Culture Features

Fresh art and a beer garden: just what Bend needs.Sean Anderson looks happily stressed. He moves around the gallery at PoetHouse Art checking on the sound equipment, the event staff, the guests and, through it all, his two young daughters. PoetHouse Art - a spot you've probably walked below and didn't even realize - is throwing a benefit for Rise Up, a non-profit that provides education and outreach to the poor in places like India, Nicaragua and China on this recent Thursday night, featuring local artists and musicians in their one-room studio and gallery.
 
PoetHouse Art began as an idea in the back of Anderson's mind as he and his wife attended a First Friday art walk in January and happened to stop in at the TBD Advertising on Bond Street and noticed the vacant loft space. Anderson, a graphic artist, says he had an idea for a combined gallery and studio art space, but had never come across an opportunity to do anything with it. After meeting with some friends who also expressed interest in a joint art studio/gallery, the group put in an offer to TBD for the space. According to Anderson, the space had been vacant for about a year and TBD had turned down requests from other businesses in the hopes that they could fill it with a more creative enterprise.
The room, with its open ceiling and exposed rafters, consists of a row of individual studios separated by a heavy-duty floor-to-ceiling canvas drop cloth. No two studios look alike. While one studio contains rows of brightly colored paintings, the next contains an array of old newspapers and pieces of wire while another has the floor covered with blankets and pillows because that particular artist prefers to work from the floor.

more than just another drink. Forget everything you know about the 1988 movie Cocktail. Marshall Fox, bartender at Bo Restobar, is the real deal. While he may not be prancing around Jamaica with Elizabeth Shue or catering to New York City elites with silly poems, he's doing something Tom Cruise never does in the movie - actually making great drinks without spilling alcohol all over. And did I mention he lights stuff on fire?
 
According to the Flair Bartenders' Association (FBA), flair has been practiced for over 150 years in the United States. In the mid-1800s, bartender Jerry "the professor" Thomas would pour flaming streams of scotch and water from one bar mug to another while making his famous Blue Blazer. Popularized by chains like T.G.I. Friday's in the mid-1980s and then blown up by the movie Cocktail, flair bartending quickly became a global bar phenomenon. The FBA started in 1997 and hosts competitions throughout the world proudly spouting their motto of "Service first, flair second, competition always."
Fox is bringing this alcohol-infused competition to Bite of Bend this weekend for your viewing pleasure. Professional flair bartenders from Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle and even Bend will go head-to-head in a six-minute battle, during which each bartender must make two drinks. Between competitors, Fox will pull members from the audience to teach them some flair and give away prizes.

Dog days in the studioBend, with its urban center situated just minutes from beautiful landscapes, is attracting a growing community of artists. One painter, Lori LaBissoniere is developing an expressionist style that contrasts with the mainstream aesthetic found in many polished art galleries. LaBissoniere and I talked on a Friday afternoon, one of the first (and only) really hot days this spring. Sitting in her cozy studio downtown, and having been inside teaching all day, LaBissoniere was feeling restless.
"We should have done this interview outside on a day like today," she told me. As a young artist, LaBissoniere is artistically adventurous, drawing on multiple sources of inspiration and trying new styles in her work.
When I asked her about her artistic influences, LaBissoniere mentioned Jaimie Lynn, a snowboarder and contemporary graphic artist. "I find inspiration from street art, and art that I happen upon by chance - not only from famous artists," she says.