Jackson Hole Art Blog

Jackson Hole plein air painter Jen Hoffman’s pastel Winding Through has won Best in Show in Bucks County, Pennsylvania’s First Annual Autumn Arts Painting Challenge. The work will be exhibited (along with other winning entries) during the month of March, 2010 at the Bucks County Gallery, in New Hope; Hoffman’s win will be chronicled in both American Artist and Pastel Journal.

Although the competition took place during Fall, the Gala Reception for this show happens next Spring, on March 6, at the Bucks County Gallery of Fine Art, and the show runs through March 31, 2010.

Not only did Hoffman win, she was presented with a 60-piece Terry Ludwig pastel set!

Hoffman’s star seems to be rising; she’s showing her work in other venues around the country and has been invited to show the West’s prestigious “The Russell,” the C.M. Russell Museum’s March fundraiser exhibition and sale.

In Jackson, Hoffman is represented by Galleries West Fine Art. Congratulations, Jen!

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There’s lots to do this holiday week, up at the  National Museum of Wildlife Art .  A partial (post-Christmas Day) schedule includes:

A free screening of the beloved PBS favorite, “Christmas in Yellowstone.” Go and watch on Sunday, December 27, beginning at 2:00 pm.  If you can’t get up in the Park this winter, this gorgeous film will take you there itself.  I believe the film also includes images from Grand Teton National Park; at least that’s what the promos on Public Television suggest; the Grand Teton and Sleeping Indian are featured in PBS spots for the show.

Art After Hours and Tapas Tuesday happen on December 29, with Museum galleries open 5-9:00 pm, and programming beginning at 7:30 pm.  The Museum will screen National Geographic’s documentary, “Eye of the Leopard.”

Check out everything NMWA at their website. Phone:  307.733.5771

PS: Did ya miss Bert Raynes‘  Christmas Eve “Chronicle” interview (conducted by local producer John Kerr) on Wyoming Public Television?  Me, too!  Click on this link ; once you’ve gotten to the “Chronicle” page, click on the new Video button, left side of the page, to find and view Bert’s interview.    Happy New Year, Bert!  Congratulations on your new chronicled status!  Miss you!

Man, I am so old.  I go lookin’ for images to post up for Teton Art Lab’s call to artists, for its upcoming “Wallpaper” exhibition, and I think I will find oodles of gorgeous decorator wall papers.  Grass paper, Ralph Lauren patterns, accents, borders, stenciling, flocks; and themes like “The Hunt,” “Jungle,”  “Rose Garden,” “Zen,” “Star Wars,”….

But no.  It’s all about “Anime” and desktop and video games and such.

Teton Artlab is seeking entries for its second annual “Wallpaper” exhibition, to be held from December 4th - 23rd, 2009.

All works on paper are eligible, provided they are UNFRAMED and under 48″ on the longest side. Submissions must be dropped off at Teton Art Lab (up on the third floor of the Center for the Arts) by November 27th. This is a juried show, and works that are not destined to be part of the show will be returned by December 3rd.

Entries should have the artist’s name, phone number, and email, either on the back of the work or included with a portfolio.

For information, send a note…not written, but emailed…to :info@tetonartlab.com.

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Lyndsay McCandless has announced she is “pushing the pause button”  on SLAM, Jackson’s grass roots artist market modeled on the town’s Saturday Farmer’s Market.  She will also cease producing First Fridays, music events and all parties for now.

McCandless says the Town of Jackson has deemed her gallery space “not up to code,” and has notified her that the gallery may not hold gatherings with more than 45 people.

Well, that’s huge, because McCandless has transitioned the gallery space into the local contemporary art community’s primary gathering place.  She has been the heart, the Energizer Bunny, for young visual artists here.   The ceasing of McCandless events leaves a big black hole in our arts scene.  I don’t know the extent of SLAM’s effect on our local arts economy, but any slice taken out of our artistic family’s financial pie is a painful loss.

I call again on commercial property owners to offer up empty store front space to local artists!   This is ridiculous!

McCandless says the shut down forces her to reevaluate LMC’s future.  Stay tuned.

I’ve asked McCandless why, after occupying the space on Jackson Street for as long as she has, the space is suddenly deemed not up to code; if it’s printable, I’ll give you the answer when I receive it.

A few months back–a few warmer, sunnier months back– toy photographer Brian McCarty came to town and introduced his neat-o, media activating work.   He is the step son of local philanthropist and producer Mickey Babcock; McCarty’s opening took place at Babcock’s new home.   The Jackson Hole Art Blog posted a story on his work, and McCarty keeps in touch.

Here’s one of his latest, “Moon Wanderers,” shot in the Tetons.  McCarty says the little guys are resin figures.  The toys are created by Russian Sergey Safonov, who, says McCarty, has “… hand-built a mysterious cast of characters that exist only at night. The Moon Wanders float along, sleeping and waiting.”

McCarty openly discusses his process, and in this case the process began with an imagined image of small figures afloat under a paper moon.  The toys were mounted on metal rods placed in soft mud, at Two Oceans Lake, in Grand Teton National Park.  ( Is this legal?  Not sure.  But I didn’t do it! )  A long exposure taken by a camera atop a semi-submerged tripod “…made the water seem glassy, except for the rippled reflection of strobe light off a paper moon suspended in the background.”

The Tetons can provide a lot of interference if they want to.   McCarty was challenged by nature a few times.

“Things started getting a little edgy with the growing army of leeches seen attaching themselves to my waders. A too-close-for-comfort moose followed in close succession, at first looking confused at the humans walking around his lake at midnight, then a bit annoyed. I’d like to think that we scared him off with our flashlights and noisemaking, but it may have been what followed next. Through the mist, something that sounded much larger than the moose was splashing around. Unable to see, I’m going to wager it was a grizzly bear or perhaps a sasquatch. Hard to say,” says McCarty.

I saw McCarty’s show with my (dear) artist friend Ricki Arno--who I haven’t heard from in like, two months.  Ricki, where are you?   Please call.   Have you gone back to Planet New York?

From Planet Laramie: Nationally known, Colorado-based artist James Surls will give a talk at the University of Wyoming’s Coe Library on Saturday, Oct. 24, beginning at 1:00 pm.  The University’s Art Museum blog says a reception will follow; all will celebrate the installation of Surls’ new work, “Rolling Flowers.”

What a great title!

UW’s blog says Surls is noted for his work with emerging artists–he’s a mentor.  He also works quite a bit with non-profits and he and his wife, Charmaine Locke, (Her website cover page shows a gorgeous shot of her large scale bronze, “Open Book.”  Please look.)  have large-scale pieces in that wonderful venue, “Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational.” Check the above U.W. Art Museum link for more information.

From the Wyoming Arts Council:  Art Aid

Wyoming Entrepreneur, at the University of Wyoming, offers free web marketing counseling for small businesses, and the Wyoming Arts Council has an Individual Artists Professional Development (IAPD) grant program.   Grants provide funds for artists to hire web designers ( wow!!!! artists lose lots of precious creativity time working on websites.), pay for hosting and other needs.  A one-to-one match is required, and up to $500 can be awarded.

For info: Email mshay@state.wy.us.

Jackson Hole is now the home of the International Film Academy (IFA), a school on a mission to teach professional filmmaking.  The valley’s relatively isolated geography makes it an improbable location for such an institution, but its unparalleled natural beauty and proximity to two national parks provide visual inspiration and myriad topics.

Recently the Journeys School campus served as base camp for the IFA’s week-long pilot course. Film director Danny Ledonne, aided by Jackson media expert and instructor Carl Shuptrine, led the class.   Ledonne is a third-year MFA candidate at Washington D.C.’s American University. The week’s course, geared for adults, included former JH Film Institute staff, Teton County Library employees, college students and broadcast media grads looking to improve skills. Students got hands-on experience with cool, high-end Panasonic P2 tapeless HD cameras and Final Cut Pro editing systems. With only a week to plan, shoot and edit, the class began shooting on Day 2, spending the first day considering possible topics, viewing documentary film clips and discussing story lines and emerging trends.

What is the definition of a documentary?  Ledonne says that as long as a film’s topic is non-fictional, it’s a documentary.  “There are as many possibilities for documentary topics as there are topics in a library’s non-fiction section.  Biographies, auto-bios, opinions, history, nature, it’s endless.”

For instance, March of the Penguins is more about people than it is about penguins,” notes Ledonne.  “The film’s nuzzling penguins suggest they’re romancing each other.  In fact, they might just be cold.”

The class discussed Blue Vinyl, a story told by a daughter trying to convince her parents not to vinyl-side their home, a large issue observed as personal experience.   Michael Moore, on the other hand, is a great example of an essay-style filmmaker, with one over-arching voice: his own. By contrast, director Alex Gibney’s Taxi to the Dark Side portrays the life of an Afghanistan taxi driver we know almost nothing about. But the film tells the story of his fate at the hands of U.S. government policies.

Jackson’s IFA class filmed and edited three short films: Paragliding the Tetons, Jackson Hole Rodeo Princesses and Yurt Simplicity, films touching upon three Jackson Hole lifestyle anchors:  adrenaline pumping adventure, historic cowboy culture and sustainable lifestyle.  The films artfully encapsulate each topic; all have potential for extensive story lines.  And, the short films spotlight places and people many Jackson Hole residents experience less often than we like to admit.  Rodeo is alive, thriving–and women aren’t rodeo window dressing; they’re competitors and expert riders.  Yurt life appears serene, beautiful and communal.  Paragliding presents as a bit terrifying, but in the hands of experts leaping off Rendezvous Mountain, paragliding is an “uplifting,” mystical experience.

Voice and perspective affect story tone. Point of view is the point of a documentary.  Considering a film’s plot and direction, a filmmaker intuits audience.

Danny Ledonne emphasizes knowledge of material. “Ask yourself large questions about your topic’s appeal.  What are the big unknowns?   Who are you speaking to?  What’s compelling?  Above all, know your story.”

For information, contact the Film Academy of Jackson Hole via info@internationalfilmacademy.com  or phone 914.774.1323.

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The University of Wyoming Art Museum has posted the date for its next 20:20 event: Wednesday, September 23, 7-9 pm,  at Cheyenne’s Little America.  This event is open to all Wyoming artists, arts organizations and educators. 20:20 is held in conjunction with the Wyoming Arts Council’s Arts Summit.

The program provides a super speedy platform for arts practitioners to alert the state to their own projects and ideas.  Presenters use Powerpoint, showing images for 20 seconds.   As the University notes, this is a great networking opportunity.  Sign up is first come, first serve and is open to all writers and performing artists as well as those in the visual arts.

Deadline for submissions is Wednesday, September 9. For more information or to sign up, please contact Art Museum Assistant Curator Rachel Miller at 307-766-6621 or rmiller@uwyo.edu.

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(The following is reproduced from Cayuse’s release! Time is/was of the essence.)

Event Info:

“Hearing Our Voices,” a film written, directed, filmed and edited by Girls Actively Participating! ( GAP! ) debuts Tuesday, April 28, 4:30-6:30 p.m. at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary. The film explores the interests and talents of middle school girls.

A tough age, those middle school years.  Back in the day, a middle school girl’s voice was often ignored, if not downright muffled. Or duct taped.  GAP! promotes the well-being of adolescent girls through active participation in self- discovery, community building, and service to others.

April 28th’s festivities are open house, free!  Everyone is welcome.   The film project was made possible by the Wyoming Women’s Foundation. Learn more at www.gapjh.org.

Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary is located at 130 S. Jackson Street, in Jackson.  For information, contact Amy Manhart, (307) 734-8528 or amanhart@teton1.k12.wy.us.

Two days ago I attended a fab web marketing seminar, presented by Chris Hansen, owner of Twist of Lime Marketing. I’m plugging him here because Chris taught me, over the phone, how to build this blog.   And I’m here to testify that if Chris can teach me how to build my own blog, he can teach anybody. I’m creative, and I have strong textural/color/composition skills, but I have a very difficult time understanding the inner workings of platforms and web design because I lack spatial aptitude.    It’s my theory that individuals with strong spacial relations have an easier time visualizing how websites are put together.

Years ago, an aptitude test involving my trying to put a big bunch of black wiggly blocks back together in one sculpture proved quite vexing.  I was asked if I wanted to try again.  “No thanks,” I said.

Chris explained WordPress step-by-step.  He held my hand and never lost patience.  He’s a specialist, but he’s able to talk to lay people using accessible, non-threatening  language.    Hire him.

“Nice juxtaposition of future-oriented construction specifics and intense as-if-remembered snapshot panoramas.” — Guest book comment on photographer Michael Sherwin’s exhibit “Dis•Location.”

June 18-28, photographer Michael Sherwin will lead a photography workshop  in the Jackson area.  The workshop is sponsored by the West Virginia University College of Creative Arts , where Sherwin is on staff.  For a time, Sherwin and his wife lived in Jackson Hole, and his June 2005 Art Association exhibition, “Dis•Location,” remains one of my favorite local photography exhibits to date.  Sherwin arrived in Jackson from Oregon.   Sherwin is assistant professor of photography and digital imaging at WVU’s Division of Art and Design.

Sherwin practices his craft democratically, openly encouraging new and experienced photographers.  He’s accessible.   Ego: checked at dark room door.

The 10-day workshop will be held in partnership with the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts, meaning Sherwin will have access to its photography studio. The workshop is offered through the extended learning office at WVU so it is open to everyone, says Sherwin.  As a WVU program, college credit is available.  Visit www.michaelsherwin.com.  Application deadline is May 1.  Hop to it!

The workshop will cover a broad range of photographic practices and principles, with an emphasis on instruction targeted to the individual level of the student. Primary instruction will include the use of digital and 35mm film cameras, along with color inkjet or black-and-white darkroom processes. Students will also have the opportunity to explore work in medium- and large-format cameras and alternative processes.”

My Arts Observatory article on Sherwin, written for Planet Jackson Hole in June 2005,  is reprinted below.

* New Photography Studio Clicks

“Wow!” responds Sherwin.  “Future-oriented in the sense that these things were mapping structures underneath the ground, intended, I guess, for safety.  So when you began the construction you wouldn’t dig up or damage what is underneath.  And I love the idea of a snap shot panorama.  I frequently talk about this work as a panoramic of experience, in that it’s not one single image, but a segment of time, riding the fence between still and moving images.”

Uncovering Fred Hayden’s spot-on observation of Jackson photographer Michael Sherwin’s exhibit, “Dis•Location,” now on display at ArtSpace’s upstairs gallery at 240 S. Glenwood, was kismet.  In fact, our interview was blessed with a confluence of happy incidents.   As Sherwin and I began to review his work, Diane Hazen, a gallery visitor, remarked that she was a long-time resident of Eugene, Oregon, where Sherwin’s photographs were shot. She recognized the locations.  Hazen is also a city planner, and was that day transfixed by Sherwin’s fluorescent street symbols and overlapping, exposed images.  Sherwin’s color photographs are extended, abstract urban street scenes, patterned with construction symbols, maintenance markings, and dynamic linear composition.  Looking at his work, you might be reminded of a path.

“Yes, the path as the narrative act is a big part of this work.  I was studying the idea of psycho-geography, which studies the way different geographies in the city and country affect us emotionally.  That idea of the path really played into this work.”  Contemporary work harkening back to the ancient.

How did Sherwin come to photograph urban road markings, putting them into the panoramic format that he does?  “I was walking and biking to school. I always had my camera on me, so I was paying attention to what was going on around me.  Using a toy camera, and using an entire roll of film really started here in Jackson. I was fascinated by how my walk was being mediated by man-made constructs.  Here I was interested in the road signs and other things coming into my contact. In Eugene, it started with noticing different paint on the streets, different colors.  I followed them through the landscape, and I documented where they were falling at my feet and the landscape as I moved through it.  That led to graffiti, and subconscious types of art.  Unintentional aesthetic acts.  I was interested in the boundary between things that are seen as logistics and things that are considered aesthetic.”

“You photograph the low part first, which is technically under exposed, and then when you photograph the back it brightens the whole image,” said Hazen.  “Exactly,” replied Sherwin.  Sherwin used a toy camera to capture his urban street photos, and his success in capturing the subtle interlocking patterns that occur when nature meets city proves once again that it is the photographer, not technicals, that renders good results.  “It is a process of trial and error with this camera,” Sherwin continued. “You really don’t know what you are going to get. The city is either sunny or cloudy, and you learn what weather works best, with what exposure.”  Examining one image, “13th Avenue University of Oregon, #13496,” Sherwin and Hazen noted the hot pink road markings. “This paint is by far the most colorful, the most fluorescent I’ve photographed. Who would think hot pink? And it is the most hieroglyphic of all of the [street markings]! Random marks that weren’t signifying anything that I could tell.”  Indeed, the markings are like petroglyphs.  “Yes,” agrees Sherwin. “There’s almost a male/female symbolic language going on. It was really fascinating, these street equations that were worked out that have no logical meaning to me at all.  It’s purely aesthetic.”  Discussing the symbols we realize that such records are chosen as communication vehicles, and are recognizable to a culture, because of their universality.  There is no difference between the determining of ancient petroglyph symbols and the cryptic street markings recognized and easily read by urban planners.  Sherwin’s markings represent an acquired knowledge reflecting a distinct community element.  Sherwin notes that the other interesting element of these particular pink markings was that they were water-based.  The evening of the day Sherwin photographed them, it rained.  Virtually all the symbols were obliterated.  “And that made it the chance of a lifetime, photographing that pink,” says Sherwin.

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The information below was written last Wednesday—but I was subsequently asked to push back the release of the post;  hence all the references to events last week. Bottom line:  Teton Art Lab is back in Jackson Town.

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Briefly:  You might have seen Travis Walker walking around, and he’s walking around because Teton Art Lab will end up moving into a studio space at Jackson Hole Center for the Arts.  This happens soon.   No details yet.

Walker plans to attend Rocky Vertone’s Friday night opening of his new gallery space, located at Full Circle Frameworks, North Glenwood.  5:30 start time.    Come and get your scoop!   Rocky has not responded to my fears that the Associated Press may come raid the party; the news service ‘retained’ a certain HOPE artist behind bars, just yesterday.

More publicity!  All publicity is good.  It all makes for  good chat material tomorrow evening, and beyond.  Welcome back, Travis!   Kudos to the Center for incorporating new tenants, and strengthening  our arts community resources.  One for all!

End.

“Senate Passes “Mob Museum” Prohibition in Stimulus” is the Wall Street Journal headline I found while perusing the day’s arts headlines. Republican Senator  Coburn’s anti-arts amendment, tagged February 9 in the Jackson Hole Art Blog, wants to specifically bar spending on a proposed history-of-organized-crime museum.

For those of us who don’t get a chance to read the WSJ every day, here’s the story behind the Coburn amendment:

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An Americans for the Arts blogger posted thoughts on the recently penned  Coburn Amendment, which dictates that arts-related industries not receive any part of a new economic stimulus package.

As she read the proposed amendment, blogger Merryl Goldberg recalled her family’s experiences with discrimination.   The February 10th post, “Discriminatory Arts,” is posted on Americans for the Arts website.  

Oh, my gosh. Rocky, check this out!   A few degrees of separation!

This Friday, February 13, Rocky Vertone opens his new Full Circle Frameworks gallery space with a show of works by Scott Sears. Kickoff is 5:30 pm, and the place is 335 N. Glenwood, in Jackson.

BUT, Sears’ publicity poster looks an awful lot like the now famous Obama “Hope” poster.   HOPE is the word, and a hep cat with Mohawk hair is the man.  I’ll have to see the work up close to tell you whether or not this is Sears’ vision of Mohawk Obama.

This is relevant because……..

WOW!!! BREAKING NEWS!!!   Obama “Hope” artist arrested!!

The Associated Press has accused artist Shepard Fairey of copyright infringement, saying the poster image was based on one of its photos, taken in April 2006 by Manny Garcia on assignment for the AP at the National Press Club in Washington.

Wow, now Fairey is under arrest, as of 30 minutes ago!    Ok, putting this up right now!