First Friday in Downtown Oregon City
Posted by admin on 2 June
Local Sculptor Featured at Oregon City’s First Friday Event June 4th
Oregon City’s First Friday events downtown celebrate the commerce and culture of the community. Each month the First Friday Art Walk in downtown Oregon City highlights a local artist. Meet featured artist – Lance Smith, metal sculptor. Lance will be located at the corner of Main and 8th Street in front of the Caufield House during the June 4th First Friday event downtown.
When Lance Smith was bored at his metal fabrication job one day, he decided to walk around and look at scrap metal. That was the start of his three dimensional metal art creations. Lance had been doing two-dimensional metal pieces for 20 years but didn’t come up with his first 3D piece until 1989.
“I found a little piece of pipe that I thought looked like a fish. So I took it and turned it into a 3D metal fish,” Smith said. “I began with two-dimensional and lately have begun to fool around with free-form,”
Smith lives, works and creates in Oregon City. Smith and his is the June featured artist for the First Friday Art Walk in historic Downtown Oregon City. The First Friday Art Walk on June 4, features about 30 local artists street side from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
By 1990, Smith took his art on the road and began selling his unique pieces of art at shows and in galleries. In 1994, he signed on to sell his creations at Portland’s Saturday Market. He calls his art “free-form metal sculptures,” which means he has no particular form or pattern that he follows, unless he is doing a sculpture based on a previous piece he has already done or a commission.
“Oregon City’s First Friday event series really attracts residents and visitors downtown,” said Lloyd Purdy, Executive Director of the non-profit Main Street Oregon City. “Last’s month’s event was a great kickoff to our summer season. We’re looking forward to a fun series of First Fridays Downtown.”
First Friday’s in Oregon City also feature a music component called the Sounds of Downtown. On the First Friday of every month this summer local musicians set up street side for a jam session. This month local musicians include Audra and William Mehan on one end of historic downtown and the Robbie Laws Trio on the other.
Audra and William Mehan are a father – daughter acoustic duo featuring guitars and vocals. Their sound range of music is very eclectic. They cover everything from Eric Clapton to Shania Twain to Sublime. Basically a two-person jam band. They’ve been playing together on various instruments since Audra was a kid.
“It would be safe to say Dad taught me most of what I know. He’s also a member of the Wicky Pickers and a couple other groups including a big band jazz band,” said Audra Mehan. “I just do what I do.”
Also performing street side on Friday June 4th is the Robbie Laws Trio. This group (guitar, drummer and bassist) play a “fast, strong set of roots-conscious rockabilly” according to music reviewers. Robbie, Jesse and Drew have toured the West and love to jam at a local gig.
The Sounds of Downtown and First Fridays are supported by an OCCIT grant and partially funded by Work for Art a program of the Regional Arts & Culture Council. The Oregonian is the print media sponsor for these events. First Fridays in Oregon City are produced by the non-profit Main Street Oregon City and the Three Rivers Artists Guild.
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