The brainchild of local artists Tenold Peterson and Steven Oshatz, "The Notion of Motion" features a collaborative installation using acceleration and movement as a subject for visual expression. The exhibit is an artistic complement to the 2008 Olympic Trials taking place in Eugene this summer.
Tenold Peterson and Steven Oshatz. Featured in the main gallery are two large painted compositions of men and women running, reaching 8 feet high and 28 feet wide. Oshatz and Peterson, working together in the sprit of improvisation, have created a kinetic energy that translates into the motion of the athletes. Larger than human scale, the figurative images are metaphors about the process of abstract painting. The sheer size of the images transforms the gallery in an impressive way. One can almost feel the thud of the athletes’ feet pounding against the track.
Oshatz has examined the idea of motion from other angles as well. Also on display are his "Five Equations of Motion." These large digital prints each start with an equation based on velocity and acceleration, then metamorphose into an optical experience. Using the principles of "Op Art," these images transcend their mathematical symbols, creating eclectic relationships to time and space. Peterson also contributes solo work, showing his pastel drawings of dancers. These large, color-rich works capture elusive and beautiful moments of dancers in motion, setting a distinct and elegant tone of their own.
Sergio Ortiz. Other artists have added their insights to "The Notion of Motion." Sergio Ortiz contributes striking large-format photographs of marathon runners. Ortiz, who spent years as a serious runner in Eugene, declares, “I have always admired the physical form of marathoners.” His current home in Portland is along the Marathon route, and the frontrunners come by about 8 a.m. each October. "This body of work focuses on kinetic energy in the human form in relationship to available light," Ortiz explains. A commercial photographer who learned his craft at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Ortiz currently lives in Portland.
Don MacLane. Don MacLane a sculptor based in Portland, has his own totally different interpretation of motion on display. MacLane contributes a display of interactive kinetic sculpture, titled "Exploring Cycles." These steel and stone contraptions invite viewers to explore the variations that can arise in rhythmic motion patterns. “Each piece has a range of behaviors or personality," explains MacLane. "Some are peaceful, and others are energetic or even frantic." Viewers are invited to set the pieces in motion and explore the sometimes surprising results. Complex rhythmic patterns arise from the simple, elegant sculptural shapes, and viewers have the treat of being instigators as well as observers.
MacLane, originally a student of math and science, got hooked on art during his time at Antioch College. "Learning to weld and pour molten bronze by moonlight seemed far more exciting than calculus," he reminisces. With a masters in art and an engineering degree from Portland State University, his years of work as a mechanical engineer have developed skills that proved very helpful in making his kinetic art sculptures.
You can view an Oregon Art Beat video of Don MacLane and his work online. Click here to view.
Leslie Terra. For the month of July, DIVA's Members' Gallery is featuring an exhibit by Leslie Terra, titled "Leafscapes & Garden Variety Portraits." Terra's background in landscape architecture has been a huge influence in her art career. Her larger-than-life drawings of the surface of leaves are vibrantly colored and, while quite accurate, verge on abstraction simply due to the large scale at which they are drawn. Terra brings in a sense of whimsy as well with her portraits, which charmingly represent people as vegetables growing side by side in a garden. The garden portraits are done in acrylic paint on canvas with various embedded "three dimensionalized" papers and applied papers. As a tie-in to the Olympic Trials, Terra has included a special section titled "The Locker Room: Oregon Runners." She declares that this live exhibit "turns a new leaf in the celebration of the Oregon contribution to the sport of running." Again, the artist's sense of humor shines through, since the focus is not actually on athletes but rather on native plants that send out "runners" as they grow. The plants are growing in running shoes that have been turned into hanging pots, fleshing out the pun. 