From May 14th through the 17th Portland will host Open Engagement: Making Things, Making Things Better, Making Things Worse. This conference says it will challenge our traditional ideas of what art is and does. It will present artists, projects and events which will mediate the contemporary frameworks of art as service, as social space, as activism, as interactions, and as relationships.
One of the events is Plein Air Smackdown (see poster above), the brainstorm of Mark R. Smith who teaches at PCC. Painting students from PCC, PSU and OCAC will have a painting competition of sorts. Susan Harlan, Michelle Ross and Vicki Lynn Wilson will be my guests on Art Focus to talk about that event and the conference as a whole. I get to referee the Smackdown with Jeff Jahn and am really looking forward to it.