Butterfly Tree Maiden

Smoking – Yes; it’s on the side of the Midtown Direct Smoke Shop at 133 E 13th Avenue.  It’s signed S. Lopez – Caps Rawk ’11 and gives this web address “ikeepmoving.com”.  Steve Lopez is the artist who worked with a group of local, at-risk youth, to create the huge Emerald City Mural behind the WOW Hall on Lincoln Street that I bloged about back in July.  Lopez is an alumnus of LCC and the U of O.

Wing detail from the mural.  I really like the idea of a tree sprouting butterfly wings.  

This is a good video of the mural artists in action.

I’m glad they put a colorful mural on the side because the front looks like a jail with all those bars.  It’s amazing how a small quantity of paint can have such a transformative effect.

55 West Broadway

If you peek down the ally on the east side of 55 West Broadway you see a very unusual mural. 

It’s an anamorphosis perspective painting, a distorted projection requiring the viewer to occupy a specific vantage point in order to properly see the image. Viewed straight on (perpendicular to the wall) as in the above photo, the subject the subject appears quite distorted.  But viewed at an acute angle as the photo below, the image appears normal.  

 Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1485) is the first person known definitive to use anamorphosis perspective. 

Right nest to 55 Broadway is the fabulous Lazar’s Bazar that sells everything you never knew you ever needed or wanted.  It kind a mash up of a martial arts store, head shop and discount clothing store.  A fun place to check out if you in the area. 

Downtown Post Office Murals

In the main lobby of the Post Office, just above the doorways and the mailboxes reside two powerful murals.  You’ve got to look up to see them but its well worth it spend a little time to take in these wonderful works of art that celebrate agriculture and timber harvesting.   

The murals were painted by Portland artist Carl Morris, commissioned by the Work Projects Administration (WPA) funded and completed in 1942. The post office itself is a historic building that was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.  Morris’s paintings remind me of the work of the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera in the way they honor working folks.  

The post office is located at the corner of Willamette St and 5th Avenue.  Right across the street from the wonderful Smith Family Bookstore. 

Broadway Alley Mural

I love exploring Eugene, poking around side streets and Alleys. One of the cool things about wandering about Eugene on foot or by bike is the unexpected murals one is likely to stumble across.  Such is the case with this one located on Broadway Alley between Pearl and Oak Streets. 

 

How long has this couple stared out into the alleyway, perhaps for decades.  I couldn’t find out anything out about this mural.  

It’s certainly not recent but how old is hard to tell. It has the feel of the late 60’s or 70’s about it but so do a lot of things in this town.

The Rogue Public House Mural

The Rouge Public House microbrewery is located at 844 Olive Street and has a large mural that’s tucked down the alleyway on the south side of the building.

After you’re finished checking out the mural you should check out the microbrewery itself, it’s great.  Located at the sight of Eugene’s oldest brewery (Eugene City Brewery, opened 1866) they have a wonderful selection beer on tap.  I suggest trying their Dead Guy Ale, Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout and especially their Hazelnut Brown Ale.  Yummm!

I love the detail character studies in this mural and the nostalgic look back at an error gone by.

It’s almost like the ghost of brewer’s gone by are peering on at the modern works as it zooms by, often oblivious of the still and silent watchers.

Tsunami Books – A Tidal Wave in the Sky

I love Hokusai, the Japanese woodblock artist who created the set: “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” and of that set I particularly I love  “The Wave” (pictured below). So I was naturally drawn to Tsunami Books and their homage to Hokusi’s great work.

Besides having a great mural Tsunami Books is a wonderful bookstore with a fine collection of books, a great vibe and a stage where they host weekly live music and poetry readings.  

It’s such a long mural that I’m showing it in two photographs in order to reasonably show more of its detail.

There is also a very nice painting on one of Tsunami ‘s unused front doors. Tsunami is located at 2585 Willamette Street.  

A Jewel in the Whiteaker Neighborhood

I’m profoundly moved by this mural, every time I see it.  Painted by Kari Johnson and located on the corner of 4th Ave & Monroe St, it’s a great representation of the Whiteaker neighborhoods charged ecological ethos.  I’m reluctant to say too much about it because it speaks so powerfully for itself.   


The individual elements that make it up are powerful symbols; nude and semi-nude people, a skeleton, an eagle, native Americans, a gathering of elder women, terraced gardening, a cancer survivor, clear-cut forest, an SUV on the banks of the river and a glorious sky (sunrise or sunset?). 

I sent the above photo to a friend familiar with the Tarot without any other references and asked her what she made of the cards in the picture and this is what she came up with:


Ace of Cups: open heart... joy, content, nourishment, abundance....
aspect of being able to communicate feelings from a place of emotional integrity and from a place of trust rather than control...

8 of swords: doubting, non-trusting, over analytical mind
a reminder to wait if uncertain when considering different options ... also fearful of moving out of a situation of bondage

6 of disks/pentacles: success - sharing prosperity, charity

9 of swords:  utter desolation, failure, deception, delay, disappointment, despair..
or cruelty - mental self-cruelty or tendency to put self down -   immobilized by misfortune or disaster

The Sun - 19 major arcana: attainment, liberation - depicts life force - divine child within us...child-like innocence & curiosity within your creative nature - also represents the principle of collaboration, teamwork/partnership co-operation

King of Cups: man of biz, law, divinity - kind, considerate, responsible  - interested in arts & sciences - calm exterior, enjoys quiet power....

cups = emotions - love, happiness, fertility, beauty
swords = aggression, force, ambition, courage, strife,
disks/pentacles = money, industry, material gain
wands = energy, growth, enterprise...

Aces - #1, alpha, beginning of all things
 6 =  balance and equilibrium, number of the mind,
8 = number of justice, judgment, material progress and health - symbol of regeneration and balancing opposing forces
9 = all forces of other numbers are summed up - attainment on 3 plains: physical, mental, spiritual


usually a spread has ten cards...
starts out with ace - interesting that the last card is blank - as you make your own ending.
ups and downs, travails and happiness of life...

Originally painted in the early '90s it was repainted after the environmental activist blockade at Warner Creek of 95'-96'.  The background has morphed from a lush forest to a clear-cut hill with a logging operation in the foreground. At one point building's renters were threatening to remove the mural but that issue has thankfully been resolved. 

CALAC Mural

 CALIC is the Community Alliance of Lane County and it stated purpose is: “Educating and mobilizing for peace, human dignity and social, racial and economic justice.”  Located in the heart of the Whitaker neighborhood at 485 Blair Boulevard. 

The mural pictured above was painted by the Youth Mural Project in 2006.  The theme of the mural is “Shoulders to Stand On; proclaiming the need for past, present and future activist to come together to advocate effectively for social change”. Their intent was to show that “diversity as integral to Eugene’s vitality, encourage people to accept one another, and strengthen support for an inclusive community.”  A beautiful goal. 

Right across the street from the CALC office is the New World Café & New Day Bakery (one of my favorite breakfast spots) that features a mural by Kari Johnston.

Actors Cabaret of Eugene Annex Mural

The Actors Cabaret of Eugene have a wonderfully creative and whimsically appropriate mural on the Annex building located on the north side of 10th Avenue (between Willamette & Olive streets).

This looks like something that was as much fun to make as it is to see.  

Track Town Mural

The Track Town mural pictured above greets visitors to Eugene arriving from Springfield on Coburg Road and is located at the corner of 3rd Avenue & Coburg Rd.  Eugene is quite proud of its history of track & field athletes and innovators.  This town also has the most extensive system of running trails in the country. 

A new mural is going up right around the corner from the Track Town mural on the same building.  It’s wonderful to see new murals going up in town and fascinating to watch the artist at work.  

Delphina Clothing Store Murals

The mural on the front of Delphina Clothing has been done in a graffiti style (see previous post).

The above video shows artist Jerry Wagner creating the Delphina Clothing mural. Delphida Clothing Store is located at 941 West 3rd Aveue in the Whiteaker neighborhood.  

On the back of the Delphina Clothing building are a couple of striking murals done in more traditional style.

The mural pictured above is loaded with powerful elements: an evergreen forest; blue skies; puffy clouds;, a woman holding a rainbow sphere, in front of a blazing sky that is set inside a sliver of a blue crescent moon, which itself is located inside a golden compass rose.  

This beautiful mural transports me to a magical forest full of enchanted mushrooms….

The Boundary Between Murals & Graffiti

Graffiti usually thrives in back alleys and on the outside of urban buildings, places where the law of the jungle is more prevalent than civil law.  

It’s a rough-and-tumble, in your face art form, that often shows little regard for the property it’s painted on, or the artist who painted it.  

All of the above photos were taken at the Citizen’s Corner Art Park located north of the train tracks, behind the county jail, just off Sheldon-McMurphy Street. 

Several installations in town explore the charged border between murals and graffiti.  The mural  above is located on the side of Delphina Clothing, 941 3rd Avenue in the Whiteaker neighborhood. 

I see murals as a form of art that are willing to risk walking on the wild side of life.  They are paintings prepared to go out on the street and meet the world on its own terms.  They don’t cower behind safety glass, inside of air-conditioned museums or in art galleries.  They risk accidents, vandalism, continuous attack by the elements and the harsh ravages of sunlight.   They also encounter and sometimes interact with graffiti, which is an art in its own right, just with a different set of rules.

Photo by B. Souza

Above is another example of a painting that rolls along the delicate edge between murals and graffiti.  This one is tucked into the back of Newman’s Fish Company, a great fish market located near the corner of 15th Avenue and Willamette Street.  It’s diagonally across from the Tibet mural.  As to the question of whether it’s a mural or graffiti, that’s best left up to the viewer.