John Spragens - "JAM: Jazz in Motion". Spragens has been photographing musicians during their performances for more than five years. The "Jazz in Motion" series is an offshoot of this theme, taking the experiment to more abstract dimensions. Spragens leaves the shutter open for long exposures as the musicians move with the music, stage lights glinting off their instruments. These large photographs highlight the energy that musicians bring to their performances. Spragens began serious photography at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and has documented life from Texas wheat fields to Southeast Asian rice paddies, from the crowded streets of Tokyo to the throngs gathered for bike week in Daytona Beach. "Jazz in Motion" celebrates the performers who bring us this inventive music.
Ann Dingledy - "One Printmaker—Textures". Dingledy first studied printmaking at Fredonia State University and later earned her MFA inprintmaking at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y. "I fell in love withfirst dry point, then etching, with acids running them off on wet ragpaper on the big black press under thick white felt print blankets,"she recalls. This series of intaglio prints explores texture as a distinctive complex underlying pattern or structure. Works such as "How to Shake and Bake a Duck the American Way" and "The Intellectual Rat Revolution" recall her thesis work in intaglio caricatures. Complementing the intaglio work are a miniature silkscreen/collages as well as samples of how the artist has extended her printmaking style into ceramic panels. Dingledy's work, primarily black and white, is stylistically influenced of by the drawings of Aubrey Beardsley but arrives at an expression that is uniquely her own.
Mike E. Walsh—"The Declaration of Innocence Before the Tribunal." This exhibit is part of Walsh's "Waiting for the World to Change" series. Inspired by his travels through the Middle East and Egypt in 2004, the installation draws on Egyptian mythology and Percy Shelly's poem "Ozymandius" to allude to the fallen kingdom of Ramses II. Maps, toy soldiers, and ammunition boxes reframe the ancient imagery in the context of modern conflicts in the Middle East. Walsh's site-specific installations have been shown at many museums and galleries in Oregon, and have also been displayed in California, New York, Australia, and China. His work has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Creative Time Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation, and the Art Matters Foundation. Walsh's work "explores the gap between art and life with objects and language."
Cascadia Wildlands Project—"Wildlands, Wildlife, Wild Beauty". This exhibit weaves art, ecology, activism, and wilderness experience into a vibrant interpretation of Oregon's wild places and conservation movement. From photos that capture the art inherent in natural forms to short films illuminating the struggle to protect endangered Oregon ecosystems, "Wildlands, Wildlife, Wild Beauty" explores the political, ecological, economic, and spiritual elements of wildland conservation. The Cascadia Wildlands Project is a grassroots conservation movement founded in 1997 by a group of experienced forest activists. The organization has strong ties with local artists who donate works to auctions and other special events, and is proud to showcase their work in the galleries at DIVA.
Helen Liu—"Creator and Spectator: Interactive Art". "Creator and Spectator: Interactive Art with Helen Liu" is an art project scheduled to begin on April 1 and end on April 12 at DIVA (Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts) in downtown Eugene. Children ages 4 to12 are invited to make art in the gallery with artist Helen Liu in this experimental creative project. The main exhibit hall will be turned into a studio temporarily. The two-week event will be documented with a video and still photos. This video and works in progress will be shown at the First Friday Art Walk on April 4th at the end of the first week. Work continues into the second week. A wide variety of image-creating materials will be used. They may include the following: pencils, crayons, markers, paints and glue on paper, canvas, plywood, foam core, and aluminum foil. Collage is possible with a variety of papers and other recyclables. Interested families should call DIVA at (541) 344-3482, or visit in person at 110 West Broadway, to sign up for specific studio times. Drop-ins are possible on a space available basis. Children under 10 should be accompanied by responsible adults. Says Liu of her inspiration, "Over the years, as I made art with, and taught art classes to, children of all ages, I've come to appreciate and love the boundless energy and unabashed insights that children bring to the process of art making. There is power in the simplicity and the immediacy of their work. Watching and working with them afford me a window into my own untapped potential—potential that perhaps was once there but is now hidden.
DIVA Members Gallery - "Watercolors: Scenes Local and Nearby" by Ed Tryk. While Tryk's watercolors have been exhibited in group events such as the Mayor's Art Show in Eugene, Oregon, DIVA is proud to host his first solo show. These luminous transparent watercolors, all painted within the last few years, feature familiar places in Eugene and the artist's friends and family. Says Tryk of his working style, "Watercolor painting suits my temperament. I can work rapidly and loosely when I want…I can also become very detailed. I try to allow my intellect and intuition to work together when painting a picture." Recently retired from a fulfilling career as a clinical psychologist, he appreciates the chance to take on art as a serious second vocation. Tryk's painting style has been influenced markedly by the impressionistic traditions in Western art and by early Japanese wood-block printing and ink-and-brush painting. "The philosophy of Taoism gives me an intellectual tool box that helps me think about my art. There is always Yin and Yang. There is always figure and ground. It is the tension between one pole and the other that creates interest in art," he explains.