Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (April 3, 2015)
April 3, 2015 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 3A Local artist donates talent to food pantry Mural symbolizes collective spirit, mission of organization Art Walk comes to Gearhart An art exhibit entitled “Spring Fling!” will be featured at Trail’s End Art Center during the First Saturdy Art Walk April 4 in Gearhart. The Trail’s End artists mount a new exhibition of paintings, drawings and photographs in April, with all things spring. A public reception is planned from 2 to 4 p.m. Trail’s End, 656 A St., is an artists cooperative offering art opportunities to the community through workshops, painting groups, classes for kids and adults and monthly exhibits of their original art. Trail’s End also fea- tures a small gift shop where prints, photos and greeting cards featuring member artists’ work are available. The gallery’s website is www.trailsend- art.org. By Katherine Lacaze Seaside Signal SUBMITTED BY BILL LUTZ Renowned local artist Bill Lutz painted a mural of a fruit tree in the entryway of the South County Community Food Bank. ously jotted down in his note- book. As he’s working, he’ll develop that thought or allow it to work its way forward. “The original idea blos- soms into something more complex,” he said. He tries to keep his paint- ings in the present tense, be- cause as soon as an experi- ence has passed there exists the potential to remember or analyze it incorrectly or with the wrong perspective. “I’m not trying to create OLIH,¶PWU\LQJWR¿QGPHDQ- ing as it happens to me,” said Lutz. That philosophy is evi- dent in his life. Because of this sense of adventure and courage to live on the edge, Lutz has traveled often and lived in multiple states as new goals presented them- selves to him. He has supported himself through freelance sign work, but he keeps his art separate and not the means to his and his family’s livelihoods. He prefers to donate his talent and produce his work for public consumption. “I tried to keep money out of it for philosophical rea- sons,” he said. “Money creates its own motives, and I wanted QRLQÀXHQFHRQP\SDLQWLQJ´ Lutz believes contempo- UDU\ VRFLHW\ LV ¿[DWHG SUL- marily on the acquisition of wealth, while being shackled to the idea that people’s worth is determined by material possessions. In a system of unfettered capitalism, he said, things only are valuable when they are dead, which has led to disregard for the environment and the human spirit. See Pantry, Page 10A DEL’S O.K. YOUR #1 SOURCE FOR TIRES • CUSTOM WHEELS • • AUTOMOTIVE SERVICES • Hours: Mon-Fri 8-6 Sat- 8-4 GRAND 503-325-2861 For emergencies 503-325-0233 35359 Business Hwy 101 (miles crossing) Astoria, OR OP E NI NG A P R IL 3 R D T O A P R IL 10 T H , 2015 Jo in us fo r this w eek lo ng celebra tio n! O w ners T ra cy a nd M a rgot N ye invite you to com e ta ste th eir d eliciou s, fresh G ela to a nd Sorb etto O ver 40 Fla vors M a d e Fresh D a iry Free/Vega n O p tions • P a nini • S p ecia lty C offee A s pa rt of the gra nd opening c elebra tion they w ill dona te 10% of the w eek’s proc eeds to F ood 4 K ids S ea s ide. S a tu rda y, A pril 11th a t N oon is their offic ia l R ibbon C u tting hos ted by the S ea s ide C ha m ber A m ba s s a dors . S how you r s u pport a nd join u s to help the kids a nd enjoy s om e G ela to! 8 N . Co l umb i a i n Sea si d e • O P E N D AIL Y B etw een Th e C ra bby O ys ter a n d N orm a ’s Sea food & Stea k SUBMITTED PHOTO “Skunk Cabbage,” a colored pencil drawing by Judi Marsh Garrity, will be displayed at Trail’s End Gallery in Gearhart. PUBLISHER Steve Forrester INTERIM EDITOR Dave Fisher REPORTER Katherine Lacaze ADVERTISING MANAGER Betty Smith PRODUCTION MANAGER John D. Bruijn CIRCULATION MANAGER Samantha McLaren SYSTEMS MANAGER Carl Earl CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Claire Lovell John Rahl Darren Gooch Esther Moberg ADVERTISING SALES Laura Kaim Wendy Richardson Seaside Signal The Seaside Signal is published every other week by EO Media Group, 1555 N. Roosevelt, Seaside Oregon 97138. 503-738- 5561. www.seasidesignal. com Letter policy The Seaside Signal welcomes letters to the editor. The deadline is noon Monday prior to publication. Letters must be 400 words or less and must be signed by the author and include a phone number Ior veri¿cation. :e also request that submissions be limited to one letter per month. Send to 1555 N. Roosevelt Drive, Seaside, OR 97138, drop them off at 1555 N. Roosevelt Drive or fax to 503-738-9285. Or email nmccarthy@ seasidesignal.com SUBSCRIPTIONS Annually: $39.00 in county • $55.00 in and out of county • e-Edition: only $30.00 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Seaside Signal, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103. Postage Paid at Seaside, OR 97138 and at additional mailing of¿ces. &opyright 2015 © by the Seaside Signal. No portion of this newspaper may be re- produced without written permission. All rights reserved. 7 FAMOUS FOOTWEAR 7 GNC 7 KITCHEN COLLECTION 7 L’EGGS HANES BALI PLAYTEX EXPRESS 7 NIKE 7 SEASIDE FACTORY OUTLET CENTER 7 BOOK WAREHOUSE 7 BRUCE’S CANDY KITCHEN 7 CARTER’S T CLAIRE’S 7 DAISY MAY’S SANDWICH SHOP 7 DRESS BARN 7 EDDIE BAUER 7 LQYLQFLEOHDQG¿JKWLQJDJDLQVW them only will harm the in- dividual. To truly overcome their demons, people instead must learn to accept them. Lutz related the series to one of his own “beasts,” which is a hereditary degen- erative eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa that start- ed at age 47 and has slowly impaired his vision. Instead of being consumed with a de- VLUHWRUHJDLQVLJKWRU¿JKWWKH disease, Lutz reconciled him- self to his condition and re- emerged slightly altered but with a new perspective and more established priorities. “The myth states that you do have to accommodate your beasts, your demons. They’re not going away,” he said. “Ni- etzsche said it, Jesus Christ said it, Somerset Maugham said it and James the brother of Jesus said it. Sometimes in or- der to overcome your demons you have to embrace them. So it’s not something I invented, but I happened to tap into it.” With only 15 percent of his eyesight remaining, Lutz KDV GHYHORSHG D VSHFL¿F technique to continue paint- ing large works. He draws a smaller representation and then an assistant will create a graph for the image on its ¿QDO GHVWLQDWLRQ VXFK DV WKH wall in the food pantry. From there, Lutz can focus on one small section of the painting at a time. As he’s painting, he said, he often will take pho- tos of the work in progress or view it in a mirror. The strat- egy allows him to see the full work, although scaled down, and focus on a point. When it comes to subject matter, Lutz usually starts with a thought he has previ- £Ó/Ê6°ÊEÊ79°Ê£ä£ÊUÊ--]Ê",ÊUÊxäΰǣǰ£ÈäÎ --"1//-° " 7RS%UDQGV )DFWRU\'LUHFW3ULFHV )UHH&RXSRQ%RRNDW :LQH%HHU+DXVRURQOLQH 4UPSFTt6144IJQQJOH$FOUFSt#FBVUZ4BMPOt&BUFSJFT #SVDFT$BOEZ,JUDIFOt(JGUTGPSUIF,JUDIFOt4IPFTt#PPLT.VTJD $BTVBM4QPSUT6QTDBMF'BTIJPOt#PVODF)PVTFGPSUIF,JET 8JOF5BTUJOH#BS#FFSPO5BQ'JOF8JOFT#FFST WINTER HOURS (JANUARY-MARCH): SUNDAY-THURSDAY 10-6, FRIDAY-SATURDAY 10-8 7 TOKYO TERIYAKI 7 TOYS”R”US 7 TREE OF LIFE CHRISTIAN OUTLET 7 VAN HEUSEN ZUMIEZ 7 7 OSH KOSH B’GOSH 7 PENDLETON 7 PERFECT LOOK 7 RACK ROOM SHOES 7 RUE21 7 SEASIDE SHIPPING CENTER 7THE WINE AND BEER HAUS 7 Local painter Billy Lutz approaches each work as a storybook. From a single starting thought or concept, his piec- es move through multiple layers of context to narrate a nuanced story to be read by the viewer. Born in Michigan in 1951, /XW]GLGKLV¿UVWRLOSDLQWLQJ when he was 14. Over the years, his work became fo- cused on what lies beneath the surface and themes, such as the environment and mate- rialism, spiritual realities ver- sus religious dogma, collec- tivism versus individualism and other dualities and para- doxes. His style is narrative painting that represents his complex philosophies. “Painting seems to be the way I pursue my thinking,” he said. One of Lutz’s latest works adorns the entryway of the recently completed South County Community Food Bank on North Roosevelt Drive. Absorbing an area on the wall several feet tall and wide, the acrylic painting depicts a fruit tree laden with apples and bright leaves and bearing a thick trunk leading down to deep roots. Mary Blake, a member of the food bank’s board, said the organization wanted an image of a tree because it’s “symbolic of the cycle of life” and the pantry’s mission. “Food reaches everybody — so the tree really was for that,” she said. To further reinforce the concept of natural harmony through connective move- ment, Lutz embellished the tree with his signature force rings, or geometric arcs sug- gestive of “all that exists that is unseen.” Lutz earned an associate of arts degree from North- western Michigan College in 1972, but while college helped him loosen up and ex- periment with art, life experi- ences mostly have motivated the philosophical concepts embedded in his work. From an early age, Lutz ZDVDZDUHWKHZRUOGLV¿OOHG with deep mysteries of which he was a part. He traverses these mysteries through his art. Lutz believes the concepts and ideas he encounters through his artwork are not unique but rather universal truths. In his pieces, Lutz often will make religious parables and ancient mythologies rele- vant to the modern world. For instance, in his series “The Beast,” Lutz follows the clas- sical myth of the hero who ¿JKWV WKH EHDVW RQO\ WR EH consumed or defeated by it. While humans are natural- O\ LQFOLQHG WR ¿JKW WUDXPDWLF H[SHULHQFHV RU DIÀLFWLRQV Lutz said, those “beasts” are