FRIDAYEXTRA !
The Daily Astorian
Friday, January 22, 2016
Weekend Edition
AN UNCONVENTIONAL
BOOM
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Annie Eskelin works on her paintings in her studio space at the Carruthers Building.
Astoria art scene is strong,
diversi¿ ed and thriving
By DARREN ORANGE
Special to The Daily Astorian
T
o take the pulse of the art scene in Astoria and
the Upper Left Edge, I might say — in my per-
sonal opinion and without threat in overuse of
the term ³renaissance´ — it¶s strong, diversi¿ ed and
thriving regardless of any canon imposed upon it by
aesthetic elitism and academia.
This is The Little Engine That Could, and does,
and will. Less rural and less Pearl, these are good
things. Perhaps it’s not as gritty and weighted in the
authentic poetic funk as it was 15 years ago when I
moved here. (I don’t even think it rains as much now,
either.)
Then, it was a narrative of nostalgic yesteryear
buried in waterfront ruins and a decrepitus downtown
delivered from the reach of the Columbia River by
utopian hopes of reinvestment.
Today in Astoria we see a revitalized economy
and a young entrepreneurial spirit unmoored from
fear and convention. Creatives, performers, makers,
and artists, doing what they must to survive and feed
their passion. It’s ¿ rst about that afÀ iction to ³do´
then it’s about the “how,” with the logistics following.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
See ART SCENE, Page 3C
Blaine Verley stands by one of his paintings in his water-
front studio space.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Annie Eskelin in her studio space at the Carruthers Building.