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.

Nice and Small are what you will find this month and next (through January 7, 2010 ), at the Diehl Gallery, as it presents a holiday show, Small Works.

Now on display, an opening reception and holiday party for the exhibit takes place December 23, 5-8:00 pm. Diehl Gallery promises fine food and holiday spirits, and is honoring the Season by donating 10% of each sale to the Jackson Food Cupboard, Jackson’s non-profit providing food for members of the community in need.

Jackson Cupboard serves up to 400 individuals a week, a meaningful statistic.  In fact, if you’ve not already done so, please consider bringing your extra pantry items to the Cupboard’s offices, located on the St. John’s Episcopal Church Campus, in Jackson.

For more information, contact Diehl at 307.733.0905, or email info@diehlgallery.com.  Diehl’s address is 155 West Broadway.

Item #2

The Ugliest Christmas Sweaters

This holiday, don’t forget to donate to your nearest Ugly Christmas Sweaters Thrift Store. Economic recessions are tough on ugly sweater output, and as we make our fumbling, over-fed way through the holiday season, it’s easy to forget those whose lives could be cheerier, warmer–not to mention more fashionable–in your “softly used” sweater.

Get creative about your sweater collecting!  Start an annual neighborhood Ugly Sweater competition tradition.  Team up.  Each team (fun for couples!) knits or shops for the most god-awful reindeer, kitties, snowballs, Santas, Christmas Trees, cookies and fruit cakes assembled on wool (or a wool-acrylic mix).  Teams with the ugliest sweaters win! (Don’t forget the designated non-side-taking judge–your grammy is a good choice) Losing team cooks the goose.  (I am not delightfully saucy!)

And remember, ladies: Beware of snobbing off a man just because he’s got to wear the ugly sweater his mum knit.  He might be a barrister, the kind of guy who posts bail in order to get you out of that Caribbean prison you were slung into, after being so wrongly accused of concealing controlled substances while struggling through security at that nasty, bug-infested, coconut-strewn  airport.

Who needs self-confidence when a larger-than-life appliqued reindeer sweater-wearing hunk is your date?

SEASONS GREETINGS AND BEST WISHES FOR A COLORFUL NEW YEAR–THANKS FOR WATCHING. ~  The Jackson Hole Art Blog

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.

Throughout December, Mountain Trails Gallery hosts its Holiday Miniatures Show, a collection of small works on canvas and bronze sculptures.  Currently on display, the show remains up through December 24th.   An artists’ reception takes place Thursday, December 17, 4-7 p.m.

Gallery Director Pam Flores notes that the show explores a wide selection of subjects and styles.  Prices are mixed, providing good opportunity to purchase affordable art; it’s a nice chance to begin a personal collection.   Themes are primarily Western, and include wildlife, Native American culture, cowboys and landscapes.   More than 50 works are included.

Many artists will be on hand to greet the public during the reception, which takes place during December’s Gallery Association Art Walk.  This is the first holiday reception for Mountain Trails in their new corner space on the Town Square.

For more information contact Pamela Flores, at 307.734.8150, or email director@mtntrails.net.

Wildlife photographer Tom Mangelsen’s October presentation at the National Museum of Wildlife Art was so packed, they had to send people away.  So, Mangelsen is generously presenting his program again–at NMWA–on Thursday, November 19th, at 7:00 p.m.  Mangelsen will talk about his nature photography, specifically the work now on view at the Museum.  That exhibition, “The Natural World: Photographs by Thomas D. Mangelsen,” is on display through April 25th, 2009.

I can make this one, yay!   By the way, the last post on Mangelsen’s show was Twittered about, out in the enviromental-creative universe….proof we’re all connected.  Proof that Wyoming’s artists are among the best in the world when it comes to representing this powerful place.

For information, give NMWA a call at 307.733.5771 or log on to www.wildlifeart.org.

Item #2:  Repeat Arts Grant Opportunities

A second deadline has been added to receive grant money from Art Works of Wyoming (AWW), a Wyoming Arts Council program.  Funding comes from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Timeline is as follows:

• December 11, 2009 2nd deadline to apply for AWW funds.

• February 11-12, 2010 WAC Board meeting and 2nd Art Works for Wyoming Panel.

• February 19, 2010 Award letters for second funding deadline issued.

For full details and guidelines, log onto the Wyoming Arts website here.

Item #3:

Colorado landscape painter David W. Mayer’s paintings “Autumn at String Lake” and “Spring Runoff” are to be included in the C.M. Russell Art Auction, in Great Falls, Montana next Spring.  The auction takes place March 17-20.

Mayer, a colleague of painters Scott Christensen, T. Allen Lawson and other painters; he is an acolyte of such writers and artists as Richard Schmid, Edgar Payne, Joaquin Sorolla and the California Impressionists.

The C.M. Russell Art Auction is juried.

No matter where she goes to hang her hat, Jackson’s plein air artist  Kathryn Mapes Turner paints the landscape.  As a fourth generation Triangle X Ranch family member — the famed dude ranch is located in Grand Teton National Park — Turner grew up observing wilderness and ranch life in one of the most spectacular landscapes on earth.

Even Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman noted Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park’s exquisite beauty while referencing  the annual Fed Economic Summit that takes place there.

Turner also has strong Washington D.C. ties.  She finds beauty in that city’s historic, classical landscape, an expansive city conceived as the seat of our country’s government.  D.C.’s architecture is influenced by ancient Egypt,  Greece and Rome and 19th century France.

For Turner, painting is a language expressing  her deep appreciation of the world around her. “My paintings are my response to what I find magnificent. This magnificence can be found everywhere from the monumental to the mundane,” she says.

“Magnifique,” a collection of new paintings and drawings by Turner, opens Friday November 13, at Susan Calloway Fine Arts, in Washington.   An opening reception is scheduled that evening from 6-8 pm.   The show remains up through December 12th, 2009.

Says the gallery of Turner’s work, “Her superb drawing ability and familiarity with her subjects allow her to break at will from pure representation, successfully abstracting her subject matter without losing its essence. She moves seamlessly from watercolor to oil without changing her style, using each medium to its fullest extent to bolster her own style, rather than changing her style to suit the medium. This show will feature her cityscapes, landscapes and figurative works.”

Turner lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where she is represented by Trio Fine Art.

For information, contact Susan Calloway Fine Arts by telephoning 202.965.4601; or email gallery@callowayart.com.

Item #2:

Contemporary Western artist Matt Flint, an artist featured at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, is one of six artists to be highlighted at the Wyoming Arts Council’s Biennial Fellowship Exhibit.

The exhibit is on display at Wyoming’s State Museum through January 9, 2010.  An opening reception took place November 5th. The earth tones and primal forms Flint uses in his work bring cave paintings to mind; natural forms and images of birds seem scratched on ancient rock.   Check the Wyoming Arts Council website for full details.

The Jackson Hole Art Association gets fall going with a cool, free, “three-for” opening tonight, 5:30 - 7:30 pm at the Center for the Arts.

Local wide-eyed n’ spunky textile artist Abbie Miller curates Larger than Life, a show examining clothing as a sculptural medium, and how clothing helps us, as Cathy Wikoff notes, “inhabit the world.”   We are what we wear.  The show features works by artists Alissa Davies, Annica Cuppetelli, Rod Klingelhofer, Amy Larkin (did ya see her stuff at Shades?), Carin Rodenborn and Jennifer Williams.    Quothe the Art Association, “….in this realm garments become exoskeletons and sculptural shelters that offer protection, exuberance and a new way to inhabit our evolving environments.”

Miller’s fabric creations are wonders.  They’re alive. They morph in front of your eyes, they tell stories.   Her show is up through November 23.

Sharon Thomas: Studies from Life Drawing, explores the artist’s study of the human form. Thomas, a long-time Art Association staffer, artist and teacher, will soon leave us—and that is very sad. Thomas has a touch we will miss-detail full of delicacy, gentle musings and nature-inspired collages. She’s loving in each and every endeavor—honest. A lightness of being. A master of color.

“Studies” remains on display through November 6.

Photographer Zachary Allen’s Roseland: A Field Guide to New Urbanism is a timely exhibition. Allen’s photographs of a Virginia region facing potentially dangerous levels of growth presents a theme we’ve long been considering here.

How will this new suburban development evolve? Will it be sustainable for the landscape as well as its inhabitants? Allen says Roseland is an important case study; it will present “…the future of designing sustainable communities through a system of strict design principles and policies guided by the charter of new urbanism.” Allen plans to photograph construction of the project from beginning to end.

Check the Art Association’s website for more info. 307.733.6379.

This all brings to mind Jackson’s own growth issues; which brings to mind articles and ads recently run in the Jackson Hole News & Guide. They concern Jackson resident and business owner Kevin Gilday’s drive to initiate the unseating of Jackson’s mayor, Mark Barron. Gilday is proposing early organization of an effort to find a candidate who can run against, and beat, Barron. That is, if Barron runs.

That’s the very basic scenario. Organizing well-conceived political campaigns, campaigns of foresight, is admirable. Right off the bat, however, this campaign has shot itself in the foot. Gilday’s rallying speeches are peppered with negative characterizations. Such hyperbole does not reflect favorably on him. And such usage puts the characterization’s target in plumb position; Mark Barron is (publicly) reacting to Gilday’s slurs in a non-reactive and considered manner. And guess what that does? It presents Mr. Barron as the wiser of the two characters in this local production. Gilday comes off as amateurish and (characterization alert!) dumb. It’s not savvy rhetoric. As a citizen, I’m not compelled to align myself with him. He’s mudslinging, and mudslinging often signals hidden agendas. Toxic agendas.

Lately, Jackson has raised mudslinging to new levels.  Let’s class up, shall we?   I’ll add that defensive, non-accountable, pointing-the-finger-at-someone-else language reveals as much, if not more, of the same sort of malfeasance  it is often meant to conceal.   If we’re not accountable, we’re not trustworthy.

So dump your comparisons to Napoleon, Mr. Gilday.  Expunge use of such phrases as “complicit cronies,” (Who do you mean? Better be ready to call them out, and back up any accusations with fact.) and talk about the ISSUES. Where do you want to go and how will you get there? Tell us. Present an alternative plan for the town, if you are able.

Because right now, you’re doin’ the Limbaugh.

2009 Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival Schedule of Events

(Note: This calendar reflects ongoing and slated events beginning Wednesday, Sept. 16.  For a complete calendar of events,  visit www.jacksonholechamber.com)

SPECIAL NOTE:  R. Tom Gilleon, 2009’s Fall Arts Festival Poster Artist, will sign posters of his painting “Yellow Leaves Moon” (50″x50″ oil), above, at ALTAMIRA FINE ART, a change from original venue plans.  Prior to the Fall Arts Festival, the painting is on display at the historic Wort Hotel, in Jackson.  See details below for Wednesday, September 16. Galleries West Fine Art

7th Fall Round Up
This annual Fall Arts Festival group show features new works by all of Galleries West artists. Please note:  Artists’ reception takes place during the Wednesday (September 16) night ART walk.

Galleries West Fine Art, 307-733-4412 www.gallerieswestjacksonhole.com

The Best of Astoria, September 11-20th
Includes the 2nd Annual Greg Beecham Wildlife Showcase. Astoria Fine Art, 307-733-4016, www.astoriafineart.com

J.H. Art Association: Members Only Exhibition
View  an eclectic and extensive body of work by hundreds of talented Art Association members.   On display through November 30.    Check it out at the Artspace Lobby Gallery, Center for the Arts.

Mountain Trails’ “American Visions Group Show”

Running Sept.  1-20.  The show features all Mountain Trails artists, with several being on hand and demonstrating throughout the Festival.  These artists are:  Carrie Fell (Grand Opening), Ken Rowe, Buckeye Blake, Jeff Ham and Vic Payne. Call Lisa Shannon for details!  Her phone:  307.734.8150.

A Horse of a Different Color Gallery:
Toland Sand
Celebrate Toland Sand, an internationally known glass artist. His medium is cold-worked glass, the creation of glass sculpture by constructing three-dimensional forms. On display through September 30.  307-734-9603

Wednesday, September 16

Jewelry and Artisan Luncheon at Teton Pines

In conjunction with the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Western Visions Show & Sale, enjoy an elegant luncheon at Teton Pines Resort & Country Club. Artisans (jewelry, fiber and leather) preview and sell their handmade goods. Ladies only! Register by September 10, 2009 by calling 307-732-5412.

11:00am - 4:00pm.
$100 per person or $500 per person for a package including Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday plus other Western Visions events.
www.WesternVisions.org

Gallery ARTWalk   5:00-8:00 pm
Join more than 30 Jackson art galleries for the special Wednesday ARTWalk. Enjoy fine art and experience the vibrant Jackson art scene. Look for the ART walk banners!  Various locations, see gallery map, 5:00-8:00pm, open to the public.

Poster Signing with Tom Gilleon at Altamira Fine Art
3:00-5:00 pm
Meet Fall Arts Festival poster artist Tom Gilleon and receive a personally signed poster of his featured painting, “Yellow Leaves Moon.” Altamira Fine Art, 3:00-5:00pm, open to the public.  An artist’s reception follows immediately after.   307-734-8150.

Galleries West Fine Art, 5:00-8:00pm
Reception for the 7th Fall Round Up. Meet and visit with many Galleries West artists.
307-733-4142, www.gallerieswestjacksonhole.com.

Thursday, September 17

Wild West Preview Party 6:30-10:30 pm
As part of the 22nd Annual Western Visions, artists and patrons have an opportunity to view the art, place their ballots, and mingle. The Jewelry and Artisan Show & Sale, Photography Show & Sale and Sketch Show & Sale are also open to the public during this event and the artisans are in residence. The evening includes delicious fare, a full bar and entertainment. Register by September 10, 2009 by calling 307-732-5412.

Location: National Museum of Wildlife Art
$100 per person or $500 per person for a package including Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, plus other events.
www.WesternVisions.org

Center Street Gallery, 5:00-8:00pm
Marshall Noice and Robert Deurloo Show
Marshall Noice is a contemporary landscape oil painter from Kalispell, MT. Robert Deurloo is a wildlife sculptor working in bronze and exotic patinas from Salmon, ID.
307-733-1155, www.centerstreetgallery.com

Friday, September 18

22nd Annual Miniatures and More Show & Sale,  5:30-9:30pm
This is the final opportunity to place bids prior to the evening’s drawing and auction. The evening features hors d’oeuvres and beverage, and most importantly, the names of the winning bidders are drawn. The Jewelry and Artisan Show & Sale, the Photography Show & Sale and the Sketch Show & Sale will be on display and guests are invited to make purchases. Call 307-732-5412. Register by September 10, 2009. Call 307-732-5412.

Location: National Museum of Wildlife Art, 5:30-9:30pm.
$100 per person or $500 per person for a package including Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, plus other events.
www.WesternVisions.org

Legacy of Nature Group Show, 1:00-4:00pm
The Legacy of Nature Group Show featuring wildlife and sporting art. Artists include paintings by Ken Carlson, Luke Frazier, Michael Coleman, Brian Grimm, Chad Poppleton, Julie T. Chapman, Trevor Swanson, Jan Martin McGuire, and sculptures by Ken Bunn and Tim Shinabarger.

Legacy Gallery.  307-733-2353, www.legacygallery.com

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

Jackson Hole Art Auction Preview 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
The Jackson Hole Art Auction is a premier Western Art Auction featuring art from Past and Present Masters of the American West. Historically recognized Western American Art is the focus, including works by the Taos Society of Artists, Deceased American Masters and Top Contemporary Western and Wildlife Artists. The Jackson Hole Art Auction is presented in association with Trailside Galleries and Gerald Peters Gallery.

Location: Center for the Arts
866-549-9278; www.jacksonholeartauction.com

Saturday, September 19

14th Annual Jackson Hole QuickDraw Art Sale & Auction
9:30 a.m.
Nationally, regionally and locally recognized artists paint and sculpt while spectators look on. Each new artwork will be auctioned off following an hour-long “draw.”  “Yellow Leaves Moon,” 2009’s featured poster artwork by R. Tom Gilleon, will also be auctioned.

Location: Jackson Town Square, 9:30am, open to the public.
Please note 2009’s earlier time slot for this event.

Jackson Hole Art Auction Start: 1:00 p.m.
The Jackson Hole Art Auction is a premier Western Art Auction featuring art from Past and Present Masters of the American West. Historically recognized Western American Art is the focus, including works by the Taos Society of Artists, Deceased American Masters and Top Contemporary Western and Wildlife Artists. The Jackson Hole Art Auction is presented in association with Trailside Galleries and Gerald Peters Gallery.

Location: Jackson Hole Center for the Arts
866-549-9278; www.jacksonholeartauction.com

Galleries West Open House, All Day
Visit the gallery any time throughout the day for hors d’oeuvres and beverages. Many Fall Round-Up artists will be on hand during the day.

Galleries West Gallery
307-733-4412, www.gallerieswestjacksonhole.com

Trailside Galleries Fall Gold Show, 3:00-6:00pm
This annual event will show new works by all of their gallery artists with special showcases for Kyle Sims (wildlife painter), Lindsay Scott (wildlife artist), Bonnie Marris (wildlife painter), a small grouping by Mian Situ (Chinese figural painter) as well as a small grouping by wildlife painters Adam and Dan Smith.
307-733-3186, www.trailsidegalleries.com.

SPECIAL EVENT:  JACKSON HOLE CONSERVATION ALLIANCE CELEBRATES 30 YEARS WITH “THE ART OF CONSERVATION: 30 ARTISTS, 30 YEARS.”

This event coincides with Jackson’s Fall Arts Festival.   The Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance’s 30th Anniversary gala takes place at the Jackson Lake Lodge this evening, beginning at 5:30 p.m.   A live and silent auction featuring works by renowned artists follows, and benefits the Alliance’s across-the-board conservation efforts.   Participating artists want to make a difference, and you can, too.

A highlight of the auction is Robert Bateman’s “Bison,” a limited edition print not commercially available.  A great American icon, the bison remains under stress, a symbol of conservation controversy.  Two works by Bateman, including “Bison,” will be auctioned at 7:15 p.m. The  auction includes oil paintings, watercolors, photography,  bronzes, hand blown glass, ilfochrome, pastels, and more.  Participating artists include:

Huntley Baldwin, Robert Bateman, Elke Bieber, Tina Close, Luke
Frazier, Natalie Goss, Eliot Goss, Jeff Hogan, Henry Holdsworth, Kal
Kallaugher, Fred Kingwill, Thomas Mangelsen, Mimi Matsuda, Pamela
McCool, Greg McHuron, Dee Parker, Mary Rasmussen, Audrey Roll-
Preissler, William Sawczuk, Kay Stratman, Lee Stroncek, Laurie Thal,
Shannon Troxler, Amy Unfried, September Vhay, Mary O. Waid, and
Andrew Weller.

Bidders may register for absentee bidding.  Post-dinner admission is also available.  For information, contact the Jackson Hole Conservation
Alliance office at (307) 733-9417.

• Sunday, September 20

Art Brunch Gallery Walk,  11:00 am – 3:00 pm
Join Jackson’s 30-plus art galleries for brunch and festive beverages at this Fall Arts Festival closing-day celebration!  Brunch, Bloody Marys, and spectacular art.

Various gallery locations, see gallery map, 11:00am-3:00pm, open to the public.

West Lives On Gallery Open House, 10:00am-4:00pm
Featuring over 12 of West Lives On Gallery artists.
307-734-2888, www.westliveson.com.

Monday, September 21

Sleep…………….(All Day)

It’s here!  Can you believe it?   I can’t.   Here we go…Fall Arts Festival starts NOW.

Trailside Galleries’ September line-up is remarkable.   September 1-20th, its annual “Fall Gold” spectacular will showcase an almost impossibly extensive selection of wildlife, cowboy, landscape and other manner of Western art.   The show will be up most of the month; “Fall Gold’s” opening reception happens Saturday, September 19, 3-6:00 p.m. Many Trailside artists will be in attendance, and the list of artists represented in this year’s show is:

Cyrus Afsary, Bill Anton, Wayne Baize, Gerald Balciar, Bruce Cheever, Brent Cotton, Pino Dangelico, Stan Davis, John DeMott, Andrew Denman, Michael Desatnick, Robert Duncan, Nancy Glazier, Michael Godfrey, Veryl Goodnight, Lanny Grant, George Hallmark, Matthew Hillier, Terry Isaac, Joffa Kerr, Francois Koch, Calvin Liang, Z.S. Liang, Mike Malm, Dan McCaw, Danny McCaw, Greg McHuron, Dan Mieduch, Jim Morgan, Brenda Murphy, Scott Myers, George Northup, Ralph Oberg, Dino Paravano, Andrew Peters, Howard Rogers, Sherry Sander, Bill Sawczuk, Lindsay Scott, John Seerey-Lester, Suzie Seerey-Lester, Mian Situ, Ryan Skidmore, Adam Smith, Dan Smith, Tucker Smith, Gordon Snidow, George Strickland, Richard D. Thomas, Kent Ullberg, Curt Walters, Morgan Weistling, Kathy Wipfler, Sarah Woods, David Yorke and Jie Wei Zhou.

Trailside shines a special light on new works by wildlife artists Kyle Sims, Bonnie Marris (she has a gift for portraying grizzlies–check out the work over Emma’s desk, upstairs at J.H. Auction headquarters), Lindsay Scott, Dan Smith and Adam Smith. Each artist will have their own showcase; an artists’ reception will be held for these artists at Trailside on Saturday, September 19th.

If that isn’t enough, Western art legends Mian Situ and Richard D. Thomas will have their own showcases too.

How does Trailside pull all this off?  With a remarkably energetic, devoted staff and two floors of gallery space, which, if you haven’t seen it, is impressive.

Trailside Galleries partners with the Gerald Peters Gallery for the 2009 Jackson Hole Art Auction, taking place September 19 at the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts.

For information, email Cara Kelly at cara@trailsidegalleries.com.

“I love the way my gallery looks right now; it looks like a New York gallery!” - Tayloe Piggot

J.H. Muse Gallery’s Tayloe Piggot made that comment a few years back; the gallery was then housed in its former West Broadway space.  But, far from moving away from aligning herself with NYC’s mega-arts culture, she continues to reach out, looking to translate that city’s contemporary energy to Jackson Hole’s art scene.

To that end, she and arts specialist  Camille Obering present “Influences of Nature on Abstraction,” opening at J.H. Muse on September 3.  Spotlighting contemporary masters Milton Avery, Richard Diebenkorn, Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell, the show remains up through the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival (power play!) all the way to October 14, 2009.  An opening reception takes place Friday, September 11, 5-8:00 pm.

Obviously, public access to works by internationally known contemporary artists is  rare in Jackson.  We’ll all feel as if we’re partaking in a MoMa field trip, and that will be thrilling.  Folks living full time in the inter-mountain west, as a rule, don’t visit significant contemporary museums as often as urban dwellers  This show, says its organizers, depicts work “unconstrained” by “representational” rules—a comment seeming to allude to a belief that here, constraint and representation are the norm.

Emerging art movements often claim to be throwing off restraints of earlier schools, and they are.  But no school of art emerges from a vacuum.

Artistic “constraint” is a misconception; artists decide for themselves what feels like constraint.  If Clyde Aspevig were asked to paint like Frankenthaler, he may feel some constraint.  Aspevig doesn’t interpret and experience nature the same way as Frankenthaler.   Poetry is highly structured and disciplined, but often seems less formally conceived than prose.

These artists–Frankenthaler, Avery, Mitchell and Diebenkorn–created something new for themselves and for art history.  In creating something new, another set of rules for achieving the effect the artist wants is established.   Another guide is written, another opinion.  Artists’ efforts to tell the world as they see it are  opinions set to canvas, photographic paper, in clay.

Artistic vision is highly personal, but principles invariably apply.

From the age of seven, Picasso received formal, academic artistic training.  From those building blocks, his brilliance exploded.  Over and over again Picasso studied the human form.  Without this deep knowledge, Picasso’s abstractions would lose their magic.

Obering puts the Muse show artists in context:

“Milton Avery (1885 – 1965), often thought of as America’s Matisse, is best known for his conflation of abstraction and representation using a rich and unusual palette.

Richard Diebenkorn’s (1922 – 1993) aerial landscapes of California illuminated the light and line of this area by marrying color field painting and geometric abstraction in a bold personal style.

Helen Frankenthaler (born 1928), known as a color field painter and an abstract expressionist, utilized a technique known as “soak stain,” in which oil paints were diluted and painted onto unprimed canvas or
paper, resulting in stunning and luminescent paintings.

Joan Mitchell’s (1925 – 1992) powerful and energetic brush stroke played out nature’s patterns, light, and depth, making her work some of the most spectacular of the
Abstract Expressionists.”

I’d kill for a Frankenthaler; when I look at her work I feel as if I’m beneath the ocean’s surface—a favorite place to be—floating over brilliant corals, translucent kelps.   My sister would like an Avery, please.

For information, visit www.jhmusegallery.com, phone 307.733.0555—or, contact Camille Obering through her website.

Item #2  -  Not Too Late For a Little Cayuse!

Cayuse favorite Jack Walker is back, bringing new designs and best sellers, on Friday, August 28th from 5 - 8pm. Meet Jack and view his pure silver and leather hand crafted work.  He’s joined for the second year by Jackson jeweler and silversmith Dawn Bryfogle, whose work combines contemporary gemstone styling with vintage sterling treasures.  She’ll also be showing her new handmade sterling pieces.

Margaritas may make an appearance at tonight’s opening.  For info, email  info@cayusewa.com.