High Art in the High Desert | The Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon

High Art in the High Desert

Out of 100 artists, we profile a handful

Among the featured artists at this weekend's Art in the High Desert—what is billed as Central Oregon's premier juried art and craft show—is Bend's own Darryl Cox, whose Fusion Frame art will be included in the exhibit. Cox combines woodworking, painting and sculpting to create beautiful frames that integrate both man-made and natural elements, such as a unique frame and just the right tree branch, into a single piece of artwork that is both intricate and uncomplicated. With an appreciation for both conventional and avant-garde styles, Cox seeks to embrace alternatives to the accepted norm and to "enjoy the unbounded ability to create by refusing to be limited by precept."

Also keep an eye out for Hayley Nolte's Recycled Metal Folk Art, which includes complex 2D pieces as well as mirrors made with, well, trash. Nolte works with post-consumer metal containers, which are then flattened, hand cut, layered, and hammered to a wooden base. She incorporates recycled roofing materials and distressed copper to create palpable 2D relief surfaces that are richly colorful. The mirror pieces are functional, yet invite deeper inspection into our disposable culture.

Another artist to watch is Su Abbott, a self-taught contemporary abstract painter from Georgia who began painting in 2003 after a lifelong passion for creativity. Abbott uses textured mediums, like stretched canvas or wood, along with tools such as palette knives, scrapers, textured papers, and other odds and ends to create vibrant and colorful pieces. Abbott finds inspiration for her artwork in nature, interactions with humanity and in her life experiences.

In addition to the diverse range of exhibits, attendees will have the opportunity to experience artist demos outside the Tumalo Art Co. in the Old Mill. On Friday, August 28, award-winning Central Oregon landscape artist Janice Drurian will create a plein air painting from 2 to 4 pm. On Saturday, August 29, painter Paul Alan Bennett will demonstrate plein air painting from 10 am to 1 pm. From Sisters, Oregon, Bennett explores landscape through light, color, design, and mood.

Excelling in pastels, painter Gil Dellinger captures dramatic western landscapes, including the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Northwest, and the Southwest United States. Dellinger will demonstrate plein air painting on Saturday, August 29 and again on Sunday, August 30, from 1 pm to 4 pm. On Saturday afternoon, from 4 to 6 pm, Danica Curtright will creating glass beads using a centuries-old process called "lampworking" and melting rods of "Moretti" Italian glass.

In conjunction with Art in the High Desert, Lubbesmeyers Studio & Gallery (also located in the Old Mill), will host a special show called Making a Mark. This event will run the same three days as Art in the High Desert and will showcase six artists and six mediums. Each of the artists uses a unique medium to make their mark, so to speak, which offers the viewer an inspirational and dynamic variety of art. Making a Mark brings together contemporary art from painter JM Brodrick, mixed media artist Maeve Grogan, metal artist McKenzie Mendel, wood sculptor Chloe Raymond, acrylic and encaustic painter Lisa Marie Sipe, and fiber artists Lisa and Lori Lubbesmeyer.

Art in the High Desert

Friday–Sunday, August 28–30

Old Mill District

Free.

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