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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 27, 2012)
VIS U AL ART S BY ALE X NOT MAN ‘OLD TRIPPERS’ BY CAROL MARINE says of he and his wife and fellow co-founder, Carol Marine. He looks at the fire as part blessing. He had been a woodworker in Eugene in the ’90s and had always wanted to return. It was around that time that Marine was ready to shutter Daily Paintworks. At that stage, the site was an invitation-only collective, like similar sites, and thus only 50 painters were selling their work. It wasn’t sustainable. “I was ready to completely give up on Daily Paintworks,” Marine says. “There was a point where we realized that what buyers wanted was different from what artists wanted. Artists wanted to be part of this exclusive club. Buyers wanted to go to a place where they had a lot of selection.” Carol Marine suggested turning the collective into a business by opening up membership and charging artists $12.95 a month to host their work. Soon membership ballooned from 50 to more 900 artists, and the site’s unique visitors per day grew from 200 to 10,000. Marine says that this business model works in the favor of buyers and artists. Compared to brick-and-mortar galleries that charge 50 percent commission and feature the “top, thinnest slice of talented artists,” and eBay, which charges 9 percent commission, Daily Paintworks charges 3 percent. In a town where artists can’t find enough buyers, the Marines may be on to something. “Eugene has a lot of artists but there’s nobody to buy the work,” says Sabrina Ridge, a local artist and owner of Poppy & Moe (a screenprint T-shirt company). “If you want to make money as an artist in Eugene, you have to get your art out of Eugene.” Carol Marine paints five to seven paintings a week and sells them across the globe for $150 to $250 each on DailyPaintworks.com. Local painter and member Sarah Sedwick (see Cezanne’s Greetings, Nov. 15) also uses the site to sell her work. But it’s not just the international reach and open membership, Marine says, that has made the site a success. “We put a lot of effort in attending to our members and our buyers,” he says of the family-run business. “We want to be beloved.” ■ A GALLERY IN THE CLOUDS Eugene-based online gallery brings buyers and artists together T here is a gallery in Eugene with more than 66,000 paintings from over 900 artists. That’s twice as many artworks than are currently on display in the Louvre Museum. You’re not going to fi nd Daily Paintworks on any art walk, however, be- cause it’s in the cloud; it’s online. “The internet is transforming art — the art industry — just the way it has with music and publishing,” David Marine, co-founder of Daily Paintworks, says. Daily Paintworks comes from an idea credited to artist For more information, visit dailypaintworks.com BY ANNA G RACE IMAGE COURTESY OF CLIFF COLES/EUGENE OPERA THEATER Duane Kaiser: If a fine arts painter wants to make a living, the painter should complete at least one small painting a day, post it online and try to sell it at an affordable price (around $100) via sites like eBay. Daily Paintworks multiplied this idea, ushering in artists and buyers from around the world, from Eugene to India. The online gallery, as a result, has been a success, but it wasn’t always so. The Marines relocated to Eugene a year ago after a devastating fire in Central Texas swallowed their home. “We didn’t lose anybody, but we lost everything,” Marine FOR THIS PIRATE, IT’S PERSONAL Mark Beudert directs Eugene Opera production of Pirates of Penzance T he year is 1980. Columbia University student Mark Beudert stood at the edge of the stage, coming in on the right note along with the rest of the chorus, as Kevin Klein and Linda Ronstadt rocked the house in a wildly successful Broad- way production of Pirates of Penzance. Fast-forward 32 years and leap across the nation, Beudert is back at it again. This time he fills the director’s chair, but still utilizing the lessons he learned as a sophomore to inform a new production of the Gilbert and Sullivan classic. 28 December 27, 2012 • eugeneweekly.com First and foremost among those lessons is a clear disinclination for gimmicks. This production is in “full faith with the original text,” Beudert notes. Harkening back to that long ago Broadway production, Beudert says, “What impressed me about Kevin Kline (and others) were that they were serious, intelligent, intense artists who were respectful of the original material.” Describing Kline’s performance, he noted, “If you can trust the material, all you have to do is be good.” So don’t expect this production to go digging in the gutter (or trolling the internet) for pop references to keep you entertained. “I keep telling my chorus,” Beudert says, “if you don’t do it in real life, don’t do it on stage.” Of course, I say to Beudert, these are theater people, so heaven knows what they do in real life. No comment. Producing a light, clever Gilbert and Sullivan piece is like a field day for opera people, for whom an ordinary day’s work might include long-winded death scenes and the most tragic love stories. “We’re enjoying ourselves more than is probably legal,” Beudert admits. For those unfamiliar with the plot, it is a wonderfully goofy love story between a pirate and the daughter of a “modern major general,” with more outrageous plot twists than a choose-you-own-adventure story. I asked how similar this production would be to his original experience with the work, and Beudert says, “Very reminiscent … It is a particular pleasure to be revisiting it.” Beudert’s day job is running the opera program at the University of Notre Dame, yet he spends as much time with the Eugene Opera as he can. His enthusiasm for Eugene Opera bubbles forth as we speak, “Eugene has always been known for snagging really good artists, really young.” While, he says, “all the singers are excellent,” Beudert seems particularly excited about “our Pirate King (Mark Walters), a well-known, up-and-coming American baritone specializing in the great Verdi roles.” He is also thrilled to be working with Angela Theis and Joshua Dennis, “our Mabel and Frederic, two young singers on the cusp of great careers.” When I ask what he hopes to leave audiences with after the production, it is clear that he wants us to take away the same gift this production has given him: “Joy.” ■ Pirates of Penzance runs 7:30 pm Friday, Dec. 28, and Monday, Dec. 31, and 2:30 pm, Dec. 30, at the Hult Center; $20-$84.
