Oregon Art Beat; #418

Tonight, on Oregon Art Beat, gather with commercial fishermen as they anchor up an ass story at a share what you may not expect, songs and poems from the sea. Look over the shoulder of the artist known as Milo, as he torches an oil painting to create his art just as he does for the Grammy Awards crowd and meet a fiber artist, designer, extraordinaire who spent many years creating one of a kind pieces for the likes of Fleetwood Mac. Oregon Art Beat is next. Support for Oregon Art Beat has been provided by the following, the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, the Allen Foundation for the Arts, and O .B. Media. Good evening, I'm Kasey Cowan, and I'm Gray Ubank. Welcome to another edition of Oregon Art Beat. We have a jam packed show, so

let's get started, Kasey. Okay, many of our artists gain national and even international attention. Our first artist is one of those, and producer Jessica Martin is here to tell us about her, and you're going to give us a sneak preview of her work with this beautiful outfit you're wearing. Yes, thank you, Kasey, isn't it lovely? This is the Paris 1920s bias cut jacket made by artist Kayla Kennington. Her work has been seen all over the world, and she recently came to the O .B. Studios to give Art Beat a look at her award -winning designs. Putting together garments is engineering. It is. Yeah, that's fun. And it has a lot of criteria that you have to focus on. Fiber artist Kayla Kennington knows what she's talking about. She used to work in high -tech in California, but an island vacation changed all that. I was working in electronics, designing the layout of integrated circuits in the

70s. I took a vacation to Hawaii, and while I was there, I met Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, and Chris McVee, and they saw some of my embroidery I was doing, because in the evenings, from working in high -tech with a reputograph pen and doing all this really left -brain kind of work in a way, I would do embroidery and kind of relax. So I showed them some of the embroidery I had done. Oh, we want some of that, you know? So I said, okay, sure, I'll do it. And so Christine McVee said, well, I need it down the right side of a pair of pants, because that's a side that shows on stage when I'm playing the piano. So I did it. She said, I'll make it worth your while, you know? But of course it took about 400 hours by hand to do from the ankle, and she's a tall woman. Inspired to start sewing for someone other than herself, Kayla began designing and making one of a kind garments, often hand -dying silk fabric. Shibori is an ancient Japanese method of dyeing, where this is a rashi shibori, which means pull wrap.

Kayla learned to sew from her grandmother, who taught her to use her instincts, not patterns. And I remember getting my first pattern and going, what? What's a facing? What's all this stuff? And not having a clue about zippers. So I just said to heck with that stuff, I'm not using it. Instead, she remained true to her unique, non -traditional designs, even when she went back to school to study fashion design and merchandising. This is the vest for the harvest gown, and I did it for the cover of Sonoma Style magazine. And then this piece is the modern Japanese bride, and this was a showpiece not very wearable. And then this was a piece that I actually wore with a pair of gold silk pants, I wore it in Taiwan. And here's a fun piece. This

was my winning piece in college. And actually, it's a very special piece to me, because about six weeks after the show, my grandma, who was 96 and a half, then, found out she had cancers, so she wasn't going to live much longer. So we had a party, and it was kind of bittersweet. So I went in the other room and put this on, and I came out, did on, spun around with all the tubes flying here in fringes. And she burst into tears, and she said, God is all around you. She had tears running down her face, and the thing is that I think I was doing the creative sewing for her. I was like, she was living through me in a way. And so that was really kind of special. And then about three weeks later, I went to the hospital to say goodbye, and I said, grandma, you know the red outfit? And she said, yeah, and I said, it's only the beginning. Here's the front. Today, Kayla is working on a three

-piece mother -of -the -bride outfit for one of her special customers. It's made out of silk from Vietnam. I have a program that helps me with the little quilt. It's now three inches, and I think I'll make it 2 .5 inches. A traditional American quilt piece, the pineapple pattern, will be the finishing touch. Though for years, these unique silk garments were made only by Kayla. That's about to change. She's decided to sell patterns of her designs and teach people how to use them. And now that I'm over 50, I get to be a mentor, and I really love the teaching. It's really kind of fun. This, you can see, is just panels. So there are tubes like this, that all I do is take the tubes, I lay them out.

So there's five across the back, and two on each side in the front, and then the lapel. Today, she's teaching a class at a common thread in Lake Oswego. Hey, so we go to zigzag stitch. Students are learning a few techniques that, until now, have been Kayla's secrets. What's neat about this is it's actually reversible when you do it. You could wear it on either side. The inside is clean as the outside, and that was one of the things that I had to be really careful of when I was doing real high -end garments, is that you can't have fuzzy linings or anything like that. You can't have little hairs sticking out. You have to have it as perfect on the inside as the up. So I developed this technique. And all I do is finish each panel, and then I connect them with a little bar tap. It's really easy. It's just a zigzag, very close together. Super, put, press foot down. Okay, press foot up. Little on. Are you new to sewing? Yes. You're doing great. I actually

decided that I was done doing the custom and one of a kind clothing pretty much. I actually have a few people that I still work for because they big me. No, I have weddings to go to. What am I going to wear? So I decided that I wanted to teach more, and I started writing for Threads magazine and doing how to kind of articles. What I'd really like to do though is to have my patterns and articles and teaching support me in a way so I can really do some more fun things and do my real art. This is what she calls her real art. Show pieces like the stunning opera coat. It was the 2001 Crem de la Crem winner at the International Bernina Fashion Show. The theme of this show was Renaissance and something I always wanted to do

and always really loved with the old Chinese garments and how beautifully you know the the for royalty, the beautifully embroidered garments and everything. So I decided to do something that was reminiscent of the old Chinese garments but done with new technology because really that's what Renaissance was. It was the introduction of technology and how that really changed the world at the time. So what I did was instead of doing the embroidery by hand here, I have a sewing machine hooked to my computer. I can draw an image, scan it in. I can have send it over to my sewing machine and my sewing machine actually stitches out my embroidery designs. So I called it the butterfly coat and not only did I do the butterfly there but I made it look like a butterfly. It's done with a fiber collage technique and abstract fiber

collage technique that I came up with and it was it's using my scraps from other projects that I had for years. Then I put it on a backing of some roofing batting and then I pin all the fabrics on there and then I go over it with a quilting stitch and they fuse together and so that becomes the fabric. Kayla was honored by Bernina again in 2002. Fireblossom Phoenix was the Crem de la Crem. I guess it's a calling. It's just what I do and you know I can do I could go do another job but this is really what I do. I mean I think that you know Cremma was there showing me how to use machine at four my moms and ours my dad's an engineer you know it's just I got placed into this situation and it's just what I do. If you'd like to see that

fabulous butterfly coat for yourself you're in luck. Kayla's work will be on display at Whitney Moore until March 19th. Whitney Moore is at 202 Northwest 13th Avenue. Oh those were absolutely breathtaking outfits and I understand if you'd really want to try and make one for yourself well you can buy Kayla's patterns at Josephine's dry goods in downtown Portland. Jessica you're going to give that a try? I am Casey. Good after you succeed you can make one for me. I can't so look. Thank you Jessica. Thank you. We've profiled a lot of painters on Artbeat but we've never profiled one as well as hot as this one. He's not only popular he works with fire literally. Tom Dantoni joins us with Moore about a Eugene man who calls himself Milo Milo. First we'll show you how this remarkable artist takes a sheet of metal, oil paint, fire and turns it into torched art and then we'll let you in on this connection with the Grammy Awards. Remember Milo is not a musician he's an artist just watch. I

start off with a 300 series stainless steel and it has no finish on it it's just a Mil finish. We're so used to seeing artists put color on canvas. What is that? This is 18 years worth of study. This is me playing around and trying to come up with something that would burn into the metal and leave colors after it's burnt and it's just my which is brew. Secret recipe. That's my secret recipe. That's where the real action is. So what do you anticipate happening with this? This one we should get something that's kind of violin tones something that's nicely aged wood with a little bit of fun in there maybe a little bit of wine is red and and a little bit of brown and

now it's ready to burn. The burning will set the cup and I have different stages where I call it browning and blacking and the burning will actually burn my paint mixture off of the metal so that when you actually rub the metal there's nothing there. It's torched oil painting. Is anything about how this looks now surprised you? Yeah a little bit. What? Well it's just about this point I'm always I'm always a little bit confused on where it's at

and then after I spray it down I spray it down with a little bit of my liquid which is brew. Are you changing it by how you spray or is it actually yeah I am changing by the way it's I've got to watch the hotter spots on it and if I don't I get big wrinkles in the metal in the beginning I got big wrinkles on every piece of metal but no I'm much more relaxed about it. A lot of these areas are actually going to come off when I rub it down I do a hand oil rub and and a lot of it does come off and and that's where the surprise is at. But wait you're still wondering about the Grammy connection while Milo is rubbing his painting down will let you in on it. I put a few paintings out and I guess I caught a big fish with one of them. I had one at we say a hoe? Yeah

actually I at Joe Federico's Jazz Bar in downtown Eugene, Oregon. He's got a jazz guitar and he's got it up on a door and a promoter for the Grammy's actually sought and after that she had to find out who did that painting and she found me and I did a couple paintings for them and sent them down and they liked them so much that they put me in the Grammys. The next step I was in the Grammy Awards and playing and going from parties to parties and and doing things that I'd never thought I would do. That is so Hollywood. Yeah very very Hollywood very Hollywood very late night Hollywood. Who has your work in their in their homes that we might recognize? Well there's some really big names that I've learned I can't mention. Isn't that frustrating? It is kind of frustrating it's in the very beginning I

was pretty excited. I was pretty excited and I've learned that I've got to watch my tongue a little bit and there you know I can understand that celebrities are celebrities and go from there. That was last year Milo will be at next weekend's Grammys too and he's made a piece honoring this year's person of the year Bono of you too. That will be Bono in the middle eventually. The rest of it will look like these wings Milo has come a long way in a short time. What do you think so far? I think it looks pretty good. I think that I'll leave it and I'll go ahead and dry it off and rub it down. I think it's a I think it's a finished piece. Is that what you were going for? Yeah absolutely it's it's dark and it's

got a lot of its own character already so that's where I want it. Let's see that's finished. I actually think it considered myself more of a metal craftsman first and the paintings have actually brought out the musician in me. Do you know anybody else is doing Torch Laurel? Not yet. No, no.

I'm sure there'll be others but that's okay. It's a good direction now. You're the man? I'm the man. I started it. Milo's art includes beautiful metal work for private homes. Oh it looks beautiful. He's even a dog sighted. He's delivering a table for a home at the Pfeiffer winery in Eugene that features much of his work. This is perfect. And the piece we saw him make it did end up at the chat when Stapleton Gallery in Portland called it Art Beat Axe. You know I think that is the first piece ever named after this show. Milo is also working on Torch's painting featuring flowers and fruit. You can see some more of his work on his website at Milo'sArt .com. What a break. Just shows you how much luck is involved in success. You're right. He

could have been working for another 10 years in relative obscurity if one person hadn't walked into a bar in Eugene that night. Timing is everything. Thanks Thomas. If you're looking for a fun winter weekend on the coast, how does hanging out with a bunch of fishermen sound? And instead of fishing, suppose they read you their poetry? Well it turns out that Astoria is home to the only gathering of Fisher poets in the United States. Art Beat attended last year's gathering and came back with a heck of a fish tail. Welcome back to Astoria. The guy asked me one time what it's like to get up in the morning and go crab fishing. And I came up with this one. This call, let's go take a look. Every February, Northwest commercial fishermen shake off winter's chill and share their salty tails at the Astoria Fisher Poets Gathering. He was a gillenter's son from Clifton, scratching an ocean itch with a 40 -foot boat and 400 pots, niggie or his cinnavich. I'm a salmon troller, I

say the numb to see, yuck a salmon troller, I were thanking me. It's a two -day celebration of poetry, prose and song. It happens along the waterfront here at the wet dog brewery and a couple of doors down. The Jenny Lynn is lying in state on a beach on raspberry island with a little little room. The idea for a Fisher poet's gathering began with a man who just wanted to see his old fishing buddies again. I thought she'd be great to have a reunion. Just a fisherman's reunion, a family reunion of fishermen. And here in Astoria because it's a convenient town with the right kind of history. And people came. Some from as far as Alaska and Hawaii to spend a weekend sharing fishing stories. This troller from Hammond sought to catch simple salmon but there's nothing simple about it. Tons of stuff he must tote and store in his boat because he can't go fishing without it. To get people who have written about it together and really polished up some of those tales and well at least put them down. Some of the tales we hear over and over year

after year are pretty polished but they haven't written down yet. Crimping pliers, lashing wires, inner tubes and special loops. I guess the thing you'll see if you come to the Fisher poets and you're going to see a lot of characters. Nylon Pointing Salt for Brian, Terminal 6 inch plugs. Well it's your watch kiddo, the captain said, get your butt out of that rack. Now you look like hammered hell there son, I got some Tylenol in my pack. Mahogany staying urethane, pancake turner, propane burger. Laughter and jokes that last me all winter long. So even far away I feel I belong to just a crew on anchor in a golden lit galley. Ball bearing, frozen herring, alternator, insulator. Veed love to go. I don't care much about seal hunting but a trip to the glacier sounds exciting. Simply stated, fishing's complicated and simple salmon was not so dumb.

The party went late into the night but that didn't keep a handful of a gathering's favorites from climbing aboard the cold stream early the next morning to tie some knots and talk fishing. There's Smitty Smith, a fisherman with more than 50 years at sea. Geno Leech, MOBALSTURN, and the skipper of the cold stream David Densmore. Down in the galley over cups of coffee and barking sea lions they talk about what it is about commercial fishing that inspires them to write. It really isn't a pretty dramatic lifestyle. I'm still amazed by it. In fact I want to be about 300 years old when I go because there's too many adventures out there I miss out on. People that aren't in this little weird industry or group don't understand and it's the only place I have to tell my story where people will listen to that from the beginning to the end. When people ask you how was Alaska you know it's pretty hard

to answer in the sentence how your season was but when you get together with folks who've done the same thing for a year and year out there's a lot of nodding ahead you know they know we've shared those experiences together. I like to see a look on a guy's face when here's a poem butchered poem butchered. Here's a poem butchered. Here's a poem butchered. It's triply made or something you know and and I think a lot of guys feel the same way you know. Classic example is I got a friend in the Kodiak. He fishes Kodiak. He lives down here and goes that's down here but he's a real tough guy a tough guy and the first time I told him I was right in poetry. He gave me this look and said poetry. You're right. And I thought we were going to become no more longer friends until I read him a poem and it was a fishing poem. Keep hearing how this way of life is dying in an escalating way. Well, dying implies inevitable when one has had their day but it seems to me there's lots of fish the stocks are still

plenty strong. Government bumbling and over regulation are the main things going wrong. You know he thinks and puts in writing the thoughts that every guy who's ever worked on a fishing boat thinks but there they are and David's expressing it for you in a straightforward way. Commercial fishing is not just a job to shrug off and just walk away to way of life because of pride and defines who we are today. We all and I include myself in this just go complacently along but if we all stood together by God we'd stand tall and strong. What fisherman's threatened down the dark thinks a pencil pusher can kick his ass. The best is what happened in boys if we let it all come to pass. There's this guy from OPB here and I was telling him I was sitting with Dave and Geno and it's meeting and we were talking about what's the job of the crew you know this is what the skipper does and this is what the skiff man does and this is what this guy does but when we talked about the cook and the

cook is really in charge of morale on a boat so I wrote this song for my boat cook that year she was the best boat cook in nine years of fishing that I've ever had Verendos is Murphy you are my galley queen how it biscuits from all point to town and all capes in between they say boat cooks are grumpy but now my Brenda Sue she is the sweetest boat cook to sail the ocean blue they say the quickest way to someone's hardestly they're good I never did believe it thought my life was not that right but then Miss Brenda Susan came bang those pots around she cooked me up a meal so good I ran that boat aground Brenda Susan Murphy you are my galley queen how biscuits from all point to town and all capes in between they say boat cooks are grumpy but now my Brenda Sue I'd be so very happy if she ever said I'd do come spring

most of these people will climb back aboard for another season of fishing and along the way they'll gather more stories for next year's gathering as for Gino he quit commercial fishing but through his poetry maintains his ties to the men and women who make their living on the sea I miss the fish but I don't miss the fishing well I don't miss the bar crossings of the back bringing toils the ice forks and shovels and saltwater boil or diesel followed folks who's ironing board bunks the stink and a sweat of gory and funk I don't miss the buck the bang and a roll kidney punch and norwester's and nut numbing colds are picking dark shark from every mesh in the net then sorting a tote while you stand on your head not very much about fishing that I really miss except bringing home ziplocks with fresh filet fish well some time to the night you know tea cozy warm bed I think of the years that I stood on my head dragon crabman

and albacore jigging yeah I miss the fish but I don't miss the fishing the sixth annual Astoria Fisher poets gathering is February 21st through the 23rd you can find out more about the gathering at this website clatsupcc .edu slash Fisher poets or by calling the Astoria Chamber of Commerce and of course we'll have all this information on the art beat website we just have time for a couple quick suggestions for the art beat calendar this week get a head start on the competition for this year's Da Vinci Days in Corvalus with a kinetic sculpture construction class get tips on steering breaks and flotation and even costumes it's February 15th and the 16th at Falomath High School to register go to www .da Vinci -days .org second street theater in bend offers over the river and through the woods it continues through February 23rd with shows Thursday through Sunday tickets are 15 dollars for more information call five four one three twelve

ninety six twenty six. Portlander Jacqueline Metz returns from the famed Shepherd School of Music at Rice University to perform with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra the concert starts at 8 p .m. on February 15th Metz will perform Sibelius's violin concerto it's at the first united Methodist church on southwest 18th and Jefferson in Portland and that's our show for tonight remember more details about all of our artists can be found on our website opb .org slash art beat hey don't miss next week's show we'll return to the coast to meet a painter who's given up a lot to follow his heart and we'll introduce you to storm who sings torch songs but with a little twist we hope you'll turn us then good night lingonberry you're sabedic tasty down I say if I'm bite of you and I'm not drink with yours am I in Norway

heading for Alaska loading of supplies of Stuttgart the board nearly pops my eyes at the end of the marine supply the grocery and there is and pick ups it's on support for Oregon art beat has been provided by the following the James F. and Marion L. Miller foundation the Allen foundation for the arts and OB media