An Artist Talk for Maude Kerns Art Center's exhibit “Consume & Dispose," featuring Eugene artist Jennifer Bucheit and Springfield artist Ralf Huber, will be held on Saturday, April 18, from 1 – 2 pm. The public is invited to hear the artists share their visions at this free event.

Eugene artist Jennifer Bucheit, has shown her work throughout the US, including at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Bucheit uses post-consumer waste materials to comment on American consumerism, intertwining habitual consumer behavior with the everyday human condition. She collects paper packaging and photographs it in a still life setting. The resulting images are then printed directly on the interior side of the original packaging. Bucheit says that her work is intended to be “both aesthetically engaging and socially revealing, challenging conventional ideas of what [is] considered art and what [is] considered expendable.”

Springfield artist Ralf Huber was born in Switzerland and moved from Europe to the US in 2003. After 25 years of designing commemorative coins, Huber turned to making his own art in 2020. His work has been displayed in various West Coast venues. Huber addresses social issues, especially the horrors of child labor, using worn, weathered, and repurposed found objects in his mixed media creations. He hopes his work serves as a “reminder of the collective responsibility we bear to protect the innocence … of our youth” so their future is not sacrificed for the sake of economic expediency.