2nd & Blair Artists Collective

The 2^nd & Blair Artists Collective is an independent group of artists in the Whit who share studios in the Historic Pierce Building, where they occasionally open to the public. The holidays are one of those times, and despite the heavy snow today, the galleries were open.
Each of the little stores also functions as the studio space for the artist, so you can look around and see where the art is created. For the holiday events, they have free snacks and drinks, and they invite other artists to share the space with them. Today we mostly saw ceramics, painting, glasswork, jewelry, and modern art. The quality varied from ‘quirky local’ to some really high quality, beautiful pieces.
The only thing I didn’t care for was a mask with a bunch of George W. Bush faces on it, which was entitled «A Really Scarey Mask» I may be a Green Party voter who dislikes Bush as much as the next liberal, but that just seemed petty. I wouldn’t buy from an artist who felt they had to make such cheap shots to gain the sympathy of the ultra liberal hippie community in Eugene.
The other art was lovely though, I particularly enjoyed the work of Betsy Wolfston who makes paintings on ceramic. While the overwhelming theme was «Put A Bird On It», I found some very striking small landscape paintings of a slightly abstract nature. The smaller ones were mounted on wood, and only $ 50. They would make nice gifts, and I will likely return to get one next week.
In short: Check it out whenever they open for special events, or get in touch with the artists directly to come see their work.