This week, the vacation comes to you! We've got excellent road trips to some of the most beautiful and inspiring parts of Oregon to visit with the creators who work there. Pack up, grab a bag of sunflower seeds — we're hitting the road.
LH Project founder Jakob Haßlacher peers up at a Berlin Wall replica he made. It's a project he's returned to several times since 1989, when he was in Berlin during the wall's fall.
Aaron Scott / OPB
Veterans Chase Rock 'n' Roll Ceramics And Granite Peaks At The LH Project
There are a lot of reasons to visit Joseph, Oregon, beginning with the spectacular Wallowa Mountains. But for ceramic artists, there's one very specific reason: a residency program that some have called the Shangri-La of ceramics. It was started by Jakob Haßlacher and his wife, the internationally renowned sculptor Chris Antemann, in 2000. Haßlacher named the program after his family's cattle brand, the LH Project. They invite ceramic artists from around the world to make art there. One group comes back every summer: veterans, who crank the stereo and let the beer flow more freely than the glaze.
See a slideshow of LH, the vets at work, and some of the pieces in the residency's collection. The Josephy Center of Arts and Culture in Joseph will have an exhibition of the LH Project's permanent collection in October.
Pamela Royes first book explores the four years she spent with her future husband in the Wallowa Mountains herding sheep and the impact nature and place had on her.
Courtesy of Counterpoint Press.
Wallowa County Writer's First Book Recounts True Love Found Around A Campfire In Hells Canyon - 10:57
Pamela Royes' debut book, "Temperance Creek: A Memoir," explores her early adult years in northeastern Oregon in the Wallowa Mountains. That's where she met her future husband, Skip Royes, a Vietnam war veteran, while backpacking. He asked her to join him. Her lyrical writing sensibility brings to life what it was like sheep herding in Hells Canyon for four years, living off the land with a man who went from a stranger on the trail to her husband of 40 years.
Portland biennial curator Michelle Grabner talks with artist Brenna Murphy about her work at her home studio in Portland.
April Baer/OPB.
Disjecta's 'Portland2016' Biennial Creates The Ultimate Art Road Trip - 20:07
The mother of all summertime art road trips is here. In thirteen cities, artwork will be on view this summer representing Oregon's contemporary art scene for Disjecta's biennial show "Portland2016." Curator Michelle Grabner, who curated the 2014 Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial, spent last fall and winter getting to know Oregon artists through a mind-bending 107 studio visits. We joined Grabner at several stages in her process, from studio visits to artists installing their work in an abandoned hotel in Astoria. You can listen to our extended interview and see photos here.
Visit the biennial's website to learn more about the artists and the cities where their work is being shown.
New Capacity Building Initiative Helps Arts Organizations Think Big - 36:20
It’s really tough for arts organizations to think big when they’re so married to a regular cycle of ticket sales, grants and courting donors. We recently sat down with Steve Moore, executive director of the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, to talk about a recently completed initiative to help arts organizations like Disjecta do bigger and better projects. It's called Capacity Building, and the endgame is to get those arts organizations into more long-term, sustainable planning.
State of Wonder columnist-in-residence Randy Gragg talks with architect Eugene Sandoval, principal, ZGF Architects, about Indigo @ twelve | west.
April Baer/OPB.
Skyscrapers In Portland: The Sky's The Limit? - 39:54
Portland is growing up. Fast. More than 60 buildings over 100-feet tall are in the pipeline, along with a few towering higher than 200 feet. Downtown's largest property owner, the Goodman family, recently made a highly speculative proposal for four new towers that could rise as high as 460 feet. Our architecture and urban design columnist-in-residence, Randy Gragg, talked with the architects of three of the most prominent new buildings: Park Avenue West, the Cosmopolitan and Indigo @ twelve|west. We have drone videos of the buildings, along with an extended interview with Randy and the architects, here.
Installation artist Laura Fritz's piece titled "Spektive" plays with light, color and perspective.
Photo courtesy of Laura Fritz.
Exploring Color, Space And Memory Through 'The Color Of Memory' - 49:55
The memories you make this summer — at the beach, with friends — will be full of light and color. But how will those colors stay with you down the road? Will they stay bright or fade like beach towels left a little too long in the sun? There's a show now on view called "The Color of Memory" at Jeffrey Thomas Fine Art in Northwest Portland, running through Aug. 27, that explores issues of memory through the work of 16 West Coast artists, who emphasize or deny color in their work.