Posts from ‘Politics’
You had to know an art exhibit inspired by the fracking debate would pop up. For every exhibit we hear about, my guess is dozens more exist.
I and my family have friends and colleagues in the oil and gas industries. They’re great people and are very earth aware, work hard, and are damn smart. They are scientists, geologists, capitalists and entrepreneurs, and they provide me with a sense of what is going on from their expert-in-the-field perspectives. I can only relate what I learn, from both sides of the issue. So, to those good friends: Thank you.
The situation pictured above looks bad, doesn’t it? The image, by the way, is courtesy of Exit Art; that organization posted it courtesy of photographer Jacques del Conte.
FRACKING: Art and Activism Against the Drill, opens at New York’s Exit Art on December 7. An opening reception takes place 7-9 pm that day, and the show runs through Februrary 5, 2011. Its goal is to explore the myriad controversies surrounding “fracking”, the process of extracting gas from “new shale.” Natural gas weaned from shale deposits is hailed by many as being America’s way out of foreign oil dependency; it’s also considered by the industry and supporting business and governmental entities as an economic saviour for those living in shale-rich regions. The economic benefits of a booming gas drilling industry would build coffers in any state engaged in significant drilling activity. Regions with dense drilling activity tend to be remote, lacking diverse industries capable of providing adequate jobs. Drilling derived income can turn lives around; it can also lower private property values when individuals lease acreage out to drilling.
Take Wyoming, for example.
By the way, a revealing—but still very well balanced—portrayal of the pressures, tensions and dealings connected to drilling in Louisiana and Pennsylvania appeared just a few weeks ago in the Times. In New York State, notes Exit Art, a drilling moratorium is in effect until the D.E.C. issues fracking regulation, which could happen as soon as 2011.
Proponents of natural gas drilling say it is safe. Critics say that chemicals used in fracking are dangerous because they contaminate water supplies. In some drilling locales, water is being piped in from other communities–a process draining water from its source. “Fueling” the conflict is the fact that so far, gas industries are not legally bound to reveal the names of the chemicals used in fracking. This new exhibition, a project of SEA, looks to create dialogue and educate the public via “documentary videos, photographs, commissioned works, public responses and literature…” Exit Art issued a call to artists and the public to submit original artwork on postcards, with written statements “verso,” on the topic of fracking. The responses are on view in this show. Submissions are accepted for the show through its duration.
(Hear that, Ricki Arno? Get the Adorables in on the project! Love you!)
That invitation is extended to Wyoming artists, of course.
If you are in NYC on January 12, 2011, 7-9 pm, you can attend a panel discussion on fracking and its effects, led by Actor/Activist Mark Ruffalo. In addition to Ruffalo, participants are:
Moderator: Tracy Carluccio, Activist.
Panelists: Joe Levine, Lobbyist / Activist; Michael Lebron, Grassroots Organization; Al Appleton, Policy; Michel Boufadel, Civil Engineer; Christy Rupp, Artist; and a representative from the documentary film, Gasland.
Support for this exhibition was provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Bloomberg LP; Jerome Foundation; Lambent Foundation; Pollock-Krasner Foundation; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn; and public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.
Check out www.exitart.org; phone 212-966-7745 for information.
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When I was a 7-year-old girl President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I was in second grade. My home room was at afternoon Music class. Our music teacher sat at the front of the room, at her piano–our home room teacher took a seat by the window. Beyond the piano was a door, and behind that door, an office. The office door was the kind with milky, opaque glass. Half way through class, another teacher poked her head through the door and asked both the music and homeroom teachers to come into the other room. They did. We sat, hands in laps, waiting.
Through the dense glass we saw the silhouettes of our teachers falling upon each other. Moments later, my classmates and I began looking around at each other, alarmed, because our teachers were audibly sobbing. After a few minutes they returned, saying they had sad news they did not want to give us, as we had been very good boys and girls: Our handsome President, John F. Kennedy, was dead. Upset at the news, and equally frightened by the sight of our teachers losing control of their emotions, most of us burst into tears. School ended early that day; a national tragedy sent parents flying to school to pick up their children, as nobody could continue through the day, and nobody felt safe.
The next day, I and my little grade school classmates sat at our lunch table and talked about how, if we could get our hands on the man who killed our President, we would pound the life out of him, run a train over him, suffocate him, poison him, or find guns and shoot him so he would know what it felt like. We slammed our metal lunch boxes on the table for emphasis and pounded our fists. And we cried some more.
We weren’t really being brave, but it felt easier to be brave in those days. Bravery was rewarded. Media was so much more pure; full of wonder. It was through this new and wonderful window that we
took part in the nation’s mourning. Life was simply…presented. Raw, in black and white, often unscripted, no shock graphics.
I don’t know where I’m going with this except to say that true bravery, these days, is hard to find. Politicians, pundits and media feign bravery—but almost inevitably we are disappointed in so many of our leaders. What Jon Stewart was saying at his rally was that media and politicians are pandering to base emotions, especially fear. They’ve set us upon each other, like rabid dogs. We have become rabid dogs. So overwhelmed by life are we that we hang everything upon the last soundbite; it’s almost as if we want to ignite loathing. We must not be aware if we’re not loathing something or somebody.
And yet the mainstream media, in its perpetual mission to whip us into a frenzy (even seemingly grounded and realistic NPR), in large part wasn’t brave enough to attend a rally organized by two television show hosts. Ok, two really smart television show hosts.
I support candidates who have shown true bravery here in Jackson and Teton County: Franz Camenzind and Len Carlman. I stand with them. With so many fine people running for office this election, choices are hard. But these two candidates are not influenced by unsustainable agendas, power trips, or money. They’re the real deal, the kind of leaders that, most of the time, we can only dream about.
Jennifer, we hardly knew you.
I did not have a chance to meet outgoing Art Association Executive Director Jennifer Crawford.
Today, those of us signed up for the Community Foundation’s List Serve read the news that Crawford has resigned her position. Former Art Association Executive Director Karen Stewart will fill in as Interim Director while the Art Association looks for a replacement for Crawford.
“I will continue to enjoy the adventures that Jackson offers, on visits back to friends and family in this beautiful valley. I have an opportunity in Denver that I cannot refuse,” says Crawford. “I plan to continue my work with the Arts and Cultural District of Denver, Colorado as well my research in Arts Education. It was important to notify the Art Association’s Board of Directors of this change as quickly as possible in order to make a transition happen in a seamless manner. I have enjoyed my experience at the Art Association and will miss being a key contributor to this organization, which plays an important role to the community of Jackson Hole.”
Other changes at the Art Association include the departure of former Education Director Amy Larkin and Teton Art Lab’s relocation to new digs in Jackson.
“We will miss Jennifer, her energy and her creativity. She has made significant contributions to the Art Association during her tenure. Our up and coming exhibits, finances, and education programs are stronger because of her,” said Art Association Chair Sally Byrne.
Art Association Vice Chairman John Wright is the contact for more information. email: john@portisgroup.com / phone: 307.733.3939. www.artassociation.org
Contact:
John Wright, Vice Chairman, Art Association of Jackson Hole
john@portisgroup.com
307.733.3939
Item #2
Governor Freudenthal says that “the Cowboy State is also an arts state.”
According to the Wyoming Arts Council Blog, Governor Dave, in conjunction with the Council, will release the Wyoming Creative Vitality Index at a press conference on Wednesday, October 6, at 9 a.m. in front of the sculpture at the Wyoming Governor’s Residence, located at 5001 Central Ave. in Cheyenne.
Straight from the Blog: The Wyoming Creative Vitality Index was conducted by the Western States Arts Federation and shows that the Cowboy State is also an Arts State, and that the Arts contribute substantially to Wyoming’s economy. The report will be available at the press conference. Rita Basom, manager of the Wyoming Arts Council, said the CVI, which tracks change over time, provides information that will help to diversify the Wyoming economy and improve community vitality.
“The presence of a strong creative community in Wyoming positively impacts Cultural Tourism in the state, and reinforces the importance of Arts Education in our schools,” Basom said. “We’re excited to share this information with the public,” she added.
The full text of the Wyoming Creative Vitality Index will be up on the Wyoming Arts Council web site on Oct. 6.
To bring you a great link. Posted this on Facebook today, and will post it here, too. I’ve become a bigger fan of the opinions of columnists considered, traditionally, as “conservative.” The energy and tumult of the world is shifting values of liberals a little to the right, and the values of conservatives a little to the left. More meeting in the middle. If you didn’t see it, newly appointed Democratic State Chairman Chuck Herz just recently had his letter to the Op-Ed page of the New York Times published. In the letter he praised the views of David Brooks, who spoke of the situations humans create for themselves that are too big to solve when the worst happens. And when the worst happens, it is catastrophic.
Thomas L. Friedman, in this column, is saying that the worst has happened many times over and both political parties are culpable. And that means the population at large is culpable.
A pull quote: ” It is not your imagination,” says corporate strategy consultant Peter Schwartz – there is a lot more scary stuff hanging out there today. Since the end of the cold war and the rise of the Internet, we’ve lost the walls and the superpowers that together kept the world’s problems more contained. Today, smaller and smaller units can wreak larger and larger havoc – and whatever havoc is wreaked now gets spread faster and farther than ever before.”
We’re at the watershed; we need to consider good ideas, where ever they come from. To read the full article, click here.
This is a lesson we in Jackson could learn; I hope we are learning. The truth expressed in Friedman’s article is applicable to Jackson’s economic woes: we’ve put our eggs in one or two baskets. We have crashed hard. We need more baskets.
(“You know… more money funds — flows through the private capital markets in a day than through all the world’s governments in a year. So, there’s no question that this job, this transition, this move of America and the world to a clean energy future is not going to be done by our governments. It’s going to be done by our entrepreneurs, by our investors, and — and by our business leaders.”- John Doerr )
An “up” note: I applaud Jackson’s resilient, ever-expanding and brave arts community. So much positive energy and ideas are hatching (from the arts basket), and growing! We stumbled, but in recent months I see one of our private sectors taking up the challenge and running with it. Congratulations, all you entrepreneurs, new galleries and public art pushers! You are picking up on ideas and bringing them forward. It’s a beautiful thing. I love hearing about new ventures, so do send news to me via my email: tammy@jacksonholearttours.com. I don’t always pick up info from Facebook, because I rarely scroll past the first page of posts on my wall. Direct mail is best.
As this is the Jackson Hole Art Blog, and not the Irish Artists Look at America Blog, I should probably begin this post with my “Art for Dummies” discovery that Thomas Moran, famed portraitist of Yellowstone, was not the only artist in his family. In fact, most of his immediate family were noted artists, a bit of art history I recently discovered.
Instead I’m opening by turning you on to Irish painter Tom Molloy’s exhibit at the 
Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art. Located in Ridgefield, Connecticut, the Aldrich is a gem, an “approachable” museum with great appeal. A friend cautioned that the Aldrich was, at the time of our visit, “between exhibits.” It was. Most galleries were closed, but the exhibition we viewed was so powerful it was worth the time invested and more.
The show’s title, Tom Molloy, is as spare as this exhibit first appears. It is unusual because Molloy is an Irishman living in Ireland whose work is largely about American events and issues. Akin to Pop Art, Molloy’s art utilizes real money, maps, other found objects and wordplay. His “surgically precise” drawings and scale are magnetic. Zoomed in, Molloy’s scathing opinions on global events, new world order and America’s role in global affairs reveal themselves. Messages are punch-you-in-the-heart clear.
A self portrait depicts Molloy holding a newspaper featuring a photo of an Abu Ghraib detainee holding a photo depicting one of the detention facility’s nefarious prisoner abuses. Map, one of Molloy’s best known works, is a cut dollar bill map of the world; not much larger than a dollar bill, we initially mistook the work for a wall doodle. Positioned at eye level, it is in fact a “….double-edged metaphor of American might and hegemony.”
Dead Texans, a series of fifty stamp sized portraits of death row prison inmates executed in that state during George W. Bush’s tenure as governor, captures each prisoner’s likeness, even providing glimpses of personality and fractured spirits. From a slight distance the portraits resemble inky thumbprints. These men are simultaneously stripped of personal identity and confirmed as unique, individual beings. Each regards the viewer straight on. Faintly visible penciled drawing grids further connote incarceration and the reality of fifty doomed destinies.
Standing in the gallery’s center, we realize that an exhibition as politically charged as this has yet to turn up in Jackson. With time, I believe we can open ourselves to exhibiting work with equal depth and commentary.
Tom Molloy remains on exhibit at the Aldrich until June 13 2010. Phone: 203.438.4519.
Item #2:
Went to dinner at my cousin’s house. She’s a master artist in her own right, she needs to exhibit and show, show, show.
As we talked, she pointed out a substantially sized etching hanging over the sofa. The work depicts a Pennsylvania open field, ringed by forest, and inhabited- Peaceable Kingdom style–by cows and other animals. She pointed to the artist’s name: Peter Moran (1841-1914).
My cousin found the etching at a flea market. She cleaned it up, and instantly spotted Moran’s signature.
Peter Moran, brother of Thomas Moran, favored Pennsylvania’s farmlands as subjects, but in 1890 
he participated in the U.S. Indian census, and ventured into Yellowstone. “Grand Tetons View” was, according to Grand Teton National Park, most likely painted while he was on that expedition. A watercolor, this view captures the Tetons as they appeared from Idaho. It is part of the permanent collection of the Roswell Museum and Art Center.
Peter Moran, the youngest brother in the Moran family, is said to have become his brother’s best art student.
Peter was three when his family arrived in America. At age fifteen, he became a lithographer’s apprentice. His interest in portraying animals was life long. Moran’s efforts in this area are obvious; the Teton painting seems an exercise compared to his animal scenes, which are rich in detailed devotion.