Jackson Hole Art Blog

On July 8, Lee Carlman Riddell and Ed Riddell will open a joint show, Joy, at Trio Fine Art.

For Lee and Ed, joy is the thing that, when cultivated, creates a better life.  ”A special friend taught us the importance of cheering each other on: remembering a birthday, cooking dinner for friends, attending weddings and graduations and …art openings. Volunteering your time. It is these special things that we can all do that give us satisfaction and a sense of community,” says Lee.

The couple, recently returned from Tuscany, are, according to Lee, “excited to be showing their new work created over the past year.”

Photographer Ed Riddell expects he’ll be showing ten to twenty new photographs, while Lee notes her paintings will include works as large as 18 x 18″, 12 x 30″ and 12 x 24.”

Ed is planning a “surprise” for the public with his new images; Lee will be displaying some new, more expansive landscape paintings. Red barns covered by snowfall, Snake River pelicans, hoary frost cottonwoods, the moon.  Tuscany’s landscapes are rendered in field sketches (which can be the most exciting part of any show). Nesting hummingbirds, very difficult to observe, housed themselves outside Lee’s studio—expect to see sketches of tiny, hovering Trochilidae.

Joy’s opening reception takes place 5-8:00 pm;  a salon-style conversation with Ed and Lee Riddell happens the same evening, 5-6:00 pm.   Contact Lee by phoning either 307.733.8093, x10 or 307.699.0923.

Watch for Lee’s contribution to the 2010 NMWA Western Visions Show.  One more accolade:  Lee’s work was accepted as part of the juried Yellowstone Art Museum 42nd art Auction.

Visit www.triofineart.com for more information.  In addition to Riddell, Trio Fine Art represents Kathryn Mapes Turner and September Vhay…and that painter up in Livingston….what’s his name……..Russell Chatham (humor attempt!).   Look for some guest artist appearances this season.  Summer gallery hours at Trio are Wed. – Sat., Noon-6pm.

Item #2:

I love it when the nudes come together!

Lyndsay McCandless, Director at newly opened Heather James Fine Art, would like you to come in and see some of her favorite things.   Marilyn is one of them.  Even “hetero” women are in love with Marilyn.   Can’t stop looking at her.

“When Hollywood photographer Lawrence Schiller, America’s first paparazzi, got the assignment to photograph Marilyn Monroe on the set of Something’s Got to Give, he thought nothing of it, just another fabulous Hollywood assignment,” says McCandless. “But he, and the world, were unprepared for the moment when Marilyn jumped into the pool in a flesh-colored bikini and came up out of the water au natural. The film crew brought out a birthday cake on that day, June 1, 1962 when she turned 36, and she gleefully sat before the sparkler candles…”

Schiller caught the moment, on a day that turned out to be her last on a movie set. Two months later Monroe would be dead.

McCandless also digs painter Timothy Tompkins’ nebulas; painted on aluminum panels they remind her of ethereal, glorious, galactic worm holes.  She notes that the work is inspired by images in modern media and how they relate to art history and the human condition; the works have a transitory effect.

There’s so much more, including an August “Wyeth” extravaganza.  Do not miss it.  307.200.6090 gets you Lyndsay.

Item #3:

Shoot, it’s Schenck!

My bad. Missed this item in my “drafts” stack.   Here are the facts!

ARTIST: Bill Schenck

WHAT: Book Signing: “Bill Schenck, Serigraphs 1971-1996”

WHEN: Saturday, July 10th 10 AM to 1 PM

WHERE: Altamira Fine Art, 172 Center Street

WHY:  It’s Bill Schenck! (Have you SEEN the magazine layouts of his cool southwestern home?)

STRAIGHT FROM THE GALLERY’S MOUTH: Over the past four decades Bill Schenck’s hard-edge oil paintings examining the realities of modern Western life have ranged from the nostalgic and the surreal to Photorealism and Conceptualism. Yet little attention has been given to the unique serigraphs he created over twenty-five years. Between the early 1970’s and the mid-1990’s, Schenck created fifty-two editions of serigraphs encompassing a variety of themes including fictionalized Western histories, Native American subjects, and depictions of the modern cowboys and cowgirls. These silkscreen prints reveal the serious, the playful, and the critical aspects of his fascination with the West….His Photorealist style lends itself to a contemporary interpretation of the West in a melding of Pop art graphic boldness and Warhol-like mythmaking. To heighten the glamour and drama of his subjects, he pays sharp attention to compositional elements such as setting, viewing angle, light, and color.

email:  connect@altamiraart.com

Little info on these shows, but do check your “local listings” to find out more.

Galleries West Fine Art presents artists Jennifer L. Hoffman and D. Lee, in a double show, Connections.  An opening reception takes place at the gallery on Friday, July 2, 5-8:00 pm.  The show’s concept is to compare the landscapes of, I presume, Hoffman, to the animal subject works of Lee.

The artists are looking to connect the two experiences; one might assume there is no connection.   Hoffman and Lee will beg to differ, I wager. Hoffman’s landscapes are created over a long period of time, while Lee works “alla prima” – paintings are completed in a single session.   The show explores the artists’ respective relationships to nature and the artistic process of rendering landscape and wildlife.

Ah…here is some more info, just posted on the GW website.  Also, check out this month’s Western Art Collector article on the show.

Connections remains on display through July 18.       www.gallerieswestjacksonhole.com.

Item #2

Ashley Collins, painter of very large canvases depicting horses, returns to the Diehl Gallery this summer.  In fact, she is already there.  June 24, an artist’s reception will be held  from 5-8:00 p.m.   The show remains up through July 14.

A special preview benefiting Teton Science Schools took place on June 23rd; Diehl Gallery and Ashley Collins are proud to give back to the Jackson community and support Teton Science School’s educational initiatives, repeating their initiative of Summer 2009.

Noted for her abstract figurative images of horses, as well as her Colorfield works, she’s collected everywhere.

And where’s everywhere?  Diehl says private and public collections in Sydney, Dubai, Munich and New York display her work.  Super famous collectors include: Robert Redford, 20th Century Fox, Deborah Winger, Danny Sullivan III (race car driver) , Ringo Starr, the Sultan of Brunei,…maybe even the Sultan of Swing. It’s a pretty impressive list, and I note several outdoor enthsuiasts are included.  Collins has exhibited worldwide for years, including exhibitions with Rauschenberg, Dill, Motherwell, and (Jim) Dine.

Email: info@diehlgallery.com

Item #3:

The Art Association of Jackson Hole presents its Summer Pottery Sale on Thursday, June 24;  lasts all day, pretty much!  Begins at 10:00 am…winds up at 5:30 pm.    The sale takes place at the Center for the Arts, in Jackson.

Sam Dowd is the man with the pottery plan. Dive into a mountain of thrown clay creations — locally crafted cups, mugs, beer steins, bowls, plates, frisbees (just seeing if you’re listening.  Pas de frisbees.), pitchers (jugs with spouts!) and more.

Bargains are available, with prices as low as $2 (bucks,clams).   35% of every sale goes back to the Art Association Ceramics Studio.

Feel lucky?  Dial up 307.733.6379 for full details.

Don’t break anything.

Are you a Friend of Jeff Newsom?   If you are, you are lucky indeed.  And you are probably aware that he has been diagnosed with ALS, aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease.  Jeff is a musician, a beloved brother, partner and friend.   He’s our neighbor.  He’s a musician.  He’s also a master Dobsonian telescope builder.

A benefit to raise money and mojo for Jeff happens Saturday, April 17, 2010 at The Wildwood Room-Bill Boney’s, in Victor, Idaho.   Time:  7:00-11:00 pm.   Ben Winship will lead a long, illustrious line-up of musical guests.   Plan to donate and have a ball — there will be plenty of great food, drink AND a private Auction.

Facebook’s “Jeff Newsom Lives!” page says that “spontaneous participation events include:”

Best Song Dedicated To Jeff Newsom Contest (the more ridiculous the better)
Top Ten Conspiracy Theories by Jeff That Turned Out To Be True Contest
Top Ten Conspiracy Theories Jeff Will Offer In 2010

IF YOU CAN’T MAKE THE EVENT: Donations can be made online at:  http://jeffreynewsombenefit.chipin.com/jeffrey-newsom-lives

I met the Newsom clan years back, at an opening for Jeff’s brother David’s photography exhibit and book release, both entitled “Skip.” Skip is another Newsom brother, seemingly physically impaired, but incredibly magic.   David photographed Skip against Idaho’s snaggly, raw landscapes and the results were beautiful.  That show remains one of my all time favorites in my long memory of Jackson Hole art happenings.  Jeff was there and so was sister Ginny Newsom.   It was a great party, held at in the barn-like structure on West Broadway that housed the former J.H. Muse Gallery.

Jeff told me about his telescopes.  He drew me some sketches on cocktail napkins, and I started taking notes.   It was the beginning of a friendship with Jeff and the remarkable Newsom clan.  (Ginny Newsom is working her tail off on this benefit.  What a woman!) A few weeks later I found myself spending an adventurous afternoon with Jeff and his telescopes, and I wrote a newspaper story about the day.

What follows is an edited version of that original that ran in Planet Jackson Hole’s April 12, 2006 edition.  I want you to know him.   Here’s to you, Jeff!   I love the stars in your eyes.  Party on!   ~  Tammy

“Idahoan Enjoins Masses to ‘Come See the Moon!’”

“So there we were. We had one of these telescopes with a four-inch mirror in it, and Mars was going to make its closest pass in many years, and that’s what got it all started. You start looking through one of those things, and are blown away by what you can see! I thought, imagine what you could see with a bigger scope!”

So said Jeff Newsom of Driggs, Idaho, describing how he got interested in making telescopes. I thought that would be the subject of this story – I mean, is anyone else around here making telescopes? – no. Five minutes into my research and the full “scope” of what Newsom is doing and exploring began to crystallize and this little article became more of a humble introduction to a host of concepts and players, including, but not limited to:

Hydrogen, mirror-shaping classes, time, space, black holes, a re-examination of Big Bang theory, (which, according to www.bigbangneverhappened.org, could not have occurred), red shifts, wavelengths demonstrating a celestial object’s distance from earth; and John Dobson, renowned physicist, chemist, astronomer, “Star Monk,”  and visionary who has turned empirical evidence into philosophy.  Oh, and assists humans in seeing beyond their genetic programming.

“These are clouds, these are cats, these are bees, but when you see the moon through a scope you shut up,” Dobson has said.  Dobson founded Sidewalk Astronomers, a tribe of knowledgeable star gazers with a public service mission to introduce all citizens to space.   Dobson began the movement by setting up his homemade telescopes on San Francisco street corners and inviting passers-by to “come see the moon.”

Jeff Newsom was attracted to Dobson’s complete altruism.  Newsom learned how to build Dobsonian telescopes, made from precise, lightweight mirrors (Newsom carved his own), long focal ratios and extra wide apertures.    Newsom is also drawn to Dobson’s mix of Eastern philosophy and Western physics.  Because of Dobson, says Newsom, millions of people have “gone celestial.”

Newsom founded his own chapter of Sidewalk Astronomers, joining the mission to educate as many as he can on the secrets of the stars, planets, space, time, cosmic dust and, well, the origins of everything.  Spend a few hours with Newsom looking through his telescopes, and you may well become a convert, too.  Jeff Newsom has made it possible for all of us in Jackson, Driggs and the region to look into deep space if we want to.   Newsom engineered a visit by Dobson to Jackson Hole just a few years ago.

Peering through a giant telescope pointed towards the heavens, says Newsom, is like  “walking into the Winds for the first time or seeing the Grand Canyon. Your perspective is forever impacted.”

Jeff Newsom keeps giving and giving.  Give back.  We have his back, right?   I cannot attend this weekend’s festivities because I’m in New England;  however I’m thrilled to make a contribution that I hope will help raise funds, and my wish is that you will too.   As a friend of mine likes to end letters, “touching palms.”

Half a mile from the county fair
And the rain keep pourin down
Me and billy standin there
With a silver half a crown
Hands are full of a fishin rod
And the tackle on our backs
We just stood there gettin wet
With our backs against the fence

Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Let it run all over me…

The Art of Water, a public art exhibition celebrating the beauty and role of water in the Teton Watershed and its surrounding area, is on exhibit at the Driggs City Center. Opening day March 24, will include an open-to-the-public reception 5:30-7:30 pm, at the Driggs Senior Center.   The exhibition, a collection of photography, paintings and sculptures, courtesy of Friends of the Teton River and the Teton Arts Council, hangs through the month of June, 2010.

March 24th’s schedule of events:

5:30: Welcome by FTR and TAC representatives
Gallery open for viewing 5:30-7:30 PM

6:00: Sounds of the Teton: Audio recording natural sounds on the Teton River
Audio recording artist Charlie Otto

6:15: Performances of Poetry and Prose
Poet Garl Drake
Poet Ty Mack
Author Bruce Smithhammer

6:30: Healing Waters: A journey into the waters of Idaho, California, and Chile
Filmmaker Joe Lindsay

6:45:  River Songs
Singer/songwriters Thomas Sneed and Ted Wells

7:30 Closing thoughts by FTR and TAC representatives

Participating artists include: Bart Walker, Kelly Sullivan, Dorothy Galloway, Marcia LeMire, Dan Burgette,  Sue Tyler, Marina Nell, Teri Manigalt, Beach Huntsman, Carole Flaherty, Anna Taylor, Rosemary Thomas, Claire Vitucci, Cynthia Guild Stoetzer, Philbin De Got, Mary Lou Oslund, Virginia Grosse, Michele Farrier, Shauna Crandall, Tami Milligan, Nancy Nielson and Rosemary Franz.

The exhibition pays homage to the river’s fresh water and the creative personalities interpreting its particular bountiful beauty.    A light meal of soup, along with bread by the new local bakery 460 Bread will be provided.

For more information and a schedule of the evening’s events, visit www.tetonwater.org. Megan Hatch is the Friends of the Teton River contact.  Email Megan at megan@tetonwater.org.  Phone:   208.354.3871.

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.

Altamira Fine Art continues its ascent by adding yet another new artist to its roster:  Marshall Noice. Some years ago I wrote about Noice for Planet Jackson Hole. The column went something like this:

Noice, who lives and paints in Kallispell, Montana, is a nationally noted artist whose works are part of many prestigious collections.  However, the prize he holds most dear comes from the Blackfeet Nation, which, in 1987,  honored Noice with a name-giving ceremony.  Medicine man George Kicking Woman, who saw Noice’s name in a vision, gave the artist a Blackfeet name: “E-Kah-She-Mah-Kin.”

I don’t know the translation, but I do know that Noice began his artistic career as a photographer.  The work taught him about light.  In fact, Noice was Ansel Adams’ assistant during the summer of 1977, and the experience gave birth to Noice’s love of landscape.

“I have sometimes wondered if I live here because of the work I do, or if I do the work because I live here,” muses Noice.  “An interesting question without an answer. I learned how to see light from Ansel Adams.  He was a great teacher.  I really learned how to recognize landscapes.  I feel that my experience in photography has helped me to develop a heightened sensitivity towards landscapes.”

Noice’s work also has to be influenced by Fauvism.  For the Fauves, color is TOUT.  It is applied furiously, without restraint, and it is wholly interpretive.

Art history lesson alert!

“Fauvism” refers to a period in art history having its genesis in 1905, when French painter Henri Matisse and his buddies Andre Derain, Maurice Vlaminck, Albert Marquet, Raoul Dufy, and Georges Braque first displayed new paintings drenched with color; huge, vast masses of unbroken, emotional, explosive color.   These painters and others were given the nickname “Les Fauves,” –the Wild Beasts. Upon seeing the collection of wildly colorful paintings surrounding a comparatively run-of-the-mill sculpture, unveiled for the first time at the 1905 Paris Salon d’Automme, French art critic Louis Vauxcelles remarked that “it was like a Donatello ‘parmi les fauves’”-among the wild beasts.

Wildlife art. Wild Beasts.  Sense a century-old connection here?

Contemporary Western Art is in no way disconnected from art history’s great movements; it descends from many masters and traditions.  Artists in the West articulate landscape and are paying homage to light, color, and “the shapes of things,” as artists always have.

In addition to Trio house artist Lee Carlman Riddell hosting a painting workshop in Tuscany, her gallery partner Kathryn Mapes Turner has said “yes” to an invitation to exhibit her work alongside those of Michigan painter John Felsing.

The two artists plan a joint exhibition at Altamira Fine Art, where Felsing is represented.  The show runs March 11-13, kicking off with an artist’s reception on Thursday, March 11, 5-7 pm, at Altamira, in Jackson.

The show does not signal any change in Turner’s affiliation with Trio Fine Art.  More on this special exhibition soon.

Item #1 (With a bullet.)

Via Facebook, the Art Association of Jackson Hole has announced a lecture on censorship taking place Thursday, February 18, at the Center for the Arts.

The forum is set to be a panel discussion and runs sixty minutes.  Beginning at 5:30 pm and scheduled to end at 6:30 pm, this talk will allow participants to head out early in the evening—however, I can’t imagine an hour being enough time to really tackle this subject, particularly given the Jackson Hole late-arrival trademark.   At this writing the Blog is unclear as to whether this discussion will deal with perceived censorship issues within Jackson, or with censorship in the world at large.  Maybe both.

Whatever the focus, it’s a convenient and welcome chance for creative persona to bring censorship’s causes and repercussions to light.

The irony of censorship is that when a show or artist is censored their particular spotlight only burns brighter.  And usually, as we’ve seen in Jackson, the entity doing the censoring gets much more negative attention than the art in question.

Figure of Speech: Censorship in the Arts will be held in Artspace’s Main Gallery.  Panel members include reps from writing, dancing, theatrical and visual  arts.

Item #2:

A reminder that Lee Carlman Riddell and Ed Riddell are guiding a photography and painting workshop to Tuscany, Italy this spring. The trip begins April 29, 2010 and concludes a week or so later, on May 5.

Ed Riddell has details about the trip on his website, www.edwardriddell.com. You can also visit Lee’s website, www.leeriddell.com. Lee is represented locally by Trio Fine Art.    A previous post on this blog has more details regarding fees and application processes; do a search using key words “Riddell,” “workshop” or “Tuscany” and the post should appear.

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.

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.

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