Head East For an Eye Feast

Sometimes the best cure for the Christmas crazies is a long road trip. Once you get past Issaquah, Interstate 90 can be a peaceful drive any time of year, but especially during the winter. Currently on exhibition at the Jundt Museum of Art on the Gonzaga campus in downtown Spokane, is

Magic of the Objects:The Art Work of Leslie W. LePere.

Les LePere is an artist who wears many hats. Half of the year he works the family wheat farm near Ritzville, Washington and the other half of the year he is a full-time artist. Leslie has an MFA from WSU and is probably best known for designing all of author Tom Robbin's book covers.

However, book covers are just a wheat kernel in the grain elevator of close to fifty years of disciplined investigation.  The Jundt survey exhibition includes his student work, commercial art, watercolors, drawings, prints and enamel collaborations he did with his friend and art partner, the late Ken Cory, known together as the Pencil Brothers.

Robert E. Lee Disliked Cabooses 1971

Lepere's work combines the ordinary with the surreal, vast landscapes with intimate domestic interiors, silliness and humor with formal art principals. It is American, it is Western and it is archetypal. You don't have to be an arts connoisseur to see that this man can draw.

Broken Dreams, Fulfilled Promises 2001

So hit the road for a delectable eye feast. You can find good food along the way at The Valley Cafe in Ellensburg, Micheal's on the Lake in Moss Lake and the Starbucks's in Ritzville. Spokane has many fine eateries and restored historic buildings downtown. Treat yourself.