Monthly Archives: June 2008

Under the Influence

By June 15, 2008   7 comments

In keeping with the quaint perception that anyone working like Moje must be on drugs, I need to mention this work. Yoko Yagi is a Japanese artist whose work is on view at the Portland Japanese Garden until June 30.

Yoko Yagi “Taga Sode III”, 2008. Blown and coldworked murrine glass. 6.5 ” x 8″ x 8″

This small and stunning exhibition opened in the garden’s Pavilion gallery yesterday with talks by both Yagi and Masami Koda, two of the less established, but most interesting, artists in the show.

Inspired ten years ago by seeing the work of Klaus Moje, Yagi works in kiln-glass methods not dissimilar to those of her mentor. In a good year, she can make about twelve pieces in her painstaking murrine process. Drugs? No, just persistence, and an eye for exceptional quality. Yagi’s work, like the rest of the show reflects what PJG Curator Diane Durston refers to as a “sensibility that is both international and yet distinctly Japanese.”

Whether you’re coming to the GAS conference or not, don’t miss this show, this place, these artists.

I know. I’m nagging.

A Confab of Industry Wonks

By June 15, 2008   1 comments

I love the press – indiscriminately. Our home subscriptions include, among others, The New York Times, The Oregonian, and The Art Newspaper.

So how can I complain when I read the Oregonian’s chief arts writer describing our fast-approaching GAS conference as “a confab of industry wonks.”

I wondered what we were. Wonks. Excellent. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Then come on over to the conference. We expect it to be newsworthy.

“Look, Ma, no Bullseye!”….

Banjo, “Disco Chopper”, 2008. Lampworked borosilicate glass. 5″ x 16″ x 5″

See more “degenerate” glass art at Mark Woolley Gallery.

Factory Tour Pt 3a – Back up, roll over

By June 13, 2008   0 comments

Time is racing by. I can’t seem to get back to the factory tour I started weeks ago. Victim to some malfunctioning reverse gear on my internal time machine, this morning I found myself staring at this…

Rolling glass circa 1978. The height of fashion on the casting floor? Velvet bellbottoms?

Not today. But who notices apparel in 2008? You can’t see the pants for the tattoos.

Well, back to working out the timelines for the real tours that are coming through next week. If you want to know more about these and other activities that Bullseye has planned for the GAS conference, check out the SEE BE info that Mary Kay’s group put together.

Like everything else they do, it’s just brilliant.

Out of GAS…

By June 12, 2008   2 comments

OK OK, I know….it’s been forever….I’m over my head. E-merge opened, the Moje show opened, our gallery art handlers have set up almost a dozen installations all over Portland, the factory is preparing for the next Lehr-B-Q, our house is filled with guests, visitors are arriving from around the world. Their faces fly by like gnats past my car window.

THIS is where I want to be. And what you MUST see: Kaneko’s “African Reflection” installed in the Portland Japanese Garden. Beauty. Peace. Tranquility. For someone else.

No time to blog. But others do it better anyway. I think this one takes the prize for the best Moje press I’ve read so far.