Blue Sky Gallery

Artist Talk: Lucas Foglia & Tamara Staples

tubutis — Sat, 04 May 2013 21:00:48 +0000

Artists Lucas Foglia and Tamara Staples will discuss their work on display at Blue Sky for the month of May.

Free admission.

First Thursday Opening Reception

tubutis — Fri, 03 May 2013 01:00:47 +0000

Join us for the opening of May’s exhibitions. Artists Lucas Foglia and Tamara Staples will be in attendance.

Free admission.

New Benefit for Blue Sky Members!

clem — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 22:16:11 +0000

We are pleased to announce a BRAND NEW Blue Sky Membership benefit!

Borne out of a new partnership between Blue Sky and the Oregon College of Art and Crafts (OCAC), we are able to offer current Blue Sky Members a special discount of $45 off the cost of any one OCAC Studio School class or workshop during this year’s Summer Term (June-August 2013).

If you’ve been considering OCAC as the place to continue your education, master a craft or simply want to try something new, this summer is the perfect opportunity do so! Study photography with the likes of Blue Mitchell and Pat Bognar in OCACs LEED Certified state-of-the-art Photography facility or take a class or workshop in book arts, ceramics, drawing and painting, metal arts, fibers and textiles, or woodworking. Set on 10 wooded acres in Portland’s West Hills, OCAC is the perfect place to spend part of your summer!

Browse courses anytime at www.ocac.edu/register and enter the code: BLUESKY at checkout for $45 off course tuition.*

NEED TO JOIN OR RENEW? Follow this link!

Email Amanda if you have any questions: amandaclem@blueskygallery.org

* This discount can not be used in conjunction with any other offer. One discount only per course.

First Thursday Opening Reception

tubutis — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 01:00:31 +0000

Join us for the opening of April’s exhibitions, part of Portland Photo Month. Philipp Scholz Rittermann will be in attendance.

Free admission.

Artist Talk: Philipp Scholz Rittermann

tubutis — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 01:00:00 +0000

Philipp Scholz Rittermann will discuss his series, Emperor’s River, on display at Blue Sky for the month of April 2013.

Free admission.

Photographing Arthur Tress

tubutis — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:15:36 +0000

The photographs of Arthur Tress were a huge influence on me as a young gay man. While I wrestled with the notions of how to be an artist using the medium of photography, Arthur’s work pointed to the way in which I could make images that helped me interpret my life.

Being a part of the Exhibition Committee at Blue Sky gave my husband and I the amazing opportunity to host Arthur while he was visiting Portland for the opening of his March 2013 show. I was already excited about being able to hang out with him. Excitement turned to giddiness when he mentioned in an email that he had been asking photographers to photograph him in the nude, and asked if I would be interested.

So, of course it was great to hangout with one of my Art Heros, to run around Portland and break the law trespassing on Ross Island while he made photographs. It was invaluable to have him look at my work and give me feedback and he was incredibly endearing as he tried to infuse me with some “Jewish Moxie”, but what really rocked my world was photographing Arthur Tress.

I have been working on a new photo series about clowns, and I thought it might be the perfect fit to incorporate Arthur’s request to be photographed in the nude into this new body of work. We had been tossing around ideas for a few days and we scheduled the shoot for the morning of his last day in town. My hopes were for a pretty straightforward portrait: clown face, clown shoes, and little else. Arthur wanted to do an homage to Emmett Kelly’s famous clown persona “Weary Willie,” whose iconic act involved sweeping a pool of light under a rug.

I wanted to shoot outside and, of course, it was classic Portland spring weather: 40 degrees and drizzly. We start shooting and it’s going well; I was getting the photos we had intended to make. We had been working for about 30 minutes and we were doing the homage with an oversized rose and a mound of flour and I felt like we had got it. Arthur is 72 years old, he’s naked and starting to shiver, so I said “it’s good…we got it, were done.” There was a moment of exhale, a letting go, and then it was like a switch flipped and Magic happened. Arthur grabs a handful of flour and starts rubbing it all over his body, he then proceeds to fill the giant rose with flour and pouring it over his head in an insane enactment of pollination. Then he starts spewing mouthfuls of flour into the air, ending the crazy clown act with a mouthful of overtly sexual spittle. For me, it was a moment of transcendence when the photographer and the model become true collaborators, when the intentions of both parties is surpassed to create something new and unexpected.

It’s in these moments that I as “the photographer,” “the artist,” disappear and the machine that is in my hands is no longer a machine, but something more akin to the eye of God and for a few brief shinning moments we are elevated above the mundane.

Adrain Chesser, March 2013

adrainchesser.com

Artist Talk: Arthur Tress

tubutis — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 22:00:55 +0000

Arthur Tress will present about selections from “ San Francisco 1964″, “Dream Collector,” and “Theater of the Mind,” on display at Blue Sky this month.

Free admission.

First Thursday Opening Reception

tubutis — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 02:00:11 +0000

Photographers Arthur Tress and Vadim Gushchin will be in attendance for the opening of their March exhibitions.

Free admission.

Artist Talk: Vadim Gushchin

tubutis — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 02:00:02 +0000

Vadim Gushchin will present an artist talk about his series, “Inventory of a Private Library,” on display at Blue Sky this month.

Free admission.

Vivian Maier, Out of the Shadows

tubutis — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 22:00:24 +0000

Presentation and book-signing by Richard Cahan, author of Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows, about the life and photographic work of artist Vivian Maier on display at Blue Sky during the month of February 2013.

Free admission.

Ampersand Gallery & Fine Books will be at Blue Sky with copies of Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows available for purchase. Ampersand will generously donate 20% of all sales to Blue Sky.