Archive for March, 2010
A.A. Spaces Out; Art Market’s Three D’s?
Two items from the Art Association:
Having just read a Jackson Hole News and Guide profile on Art Association new Executive Director Jennifer Crawford’s feeling for space between art and its viewer, it really seems like kismet that a new show, Redefining Space, has opened at Artspace Loft Gallery. Kismet, or great marketing coordination…you decide! Whatever the force, this exhibit does something new. Creative personalities fall into ruts; our spaces can rot, and worn space often sabotages creativity.  It creates resistance, a monumental foe for artists and writers.
Gallery and museum spaces manipulated to make the best of any display are not as common as you might think. In that spirit (and not because there’s worn space to rectify) Redefining Space aims to flex and stretch existing concepts about gallery space in particular. Former Art Association board member Cindee George flexes her own creative biceps by reinterpreting Artspace’s Donnelly Photography Loft Gallery.  The result is an exhibit within an exhibit, as George’s redefinition of gallery space is the backdrop for a current art exhibition.
The Art Association notes, too, that its Summer Class Registration process begins March 15, 2010.   Log onto the Art Association’s website, www.artassociation.org, to see this year’s offerings. There are classes for all ages and artistic predilections.  A variety of levels of expertise are accommodated.  The roster includes loads of childrens art classes, so keep your little ones in mind when signing up.
Item #2:
Death, Debt and Divorce. Those are the three certain facts of life continuing to drive the art market, even in an economic downturn. So says Christie’s CEO Edward Dolman in a business profile on the arts, published in Newsweek’s February 22, 2010 issue. (page 52.)
Last month, a Sotheby’s auction sold Alberto Giacometti’s 1960 sculpture of a needle-thin man, “Walking Man I” for $104.3 million. The price broke the previous record fine art sale, $104.2 million. That record was also set at Sotheby’s, six years ago. The hammer price bought Pablo Picasso’s 1906 work “Boy with a Pipe.” Prompted by the shockingly robust Giacometti sales price, Newsweek probed Doleman on the “hows and whys” of the sale. With the collapse and confusion in current world economies, where does a sales price like this come from? Is there no tactful reluctance, even when art up for sale is renowned?
According to Dolman, the answer is “no.”  Top of the market art sales flourish because of rare supply and rare personal fortune. Dolman notes that as the Asian and Middle East art markets have grown, so has Christie’s investment in their sales bases. “Our Asian works of art department is now the single biggest revenue-generating part of our business, superseding impressionist (darn it!) and modern pictures, postwar and contemporary art,” says Dolman.  He adds that when the most expensive art is involved, only a small number of people have the funds to buy it. Those buyers have so much wealth it is almost impossible to put a dent in it.
The bottom line on “bargains,” says Dolman, is that death, debt and divorce happen no matter how wobbly economies become.  Death often piles debt onto family fortunes, and selling art that has accumulated high value is a handy way of paying off that debt. Even then, top works of art are scarce. So when a great work comes on the market Christie’s and Sotheby’s alert their best collectors and encourage them to bid while they can.
Supply and the ability to demand.  Can’t help but think about Jackson Hole’s plunging real estate market, a market with limited pinnacle supply and that only the wealthiest can buy.  Jackson’s real estate market has dropped near 80% in the last year, plus.  Since the recession began, according to Newsweek, Christie’s sales have dropped from a reported $6 billion to less than $3 billion. A very few of the highest end valley properties have sold recently; “moderate” priced home sales remain fallow.
Lately, plein air painter Jen Hoffman has been screeching. “Scree!” I suspected she’d mistaken herself for a hawk, but she’s just excited about the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s upcoming exhibit, Birds of Sage and Scree. Twenty-seven paintings by artist Greg McHuron with correlating text by writer and conservationist Bert Raynes will be on display. The show opens Thursday, March 4, 2010 and as Raynes and McHuron wouldn’t think of not having a party, there is one! The party starts at the Museum at 5:30 pm, with a targeted end time of 7:30 pm.   I predict a packed house.
Are there two more admired and loved men in Jackson? Two figures whose passions are never dimmed, whose work is more purely motivated…devoid of narcissism? I don’t think so. Franz Camenzind is the only activist/conservationist/artist who holds a candle. These spiritual leaders follow their muse, waking up daily considering and honoring the natural beauty surrounding us. They wonder what they can do next to help it all along, and they don’t think about how they might benefit professionally or politically.
Back to the point, the show.  McHuron’s paintings and Raynes’ text are combined in a book, also titled Birds of Sage and Scree. This party celebrates that book’s upcoming Spring 2010 release, the finish line to a collaborative quest.  All proceeds derived from book sales will benefit the Meg and Bert Raynes Wildlife Fund. That organization’s mission is to “…initiate, augment, or simply fund projects or activities to help maintain viable and sustainable wildlife populations into the future, especially in Wyoming and Jackson Hole, through support of research, education, habitat protection and habitat restoration.”
A Raynes-McHuron collaboration provides an excellent in-your-hands example of the power of connection between nature and art. Wildlife art nurtures love for, and engagement with, the natural world. This show and the book are beautiful, and they are a tool. The exhibition is also an opportunity for NMWA to “…highlight two long-time supporters of the Museum,” says Museum President and CEO James McNutt. “The show furthers the Museum’s mission to inspire visitors to examine both fine art and humanity’s relationship 
with nature.”
Raynes, with his late wife, Meg, have been recognized for their dedication to conservation and wildlife issues by the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the Wildlife Heritage Foundation, the Wyoming Chapter of the Wildlife Society, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, and the Town of Jackson.  As the book profile on Raynes notes, he “….noticed that some promising bird habitats with difficult access got (little) attention. In particular, Raynes found that students in beginning birding classes tended to avoid scree slopes and attempting to cross expanses of sagebrush. Thus, birds that inhabit these ecosystems are lesser known. (Raynes) has long thought that these birds should be better understood.”
Greg McHuron especially delights in painting en plein aire in locations ranging from northern Alaska to the Grand Canyon. McHuron regularly participates in the Museum’s Western Visions® show and received numerous awards and special recognition from his peers and the Museum. In 2009, his painting Alpine Flush won the Trustee’s Purchase Award.
“I prefer painting…en plein air as the drama and excitement that occurs all around me is difficult to recreate in a studio environment,” notes McHuron. “When I paint the rapidly changing scenes, I put into each of them the feelings and excitement that I felt while watching the scene unfold. Years of watching, analyzing and learning from nature’s school ground has helped me to understand the interrelations between organic and inorganic entities and how different lighting, seasons and locations affect how they look and react. If I can capture that particular feeling, I know that those viewing my works will come to feel some of the emotions and excitement that motivated my wanting to record this particular fleeting moment.”
Birds of Sage and Scree remains on display through April 18, 2010.  Phone the Museum at 307.733.5771.
A huge benefit of Facebook is reconnecting with friends you thought you’d never see or hear from again.
I want to tell you about Elizabeth Galindo and her sister Pam. Elizabeth was my earliest, best childhood friend. I knew her as Beth Wright; she now 
goes by Elizabeth, or Liz.  We became friends in the ’60′s. We went to elementary school together, up in the hills of Santa Monica, California.  She had long, dark, tendrils and olive skin; I was a squinty blond with blotchy pale skin and a bowl cut. We both loved Barbie. We loved the Mamas and the Papas, the Beatles, Nancy Sinatra, the Beach Boys, boys, swimming in the pool, riding, her mom’s hot dogs, granny gowns, 45′s, cool cars, lying on the beach, gym class, sleep overs, summer camp, Yardley lipsticks, Marco Polo. We were inseparable.
That’s me on the far right, Beth next to me. I and my brothers are hangin’ at the Wright’s pool.
I had two baby sisters, Sarah and Annie. Beth had an older sister, Pam. We idolized her, of course.  We never thought we’d grow up, but if we did it would be very hip to look and act like Pam. She was a loving big sister. She watched over us when she was asked to, she chuckled at our little girls games, she was very protective of Beth. And, as you can see from the photo top left, she was gorgeous.
About a year ago, out of the blue and after decades of not having a clue what had become of my childhood friend, Liz found me through Facebook. A miracle!  Liz–I will refer to her as Liz from here on–had very recently lost Pam to lung cancer. If ever a broken heart jumped through a website it was Liz’s as she spoke of her loss and emotions.  
Pam would have been just 61 a few weeks ago. These sisters had a powerful connection; they were best friends, continuously supporting one another.
People come together for a reason. We are sent to one another to learn and exchange energies and passion and lessons.  And hopefully love.  When Liz contacted me, she had no idea that I too had lost a sister to cancer. Annie, the baby in our family, had died five years earlier, a victim of metastatic colon cancer. She was 35.
Pam’s birthday is February 15. Annie’s is February 18.
Liz is a couture designer and researcher.  She designs remarkable period costumes and gowns for the film industry. She has two sons she loves with fervor.  And Liz has created a remarkable way to commemorate Pam and to raise funds for cancer research.  Here is her story, a story that began in the Fall of 2008:
“While taking care of my best friend and sister Pamela during her battle with lung cancer, I began doodling on my clothing. I doodled on jeans, skirts and blouses—whatever I had on, as I waited outside Pam’s treatment rooms. I doodled as I watched her sleep. Writing in a journal was not personal enough at that time; I wanted to create something I could physically feel as well as write down my thoughts and prayers. Drawing was my way of keeping in touch with my passion for art, fabrics and my “couture sister.”
After more than a year of mourning I finally approached my dear friend, pattern-maker Colleen. She helped me create garments I call Journal Skirts. I wore them to various functions 
and my classes (Liz is pursuing a PhD).  I used the journals for taking class notes, doodling, autographs, recording memories…. all sorts of record-keeping!  After a while, people began asking me where they could purchase a skirt or journal; and that is when I knew Pamela was guiding me towards an idea that would help raise funds for cancer research.
20% of every journal skirt purchase price will be donated to the American Cancer Society.  This link will bring you to my Journal Skirt Website: http://web.me.com/journalskirt/Journal_Skirts/Welcome.html . These skirts are wearable art, they’re performance art, and they are art from my heart to yours. Go forth and create. And thank you.”
Sincerely, Elizabeth P. Galindo
