Archive for January, 2010
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:Â 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. Â 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.
