Art+Culture

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On The Set

In the colorful landscape of Oregon’s film industry, a place connected with such names as Gus Van Sant and Carrie Brownstein, Martin Vavra struggles for recognition. Portland-based Vavra does film and video production through his company, Galaxy Sailor Productions, which came to life after the 40-year-old lost his middle school science teaching job in 2008.

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Dundee: A Junction of Worldly Wines and Small Town Charm

The plan for Jesse Lange was already in the soil of tiny Dundee when he moved there as a 9-year-old. It wasn’t preordained determinism. Oregon’s wine industry back then couldn’t yet be called much of an industry. The soil was new to the noses in the wine world, and most clear thinkers were clearly skeptical of its potential. Oregon wine was what Californian wine-growers considered to be the hooch of a few hippies who had lost the points on their compass, errant souls swept up in a northerly trade wind.

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Mat Kearney’s Top 5

Mat Kearney was born in Eugene, played soccer at South Eugene High and again at Chico State University, a Division II program in California. It was there that he picked up his roommate’s guitar and distinguished himself as a talented crooner and balladeer.

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Interview: Solar Energy Research

Wei Wang sat down in his lab at Oregon State University with an inkjet printer and an interesting question. Why can’t solar cells be made simply by printing them with an inkjet printer filled with a solution of solar-transmitting compound? His answer was the subject of a four-page research paper published in the industry journal Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells and the focus of an article from the BBC. The 28-year-old Ph.D. candidate from Shanxi Province, China had discovered an easy process for making solar cells with a printer, a substrate and a combination of metal salts called CIGS. Wang’s discovery could revolutionize the solar industry as a cheap and environmentally friendly alternative to the traditional siliconbased solar cell, and, as a by-product, bring inkjets back into the avant garde.

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Oregon Food Bank

It is an understatement to say that Rachel Bristol is passionate about her work. Vigor, pride and frustration are Bristol’s constant companions after twenty years as chief executive officer for the Oregon Food Bank. Her deep concern for the people of Oregon who struggle to feed themselves and their families is palpable and her enthusiasm to bring change is contagious.

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Life on the Rogue

Rounding a bend in the Rogue River’s Wild and Scenic section near Winkle Bar, rafter and guide Eddy Miller pointed to a clearing on a hillside along the river’s northern banks. “There,’ he pointed, “is Happy Hill.’

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Top 5 with Shannon Bex

written by Kevin Max | photo by Paula Watts A native of Bend, Shannon Bex, 31, started her career as one of the Portland Trailblazer dancers and front woman for the band 5 Guys Named Moe. Since then, she was first runner-up on the NBC reality show “Fame.” In 2005, Sean “Diddy” Combs selected her to join his MTV hit reality show “Making The Band,” in which contestants compete to be members of a band. Bex made the band and became a member of the multi-platinum selling group, Danity Kane. Danity Kane’s first and second albums released at the top of the Billboard Top 200 chart, earning the group a Guinness Book of World Record distinction as the first female group in Billboard history to make two consecutive albums at the top of the charts. Though the group had international recognition and saw much success in their four years together,…

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Independence

Once the hops capital of the world, Independence has becom a well-preserved warren of historical buildings down Main Street and an energetic community scene centered on its Willamette riverfront amphitheater.

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An Artist, Retrained

“I usually go into a trance for twelve straight hours and then I’m done,” he says. The creative urge lasts long enough to produce an image, a facial expression, a memory, or a feeling on the square or rectangle before him. “I never know exactly what the meaning is, but it works itself out.”