Check out this short video of my studio while in residence, produced by fellow resident and artist, Ren Allathkani.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Auis17rRXdI

My poured and stenciled fabric, in process, pinned on the backside of the Old Shop. Its colors are drawn from the Whychus Creek and the brilliantly hued lichen that covers many of its rocks and a natural occurring dichotomy, being both a potential toxin as well as an air purifier and indicator of healthy air.

PMRCAA Notes Four…

We need to see ourselves physically and emotionally within the context of the environment. Even the most accomplished pictorial work, if it does not physically surround us, acts as a window through which we view the land but not necessarily experience it. Pattern, however, can envelop its wearer, the viewer.

The day-glo colors of lichen—fluorescent yellow-green, hot orange—distinguish themselves within the more expected and natural hues of the Whychus Creek riparian zone. On the National Park Service website it’s written, “Lichens are a paradox…durable enough to grow on tree bark and bare rock, yet sensitive to pollution and air quality.” nps.gov/articles/lichens-and-air-quality.htm. Becky Lukens shared that same thought with me, that the Wolf Lichen (the outrageously lime green variety) is an indicator of air quality. By the way, despite being nature's own air purifier and thriving in pristine environments, it’s been concocted into a toxin to poison wolves (hence the name). A vibrant warning sign and a deadly color.

It was only a matter of time before the colors of lichen appeared in the work. They exploded across a large piece of fabric—poured, dripped and sprayed, then stenciled and left over night and pinned to the backside of the Old Shop.

https://roundhousefoundation.org/pine-meadow-ranch/programs/

IMAGE:
Lichen-covered rocks, Whychus Creek

PMRCAA Notes Three…

 
Witnessed with co-resident, Ren Allathkani, this year’s Perseid Meteor Shower at the end of our driveway. Saw about 10-12 comets—one was a huge bulbous flash, its outer edges rimmed with brilliant blue-blue green. We also witnessed the Northern Lights—vivid fuchsia, green and yellow—as well as the Milky Way. Literally a star-studded show…spectacular!

Those colors and the awesome, un-realness of the experience (while being incredibly real) will find their way in my palette, I’m certain of it. But, for the present, they’ll swim in the depths of my imagination as I wait for them to come up for air.

https://roundhousefoundation.org/pine-meadow-ranch/programs/

IMAGE:
Perseid Meteor Shower, August, 2024

Detail of new work done at PMRCAA that incorporates patterns derived from the Rocky Mountain Bee Plant and Aspen leaves.
Acrylic, aerosol paint on paper with cut outs, mirrored paper, stenciled screening overlay.

PMRCAA Notes Two …

Spoke with the ranch’s amazing Garden/Floral Program Development Manager, Pam Wavrin, re: the plants I’m encountering and their sustainability. I learned the difference between naturalized and native species. Plants, that while not native to the local environment have, nonetheless, adapted to and positively integrated themselves over a long period of time to the area are considered naturalized. As a transplant from New Jersey, after relocating to Oregon way last century, I finally know how to identify myself. I’m a “naturalized” Oregonian.

Pam shared with me and explained the three-leaved plant that has intrigued me on my daily walking “commute” to my Old Shop studio—the Rocky Mountain Bee Plant. It’s extremely hardy and drought resistant, perfect for the increasingly dry conditions experienced. Native to the PNW, as well as other locations throughout the West, its flower is a collection of many small, multi petaled and red-violet bloom, particularly attractive to bees, wasps…and me. It has numerous and very long roots that allow it to survive in harsh conditions with zero watering needed. It’s beautiful and a survivor. Pam pointed out that, when gardening sustainably, the plants aren’t necessarily on our time—they’re on theirs. Things might be slower, less production-oriented. In other words, take a breath….

https://roundhousefoundation.org/pine-meadow-ranch/programs/

IMAGE:

Rocky Mountain Bee Plant in bloom

PMRCAA Notes One…

Started working in earnest in the studio—mixing concentrated watercolors to replicate the different colors of the pervasive smoke and the sky’s desaturated, veiled hues that render the landscape impenetrable. Apart from the poetic metaphor implied by haze, the reality of the numerous wildfires that plague the region, beginning earlier and earlier each summer, cannot be ignored but are instead, witnessed through the work.

As we alter the land, we alter the culture and ourselves; our collective and individual existence and beliefs are inexorably coupled with the environment, its patterns and well-being.

Biodiversity is an important part of what makes life livable on Earth. The value of ecological and cultural diversity plays out both actually and metaphorically within a society. Environmental degradation and crisis, along with cultural occupation--through war, genocide, geographic expansion and the imposition of the dominant groups beliefs and customs--are similar to the encroachment of non-native species that take root and threaten whole eco-systems. The often tenuous balance between industry, human desire and the environment are dramas currently being played out on cultural and ecological stages world-wide.

https://roundhousefoundation.org/pine-meadow-ranch/programs/

IMAGE:
View from Hammond House, Mt. Washington - August, 2024

Cafe' 541 Column, The "A" Word...October 10, 2019 "Farm Team Culture"
https://www.registerguard.com/entertainmentlife/20191009/cafe-541-caprario-farm-team-culture-of-art-world?fbclid=IwAR1beJj22hV5ZuynE2J2eFcuRh48c4PLdONQG9rtF5PPH9v3v6l3pvMWyMg

Cafe' 541 Column, "Art, Money & Truth Walk Into a Bar..." August 2019
https://www.registerguard.com/entertainmentlife/20190815/cafe-541-art-money-and-truth-walk-into-bar-?fbclid=IwAR1UaU1K7KrmHR4Jf0l_hUrLdWV4pQIKA8CZs5vCuvtjbl59UFhQDeUBEHA

Cafe' 541 Column - "Cultural Gravity: Trickle Down or Percolate Up?"
https://www.registerguard.com/entertainmentlife/20190925/cafe-541-cultural-gravity-trickle-down-or-percolate-up

I am pleased to present my mixed media installation "Patterns of Privilege - A Reading Room" in this year's faculty show. Artist reception is on October 16, 4:30-6 p.m. and I will be giving an Artist Talk on Monday, October 28, 3 p.m., both events in the Roger Hall Gallery, LCC Main Campus, Eugene.

Check out my latest column, "Farm Team Culture" published in Cafe' 541.
https://www.registerguard.com/entertainmentlife/20191009/cafe-541-caprario-farm-team-culture-of-art-world?fbclid=IwAR1beJj22hV5ZuynE2J2eFcuRh48c4PLdONQG9rtF5PPH9v3v6l3pvMWyMg

My mixed media on paper piece, Patterns of Privilege - Say Her Name, was awarded the Mayor's Prize at the 2019 Mayor's Art Show, Eugene, OR. MAS is an integral part of Eugene's Visual Arts Week and sponsored by the City of Eugene's Cultural Services Program.

Several of my artworks have been accepted for publication in Salann Magazine, an online visual arts portfolio.

Several of my bioDIVERSITY images have been selected for publication in Talking Writing, an online magazine.

I am very pleased to be included in ArtVoices Magazine's just released "Tenth Anniversary Issue."
Artist, Founder and Editor-In-Chief, Terrence Sanders, has curated and presented the periodical that has become a forum for images, ideas, words and actions. Thank you, Terrence!

In March 2019 I will be producing my first public mural for the Mahonia Building, Downtown Eugene, OR. The project is sponsored by the City of Eugene's Urban Canvas Public Art Program with in-kind support from Lane Community College. The 8'x 30' piece, titled "Mahonia Dreaming" depicts the ridge line and hills that surround the area, an abstracted and repeated pattern based on the mahonia plant (Oregon Grape) and dynamically painted, colorful mahonia flowers.

I received a Career Opportunity Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission to support my residency in 2018 at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and subsequent work.