Arts DEVOté

Color me impressed
There’s nothing more frustrating in the artistic process than having to interrupt the artistic process. But what if it didn’t have to be interrupted? What if the time spent on work and on errands and on sleep were reclaimed by you artists and the hours could be placed in front of you in uninterrupted succession? How long could you go on making art? At the Crux Artist Collective’s 48² workshop/exhibition/performance/party/sleepover last weekend the art-making went on, as promised, for 48 hours straight, and then some.

Saturday, 12 a.m.:
Arts DEVOté parachuted into the appropriately billed “collaborative journey” at exactly midnight. The Shankers were rolling the last of the gear out the door from the show earlier in the night, and in the back room of the Crux, a handful of artists had already been at it for hours. As soon as the stage had been cleared, the main room filled up to watch founding Cruxter Terry Dote (visiting from Portland) do a performance piece that involved a Styrofoam ice chest, a tray of kitten figurines and an inflatable pig birthed from his crotch. So it begins …

Saturday, 6:30 p.m.:
“We’re trusting each other and doing whatever we feel like,” said Crux member and 482 point man Ty Gorton. The manifestation of that beautiful sentiment is still forming in these relatively quiet moments before the live music returns to the stage. Gorton, who’s also a CN&R staff designer, says the previous night was a long, wild one, with live performances serenading the art-makers until sun-up. The collaborative pieces are just beginning to hit the walls and the shared paint is beginning to build up all over the bodies of the artists.

Sunday, 8:30 a.m.:
It’s addictive. I’m at www.48squared.com, hypnotized by the stuttering action inside the Crux being captured on the slowly refreshing Webcam. Artist stands staring at a canvas on the ground. Artist sits and stares. Artist crosses legs. Oh yeah! (Man, there is paint splattered everywhere!)

Sunday, 11:59 p.m.:
I’m a little apprehensive about what might be waiting for me on the other side as I open the front door of the Crux just before midnight. One foot in and my boot sticks to the once-black floor and it is obvious that the art-making (or paint throwing) escalated significantly over the past 24 hours. Painter Siena gives the smiling art troopers a send-off with her first-ever performance piece, and the experiment is done. The crew went “way past” its goal of 48 pieces in 48 hours, and the handful on the walls in the main room are big and fun and expressive. The Crux will present the pieces and live music, Sun., Nov. 18, at Lost on Main (reception, 7-9 p.m.; more fun, 9 p.m.-2 a.m.).

Next up at the Crux, the opening of the Open-Open Open-Entry Show Thurs., Nov. 15.

Bi-Weekly Devotion
Last year, local poet/illustrator/calligrapher/street-philosopher Franz Cilensek died at the age of 72, and at this year’s downtown Christmas Preview the man of many hats will be celebrated with a tribute to his time spent wearing the red one with fuzzy white trim. The latest Luminary Art Bench will be unwrapped Sun., Nov. 18, at 5 p.m. in front of Magna Carta (113 W. Second St.), where Cilensek took advantage of his natural Santa beard and assumed the role every year, even writing in calligraphy the names and wishes of the children who visited him.