You really otter place a bid
Artwork inspired by perhaps the ocean’s most engaging mammal will be up for grabs in an online auction to celebrate Sea Otter Awareness Week.
Running from Sunday, Sept. 22, to Saturday, Sept. 28, the online silent art auction will help raise funds for the Elakha Alliance, an Oregon-based nonprofit dedicated to reintroducing sea otters to their natural habitat on the Oregon Coast.
Participating artists were asked to envision a future with sea otters on the Oregon Coast, and donated a dazzling array of art — everything from classic representative oil paintings to mosaic, fiber and ceramics.
Yvana Iovino, a volunteer with the Haystack Rock Awareness Program, donated original, hand-carved linoleum cuttings printed using water-based inks on Japanese Kitakata paper.
“I’ve come to learn the importance of relationships between species that live in our oceans,” she said. “Combining my love of art with my love of the ocean, I hope that my contribution could further the goal of the Elakha Alliance to return the native sea otter to our oceans and thereby help to return the balance of nature.”
Christina Harkness, a conservation artist from Corvallis, donated a mixed media fiber piece valued at
$2,000, which was previously displayed at the North Coast Kelp Fest in Mendocino, California.
“My fiber art concentrates on marine conservation and preservation, and I have been working with coral reefs for quite a few years.” Harkness said, adding: “I hope that my art can convey how important every plant and animal is in the balance of our ocean ecosystem.”
Other pieces up for auction include two otter and kelp stoneware pitchers by Newport potter Liz Fox; a round copper foil-style stained-glass panel depicting a future sea otter population in Oregon by Florida artist Cory Janiak; modernist acrylic paintings of sea otters by diver and Salem artist Rachel Wood; and a hand-woven tapestry using plant pigments depicting floating bull kelp by Wheeler artist and conservationist Kyla Sjogren.
The online art auction website can be found at https://bit.ly/SeaOtterArt.
The weeklong auction will conclude with a Seas the Night silent art auction and cocktail party on Saturday, Sept. 28, at the Yaquina Bay Yacht Club in Newport.
Guests will get to view sea otter-inspired creations by 24 artists from Oregon and beyond, in addition to pieces by 20 art students from North Bend High School.
The evening will be catered by Local Ocean Seafoods with handcrafted cocktails by Straightaway Cocktails, beer from Pelican Brewing Company, wine donated by Erath Winery and live music by Lucky Gap Trio.
The event will run from 4:30 to 6:30 pm at 750 SE Bay Blvd. Tickets, $40, are available at https://bit.ly/SeasTheNightArtShow, with proceeds supporting the Elakha Alliance’s mission of sea otter reintroduction.