Annual event to celebrate the arts

While balls of clay might render images of children working with the pliable substance to create their own art, Salem Art Association is raffling off 10 professional designed commemorative pieces in their aptly named 10th Annual Clay Ball on February 28.

The evening event, which kicks off with a wine reception and silent auction at 6 p.m., is an event for artists and art supporters alike held at the Salem Conference Center. This year's theme of local color will be seen in the "homegrown" auction packages that are to highlight Oregon based items from Ashland to Astoria.

A dinner and live auction are scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. The menu features a spinach, frisse, and radicchio salad, herb marinated wild salmon, papperdelle with mushrooms ragu, artisan bread, and more. The meal is finished off with a chocolate pot de creme with fresh Oregon berries and Chantilly cream.

Tickets, available at Bush Barn Art Center, Mary Lou Zeek Gallery, and Greenbaum's Quilted Forest, for the event are $75 per person, which includes the wine and cocktail reception, hors d'oeuvres, and the three course meal.

Proceeds from the event to the Salem Art Association it programming, from exhibits at the Bush Barn Art Center and Bush House Museum to in-school art programs that reach local students. Each ticket is tax deductible for $25.

Art show by the hundred

Often artists use one visual reference or cue as a starting point for a work of art. An upcoming show at Mary Lou Zeek takes this concept one step further, sending out a prop that artists then add on to in whatever unique way is desired.

During the month of February, the 6th Annual 100 Artists show brings together 100 are artists in its presentation entitled "Inside-Out, Educating Without Boundaries." Participating artists, both local and out-of-state, were each sent a book by mail and asked to use the prop as the starting point for their piece of art.

Artists will have had three months to transform, infuse, reduce or reinvent the book into their art piece.

Each piece will be up for auction during the exhibit's run. The show opens on February 3 at 10 a.m. Though the exhibit runs until the end of the month, bidding ends on the 27th. Beginning bids are $50.

Sales of the "books" will benefit the non-profit organization Friends of Pimpollo. This organization serves the needs of underprivileged youth and families by emphasizing the sharing of stories and collaborative work in hopes of eradicating illiteracy and innumeracy.