NEWS
POLLUTION UPDATE
BY KYLA RAMSEY
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
LEARNING NEW SKILLS
A3 High School sends two seniors to New Zone for a month-long internship
I love while also learning how to plan, has given me a lot of
insight into how established artists treat their work.”
Cunningham says the experience with the interns was eye-
opening. “They each created fabulous pieces with no guidance
from me other than basic instructions. I was available to help
but left them to come up with their own ideas and only made
suggestions as to how to use the materials.”
Ashburn and Whitworth plan to give back to the artists who
have spent their time working with them. While interning, the
two students found that exposure was a gray area for most peo-
ple, and that many artists weren’t sure how to market their art
online.
“Social media is a crucial part of making money off your
work, or receiving any recognition,” Ashworth says, “but a lot
of artists feel uncomfortable posting work online. The biggest
worry is that their artwork can be stolen.”
The two contacted Cunningham about putting together a so-
cial media workshop at the gallery to teach skills like adding
watermarks on photos, using hashtags to organize art and, most
important, by finding their preferred platform.
“I am hopeful to get a session scheduled with New Zone
artists — and anyone else who might be interested — so the
students can teach us about Instagram and other social media
ideas many of us know little or nothing about. That would be a
real contribution to the gallery,” Cunningham says.
Ashburn and Whitworth feel at home at the gallery. “New
Zone Gallery has given us the first step into diving into the Eu-
gene arts community, and I feel like I wasn’t even aware of it.
It felt so natural, and I feel so comfortable meeting new people
and working with them,” Ashburn says.
“They came to us outgoing, energetic young women, which
has made working with them very easy,” Cunningham says.
“Being an artist is simply doing art. Having the knowledge that
they can do art, in many mediums, may well help them consider
a more artistic approach to both a career and life.”
T
he New Zone Gallery in downtown Eugene is home to
a diverse community of local artists. But last month, it
was also home to two high school students learning the
ins and outs of art gallery work with the help of the arts
community.
Seniors Sara Ashburn and Satysha Whitworth are high
school interns for New Zone through the Academy of Arts and
Academics internship program. They say they hope to expand
their artistic horizons with the opportunity to work for a local
art gallery. “Both of us put down that we wanted something art
related, so we ended up grouped together,” Whitworth says.
The internship program provides high school juniors and se-
niors the opportunity to intern for local businesses around Eu-
gene and Springfield. These internships last the entire month of
January and replace classes with work experience.
At first, Ashburn and Whitworth spent their time cleaning
the gallery itself, hanging artwork, filling nail holes in the walls
from previous displays and scrubbing floors. “It was great, I felt
like Cinderella!” Ashburn jokes.
Within the first week of working there, New Zone Gallery
President Dianne Cunningham began filling the interns’ sched-
ules and arranging meetings with the artists who are part of the
New Zone Gallery community.
“The artists of New Zone have been wonderful in stepping
up to give the students their time and resources, nurturing them
in the particular medium each artist uses. Some artists have not
worked much with younger folks,” Cunningham says. “I think
perhaps the learning may have gone both ways at times.”
The students meet with artists in their homes and receive les-
sons about how to use the medium of the artist’s choice. When
asked how these experiences have benefitted them academical-
ly and artistically, Ashburn says, “working with different artists
every day helps me manage my time, since we only have a few
hours with one before we have to go meet another. Making art
within that time limit really challenges me in a fun way.”
Whitworth adds, “Artistically, I feel like I’m overly self
critical and get hung up on details, but working with artists who
just tell me to start working, just create and make something
IT’S
ABOUT
TIME
BY D AV I D WA G N E R
New Zone Gallery is hosting a one-night opening for Ashburn and Whitworth’s art
5:30 pm Friday, Feb. 2, during the February First Friday. New Zone is located at 220
W. 8th Avenue. This article was written by Eugene Weekly’s own A3 intern.
A
lthough spring does not begin officially until Equinox in March,
Eugeneans might well pronounce that spring begins on Lunar New
Year, Feb. 16, this year. It’s also the average first bloom of native
flowering plants that have flowers pollinated by insects, such as
osoberry and spring beauty.
Native filbert, having wind pollination, actually began releasing pollen last
month. Without petals or nectar, the catkins billowing billions of pollen grains
activated the season’s first attack in allergy sufferers.
The Oregon Department of Environmental
Quality (DEQ) sent a pre-enforcement notice to
San Mateo, California-based J.H. Baxter & Co.,
Jan. 18 for illegal discharges of copper and of
the wood preservative pentachlorophenol at its
Roosevelt Boulevard facility in Eugene. J.H.
Baxter’s pentachlorophenol discharges
violated its Clean Water Act permit in December
2016 and in January, February and November
of 2017, and its copper discharges violated its
Clean Water Act permit in November of 2017.
DEQ classified the violations as serious, and
noted that “[p]entachlorophenol and copper
are toxic to many organism[s].” J.H. Baxter’s
Clean Water Act permit expired at the end of
October of 2015, and requires monitoring of
pentachlorophenol and copper just once a
month.
Doug Quirke/Oregon Clean Water Action Project
LANE COUNTY AREA
SPRAY INFORMATION
• Roseburg Resources, 541-679-3311,
plans to spray clopyralid, glyphosate,
hexazinone, imazapyr, indaziflam, metsulfuron
methyl, oxyfluorfen and penoxsulam,
sulfometuron methyl, triclopyr with amine,
triclopyr with ester, Forest Crop Oil, WEB Oil,
brush and basal oil, petroleum oil, emulsifier,
Alligare 90 (non- ionic surfactant), Conquer,
Crop Oil Concentrate, Insist 90, MSO
Concentrate, Mor-Act, No Foam, R-11 on 200.9
acres east of Westfir. See ODF notification
2018-771-01639, call Tim Meehan at 541-726-
3588 with questions.
• Roseburg Resources, 541-679-3311,
plans to spray a similar list of chemicals on
253.9 acres in two areas south and west of
Veneta. See ODF notification 2018-781-01619,
call Brian Peterson at 541-935-2283 with
questions
• Weyerhaeuser Company, 541-746-2511,
plans to apply Chlorophacinone rodenticide on
347.5 acres near North Fork Smith River and
179 acres near Sweet Creek and south of
Swisshome. See ODF notifications 2018-781-
01775 and 2018-781-01780, call Quincy
Coons at 541-935-2283 with questions.
• Seneca Jones Timber, 541-689-1011,
plans to spray roadsides in Lane County with
2,4-D, triclopyr, aminopyralid and/or MSO
Concentrate. See ODF notifications 2018-781-
01542, 2018-781-01548, 2018-781-01549,
2018-781-01554, 2018-781-01598 and
2018-771-01737, call 541-935-2283 with
questions.
Compiled by Gary Hale, Forestland Dwellers: forestland-
dwellers.org.
After December’s freeze, cool winter rains presage early blooming, whether
weedy like chickweed and cardamine or ornamentals like snowdrop, anemone
and crocus. Daphne, daffodils and tulips will follow before we know it. The
appearance of perennials signals it’s time to plant frost-hardy crops like snap
peas, arugula and chard. Onion sets will be available soon.
There has been a change in the number and kinds of birds visiting our
home feeders. Many have moved away to look for nesting sites. Steller’s jays
attack suet vigorously. Huge flocks of Canada geese cackling overhead
means migrations are beginning.
Digging our fingers in garden dirt distracts us momentarily from the grim
prospects of global warming. The inability of our country’s administration to
recognize the challenge of global warming is deeply discouraging. In the
growing conflict between immediate profits and conservation, the drive to
exploit is dominating politics. Society’s connection to nature is threatened, as
the proportion of urban dwellers grows due to migration from country to city.
Developing urban nature parks is critical for sanity.
STELLER’S JAY,
CYANOCITTA STELLERI
David Wagner is a botanist who works in Eugene. He teaches moss classes, leads nature walks
and makes nature calendars. He can be contacted through his website, fernzenmosses.com.
read us
online at
eugeneweekly.com
eugeneweekly.com • February 1, 2018
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