Jackson Hole Art Blog

Science, conservation, youth and the arts.  Play it again!  And again.

Thursday, February 26, at the Jackson Campus of Teton Science Schools, Journeys School students will display their artwork in what TSS says is the  first annual Journeys School Art Show.  Free to the public, the exhibition hours are 5:30-7:30 pm, and snacks will be provided.

The art was created by students in grades 6-12, and represents a variety of media, including paintings, drawings, stained glass and mixed media. For information about the show, contact  tammie.vanholland@journeysschool.org, or phone 307-734-3710.

Jackson Hole resident  Don Harger makes several important points about Teton County’s growth and planning:  Our residents want to be knowledgeable about the process; we have strong neighborhood groups; it is difficult for many people to attend meetings or understand the complexities of the planning process.

Last December, I read a news article about a New England town and its novel approach to planning.  The New York Times piece not only described part of a community’s growth planning strategy; it tied in the town’s recognition of the importance of public art in planning.   Public art is a hot topic here in Jackson Hole; public art is controversial in many urban areas simply because the arts are so subjective.  They’re an opinion, a view.

Here’s a summation of that article:

Starksboro, Vermont is finding out what town qualities its residents wish to preserve by recruiting Middlebury College students; the students spend a semester canvassing residents.  They document community thoughts and preferences regarding growth.  The town will use that information to help steer planning.

Students attend meetings, explore the region, and go door-to-door.   Funding for the project is secured with help from the Orton Family Foundation and the Vermont Land Trust.

Said the Orton Foundation’s spokesman John Barstow, “We’re trying to make a process where more people who don’t go to meetings and aren’t speaking up and are not activists have a chance to express what is important to them.”

A Middlebury professor, John Elder, noted, “The key is to project beyond immediate controversies over applications for subdivisions and to say, ‘Let’s envision the future that we would love to have,’ at which point there is considerable agreement.”

The article goes on to say that another problem rural Vermont faces is losing young people to states with significantly more jobs and housing.  The students found that parents raise their children to leave Starksboro, and few young people attended town meetings.

The project is to culminate in a special town forum, where students present their findings.  The Orton Family Foundation and the Vermont Land Trust will pay for an artist-in-residence, “…with the goal of helping the town create a lasting piece of art, music or writing that reflects its hopes for the future.”  Orton said the company would provide more funds to incorporate changes in land use.

Jackson’s population is about four times that of Starksboro’s.  Fewer opinions bouncing about, but what folks there seem to have agreed upon is that public art can be successfully created within a public planning system.   Planning for public art space is thinking forward; that’s good for comprehensive planning.

E.I. Couse, (1866-1936), "Moonlight"

The third annual Jackson Hole Art Auction will take place Saturday, September 19, 2009 at the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts Theater. The live auction, a major Fall Arts Festival event,  is a collaboration between Trailside Galleries and Gerald Peters Galleries.

The auction’s sweep of historic artists includes a rich array of paintings from the Taos Society of Artists, and recognized historic artists whose early visions of America’s West shaped the world’s perceptions of a new and largely unexplored world.   Deceased masters represented in the Jackson Hole Art Auction have included C.M. Russell, Albert Bierstadt, Maynard Dixon–an excellent DVD on Maynard Dixon’s life and legacy narrated by Diane Keaton is available at Trailside Galleries– E. Irving Couse, John Clymer, Bob Kuhn, Carl Rungius and more.   William Acheff, Clyde Aspevig, Robert Bateman–recently the subject of a special retrospective at the National Museum of Wildlife Art–Z.S. Liang, Mian Situ, Howard Terpning and more.

According to press releases, last year’s auction fetched 7.7 million. The auction is currently soliciting consignments for this year’s auction.   Preview works already consigned upstairs at Trailside Galleries, 130 East Broadway. Contact Heidi Theios for more information, at 1-866-549-9278.  email: curator@jacksonholeartauction.com.

The Jackson Hole Art Association posted some great Spring classes.  I reproduce the schedule here.   Check with the Art Association for a discount on Edward Stanton’s “Drawing Circus” class.    Teaching staff includes Stanton, Sam Dowd and the lovely Georgia Mayer.

Drawing Circus, Mar. 12 – 15
with Edward Stanton
This is no ordinary figure drawing workshop.  Each day features at least one performing artist in theatre or dance striking short and moving poses (costumed and nude) in a partially staged ephemeral atmosphere, with lighting that varies from right and colored to dark and dramatic. Sign up before 2.20.09 & get a 10% discount.

Surface Enrichment on Clay, Mar. 21 & 22
with Sam Dowd
This class will be geared toward the making of utilitarian pots on the potters’ wheel in a spontaneous manner. We will explore the use of underglaze colors and slips as well as mark making on the clay.

Beginning Silversmithing, Mar. 13 – 15
with Georgia Mayer
Learn to saw, solder, polish and complete some simple silver projects. Bring sketches of simple designs. Georgia will demonstrate simple rings, setting stones and patterns for 2 or 3 simple bracelets and / or earrings.

Youth Clay and Art Classes, Session II, Feb. 23
Our second session of youth art classes starts on February 23. There are classes in a variety of media for kids aged 2 yrs. to 5th graders.

“I’d like to feel that viewers will see my art and sense a secret self… where the lightning wrestles with the sky and where the stars open the darkened night, where one can feel the cowboys ride.”- Carrie Fell

Jackson’s Mountain Trails Gallery hosts an artist’s reception for Colorado artist Carrie Fell, the gallery’s February featured artist.  The gallery reports that Fell will make a personal appearance at that reception, happening Saturday, February 28, 4-7:00 pm.

Some years ago I wrote about another show of Fell’s, one that also took place at Mountain Trails.  It’s always interesting to revisit previous thoughts on an artist’s style and subject matter, but as I’ve been unable to find that Planet/Arts Observatory column, I’ll tell you what I remember of Fell’s work then, and what I see now.

I remember, above all, the color.  Fell favors bright pastels: rose, violet, pale yellow.  Those colors project a great deal of joy; her works are contemporary translations of traditional western themes.   That hasn’t changed, but what I think has changed is her use of detail; now, there’s more of it.  I’m drawn to “Yellow Tail” because it is an explicit and strong portrait. Here is his face, his spirit, in detail. Yellowtail, born around 1855, was a member of the Big Lodge Clan.  His son, Tom Yellowtail, was a Crow medicine man.  Fell’s portrait includes a yellow feather headdress, the feather of a yellowtail hawk.

Fell’s quotation about her own art suggests she is working with dreams, and she may be inspired by Native American spirituality and totems.   Fell’s gaily colored horses, riders, long horned steers and now, “Yellow Tail,” are electric.   An “anything can happen” optimism hallmarks her work.

Call Mountain Trails Gallery at 307-734-8150.  Email fineart@mtntrails.net.

The information below was written last Wednesday—but I was subsequently asked to push back the release of the post;  hence all the references to events last week. Bottom line:  Teton Art Lab is back in Jackson Town.

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Briefly:  You might have seen Travis Walker walking around, and he’s walking around because Teton Art Lab will end up moving into a studio space at Jackson Hole Center for the Arts.  This happens soon.   No details yet.

Walker plans to attend Rocky Vertone’s Friday night opening of his new gallery space, located at Full Circle Frameworks, North Glenwood.  5:30 start time.    Come and get your scoop!   Rocky has not responded to my fears that the Associated Press may come raid the party; the news service ‘retained’ a certain HOPE artist behind bars, just yesterday.

More publicity!  All publicity is good.  It all makes for  good chat material tomorrow evening, and beyond.  Welcome back, Travis!   Kudos to the Center for incorporating new tenants, and strengthening  our arts community resources.  One for all!

End.

“Senate Passes “Mob Museum” Prohibition in Stimulus” is the Wall Street Journal headline I found while perusing the day’s arts headlines. Republican Senator  Coburn’s anti-arts amendment, tagged February 9 in the Jackson Hole Art Blog, wants to specifically bar spending on a proposed history-of-organized-crime museum.

For those of us who don’t get a chance to read the WSJ every day, here’s the story behind the Coburn amendment:

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An Americans for the Arts blogger posted thoughts on the recently penned  Coburn Amendment, which dictates that arts-related industries not receive any part of a new economic stimulus package.

As she read the proposed amendment, blogger Merryl Goldberg recalled her family’s experiences with discrimination.   The February 10th post, “Discriminatory Arts,” is posted on Americans for the Arts website.  

Curtis Olson, Diehl Gallery’s only ‘local’ Jackson Hole artist, has an opening at Hotel Terra—up in Teton Village, the only LEED certified hotel up yonder—on Friday, February 13.   The party runs 4:30 – 6:30 pm, and a portion of sales benefit the Jackson Hole Ski & Snowboard Club.

Olson is a local artist whose work has gained strong following in larger markets, and he spends lots of time traveling the world, gaining experience and expanding his oeuvre.  His work is thickly textural; his ‘canvases’ are tile-like geometric compositions, and Olson favors earth tones–rusts, browns, deep reds, burnt orange–punctuated with cooler tones.  Influences gained from a background in architecture have not, over time, disappeared from his design sensibility.   Architecture is suggested, but so are deserts, mesas, canyons and myriad Western landscapes.

Olson’s works remain on display at Hotel Terra until March 12; if you want to see this collection, get to Teton Village before March 11.   Terra, by the way, makes a point of displaying the works of local artists.   Very cool!

Information:  www.diehlgallery.com.

Oh, my gosh. Rocky, check this out!   A few degrees of separation!

This Friday, February 13, Rocky Vertone opens his new Full Circle Frameworks gallery space with a show of works by Scott Sears. Kickoff is 5:30 pm, and the place is 335 N. Glenwood, in Jackson.

BUT, Sears’ publicity poster looks an awful lot like the now famous Obama “Hope” poster.   HOPE is the word, and a hep cat with Mohawk hair is the man.  I’ll have to see the work up close to tell you whether or not this is Sears’ vision of Mohawk Obama.

This is relevant because……..

WOW!!! BREAKING NEWS!!!   Obama “Hope” artist arrested!!

The Associated Press has accused artist Shepard Fairey of copyright infringement, saying the poster image was based on one of its photos, taken in April 2006 by Manny Garcia on assignment for the AP at the National Press Club in Washington.

Wow, now Fairey is under arrest, as of 30 minutes ago!    Ok, putting this up right now!