Jackson Hole Art Blog

Jackson Hole artist September Vhay revisits a familiar theme in a new show, All the Red Horses. On view beginning February 9, the show opens February 11, with a reception from 5-8 pm at Trio Fine Art. Vhay will talk about her art from 5-6 pm.

Horses are inextricably associated with Vhay; her portraits of these animals — nobody renders a horse’s body and flesh like Vhay– are ubiquitous.  Rightly so.  Vhay’s horses hold gentle strength, graceful form and lyric mystery.

These horses are red and reduced.  Minimal, they are void of Vhay’s more representational anatomy and detail.  She has explored using this red paint–I’m going to call it a Chinese red–in the past.   Constructive circles and arcs are plain in these works, which remain ethereal.

A little research tells me that describing Vhay’s red as Chinese red is apt.   In Chinese art, the horse is a symbol of power and virtue; a thousand years ago Asians considered the horse to be a luxury good, rivaling silk in its prestige.   They are also a symbol of imperial power. And red, in China, is the color of Luck.

For more information, phone Trio Fine Art at 307.734.4444.

Item #2:

Naturally Nude, CIAO Gallery’s latest competitive exhibition, holds its opening reception at CIAO on Saturday, February 13, 6-9 pm. The party will be warmed up by jazz trumpeter Mark Memor and accompanying musicians providing music composed by CIAO artist Martin Hagen.

With more entries than ever–this is CIAO’s third annual Naturally Nude show– choosing  just a few winning artists was difficult, says gallery manager Michele Walters. She notes that the juried show has caught on –  artists from around the country submit work.

Judges ultimately bestowed first place to Michael McGrath’s delicate bronzes; second place to Rick Wheeler’s compositions rendered with oils, watercolors and pastels; and third prize was awarded to Armin Muhsam’s abstract intaglio prints.

An evening of jazz and art is romantic, but an evening with jazz, art and good food borders on the decadent.  Wilson chef Piper Wright-Clark will be serving up tasty fare, inspired by Valentine’s Day.

What’s not to love about this party?  Do drop in. CIAO’s address is 66 S. Glenwood, in Jackson.  Contact Walters at 307.733.7833 for more information, and viva l’amour.

February 5, it’s all happening at the Art Association.

Really!  Sounds like a happening, 1960’s style, with symbolism and emotions and poetry readings and exploration of the human body’s nuances (Our Bodies, Ourselves, a ground breaking book about sexuality and women’s bodies, still available and updated, btw…), power and faith, Arlo Guthrie and Aristotle.

Arlo, Aristotle, Art Association: Triple “A” alliteration.

These shows represent a quantum leap forward for Jackson’s art community.  Don’t miss it. A joint opening reception happens at the Center for the Arts on Friday, February 5th, at 5:30 pm.

Show #1:

Nekkid, a group figure exhibition, includes a noon Brown Bag Lunch Art Talk with participating artists. In our “democratic”, post-industrial, high-tech country  we still struggle with being cool with nudity (unless you are John Edwards).  This show offers a chance to probe that resistance.   Works in various media alternately explore and celebrate the human body.  As part of the evening’s festivities the spirit of the Beat Poets will resurrect, with live poetry readings.

Participating artists include, but may not be limited to: Eliot Goss, Sue Sommers, Shannon Troxler, Suzanne Morlock, Susan Thulin, Bobbi Miller, Amy Larkin, Barbara Trentham, Mark Nowlin, Jenny Dowd and Valerie Seaberg.

Writers/poets to date include: Sarah Kariko, Marcia Casey, Valley Peters Bradley and Nicole Burdick.

(Bressler, where are you in this?  You write great poetry about nudes!   Get going, don’t make me bring out the poem  you wrote a few years back…..yes, I still have it, it’s bookmarking my souffle recipe.)

Show #2:

Power & Faith: The Photography of Paul Adams will be on display in the Artspace Loft Gallery.    Here, I defer to Paul Adams’ quotation describing the inspirations for his work.

“Through most of my professional photographic career I have tried to make beautiful photographs simply for the sake of beauty. Recently though I find myself motivated more by the same challenges the American folk singer Arlo Guthrie faced when he said, “For me it is not enough to write a song that is good. I want to write a song that is good for something.” The stimulating and exciting challenge for me as a photographic artist is to try and seduce the viewer into thinking as deeply as they feel. As we look into the faces of these Spiritual Leaders I hope to accomplish Aristotle’s goal for art when he said, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”

Show #3:

The Scotch and Watercolor Society, comprised of painters Barbara Barella, Holly Bishop, Barbara C. Kuxhausen, Skip Larcom, Michele McDonald and Joan Melius, deliver their creative messages solely in watercolor.

Watercolors are considered by many to be the most difficult paint medium to master.  Artists in this show offer up a variety of impressions, interpretations and subjects in their paintings.  The exhibition will be on display in the Artspace Theater Gallery.    Perhaps a fine single malt will be served.

Show #4:

Art Association Ceramics Director Sam Dowd is, in my opinion, a great ceramicist.  His space-inspired clay compositions are sheer intergalactic fantasy.

It’s exciting that Dowd’s collaboration and guidance of Jackson Hole High School students has resulted in this new art project and show, Blast from the Cast.

On display in the Artspace Lobby Gallery, students from Shannon Borrego’s art classes will mount their sculptures and vessels.  Students have learned the slip cast mold process, and created works depicting, or speaking to, objects “chosen from life,….making a plaster mold… to produce several reproductions. The students then created clay projects that incorporated, repeated, and altered the mold pieces.”

And that’s quite a process.  Results are colorful, well-designed and fanciful.  Art created by youth is the most free; with Dowd teaching them, these students may hang on to that creative joie de vivre.

The Art Association may be contacted via their website, or you may phone 307.733.6379.

Trailside Galleries keeps their artists busy!  Throughout the month of February the gallery’s annual New Horizons landscape show illuminates downtown’s East Broadway.

Highlighted in the exhibit is contemporary landscape painter Robert Moore, a very popular artist.  His canvas sizes run the gamut–they can be almost monumental in scale, but he also creates paintings in sizes appropriate for any space.  Result: lots to choose from!

Moore’s paint application suggests  a palette knife; brushstrokes have a slicing quality.  Moore’s colors are vibrant–he’s flexible here, too.  Landscapes are warm, cool, and everything in between.  Baskets of color, flying confetti, piling up—Moore’s own painterly parade.   He’s a painter for all seasons, an “American Impressionist.”   Hailing from Idaho, Moore has been painting for 25 years; this show is slated to include at least 10 new works.

Other artists featured in February’s show are:  Bruce Cheever, Brent Cotton, Michael Godfrey, Lanny Grant, Francois Koch, Calvin Liang, Grant MacDonald, Dan McCaw, Danny McCaw, Greg McHuron, Robert Moore, Scott Myers, Ralph Oberg, Andrew Peters, Bill Sawczuk, Curt Walters and Kathy Wipfler.

For more information, contact Cara Kelly via email:   Cara@trailsidegalleries.com.   Check out the Trailside Galleries website for more gallery information.

The Wyoming State Parks & Cultural Resources website has posted information on Cultural Trust Fund (WCTF) applications, currently available to download.

The deadline for completed applications is May 1, 2010; a postmark deadline.  Hand-delivery date deadline is April 30.   Draft proposals may be submitted no later than April 16.  Projects applying for funds must be “projects/events/activities that commence by July 1, 2010.”   Recipients must also complete a final report, due 60 days after project completion.

I clicked through the site to find out what kinds of projects are currently being funded with grant monies.  It’s a wonderful grouping:

“Learn by Using Museums,” a program developed by UW Art Museum Director and Chief Curator Susan Moldenhauer, covers the importance of museum-supported education.  Specifically, the Museum has created a Master Teacher program that helps students understand their place in history–and history itself—through art projects.  Arts curriculum are enhanced through teachers and venues wanting to collaborate.  Art is used to enrich all curriculum: math, history, language…any topic that does NOT include art can be enriched through art.

You can watch a short video on the project here.

Another project, the Paul Smith Children’s Village at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens has opened. It includes a Secret Garden Wall and Puppet Theater. Laramie County School District #1 will benefit from future programs as well.

The Washakie Museum & Cultural Center, located in Worland, Wyoming, is not yet completed, but its schematics are complete and the facility should be opening very soon.   WCTF grants are helping fund interior museum equipment.   The museum’s director, Cheryl Reichelt, is happy to schedule tours of the almost-finished building.

To learn more about the Wyoming State Parks and Cultural grants program, contact Renee Bovee by phoning 307.777.6312.  Good luck!

The University of Wyoming has put out the call for entries for their nationally acclaimed literary and arts journal, the Owen Wister Review (OWR).  The competition is open to all writers and artists contributing work about the Western experience.

The University recently provided the following information:

OWR, printed each spring, won its second Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker, the college equivalent to a Pulitzer Prize in October.

“We are looking forward to another great year and can’t wait to start looking through this year’s submissions,” Editor Joshua Watanabe said.

Journal editors will be selecting original works of fiction, poetry, photography and art for inclusion in the 2010 edition. Submissions are open to artists, authors, poets, photographers or designers of any age.

Visit www.uwyo.edu/studentpub/owr for detailed submission requirements and contact information. All submissions, regardless of media, must be unpublished, original works and may not be simultaneously submitted elsewhere. Submission deadline is February 15, 2010.

University students published OWR’s first edition in 1978 with the goal of producing a magazine “the magazine reflected the talents of writers and artists in our community, recognizing them in the great tradition of Western literature and art.”

Named after Owen Wister, who set the first modern western novel, The Virginian, in the town of Medicine Bow, the review’s focus remains on the western experience interpreted by western people, but all writers and artists are invited to contribute their visions and stories.

Item #2

The National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Winter Carnival Quick Draw takes place Thursday, January 28, 5:30-7:30 pm.   Proceeds from the 1-hour paint-in and auction benefit NMWA’s educational programs.

This year’s Quick Draw will include more than a dozen artists, including four young up-and-comers from Jackson Hole high schools.  $10 admission for members, $15 for non-members, and children under 18 are free.   Get your “Chilly Bar, and some short beers, courtesy Snake River Brewing. Gessler gets tall ones, and so does McHuron.  Not sure why….Website: www.wildlifeart.org.  Phone: 307.733.5771

Last year something good did happen.  Photographer Edward Riddell experimented with a new kind of photography workshop, taking students on a photographic journey through Tuscany, Italy.    Those workshops were so successful, he’s repeating the program in 2010.

This spring, Riddell will take another small group of students through Tuscany; come fall, those who sign up will follow Riddell through Yellowstone National Park.  A Jackson Hole resident, Riddell has been shooting the Park’s landscapes for decades and conducting workshops for 33 years.  If you’ve lived here for any length of time, and have been paying attention to photography, you should be familiar with Riddell’s Ansel Adams-like black and white landscapes, and his more abstract color compositions.

Students must submit images to Riddell in order to be considered.  Workshops are geared to intermediate and experienced photographers.

With an emphasis on shooting in the field, and lots of personal attention and day-to-day critique from Riddell, class sizes are limited.

“Landscapes, People and Life of Tuscany” runs April 28-May 5, 2010.   This class is limited to six students; Italy’s touring vehicles are smaller than U.S. vans.  Cost is $1,995.   Riddell, who recently published “Range of Memory” with the writer Terry Tempest Williams, has branched off into portraiture.  Students will work with human subjects, as well as the natural world.

“Fall in Yellowstone - From Photograph to Gallery Print,” is scheduled for September 25 - October 1, 2010.   Limited to eight students, the cost is $1,250.

“The class will focus on morning and evening field sessions spent at Ed’s favorite locations (very generous in the world of photography) along with daily critiques of the previous day’s shoot. The goal of the course will be for each student to develop a portfolio of 6 to 10 photographs taken during the workshop,” says Riddell.

The Yellowstone session will give students the opportunity to produce exquisite inkjet prints at Riddell’s home studio, learning the basics of his editing and printing techniques.   Each student will leave with at least one finished print, finished with the best archival materials available.

I believe travel is included in these prices, but that is NOT confirmed, so please make sure you are clear on workshop costs.  Sounds like a deal to me!

Further details and links to signing up for either or both workshops can be found at http://web.me.com/edriddell/Riddell_Photography_Workshops.

Telephone Ed Riddell at 307.733.9093 or 307.690.3980.

World crises bring opportunity.  In the wake of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Jackson’s Diehl Gallery is altering its philanthropic schedule in order to assist victims in that razed and impoverished country.

Diehl has already begun donating a percentage of art sales to various Jackson area non-profits.  Through February 12, the gallery says it will donate 10% of sales costs to either the International Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund or any other disaster relief charity benefiting the Haitian people.

After February 12, charitable donations made through the sale of art will benefit WomensTrust.

There are many relief organizations; do take time to research which charities you feel use their funds in an effective and ethical manner.  It’s difficult to know everything about organizations we donate to, but we do a disservice to ourselves and any relevant community when we take marketing efforts at face value.  In today’s world, vigilance and accountability are of the utmost importance.

Please call the Diehl Gallery at 307.733.0905 with questions.

I’ve sprinked this post with a few images of Haitian crafts. Despite hardships we cannot begin to imagine, their art is full of joy.  Sitting here in my Connecticut home, I am surrounded by paper mache butterflies, crafted in Haiti.   Images courtesy of Aid To Artisans, a non-profit organization working to help crafts people in impoverished countries around the globe bring their goods to the U.S. market.

One tough thing about not being in Jackson is being absent from watershed events. Karen Stewart, Art Association steward for the past 16 years, officially leaves her post as Executive Director of Jackson’s prominent arts non-profit this month.

If you are in town on Friday, January 15, please take time and good energy, and stop into the Center for the Arts to thank Karen. A reception is being held in her honor in the Center for the Arts Theater Lobby that day, from 5-7 pm.

Most of the time we don’t tell each other what we’ve done right. It’s hard for many of us; this is an excellent opportunity to practice your gratitude skills. Many other Jackson art venues might not exist if not for the ground breaking efforts of the Art Association and those who have, at one time or another, contributed and worked for its success.

Farewell, and Fare Well, Karen! Thank you for caring about Jackson’s visual arts. Thank you for all those years of service. Sixteen years heading up a Jackson non-profit may be some kind of record. I certainly hope to see you when I return.

Now, Ms. Stewart–go relax! Rev up the Vespa, pop a few corks, breathe.

Contact Cathy Wikoff, the Art Association’s Director of Development, for details. www.artassociation.org.  307.733.6379.

Also happening at the Art Association: Many Moose!

The Show: Twenty-six Moose: A Winter Photography Exhibit

The Dates: January 13 - February 2.

Opening Reception: Wednesday, Jan. 13 5-7:00 pm

The Space: ArtSpace Loft Gallery, Center for the Arts

By the time this posts, the first twenty-six photographs of moose brought to the Art Association’s front desk after the call went out, will be on display.

Apparently, unframed photographs are nailed to the wall. (Trying to block that taxidermy image….) It’s a great idea, this exhibit. First come, first serve. An excellent chance for fledgling/new/semi-pro photographers to show their work along side that of more established shooters.

Website: www.artassociation.org

Here in rural Connecticut, I can’t find a ding dang movie theater inside of 12 miles.  But the New York Times is sold in every nook and cranny;  weekends, I get it delivered.

Sitting in bed with the Sunday Times at 7:30 am, watching yet another raging New England gale blast the landscape, is one of life’s great pleasures.   Sorry, I’m still a hold-the-paper-in-your-hand kind of girl.  When I can be.   It’s civilized.  And so much more interesting in a sensory way.

I do recycle.  And my rabbits, Minnie & Pearl, make good use of old newspaper for certain projects of theirs. We’re efficient with our newspapers, o.k.?

Getting to the point, I want to make a point about the deep devotion the N.Y. Times has towards the arts.  It’s HUGE.  Of course, it is huge because New York is swimming in arts. You could spend a solid month viewing art in NYC and not come close to seeing everything.   More arts there than there are grains of salt in the ocean.

The arts are struggling, but for those cities and towns committed to their arts, they are a giant economic engine.  Stop and think.  How interesting is any city or town without its arts?  Without expression of environment and culture?   What would Jackson Hole be  without its galleries, without Dancers Workshop, Grand Teton Music Festival,  NMWA, the Art Association, the Center? Without pARTNERS?  Without Nicole Madison? Without Candra Day?  Tina Close? Without Rocky Vertone? Without David Swift and Tom Mangelsen and Jon Stuart and the Riddells? Teton Art Lab? Off Square and Jackson Community Theatres? Without venues like the Brew Pub and Pearl St. Bagels and Koshu and Elevated Grounds? Charlie Craighead? Without Missy Falcey, our fabulous Library and its programs and exhibits? Without our movie and playhouses?

We’re already finding out what it’s like without McCandless; we’ve found out what it’s like without other galleries that didn’t make it, and we’ll find out what it is like without a few more.

Well?

I wouldn’t live here.  Who’d want to? We’re not exactly ethnically diverse, so there’s no interest there.  If town didn’t exist and we were a park only, that would be one thing.  But we’re not.  We’re an urban center, we’re Wyoming’s equivalent of Connecticut’s Fairfield County. (Hey, I’m a hugely boring WASP…self-deprication here! And actually, Fairfield Co. is now much more ethnically diverse than Jackson…) What can keep us from being just another snow village country club? Art, for one thing.  All kinds of art.

This weekend, the New York Times has four sections devoted to the arts. A reflection of a reflection of commitment.  Here are a few items from those pages–along with one item from the Travel Section, often packed with arts news from around the globe.  (Because when people travel, they usually enjoy visiting regional art and architecture!):

The Whole Earth Catalog: The Prequel. The article reviews “Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe,” on view at the Rubin Museum of Art. Pull quote: “Western science and Eastern religion imagine the beyond.”

Time, the Infinite Storyteller. The article discusses the many ways that great institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, takes a visitor through time’s linked histories.

Growing Up Biracial Before Obama: Years of Pain and Eventual Progress. A theater review of a one-woman show at the Roy Arias Theater Center.

Nothing about “NINE.”

A 1965 film, Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster, is on view at MOMA.

George Orwell was born in…India?  A small article about restoring the author’s birthplace.

A music review of the band Soulive, on the occasion of the band’s 10th anniversary.

Small Museum Captures a Rare Chagall. London’s Jewish Museum of Art has acquired a rare depiction of the Holocaust, by Chagall.  The work is entitled “Apocalypse in Lilac: Capriccio.”  The work is perhaps the most “brutal and disturbing ever created by an artist primarily known for his brightly colored folkloric visions.”

A review of the show “Struttin’ With Some Barbeque,” featuring musicians Henry Butler and Donald Harrison.

Carmen.

36 Hours in Mountainous, Multicultural Tucson includes a mention of a great collection of American Photography, the Center for Creative Photography. You can also check out “Jet Age Graveyards” and the Titan Missile Museum—a largely underground nuclear silo not demolished, where you can get a quick view of a warhead “700 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.”

Degas Work Stolen from French Museum. Swiped while on loan from the Musee d’Orsay. (By the way, did Jackson’s police ever solve the mystery of the artworks stolen from galleries this past summer?)

Struggling Actor Tweaks Script, Buddy and Bodies.  A review of the movie “Film With Me In It,” a “…slender, supple comedy graced with appealing performers and laced with agreeable poison.”

So, Jackson Holers–next time you bump into one of our town’s creative souls, give them an extra big “Thankyou.”   And contribute what you can.  Maybe we can expand our arts coverage, and I and my rabbits will like that.

“Years later I’m going back and looking at the projects we did.  My critique is, they are pastiche.  They are cardboard facades.  The real town is a block behind them, and it’s still awful, in trouble. So we didn’t help the people who live there, the thing that was supposed to be helped.” - Walter Hood

Finding what is particular and special to a community is part of what urban landscape designer Walter Hood does; over the years it has become clearer to Hood that urban centers require different formulas for renewal, depending on relevant measurable goals.

Pittsburgh, with its steel industry history, at one time existed for opposite reasons than Jackson exists.  But, says Hood, Pittsburgh  (sort of a sister city for me, and a great example in urban renewal) has found itself again. Like other mid-west industrial towns Pittsburgh fell on hard times; hard enough that a few decades ago many were giving it up for lost.  Jobs disappeared, people left in droves, and the city was gritty and depressed.

Jackson and Pittsburgh have traditionally relied on single industries. Jackson’s magnificent beauty and location have made it an economy inflated by landscape;  Pittsburgh’s economy relied on steel.

Now Pittsburgh’s economy is strong; it has weathered this recession relatively well, in large part because the city has taken pains to attract diverse market sectors.  Healthcare, education, technology, financial jobs play a large role. City parks are being restored. Abandoned spaces are recycled into new housing and businesses.

Hood opines that whatever direction Jackson takes in shaping its future, keeping traffic in check is crucial.   Open space cannot be fully protected unless we control congestion and emissions.

“I think where we are as Americans, things are hitting the fan.  We will have to make some really serious decisions about the land.  I have a lot of projects where people are investing in alternative transportation modes; they are starting to say “we don’t need that much parking.”  They are beginning to say we want to be greener—it will force them to act differently.”

Its community locking horns over a new Comprehensive Plan, Jackson’s town and county officials are attempting to correctly address a demand for affordable housing.  The risk of over development is very real.  To date, officials are treating mass transit as a finishing touch for building more units;  most urban planning takes the opposite approach.

Whenever I return to Jackson from the east coast, my immediate sense is Jackson’s traffic is under control.  Then summer arrives.

“In the winter it is really fantastic to be here—you could drive and everything goes back to scale,” says Hood.  “When spring comes the scale gets smaller but it is still big.  You see more in Jackson.  It’s sensory overload.”

A national park’s purpose is defeated, says Hood, when 4,000,000 tourists a year jam the roads and the scenery is…”unseeable.” If you want to reduce traffic, and impact, you make roads smaller and narrower. Cars then have to get smaller.  Discourage, don’t encourage, more traffic.

We agree that the town of Jackson should be about this place.  That gentler transitions from park to town are optimal, but not planned.  Approaching downtown Jackson, there is a sense that our open spaces are chopped off at the knees.  It’s good, we conclude, that the National Museum of Wildlife Art is one of the first things you see.   But many buildings and landscapings closer to town are visually harsh.  Lots of aging concrete, signage, little shoulder softening, no real thought to the landscape.

And simply as a marketing concept, in addition to the conservation benefits, planning should accentuate sensitivity to place.

But what about helping a community through recession?  Hood may not have Jackson’s specific economic remedy, but he does have experience with plans that didn’t work.

Hood says that collectively, we often make big mistakes when trying to “save” community.

“There are some amazing places, but the way we act in those landscapes is still the freakin’ same way,” he notes.  “I worked for a firm in the 90’s that would go to lots of small towns, particularly in Washington state. There was, at the time, the whole notion that you can go to these communities and save them by design.  A lot of them have lost their industries; they were river towns and people logged, or fished…those economies died.

The community then dies.

So we’re in this amazing valley or setting and what do we do?  Tourism. Immediately the main street programs help fortify the preservation of these towns—and I was into it.  At the time it seemed like the right thing to do.

Years later I’m going back and looking at the projects we did.  My critique is, they are pastiche.  They are cardboard facades.  The real town is a block behind them, and it’s still awful, in trouble.   So we didn’t help the people who live there, the thing that was supposed to be helped.”

Hood says the reasons people do choose to live in Jackson Hole are clear.  Safety is big, he says, and that feeling of safety springs in large part from how we control growth.

“It is a gift to have the ability to just walk around without fear and collision.  Last night I saw a woman running in the near dark, without street lights, without fear.  Wow.  She’s safe, there’s no traffic, the landscape is still visible, and she wants to be there.

I could not do this where I live.  Those are the kind of experiences to save.   The ability to navigate the landscape at night!  But more people, more traffic—more security and more lights come in. Success breeds more demand. It’s a circle.   I asked for a room on the upper floors of my hotel, facing the mountains, so I could take that in.  That’s the experience!  I know why people live here.”

To find out more about Walter J. Hood and his work, log onto his website here.

Post Script:  The Jackson Hole Art Blog is VERY happy to hear of Blaize Oswald’s encouraging progress as he recovers from a bad fall from a ski chairlift.   Our prayers and best wishes go out to the Oswald Family.