Jackson Hole Art Blog

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.

Yo!  Been off-line for two weeks, give or take a sunset.   The J.H. Art Blog is being administrated three quarters of the country away from Jackson Hole. That’s the case all winter, but we’ll keep posting and inquiring and spreading the word.   Here are a few last minute postings, and….I know you know.  They’re up anyway.

Rossetti, McCandless and the Art Association join hands for this one; an opening reception takes place Friday, December 11, 5:30 - 7:30 pm at the Center for the Arts.

Miga Rossetti’s first show in a while, Where to Put it All,  mixes the chaos of Rosetti’s life with the efficiency she strives to inject.  In NYC, many artists and art lovers are converting their homes into galleries, holding mini-shows for artists whose work is not marketable in the current….market.  They find ways to stash their “personals,” and maybe Rossetti looks to pick up on that trend.

“Fitting it all in, stashing it, layering it, isolating certain things, giving over to many - all of this is considered,” says Rossetti.  Our efficient winged friends are considered–creatures who can keep a neat house in a tiny circle, frenetic as each day might be.  Materials include mixed media on board, including acrylic paint, natural materials and paper collage.

Martin Garhart & Valerie Seaberg: Falling Awake combines a contemporary painter and printmaker’s artistry with local artist Valerie Seaberg’s undulating vessels.  Garhart has served as Professor of Drawing, Painting and Printmaking at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, for over 30 years. Valerie Seaberg describes herself as “an ocean child” destined for mountain life. Her mixed media vessels are like great, tumbled beachcombing finds, undulating clay forms encircled by pine needles or horsehair. They are high country marriages between an ancient ocean and raw land. Seaberg’s works are muscular, sensual and convey a deep sense of time, earth, and element.

Wow—Whoever wrote that is really good!  www.artassociation.org.

Item #2

Hot off the Facebook presses:

Lyndsay invited you to “Affordable Art Weekend with Oswald Gallery and LMC” on Friday, December 11 at 12:00pm.

Event: Affordable Art Weekend with Oswald Gallery and LMC.

What: Exhibit
Start Time: Friday, December 11 at 12:00pm
End Time: Saturday, December 12 at 8:00pm
Where: Oswald Gallery, 165 North Center Street

Join Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary and Oswald Gallery as we kick-off our Contemporary Art Collaboration in the Oswald Gallery space with an Affordable Art Weekend. Works by artists in both galleries will be on view and all artworks on view will be $3,000, or less, with many works under $1,000.

Please consider donating 10% of any purchase price to one of several arts non-profits.   A nice gesture from McCandless, recently forced to call it quits — it will really happen this time, I think — because of late-to-the-game town rulings on the state of her space.

Why now? Lyndsay has been in that space six years, TOJ.  Come on.  Give a hand, don’t slam her door.  If you had problems, or if anyone did, why didn’t you voice them?  Why didn’t you do something pro-active to keep LMC cooking?   I hope there is a bit of investigating on the part of the two newspapers.  If everything is on the up-and-up, so be it.  If this is a sudden, last-ditch effort on the part of LMC’s next door developers to beat back the common peeps, that stinks.  Fix it up, instead. You have the money.  And, it would do your complex (that nobody is living in) good stead.

The gallery will be open from noon until 8, with a cocktail reception each night from 6 to 8 pm.

Item #3:  It’s Bazaar.

This Christmas, please come for some good cheer and bargains — and to support the JHHS Rotary Interact teenagers who are selling great gifts to raise money to open a village library in Nepal.

Many new rug designs and selected imports have just arrived. Bring your neighbors!

Sat. & Sun. December 12 & 13 10 am to 4 pm.  Steer your sleigh to 1520 Fish Creek Road, in Wilson.  Look for the prayer flags.  For more information, contact hostess and Nepal benefactor Didi Thunder, at 307.733.4124.

I like the way this new show of hot art screens and still photography by filmmaker Peter Pilafian has come together: it’s been very “techno.”  I have lots of “techno” feeling notes—why am I thinking of Astro Boy? Why, when I’m featuring Peter’s image of melting glacier ice that resembles molars?

Peter Pilafian’s new show is up at Elevated Grounds, on the Teton Village Road.  An opening reception takes place December 5, and you should be prepared to see something completely different.  Comprised of thematic groupings, Pilafian plans to explore such stimuli as Texture, Indigenous Portraits, Architecture, Shadows and Landscapes.

Watching Pilafian define and curate, I began thinking of these thematic groupings as a series of reflective pools. Fluid videos surrounded by a string of photographic pearls.  The show offers a glimpse, in National Geographic style, of some of Pilafian’s memorable earth journeys.

The exhibition will feature as many as five hot art screens and a selection of still photographs taken around the world.   A Delphi tablet, aged city walls of Havana, coffee farmers, Irish fiddlers, evocative shadows, orange trees and images of Athens are all part of the multi-layered story Pilafian wishes to tell.  High definition BluRay DVD footage provides vivid, crisp focal pointsPilafian plans on framing his videos as a painter frames canvases.  Why not frame moving landscapes?  Pilafian’s images are part of Grand Teton National Park’s Lawrence Rockefeller Preserve Visitor’s Center installation; consider that sensory exhibit and you will get a feel for this show.

Contact Peter Pilafian via email at: ppilafian@earthlink.net.

Item #2:

Ring-a-ding-ding!

Dancers’ Workshop’s 2nd Annual Affordable Art for Christmas Sale takes places Saturday, December 5, in the Center for the Arts Theater Lobby.  The sale runs 11:00 am -  5:00 pm and is open to all.  It’s free!

DW’s Alissa Davies tells us fifteen local arts vendors will be on hand, offering holiday arts and craft items.  Jewelry, paintings, bags, and knit items (fingerless gloves!) neck warmers and hats are specialties of this sale;  proceeds help support DW dance programs.

Price points are in line with a Scrooge-like economy - everything on sale is priced between $1 and $99.  A DW holiday rehearsal will be taking place on stage in the theater, a joyous treat.    For more information, call DW’s offices, at 307.733.6398.

Shhhhh.  It’s a silent auction.

The 15th Annual Out of the Woods Silent Art Auction, an Art Association favorite, takes place Friday, November 20th, 6-8 pm at the Center for the Arts Theater Lobby.

We don’t have Todd around, but we still have his “shhh!”  A sort of an in-house ‘palates and palettes’ arts event, the evening promises a throng of art-lover clamoring for food, wine and….local art.  Artists donate works, and the public bids on art of all kinds, via a silent auction.  It’s loads of fun, and all proceeds raise money for the Art Association’s Educational Programming.

On your mark, get set…..start shopping!  For information, contact Amy Fradley at 307.733.8792 or email amyf@artassociation.org.

Also at the Art Association - specifically upstairs in the Artspace Loft Gallery - check out “Little Cayman,” on display November 13 - December 31, 2009.

Drool and live vicariously through News & Guide grand dame Liz McCabe, who has been visiting Little Cayman. The exhibit is billed as a collection of visions of the south seas idyll by McCabe, Jon Stuart, Laura McWethy, Tom Montgomery and others.

If they need someone to carry their bags, they should give me a call.  www.artassociation.org.

Item #2:  Thal Glass

Glass blower Laurie Thal blows and fires her magic goblets, vases and vessels in her Teton Village Road studio.  Every fall -or early winter, depending on how you experience November -  she hosts a holiday open house, and this year’s holiday event takes place Saturday, November 21, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. This is a free event, and a fun excursion for the whole family.

Thal will be there, giving demonstrations and answering questions–the studio is typically stocked with a variety of glass items, in a variety of sizes and price points and a veritable rainbow of colors.

Thal has not supplied a contact phone number, but click on her website–linked above–for more information and a good look at her wares.

Time for Jackson’s annual Latino arts tradition, our Day of the Dead Altar Walk–to be followed by a Day of the Dead Party at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary. Happening on Monday, November 2 - you will have changed your clocks back an hour by then - the walk begins at 5:30 pm, departing from the Center for the Arts lobby (check to see which lobby, east or west).  Walk along Pearl Avenue with other D.O.D. enthusiasts and savor–appreciate–the great creativity, spirit and love behind these traditional altars.  Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrates life, and offers up kudos to loved ones moved on to another dimension.

They’re still with us, though—you can be sure of that.  Be open to receive them, and messages from your loved ones will come to you.

Following the walk, join the festivities at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary; it’s a party for all ages with delicious Mexican fare, sugar skull decorating AND…a LIVE ALTAR PERFORMANCE.  Cool.

If you can’t make the Walk, you have until November 3 to visit the altars.  Check with Ladrillos para los Artes, our local organization supporting Latino cultural arts and programming.  All events are free and family friendly.

Altar Walk Store Fronts: Center for the Arts, Bank of Jackson Hole, Cloudveil, Arteffects,Pearl Street Bagels, Antler Motel, JH Meat and Fish Co., Bon Appe Thai, Betty Rocks, Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary Gallery, Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church.

Altar artists: Susan Thulin, Nona Yehia, Jennifer Daniels, Alissa Davies, Babs Case, Meleta Buckstaff, Vanessa Sultzer, Stacey Walker, Madeleine Mundt, Cindee George, Teton Literacy Students, Middle School Students, Spanish Council at Our Lady of the Mountains.

Other D.O.D. inspired activities are listed here.  Contact Oona Doherty at 690-5264 for details.

Traditional Mexican Cooking Class
Friday October 30
Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church
5:00pm-7pm
Space is limited. To register contact Oona Doherty: 690-5264 or oonadoherty@gmail.com

Children’s Sugar Skull Decorating Workshop
Sunday November 1
2-4pm Children 5 and up
Teton County Library
No sign-up, drop-ins welcome.

Day of the Dead Altar Walk
Monday November 2
5:30pm
Begins in the Center for the Arts Lobby

Day of the Dead Fiesta
Monday November 2
6:00pm-9:00pm
Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary Gallery
130 South Jackson Street
Homeade Mexican food and beer, dead bread and hot chocolate and sugar skull decorating!

Teton County Parks & Recreation sends word that they are in need of the following items for a large-scale children’s crafts project.  The Kids Club After School program will undertake the project in December.  If you or your friends are inclined to save items from your recycling, TCP&R can use the following items; these can be dropped off at the Rec Center in town….that’s where the big pool is, ya’ll.    Thanks from them, in advance for your…

Small cardboard boxes - cereal boxes - snack boxes - paper towel tubes - toilet tissue tubes - extra cardboard - plastic bottles - socks - buttons - any small and large boxes - egg cartons.

What, no string?  No yarn?  Ask about yarn and string.

Maybe a Christmas Village is in the works?   Contact Angela York, Youth Recreation Coordinator, at 307.732.5756 or (cell) 307.200.1565.

Item #2:  National Museum of Wildlife Art’s “Harvest on the Hill”

One of the valley’s favorite fall family traditions happens soon: The National Museum of Wildlife Art’s November “Harvest on the Hill” celebration.  The special First Sunday event takes place Sunday, November 1, 1-4:00 pm, at the museum. Free to area locals - the first 600 to arrive get a free T-shirt - the afternoon is filled with fun events.  A “Harvest” stalwart, Deanna Banana the Clown, will be on hand.  The musical group Two Rivers will perform their own brand of “Celtic Western” music and a leaf print arts project activity for kids and adults takes place 1-3:00 p.m.  And, of course, be sure to enjoy the Museum’s galleries; leave your cider in the lobby, though!

Arrive early!  The tees are popular and this is one of Fall’s best family events.  Gets you in the spirit. Leaf bag fights optional.  For information, call 307.733.5771.

Item #3:  LMC’s Boo-yah!

Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary’s Halloween party plan is this:  Macbeth Party!  The gallery space hosts a “lively evening” of costume contests and playing around, Halloween-style.  There will be sword fights, and members of Off Square Theatre’s Macbeth cast will make spooky, spectral appearances.  Bring lots of garlic and dry ice for the cauldron.  The fun happens October 30, 6-9:00 pm at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, on South Jackson Street.

Item #4:  Coffee

My friend Jim VanNostrand, who is in St. John’s hospital, inspired by a giant hospital coffee machine, asked me to put this bit of philosophy on my blog:  “There Is No Life Before Coffee!”

Feel better, Jim!  Love, Tammy

Yikes, I hope there’s still time to check out Jarrod Eastman’s artwork over at Full Circle Frameworks--A party happened this past Friday evening, and judging from what Rocky Vertone posted on Facebook, Eastman’s works look pretty alive and fun.   I’m so not a smarty when it comes to the lingo of the 20 and 30-something Jackson art crowd, but I do know that Rocky’s venue is one-of-a-kind and that he is providing a much needed service for up-and-coming Jackson Hole artists.

Available Eastman art includes original works and limited edition prints.  Vertone also says some “one off” pieces are up for sale at very affordable prices.   So check it out, give Vertone a buzz for an update.   733-0770 at the shop.

Item #2: Art Association Offers Fall Classes

The Art Association of Jackson Hole has a full and diverse fall arts class schedule.  Painting, drawing, ceramics, mixed media, metals, fiber, glass, photography, printmaking and sculpture are all on the roster.   Classes are taught by an impressive group of artists, including but not limited to:  Valerie Seaberg, Alissa Davies, Sam Dowd, Sharon Thomas, Kathy Turner, Amy Larkin, Georgia Mayer, Abbie Miller, Greg Epstein, Aaron Mitchell….

Visiting artists for adult classes include: Lian Quan Zhen (Class: Spirit of Life: Watercolor and Chinese Painting), Charles Reid (Figure in Watercolor), Donna Rozman (Ceramics, Color and Design), Danielle Corriea, Daniella Woolf, Rebecca Stern & Bronwyn Minton (Encaustic & Photographic Processes), Dan Haga (Advanced Silver Workshop), Bob Smith (Wildlife Photography), Elizabeth Opalenik (The Figure in Motion) and Johan Hagaman (Sculpting in Concrete: From High Art to Yard Art).

There are plenty of art classes for kids, too!  Check out The Avery Mathieu Youth Scholarship Fund page to learn about a meaningful way to contribute to the Art Association’s ongoing commitment to youth.

For information, log onto the Art Association’s website here, or email signup@artassociation.org. You can download a pdf describing all courses and special programs.    Phone:  307.733.6379.

PS: Rumor has it that the position of Art Association E.D. has been offered to someone from the field of applicants interested in that job.

Item #3:  New Casting at Galleries West

Jackson hole sculptor R. Scott Nickell has a new bronze in the works - an Arapaho Dancer. The figure depicts a warrior relating his story of valor through ceremonial dance.  If you’ve ever attended a pow wow, you know how gorgeous and mesmerizing these dances are.

Says Nickell, “Gripping a war shield in one hand and a gunstock war club in the other, (the dancer’s) performance illustrates the act of counting coup during battle.  In Native tradition, counting coup (touching an adversary with the tip of the war club) was a braver feat than killing an enemy, since it involved more danger to the warrior himself.  Feathers were given as rewards for these acts of bravery and were displayed like medals of honor by the warriors.”

I haven’t told you about the deal: Nickell is offering a pre-cast discount for those ordering before November 15th.   Pre-cast price is currently $5500, but if ordered by November 15th, a 5% discount is applied.  Time to start thinking about those holidays…..For full details on the piece and special payment arrangements, contact Galleries West at 307.733.4412 or email info@gallerieswestjacksonhole.com.

The Teton Literacy’s Second Annual Mother’s Day Trunk Show, a two-day event, features the best of Jackson Hole’s local arts.   May 1-2, take a pre-Mother’s Day stroll over to the historic Wort Hotel in downtown Jackson to view, and bid on, a wealth of jewelry, glasswork, paintings, sculpture, ceramics, needlework and more.   Bid on a complimentary, two-hour Jackson Hole Art Tour for four!  (Value $130 - a great gift for the art-loving ladies in your life, a great treat for summer visitors!)   Fly fishing, spa visits and more goodies will also be up for bid.

The event kicks off with a Friday, May 1 cocktail party and first glance at some great items up for silent bid at the Wort; Saturday, May 2, come back to check out the all-day trunk show and bidding action.

All proceeds benefit the Teton Literacy Program. Check with event organizers regarding non-profit donation tax benefits.   Stefanie Thompson and Andria Clancy are the co-chairs.   For more information log onto Teton Literacy’s website. Phone 307-733-9242.

*

Art for the Soul-Soup for the Bowl, happening at the Art Association on Friday, May 1, 5:30-8:00 p.m., is a new and down-to-earthenware fundraiser for the Art Association’s community arts education program.  An affordable $25 gets you in the door.  Once in, here’s what happens:  pick your own hand-thrown ceramic bowl–thrown or coiled by Art Association ceramicists.  Then, fill that beautiful bowl with your choice of an array of delicious soups from local restaurants.

And…drink beer! (Hope there’s some cheddar soup to go with that.)  Open mic entertainment is on the docket, and attendees get a sneak preview of this Spring’s YARD Art exhibition, headed up by local artist Ben Roth.

Bowl-er artists include: Wesley Barron, Rudy Borrego, Jenny Dowd, Sam Dowd, Bronwyn Minton, Janet Monahan, Robert Palmquist, Allison Parker, Amanda Rizner, Veronica Schreibeis, Valerie Seaberg, Dean Stayner, Marianne Sturken, Tenley Thompson, Josh Thulin and Nicole Waichunas.         Information: 307-733-6379.   Or, log onto www.artassociation.org.

A couple of time zones away from Jackson Hole–it seems light years away–in Hartford, Connecticut, Aid To Artisans (ATA) has worked for decades to create opportunities for third world artisans.  ATA provides small grants that go a long way towards educating artisans and crafts people in poverty-stricken regions, while keeping cultures intact.  ATA helps these creative enclaves bring their goods to the American market.  Once an artisan has established a relationship with a U.S. vendor, ATA steps back, allowing infrastructure to develop and the artisan to sustain its own business initiatives.  

ATA is passionate about all cultural traditions and makes sure environmentally sound practices are followed.  ATA says it recognizes it can “…can only bring lasting economic growth if (it can) provide an integrated approach to product development, business skills training, market access and eco-effective processes.”

For 33 years, ATA has provided mentoring in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and Asia.  I’m proud to say my mom, Thyrza Christel, contributed years of service to ATA, working in the grants department and travelling solo to Armenia, for a month, in her mid-sixties. The experience changed her life, and the lives of Armenian women working in crafts collectives.    Working for ATA and the warm, creative craftspeople around the globe has been one of her life’s great passions.

ATA is offering a Market Readiness Program Aug. 15-19 in New York City; the course coincides with ATA’s annual presence at the New York International Gift Fair. The course offers “…the latest trend and market information offered by industry experts.”  Marketing, distribution, design analysis, buyer relationships, importing and exporting, strategies, how to prepare your work for export…these topics and more will be explored.

Deadline for registration is July 15.  A discount is available for early registration.  To learn more, log onto www.aidtoartisans.org.   Phone:  860-756-5550.

The envelope, please.

Several spring seasons ago, the Teton County Library hosted a most memorable show.  That spring, one could visit the library’s gallery and get lost in a Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibit, “Graceful Envelope.” It’s impossible for me, a person who values tradition (I feel about printed newspapers the way Charlton Heston did about guns; you’ll have to take it from my cold, dead hand!) to refrain from gushing over that show.

The contest’s website says  “…Calligraphers and artists from around the world are invited to participate in the 15th annual Graceful Envelope Contest, conducted by the Washington (DC) Calligraphers Guild under the sponsorship of the National Association of Letter Carriers. The contest is open to all ages, with two separate categories for children.” This year’s theme is “Address the Environment.” Log on here to view the site.

You can still enter 2009’s Graceful Envelope Contest; entries must be postmarked by April 30.

A old friend recently asked for my mailing address, as she likes sending letters in lieu of email.  She loves her writing paper.  That request prompts this re-running of my original article on Graceful Envelope, below.    Happy Easter!

“More than kisses, letters mingle souls; for, thus friends absent speak”.

John Dunne’s poetry embraces the tone of “Graceful Envelope”, a Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibit now on display at Teton County Library.  If you haven’t been to see these illuminating, exquisite envelopes, go.  The artwork evokes longing sighs, remembrance, and a feeling that you’ve tripped along a mossy, hidden path to discover a secret garden.

A hundred painted envelopes are included in the Smithsonian exhibit, that originated in 1995.  Artists create envelopes for the competition, their subject matter based on a stamp or a theme chosen by the National Association of Letter Carriers.  Ah, if every letter were thus conceived!  The show is heartrending in its beauty.  It is nectar.  Step softly along the library’s walls to find artwork that seems rendered by fairies; elegant, wispy, fables for a 4 x 6 inch tablet.  You will choose your own favorites, but I mention a few of mine here: Cathy Chilton, of New Mexico, fancied “Water, Earth, Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon”, an envelope inspired by stamps portraying those locations.  The envelope is creased like an accordion, with alternating slices of bottle green, baked canyon orange, and an indigenous lizard.  This Crafts-styled piece stands in sturdy comparison to envelopes weighted with laced grapevines and golden pears hanging heavy on the branch.  Humorous takes on the funny papers include a work picturing Popeye knocking the stuffing out of the mail, and a careening “Blondie and Dagwood” sketch.   “Celebrating Nature” bears a regal butterfly, emerald on its envelope, wings and antennae dipping into lacey calligraphy addressing the work.

Rhapsodic, I realize, but this exhibit unleashed such images and memory.  Days of Easter Egg hunts, overgrown gardens choked with wild roses, sprawling hillsides and ladies with parasols looking down from the top of sunny hillsides to a picnic in the meadow.  And I remember writing on thick paper, pages and pages of summer letters sent and received as a child.

Save your letters and envelopes.  As exhibition curator Ester Washington notes, “Letters were once precious possessions, tied in bundles with silk ribbon, and kept safe in scented drawer.” We can recreate that time.   Let’s try.