‘Anything Goes’ at new Fairweather art exhibition
in studio ¿ne art from New York
University and is currently the
acting president of nonpro¿t As-
toria Visual Arts and the visual
arts curator at KALA. Her work
has been included in many juried
exhibits and residencies.
A graduate of Shanghai Nor-
mal University and with a Master
of Fine Arts from Portland State
University, Zifen Qian paints mod-
ern romanticism that combines
Eastern and Western culture.
“Painting is a visible art form,
which should be understandable
by persons other than the artist,”
he says. “Creating a painting
is not the same as addressing
scienti¿c abstract inference on
a report. Artistic addressing of
social, psychological and cultur-
al issues is based on the artist’s
personal judgment from life and
always combines his or her cog-
nition of perceptual and rational
knowledge with techniques of
image making.”
The internationally ac-
claimed artist has been included
in many national and internation-
al exhibits and collections.
Kristin Qian, the youngest
scholarship member of the Princ-
eton University Orchestra (class of
2018) is praised as an “omnibus”
prodigy for her multiple talents
across a wide spectrum of areas,
including music, science, languag-
es and painting. She will perform
music during the reception.
After a 30-year career as an
award-winning biology teacher at
Seaside High School, Neal Maine
became the ¿rst executive direc-
tor of the North Coast Land Con-
servancy, which he co-founded in
1986. Since his retirement from
the land trust in 2010, he has pur-
sued his passion for nature pho-
tography through Paci¿cLight
Images, a partnership with Mi-
chael Wing, dedicated to raising
awareness of coastal ecology and
the wildlife with whom we share
the region’s estuaries, freshwater
wetlands and forests.
Their photography centers
around coastal and Columbia
River landscapes, ecology and
the rich estuary habitat with the
surrounding wetlands and forest
systems. Proceeds from photog-
raphy sales will bene¿t the North
Coast Land Conservancy.
The Lowest Pair bring Americana to the Fort
house shows, backyards and street
corners, the duo found their way
back up to Minnesota, this time
to Duluth, where they sat down
to record the follow-up to “36¢.”
Linking up with Tom Fabjance at
an old church (the same one Low
recorded “C’Mon” in) seemed like
the perfect way to expand on their
sound without diluting their origi-
nal magical formula.
Their new album, “The Sacred
Heart Sessions,” is a collection
that allows the listener to enter the
space that surrounds its creation.
One can virtually feel the walls and
vaulted ceiling of the old wooden
church rising up, creating a natural
reverb and warming the air.
Be it Winter’s punk roots, her
admiration for the traditional Amer-
ican songbook or the gravitational
pull she sensed drawing her to
Olympia, it’s her combining these
talents and creative impulses with
Lee’s Midwestern charm, the long
winters spent listening to a steady
diet of Townes Van Zandt and John
Hartford and the strange moment of
fate that left him with two inherited
banjos as a young man; this com-
bination has resulted in a original
sound that is The Lowest Pair.
Show features Patricia Clark-Finley, Agnes Field, Zifen and Kristin Qian, Neal Maine
SEASIDE — Fairweather House
and Gallery will open a new art
exhibit, “Anything Goes,” with
a reception from 5 to 7 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 1. The art show
and reception will feature work
by Patricia Clark-Finley, Agnes
Field and Zifen Qian with music
by Kristin Qian and a lecture by
Neal Maine. Fairweather is lo-
cated at 612 Boradway. The ex-
hibition will run to Aug. 31.
“Anything Goes” refers the
use of materials and methods
used to make art — anything
to stretch the boundaries of un-
derstanding and meaning of the
work.
Clark-Finley works from her
studio in Ocean Park, Washing-
ton, and holds a Bachelor of Fine
Arts from the San Francisco Art
Institute. She also has spent time
at the San Francisco Center for
the Book, Carl Jung Institute,
and Crown Point Press and has
been included in many juried re-
gional and national exhibitions.
“The push and pull between
abandon and control informs
my abstraction,” she says of her
work. “The medium and techni-
cal stuff requires control. But the
element of chance is the same
to me as abandon. If you allow
chance, which is the great ‘aha’
moment in art, you have to aban-
don control. That is because the
ego is the controller, but is blind.
To introduce chance, to soften
the boundaries between reality
and imagination, the ego has to
step back.”
Astoria artist Agnes Field
uses a matter-of-fact approach to
painting and making objects by
improvising and reusing found
materials along with the paint to
amplify the intended meaning.
“Painting is a dark romance for
me — a sensuous love of paint
and materials, but also the ex-
pression of unknown meaning
that always ¿nds its way to the
PENINSULA SADDLE CLUB &
BRIM’S FARM & GARDEN PRESENTS
A painting by Zifen Qian.
Submitted photos
Works by Astoria artist Agnes Field will be
on display at the exhibit.
surface,” Field says. “It is often
on the edge between making
and destroying. You can look
at an object for a long time, un-
til it is so familiar, and then one
day its entire meaning changes
— which changes the object in
turn.”
“Painting is one way of look-
Kristin Qian,the youngest member of the
Princeton University Orchestra, will per-
form music during the reception.
ing for the mystery that is always
there hiding in plain sight, and is
the price of one’s time for under-
standing,” she says.
Field has a master’s degree
70 th
July 25 & 26, 2015
1:00 p.m.
Family night starts Saturday after Rodeo
“Featuring free fun events for kids up to 12 years”
Friday, July 24th 6:30 pm • Rodeo Parade Downtown Long Beach
Drill Team • Beer Garden • Vendors • Concessions
Admission: PRES ALE Adults $9.50 Seniors $8.50 Children (6-12 yrs.) $4.50 * Peninsula Pharmacy
Adults $10.00 Seniors $9.00 Children (6-12yrs.) $5.00 Children 5 & under FREE
COWBOY BREAKFAST
Sat. & Sun. 7a.m. til 11 a.m .
6407 Sandridge Road • Info 1-800-451-2542
LONG BEACH, WASHINGTON
Submitted photo
The Lowest Pair will perform at the Fort George Brewery at 8 p.m. Sunday, July 26.
22 | July 23, 2015 | coastweekend.com
ASTORIA — Fort George Brew-
ery welcomes The Lowest Pair to
perform Americana and bluegrass
at 8 p.m. Sunday, July 26. All ages
are welcome, and there is no cover
charge.
Born in Arkansas and now
homesteading in Olympia, Wash-
ington, Kendl Winter sprouts alfal-
fa beans in mason jars in the back
of the tour van and spreads her
songs across the country, Johnny
Appleseed-style. Winter brings
to The Lowest Pair her weaving
poetry of song, old and new, and a
voice somewhere between Gillian
Welch and Iris DeMent with a little
Olympia twist.
Palmer T. Lee, who hails from
Minneapolis, was 19 when he in-
herited a couple of banjos and dis-
covered he could reassemble them
into his dream instrument. Lee’s
songs are distilled into the warm
sweet sounds of his percussive
wordplay and the melodic inter-
ludes of his own style played on a
pieced-together banjo.
After a year of traveling the
country playing clubs, hotels,