Parodies of popular culture and small personal paintings by the iconoclastic commercial artist John Pound are on display October 4 through November 2 at Humboldt State University’s First Street Gallery in Eureka.

The exhibition, titled His Secret Life, surveys Pound’s art in the form of commercial works, illustrated comic drawings, comic book covers, computer-aided graphic designs and even images printed on multiple skateboard decks.

From his work for Mad Magazine to his Garbage Pail Kids and candy box designs, Pound’s central idea is “do what you can to get away from the norm.” His commercial and personal pieces are distinctive, but they both employ subversion through loaded imagery that depicts uncanny circumstances.

Pound lampoons society’s moral constructs, using his work to express rebellion. His fascination with the subversive is most evident in his commercial illustrations, such as the Garbage Pail Kids series of the 1980s, which was collected by children nationwide. The images express youthful mutiny by emphasizing weird and grotesque behavior.

The First Street Gallery exhibit also includes raw and humorous images Pound created in collaboration with Shorty’s Skateboard Company and its sponsored riders. Called Nasty Wrestling Bastards, these works are presented on the gallery’s walls.

The exhibit reflects the variety of the artist’s methods, including sketches, painting, airbrushing and digitally produced works.

A child of the 1950s who grew up in San Diego, Pound has worked primarily as a commercial artist on commission, but the First Street Gallery exhibit includes his personal pieces. Illustrative is Pound’s Woo-Woo series, a non-commercial collection of small paintings that explore human behavior and emotion. Using the motif of a series of imaginary comic book covers, he composes complex images in a story line that is neither easily digestible nor easily dismissed by the viewer. In each painting, the protagonist, a Candide-like character named Eyewiz, is placed in compromising and tragic predicaments. Eyewiz always seems to be on the brink of either discovery or despair. These images not only reveal a darker side of Pound’s observations of relationships--mortality and ambiguity--but also employ the entertaining visual codes of a comic strip.

A public reception for the artist will be held during Eureka Main Street’s Arts Alive! on Saturday, October 4, from 6-9 p.m. The exhibit is produced by the interns of the Museum and Gallery Practices Program at Humboldt State University.

First Street Gallery is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m., and is located at 422 First Street, Eureka, California. Admission is always free.

For more information, call 707/443-6363. School groups are encouraged to call ahead for tours.

The exhibition presents new paintings and mixed-media sculpture by four alumni art majors from Humboldt State University. The exhibition includes new paintings by Nicholas Bustamante, Lien Truong, and Victoria Wagner and mixed media sculpture by Marina Vendrell. "Honors Alumni: New Works" has been organized and curated by Leslie K. Price and Teresa Stanley who both teach in the Art Department at Humboldt State.

They both explained the exhibition as "art made by four alumni of Humboldt State University. The common thread that unites these four artists is not a stylistic or a conceptual one. They are related simply because all of them, at one time or another, were students in a class offered by the Art Department at Humboldt State University called Honors Painting."

The Fish That Vould Not Swim II, Nicholas Bustamante, 2002, Oil on canvas Honors Painting was developed nearly ten years ago for students who expressed a desire to spend more time developing a portfolio competitive enough to gain admission to graduate school.

It was envisioned as a bridge between the structured world of art classes and the larger art world.

Price and Stanley go on to say, "In many ways, the four artists in this exhibition have achieved what we hope that all students who pass through Honors Painting will achieve. All four have tangible evidence of professional success.

They have all completed their Masters of Fine Arts and are presently enjoying active careers as exhibiting artists and teachers.

Daphne, Marina Vendrell, 2002, Mink, yarn, pullable sound device Equally crucial to their success however are the less tangible qualities that they all share-a dedication and commitment to making art as a way of life and a deep engagement with their work on a critical and intellectual level.

These qualities are perhaps less obvious to the casual observer of their art as they take form in isolation during long and sometimes frustrating hours in the studio.

The reward for such perseverance is found later in work such as theirs that has evolved steadily becoming strong, original and exciting."

A reception for the artists will be held on February 1st from 6-9pm during Eureka Main Street's Arts Alive program.

First Street Gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m. and is located at 422 First Street, Eureka, CA. Admission is free to all. School groups are encouraged to call ahead to arrange tours. For more information call 707-443-6363.

This new exhibition presents paintings and works on paper by two professors of art at Humboldt State University.

Price and Stanley make abstract paintings, influenced by their personal experiences. Price paints lush abstractions based on his observations of plant and other natural forms into complex and colorful compositions.

He attributes his boyhood explorations of Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, New York, as a formative experience. "I have drawn inspiration from looking at the mystery, impermanence, and unpredictability of the life force of nature through its manifestation of form, color and light. I paint abstractly to get at the essence of what I am sensing and to evoke a similar response in the painting," Price states.

Stanley's abstractions are filled with color, illusionistic space, and built-in voids.

"What interests me is the space between things; the fragile and accidental meeting of form in space, guided by my narrative sensibilities. This is my way of finding meaning in all of the unexpected yet inevitable twists and turns of daily existence," Stanley says.

Her most recent work belongs to a series that she refers to as her "Keyhole" paintings. She says the series was inspired by two significant life changing events-the birth of her son and the death of her father.

"As I thought about my work during this period, the image of a keyhole kept appearing to me. The keyholes or breaks, as I imagined them, were like dents or imperfections in a membrane through which either miracles or disasters could enter. I began carving slits and holes into the surface of my paintings and worked my images around these voids. I worked to make the painted image, bend and contort in order to accommodate all of the openings in the picture plane," she said.

A reception for the artists will be held on February 1st from 6-9pm during Eureka Main Street's Arts Alive program.

First Street Gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m. and is located at 422 First Street, Eureka, CA. Admission is free to all. School groups are encouraged to call ahead to arrange tours. For more information call 707-443-6363.

"Meeting Ground: Thirty Years of Paintings Done on Site by Robert Benson," a showcase of watercolor landscapes, will be celebrated at Humboldt State's First Street Gallery April 1 through May 18, 2003.

Benson, a member of the Tsnungwe Tribe of the Trinity River region, has taught art at College of the Redwoods in Eureka for nearly 30 years. A public reception for the artist will be held during Eureka Main Street's Arts Alive! on April 5 from 6 to 9 p.m.

Primarily a watercolor painter, Benson works outdoors at carefully chosen sites, as a personal exploration of the natural world.

Growing up on a small ranch on the Trinity River, he spent much of his time outdoors and was impacted by the cycles of seasonal activity.

In what he calls the "re-sacrilezation" of the land, Benson paints plein air landscapes that have a deep history, or that have become sacred to him during his time spent there.

He attempts not to portray the natural world as it appears, but to communicate a sense, or experience, of his surroundings. "When I go to a place to paint I plan to meet natural forces. My paintings are the way these places and forces could possibly look to me," he said. 

The final product of Benson's paintings are "meeting grounds," dictated by a personal connection with natural surroundings.

"Through my father and my tribe, I am an heir to an ancient belief system that the earth, weather, plant and animal life and all the features of the natural landscape," Benson explains. "Certain places, animals, events become a meeting ground for an encounter with the unknown forces and experiences of great fortune as well as great misfortune."

The exhibition is curated by the students in the Museum and Gallery Practices Program at Humboldt State. The gallery is open to the public Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. It is located at 422 First Street, Eureka. Admission is free. School groups are encouraged to call ahead for tours. For more information, call 443-6363.

Provocative collage-inspired paintings by North Coast native Jeff Jordan are on tap October 4 through November 2 at Humboldt State University’s First Street Gallery in Eureka.

The exhibition, titled Obsession Management, is a survey of Jordan’s work from the past 15 years. The collage series comprises multiform images, cultural iconography and bold, colorful design. Using acrylic paints and airbrush, Jordan compiles disjointed images to create a new pictorial experience.

His objective is to confuse, mystify and “stir things up” for viewers, encouraging them to think about the world around them. He loves any reaction he can evoke in observers, whether positive or negative, as long as his work triggers some type of emotion.

Jordan makes his works with well-crafted, realistic imagery depicting very fanciful, unimaginable situations. For instance, giant barnyard animals in pedestrian scenes are the subjects of a recent series.

Observers of these works crowding the walls of his studio might feel they have stepped into a salon where images from some other world are recorded and displayed. By virtue of Jordan’s intense study of classical styles and his facile ability to draw and paint photo-like images, his paintings seem to confirm the existence of these inventions borne of his fertile imagination. Within the body of his work lie two distinct phases, collage and “American Mythology.”

Among the influences Jordan cites on his work are Rick Griffin, Northern Renaissance painting and the 15th century Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch (Jerome van Aken). He says the life-long literary influence on his art is the U.S. experimentalist and fabulist author Thomas Pynchon. Jordan is a well-known and active contributor to the North Coat art scene.

A public reception for the artist will be held during Eureka Main Street’s Arts Alive! on Saturday, October 4th, from 6-9 p.m. The exhibit is produced by the interns of the Museum and Gallery practices program at Humboldt State University.

First Street Gallery is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m., and is located at 422 First Street, Eureka, California. Admission is always free.

For more information, call 707/443-6363. School groups are encouraged to call ahead for tours.

"Responding to the Landscape," an exhibition of paintings and watercolors by Jim McVicker, will show at the Humboldt State First Street Gallery April 1 through May 18.

The paintings are part of the gallery's ongoing "Art and Environment" series, an exploration of how artists' interpretations of environmental issues influence society's perceptions of nature and science. A public reception for the artist will be held during Eureka Main Street's Arts Alive! on April 5 from 6 to 9 p.m.

Eel River Fall, 2002, oil on panel McVicker's paintings aim to illuminate the splendor of pristine landscapes. "We are losing so much of this planet every day that we, as individuals, need to reevaluate our priorities, make changes and once again hold up beauty as a great ideal," he said.

As a young man, McVicker was "jolted to life by looking at landscape paintings." He made his living in Southern California by painting houses during the day and canvases at night. Within three years he committed himself full-time to the canvas. Since then, he has found inspiration in the diversity and beauty of Northern California.

For McVicker's plein air (painted outdoors) landscapes, he works on five to six canvases at once, keeping a careful eye on the sun's position.

"Years ago, I would work three and four hours on a landscape, but I've become so sensitive to the changing light that an hour and half is my limit now. This may mean working on a painting for as many as 25 sessions, returning to the same site, but the end result is worth the effort and patience. When the painting conveys the emotion and essence of that first hand experience, then it is complete," he said.

In his work, McVicker seeks to express the "elusive spiritual energy, the mystery of nature and life, [and] the unknown."

Valley Fog, 2002, oil on panelA Humboldt County resident for 27 years, McVicker is an accomplished artist. He is represented by the Hackett-Freedman Gallery in San Francisco and has exhibited nationwide. His portfolio includes still life, portraiture and landscape paintings.

The exhibition is produced and curated by the students in the Museum and Gallery Practices Program at Humboldt State.

The gallery is open to the public Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. It is located at 422 First Street, Eureka. Admission is free. School groups are encouraged to call ahead for tours. For more information, call 443-6363.