Balazs, artist recruits give ‘Eye4Art’ a few good pieces

‘You just can’t say ‘no’ to Harold,” says Ken Spiering, one of the participating artists in Saturday’s “Eye4Art” fund-raiser for Mead School District students and teachers.

And, it seems, Harold Balazs couldn’t say “no” to the Mead Education Foundation when asked to help.

“All of our children attended Mead schools,” says the longtime Spokane artist. “We’ve been involved with them since we moved here in 1951.”

“Eye4Art,” set for Saturday between 4 and 8 p.m., features art by Mead teachers and students, as well as a number of regional artists who are donating 25 percent of their sales to the foundation.

The nonprofit Mead Education Foundation provides financial support to district teachers, staff and students. It grants money for innovative classroom programs and has helped with band, shop and art supply fees, medical costs – even a cap and gown.

“Harold has been amazing,” says foundation president Mark Burns. “He has been with us for over a year planning this event. He has limitless energy, focus and dedication.”

Among the two dozen artists recruited by Balazs are Karen Mobley, Ric Gendron, Mel McCuddin, Ruben Trejo, Gina Freuen, Kay O’Rourke, Angelika Wipp, Jan Moulder, Robert Grimes, Darrell Sullens, Judy Patterson, Patti Reiko Osebold, Nicholas Sironka and Katherine Nelson.

Gordon Wilson, a Whitworth College assistant professor of art, is bringing a graphite drawing and two plein air paintings.

The drawing, “Sanctuary,” was completed after Wilson returned from a trip he took with a group of students to Mississippi in January.

“I have been making drawings about the Katrina destruction,” he says.

The 20- by 30-inch drawing features barren trees laced with gold leaf and a young woman curled in a fetal position.

“It’s not an allegory,” he says, and has no single interpretation.

“My thinking is more of a hopeful one,” Wilson says. “There has been a lot of destruction, but many of the hurricane victims found places of safety in attics and bathtubs and survived.”

He says he placed the gold leaf in the picture to suggest a bright sunrise in the midst of the destruction.

“We experienced a lot of beauty in Mississippi, including sunsets over torn-up trees and smashed houses,” says Wilson. “The contrast was exquisite.”

In addition to the works for sale, three artists – Balazs, Spiering and Grimes – are donating pieces to a silent auction.

The event is Saturday from 4 to 8 p.m. in the Commons at Mt. Spokane High School, 6015 E. Mount Spokane Park Drive.

Tickets, available at the door, are $10 a person or $25 a family, with all proceeds going to the Mead Education Foundation.

Those attending can nibble on hors d’oeuvres and listen to live music while scanning the artwork. The Northwood Middle School Jazz Band and the Mead High School Choir will entertain.

For more information or to buy tickets, call 465-6032 or go online to www.meadeducationfoundation.org.

Whitworth’s visiting artists

Two new exhibits focusing on the work of four visiting artists open Monday on the Whitworth College campus.

In the Koehler Gallery, Tom Dukich, Michael Horswill and Tom O’Day will display their work through April 21. In Gallery II, Maasai artist Nicholas Sironka is hanging an array of highly figurative batik art through March 31.

“These four guys have really been keeping me busy,” art department chair Gordon Wilson says in an e-mail. “Sironka was demonstrating batik and spreading a little Maasai culture at Mt. Spokane High School all day Monday.”

He adds: “Tom O’Day and my painting students have a 10- by 20-foot drawing going in the Koehler Gallery. Tom Dukich has begun his installation, and it involves a pool in the gallery.

“Michael Horswill asked about outlets to plug in some of his pieces.”

Horswill’s highly textured, wall-hung relief sculptures are influenced by architecture, Native American artifacts, and African and Oceanic art.

His pieces combine a wide range of materials and “are best described as ‘constructions’ that juxtapose mechanical materials such as brass, copper, tin, steel, hardware and wire with natural materials such as wood, fabric, rawhide, bamboo, vines, beeswax and cedar branches,” he says in his artist statement.

O’Day makes art that deals with the process of change.

“He has destroyed and transformed more than 300 works of art through immersion, axing, freezing, aerial ascent, explosions and other methods,” Whitworth public information specialist Julie Riddle says in a news release.

O’Day is a full-time instructor at Spokane Falls Community College, where he directs the gallery program.

Dukich is doing a sound installation with video as a “very humble” tribute to music composer, writer and visual artist John Cage, Fluxus artist George Brecht and comic genius Ernie Kovacs.

“Cage for noise and randomness, Brecht for drip music and Kovacs for putting it together with humor,” Dukich says in an e-mail. “I suppose you could throw some Rube Goldberg in there as well.

“A working title is ‘Cage, Brecht and Kovacs Roll Over in Their Respective Graves.’ “

Sironka returns to Whitworth from Kenya in East Africa with “In Search of Green Pastures,” featuring his bright batik art.

Batik painting uses dyes and wax to create a series of layers and texture. Sironka’s energetic, stylized images incorporate village life and tell the story of traditional and modern Maasai culture.

This spring he will teach “Maasai Culture and Art” at Whitworth.

An artists’ reception for both exhibits is Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m. in the lobby of the Fine Arts Building. At 7 p.m., following the reception, Dukich, Horswill and O’Day will talk about their work in the Koehler Gallery.

“The opening reception should be fun,” says Wilson. “We will have some sort of closing reception, as several elements of the exhibit will be developing.”

The free galleries are open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, call 777-3258.

Busy times at Tinman

The Tinman Gallery, 811 Garland Ave., is hopping with three art-related events planned for the next few days:

• On Friday between 6 and 9 p.m., Spokane artist Ken Frybarger will be “heating things up during his contemporary glass marble and paperweight demonstration,” says gallery owner Sue Bradley.

• Saturday between 1 and 6 p.m. is devoted to Kids Craft Day. Children create their own “Chihuly” bowls, only these will be edible. Materials fee is $5.

• Next Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m., Tinman Gallery is hosting “The DaVinci Code Forum.” Artist Ruben Trejo will chair a panel discussion on the art and history related to the best-selling book. Tickets are $15 and include a light buffet; preregistration is recommended. Call 325-1500.