STEVE LOPEZ’S PORTRAIT OF BIG PAPA
ARTSHOUND
Hot damn, Eugene! Prepare your peepers for
overstimulation by all the art (both dead and alive)
happening this week, beginning with the Mayor’s
Art Show opening reception 5:30 pm Friday, Aug.
14, at the Hult Center’s Jacobs Gallery. While this
annual juried show tends to lean heavy on artists
of the safe, expected and over-50 variety (i.e.
expect pastel landscapes and Ansel
Adams wannabes), it’s worth going down
to ferret out the innovators and old
masters — look for works from Lynda
Lanker and Rogene Manas, to name a
few.
Next up on the calendar is ESAP, or Eugene
Springfield Art Project’s second annual
Art & ChalkFest featuring both
professional and amateur artists alike
scraping their knees on the pavement as
they create temporary 6-by-6-foot chalk
masterpieces like Brent Burkett’s 2014
Impressionistic recreation of Vermeer’s
“Girl with a Pearl Earring.” Artists will work
on the street from 10 am to 3 pm Saturday,
Aug. 15, at the corner of 5th and A Street in
downtown Springfield. A group of plein air artists
will join the chalk contest, and they’ll compete from
10 am to 2 pm; both contests will be capped by an
awards ceremony at 4:30 pm. For more info, find
the Eugene Springfield Art Project Facebook page.
We still hear the community musing over the fun of
making large-scale original prints with a monolithic
18
A ugust 13, 2015 • eugeneweekly.com
Sniffing out what you shouldn’t miss
in the arts this week
steamroller for 2014’s Print!Eugene. The popular
event, hosted by Watershed Arts and this year
joined by the Oregon Supported Living Program
(OSLP), is back for a second go-around, providing
an opportunity for the public to create “great big
art” 11 am to 5 pm Sunday, Aug. 16, at The Gallery
at the Watershed parking lot, 321 Mill Street; free.
EW is sad to see it go. How can we save the
galleries, Eugene?
The following weekend, Aug. 21-23, artists take to
the outdoors again for the 3rd annual Plein Air
Paint Out competition. Participating artists must
paint in Lane County, beginning at 6 am Saturday,
Aug. 22, and submit artwork by 4 pm for
judging. See the fruits of their labor, hung
and framed, 5:30 to 8:30 pm in the Hult’s
BRENT BURKETT AT THE
2014 CHALKFEST IN
Studiocade. Selected works will be on view
SPRINGFIELD
in the Hult lobby through Sept. 2.
The event is family-friendly and there will be
refreshments, artist demos and a sculpture
garden to stroll through. While you’re there, check
out the gallery’s swan song exhibit, The Last
Picture Show: Exceptional Contemporary Prints by
5 NW Women, which runs through Aug. 29. The
Gallery at the Watershed has been an advocate
and propeller of the arts and arts education, and
In other arts news, Los Angeles-based art-
ist Steven Lopez recently returned to
Eugene to paint a portrait of the late Big
Papa, aka Ted Lee, of Papa’s Soul Food
Kitchen and BBQ for the Whiteaker restau-
rant. Deb Lee, Papa’s widow, commissioned
the portrait. “That was heartwarming to
work on a portrait of Big Papa,” says Lopez,
who lived in Eugene until 2003 and remem-
bers hanging out with Papa and discussing
art and music. “On my artistic side, I only
paint the female figure. He’s the first [male
portrait].” Lopez says the 4-by-5-foot portrait will
hang in the restaurant’s new patio section as soon
as it’s weatherized, likely next week. Lopez has
recently completed other murals in Eugene, such as
the Technicolor feathered elephant mural on the
exterior wall of High Priestess Piercing and Tattoo
(210 W. 6th Ave). He will return next month to com-
plete other local art commissions.