 WITH SCRAMBLED APE EM’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY ADULT T-SHIRT (FIRST 700 FANS) LET’S WATCH THE EM’S WHACK YAKIMA TO GET YOUR TICKETS CALL 342-5367 OR ON-LINE AT WWW.GO-EMS.COM 6 AUGUST 12, 2004 To Annie Kayner and all who are inter- ested in the ridiculously pathetic notion that there could be an ultimate source for deter- mining who is a “real” artist, I would like to add this simple view: Art happens. It happens in every breathing, waking and sleeping moment of our lives. Perhaps it even happens in death, but I wouldn’t know for sure because I haven’t been there. Artists are people who, upon an encounter with love, horror, an- guish, joy, insanity or whatever (be it real or imaginary) experience the pull at their heart- strings so intensely that they are impelled to capture it. The obsession to capture it is so great it becomes a driving force. Anyone can engage in this. It is open to all who are open to it. Is a Crayola crayon rendering of a child’s first rainbow sighting not a work of art? What about the 50-year-old woman who obses- sively designs and sculpts the garden in her yard over and over for 20 years, always changing and evolving and passionately dis- playing exquisite beauty? Is she not an artist because she has only one garden to show? When I read “Real Artists Don’t Play Games” (6/10), I laughed so hard and thought it was a joke. I mused that surely it must be another one of those entertainingly stupid ar- ticles printed for the sole purpose of getting people like me all riled up. But I did have a great idea for your next art project: Picture a bronze casting of a larger-than-life-sized shoulder — a human shoulder about 6 feet tall. Facing it would be a life-sized man or woman with chisel and hammer in hands, working diligently to take out a big chip. I wonder what the title would be? For all of us with many years in the arts and education, I would suggest that instead of squabbling over what is or isn’t art, we should devote more energy to helping others realize their own creative potentials. Amy Gaudia Eugene NO SCARE TACTICS Mike McGlone (7/29) writes regarding Nader that “scare tactics and name calling to coax people into voting for [Kerry] is not the way to go.” I agree. I supported Nader in 2000 because I believed then, and believe now, that if what we really want is a more democratic system, then we need many par- ties, and a wide range of candidates to choose among, including genuine progressives. The problem is, how do we get from here to there? Unfortunately there is no easy way. Meanwhile, even relatively small changes in government can have significant long-term consequences, at least when it comes to such things as healthcare, the environment, pat- terns of media ownership, judicial appoint- ments, and international relations. No one should have illusions about Kerry. If elected, we cannot expect much from him unless there is also a sea change in Congress, and a groundswell of support for progressive causes. I’ll vote for Kerry not because I think that he will improve everything, but because he may improve some things. I think that that is the most that we can reasonably hope for this year. My sympathies remain with what Nader, at his best, stood for: a genuinely democratic alternative to a decayed system. But given winner-takes-all rules and what looks like a close contest, to vote for Nader this year is to vote for Bush. I don’t say that as a scare tac- tic, just as a reminder of the situation. I wish it were different. George Gessert Eugene BUSH’S MOTIVATIONS When will the national media muster the courage to expose that the emperor George W. Bush is not wearing clothes, as in the old fable. He did not want to depose Saddam Hussein because of a belief regarding the lat- ter’s developing/possessing weapons of mass destruction, nor to bring democracy and free- dom to the Iraqi people, nor to gain control of Iraq’s valuable oil production. George W.’s motive was impure, but simple: to get back at the man who attempted to kill his father George H. The president’s cronies around him, e.g. Cheney, may have wanted to mobilize the war machinery because of Iraq’s oil and the resultant increased profits for their own al- ready rich pals, but no one has given any weight whatsoever to Bush’s own personal motives for his war against Saddam Hussein. I do not fault Bush for feeling as he does about Saddam, for I, too, would want to elim- inate any person who attempted to take one of my loved one’s lives. But Bush had control of the machinery, including the bodies of our young men and women, to actually act upon his feelings. And as a consequence of his per- sonal vendetta, hundreds of our youth, our country’s future, have lost their lives, thou- sands more have been physically, mentally, and/or emotionally wounded, and a region of our world is now in total chaos. The bottom line is that WMD’s and ad- vancement of democracy were mere cover stories to clothe Bush’s personal, revengeful agenda against Saddam, to hoodwink the U.S. Congress and American people to go along with it, to even support it. Are the na- tional media pundits afraid to admit that they, as well as we, were duped? Michael D. Linick Eugene
