Posts from ‘Think Globally’
Simply Having A Wonderful Christmastime
- What are Jackson Hole Art Galleries planning this Christmas season? Here’s a peek.
ARTWalk 2008 !!! (Or, “A Revision Revised”)
The Gallery Association will hold TWO gallery walks this month. December’s Thursday gallery stroll takes place December 18, 5-8:00 pm. Look for the bright blue, red and white banners in front of participating galleries.
Additionally, the Gallery Association’s special HOLIDAY ARTWalk takes place SATURDAY, December 27, 5-8:00 p.m. Join Jackson Hole’s galleries for 2008′s holiday arts stroll, falling on the Saturday between Christmas and New Year’s. Banners designate participating galleries.
For more information on this month’s gallery walks, contact info@diehlgallery.com. Check with your favorite galleries for information on special openings and events.
The Jackson Hole Art Association puts on its annual Art Fair Christmas Bazaar on Saturday, December 6, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at the Snow King Ice Arena. $2 Admission, dozens of vendors! 733-8792 for information.
Oswald Gallery has been selected to participate in the ultra-prestigious Photo Miami 2008. As part of the world’s most important contemporary art fair, Art Basel Miami Beach, Photo Miami takes place December 3 to December 7, in the Wynwood Art District of Miami.
Oswald’s entries are the contemporary photographs of Virgilio Ferreira and Dylan Vitone. “Both of these emerging photographers explore the urban environment in different ways and on different continents while exploring the ambiguities and contradictions of urban life,” says Leya Oswald.
Says Oswald, ” Vitone’s photographs combine formal portraiture with classic street photography in multi-frame panoramas…. In contrast, Ferreira works in an intuitive and random manner on the streets of Asia’s megalopolises. Embracing his outsider status, he works quickly and anonymously late at night, capturing the mere suggestion of the places and their people.”
For more information on Photo Miami or these photographers, please contact Oswald Gallery, leya@oswaldgallery.com or 888-898-0077.
Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary’s December 5th First Friday, “Funky Finds For Under $50” focuses on Jackson’s local creative community and supporting artisans this holiday. Music by DJ Mr. Whipple, and organic pizzas served up by Chris O’Blenness and SouthSide Pizza & Pub.
Change is coming, be the Change!
Featured vendors include, but are not limited to:
“Halo Hats” by AJ Carghill and Pam Coleman—seconds included;
“Special somethings” by Wren Fialka and Brandy….
Vanessa Sulzer’s screen print bird scarves…
Alissa Davies’ mixed media on paper (I have some!), small paintings with added collage materials.
Phone 307-734-0649 or 307-413-4331 for information.
The National Museum of Wildlife Art hosts one of Jackson’s favorite holiday traditions, “Wild About the Season!” on Sunday, December 7, 1:00-4:00 p.m. This family-style Christmas festival includes art projects, cookies, cider and other treats, and a visit from Santa Claus. Free. 733-5771.
The Jackson Hole Center for the Arts will be closed periodically during the holidays, particularly at Christmas and New Year’s. Phone 734-8956 for more information.
David Brookover, of Brookover Photography, reports his gallery will be open through the season. Check out the new platinum prints! Currently traveling and shooting in Japan, Brookover returns to his studio December 22. In his absence the gallery is well staffed; please visit.
JH Muse Gallery’s holiday invitation, featuring artist Nicole Charbonnet’s hauntingly beautiful, suggestive mixed media work “Tree,” invites the public to that gallery’s annual “Champagne and Chocolates” celebration. Join the gallery on Thursday, December 11, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. for drinks, hors d’oeuvres, Tayloe’s new glittery jewels and Charbonnet’s latest collection of works, “Avatars and Heroes.”
The gallery is open through the holidays. Hours are 10:00 am – 6:00 pm Monday through Thursday, 10:00 – 7:00 pm Friday and Saturday, and 11:00 am – 4:00 pm Sundays. 733-0555.
Cayuse Western Americana plans this month: A brunch on Sunday, December 14th features Dawn Bryfogle’s wonderful jewelry from semi-precious and precious stones, but with a twist: she finds unique “orphaned” vintage pieces she incorporates into necklaces or bracelets. These could be old Navajo sterling and turquoise items, or western engraved silver – really, anything that looks like it could be given a new purpose in her contemporary settings of agate, tourmaline, and other beautiful stones. The brunch is from 11 – 3 and will feature food and brunch style cocktails as well as the traditional non-alcoholic brunch drinks. Bryfogle’s work will remain a featured item this month.
Thursday, during December 18th’s gallery walk, Cayuse is open until 8pm, with gift ideas in a variety of price ranges, with some gifts under $12. Seasonal treats will be all over the place, and hot spiced wine will be on the woodstove….
December 27th, Jack Walker is Cayuse’s special guest until 8pm. His ingot silver and leather jewelry is marketed worldwide by a major fashion designer – his last Cayuse show sold out.
Cayuse’s extended holiday hours: Friday and Saturday until 7pm, and open on Sundays. Monday – Thursday are 10 – 6 unless there’s a gallery walk; hours are good Dec 15th – January 11, 2009. 307-739-1940.
Horizon Fine Art’s 9th Annual “It’s a Small World Art for Those Tucked Away Places” event happens December 14 – January 4, 2009. Horizon’s “2nd Annual World’s Largest Amber and Turquoise Show” runs concurrently.
Horizon swings with the Season during this year’s December 27th gallery ARTWalk; stop in for some live jazz as you make the rounds.
For information, phone 307-739-1540 or email horizonfineart@wyoming.com
Galleries West Fine Art will host their 6th annual holiday miniature show, “Little Jewels,” December 15 – January 5, 2009. Featuring small sculpture and paintings no larger than 11×14, the show has an intimate quality that affords a closer look at each artist’s hand. Works by a range of artists, including John Potter, Jennifer L. Hoffman, D. Lee, & Bart Walker, showcase plein air and tonalist landscapes, wildlife art, Western and Native American art, basketry, pottery, and more.
An opening reception happens during December 27th’s ARTWalk, 5:00-8:00 p.m. Contact Galleries West Fine Art at 307-733-4412, or visit www.gallerieswestjacksonhole.com.
December 20- January 11, 2009 the Diehl Gallery celebrates internationally renowned sculptor Jim Budish with a one-man exhibition.
An artist’s reception takes place Saturday, December 27th, from 5-8 pm. Join the Diehl Gallery for fine art, sumptuous treats and beverages! This exhibition is Diehl Gallery’s featured Holiday ARTWalk event.
Contact the gallery at 307-733-0905. Email: info@diehlgallery.com
In town on Saturday, December 20, Jackson’s newest gallery, “Troutwater,” officially opens its doors with a holiday reception beginning at 3:00 p.m. “Troutwater” is located in Crabtree Corners Mall, a few paces past the giant stuffed buffalo. “A Horse of a Different Color” joins the fun, as does “Accentuate.” 307-699-4175.
Also occurring December 20: CIAO Gallery’s “Holiday Miniatures & Fine Artisan Exhibition” opening reception happens 6:00 pm-9pm. Featuring local and national artists and other works limited to 9×9 inch dimensions. More information on CIAO’s winter schedule can be found on the Jackson Hole Art Blog by entering “CIAO” in the search window.
A Horse of a Different Color presents three artists new to Jackson’s gallery scene. Toland Sand‘s, D G House’s and Lynn Bishop’s creations will be featured at the Dec. 27 Holiday Gallery Stroll.
Toland Sand, known internationally for his constructed cold glass, has works in galleries and private collections around the world. His sculptures feel alive, seemingly changing color, patterns and structure.
D G House, a Native American artist residing in Bozeman, specializes in contemporary, vivid, paintings of animals. She is an artist in residence in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Her paintings are part of the Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of the American Indian permanent collection, as well as private collections worldwide.
Glass artist Lyn Bishop works in fused glass. “Glass can be incredibly strong, or very fragile, simple or ornate, transparent or opaque, functional or not, it’s limitless”, she says. Her pieces are densely patterned, often resembling woven fabrics.
“A Horse of A Different Color” holiday hours are 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. Saturdays and 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Sunday.
“A Horse of a Different Color” is located at 60 E. Broadway. Phone 734-9603.
END
(This essay was written January 2008, inspired by tributes to Martin Luther King. This month, we are inspired by our new President-elect, Barack Obama. Also, a reminder that this website’s content protected by copyright–TC)
The day before our nation celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, I went to the gym. Alone in the place for over half an hour, I plodded along on the treadmill, channel flipped and considered my future and the future of Jackson Hole. How would they be tied together in the coming years? How would my new business, Jackson Hole Art Tours, fare? Would it be a rewarding experience, working to weave this new venture into Jackson’s tapestry? And would the business truly give back, and make a difference, as I hope?
After a while Franz Camenzind arrived, and now we were two. Not long ago I’d sent a note to Franz, an emotional response to the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance’s holiday meeting and party. The evening featured Charlie Craighead’s slide presentation about his life growing up with wildlife, and how our relationship with wildlife has had to change as people flood to the valley and we develop more and more land. It was a wonderful evening, spent with some of Jackson’s most creative and change-making citizens. The crowd was warm, optimistic; everyone seemed bright with hope.
And hope is everything.
I clicked over to the Tennis Channel, looking for Nadal’s Australian Open quarterfinal match. It wasn’t on, and I complained to Franz. In the second I looked away from the screen, Franz said, “Isn’t that it?” I looked up, and there was Nadal.
“Anything else you’d like me to make happen?” Franz teased.
“Yes,” I replied. Boo-yah, my own personal genie! “I’d like you to make me the person who wakes everyone up to the true connections between the arts and conservation. I want to be that person here by 2010 and I want to instigate a dynamic, creative project that will draw everyone’s attention to the fact that, now, our environment and arts cannot survive without one another.”
Remember, I’m on a treadmill here. And those weren’t my exact words, but they’re close enough.
I sensed Franz doubted the validity of my theory. But he humored me. “Think about it,” I said. It takes creativity to communicate the beauty and utter indispensability of our natural world. Consider, for a second, the void of a world with no painters, sculptors, writers, and all manner of artists sending up messages about the earth? And where would artists be if not for our planet’s magnificence? What else inspires infinite prayers, offered via a brush, or a pen, or a camera’s lens? We would be living in a hellish, cold place. Bleak.
Art testifies, and as one of my favorite writers, Scott Russell Sanders has written, we’re telling the holy.
Franz nodded, then asked me: “But what came first, the natural world or artists?”
The natural world, of course.
Having previously lived in Jackson, I returned five years ago. To hasten reconnecting to the valley, I attended the January 2004 ‘Greater Yellowstone Power of Place’ conference. Panel ‘teams’ made presentations and talked about their connections to one another. I attended the Arts and Environment discussion. The fact that the Arts and Environment panel had been conceived as an obvious duo struck home. I recall that while all the panel members honored each other’s work and visions, there was an impasse when it came to actually naming a tangible project that would allow everyone there to contribute, and that would provide something of educational value. Stoked by the conference energy, but feeling shy and new girlish, I didn’t speak up. However, I did describe a vision I had to one of the conference organizers.
I imagine a giant, interactive screen. Glowing, luminous. This screen would depict everything within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: terrain, wildlife, flora, our rivers, lakes, weather, the sky, and snow—everything indigenous to our region. The screen’s function would be to educate the user about how development, global warming, water and air pollution, and human traffic change our ecosystem’s balance. For example, if someone wanted to know how five (or any number) of drought years would affect either wildlife, our rivers and lakes, forests and wilderness, they would touch a certain spot on the screen and the screen’s technology would transform its image to depict those effects: trout would having a tough time, declining lakes, all wildlife being challenged to find nourishment, parched grasses and trees. The number of wildfires would grow, and with those come smoky skies. That’s the short list, of course. The picture would be redrawn.
Artists could imagine and render images. Conservationists and scientists would inform these artistic choices, be the books behind the art. And technology would figure out how all the components would function, build in images and text. There would be nothing like it in the world. This reflection of us would be its own technological museum, and any kid could use it, and want to use it. Adults would want to use it, as we use our computers and I-phones.
This morning, on Martin Luther King Day, I flipped on my computer to scan the New York Times E-paper headlines. Photographer Camilo José Vergara has documented 12 urban murals of King; many are in Los Angeles and New York. He says such portraits of King are everywhere. One mural depicts King as the center figure in a triptych of images that includes Jesus and the Virgin Mary. One depicts him with Pope Paul—he’s also with Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X. Another shows King as a great teacher. And one portrait paints King’s image as a strong, confident leader atop a mountain of really hip graffiti art.
On any given holiday Google incorporates relevant artwork into its home page graphics. Today three boys are drawing a chalk portrait of Martin Luther King on the sidewalk. How wonderful is it that the artists are young kids? How do they know about Martin Luther King? What inspired them to draw his image?
Viewing these powerful, beautiful and respectful images, I was reminded of the recent political flap over whether King was responsible for igniting racial reform, creating its destiny and bringing his message home, or if this was Lyndon Johnson’s victory.
Who first brought the Dream?
Martin Luther King, of course.
–Tammy Christel
January 21, 2008
“Not only is arts education indispensable for success in a rapidly changing, high skill, information economy, but studies show that arts education raises test scores in other subject areas as well. “ -Obama Campaign
“Creative America for Obama” is the official arts group of the Obama for America campaign. Now that campaign furor is at rest, (we’re all resting, I think!) it seems auspicious to recap Obama’s campaign official arts platform.
Yes, there’s an arts platform supporting and advocating for the arts as a powerful economic factor in America’s education and economy.
To compete globally, the U.S. needs to support and invest in all creative efforts, starting with our children’s arts education. Arts translate into science and technology and are crucial in encouraging creative thinking.
Says the NEA Chairman:
”The purpose of arts education is not to produce more artists, though that is a byproduct. The real purpose of arts education is to create complete human beings capable of leading successful and productive lives in a free society.”
Although it would be some kind of miracle if these issues are addressed during Obama’s first term, Obama has said that he will:
• Work to expand public and private partnerships between education and the arts by increasing resources for the U.S. Department of Education’s Arts Education Model Development and Dissemination Grants…”
• Work to create an ”Artists Corps” to work in low-income schools and their communities.
• Support increased funding for the NEA.
• Promote Cultural Diplomacy—Obama’s campaign goes so far as to say that, “Artists can be utilized again to help us win the war of ideas against Islamic extremism.” Additionally, Obama feels attracting a foreign arts community to America will open more diplomatic doors and create greater cross-cultural dialog. Obama and Biden will also work to streamline visa application processes.
• Provide health care to artists by acknowledging the unique needs of artists not receiving employee coverage and financially unable to carry their own health insurance.
• Ensure tax fairness for artists. This includes enabling artists to deduct fair market value for their work, rather than just the cost of materials. See the “Artist-Museum Partnership Act,” introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT).
End
Teton County Library installs excellent visual arts exhibitions. If you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to check out “Netniintoonoo, “The Place Where We Live,” on view through November 10. This photography exhibition was created by students of the Arapaho School as part of the Language Revitalization Project on the Wind River Reservation.
Information on TCL’s next exhibition, currently posted on their website, is below:
November 13-December 30 the Teton County Library hosts a provocative exhibit focusing on coalbed methane drilling, “The New Gold Rush: Images of Coalbed Methane.” See the changes sweeping the open range with this unusual exhibit, combining photographs and satellite images. Four artists, John Amos, Ann Fuller, Patrick Smith and Ted Wood, chronicle how natural gas drilling is altering northern Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. They provide a portrait of the people and the place, now being crisscrossed by pipelines, utility lines, roads, well pads and other changes from the energy boom. On view during regular library hours, Nov. 13 to Dec. 30. Cost: Free. Location: Library’s Exhibit Gallery. Contact: Adult Humanities Coordinator, 733-2164 ext. 135.
End
Need a break from the election treadmill?
Sunday, November 2 celebrates Mexico’s “Day of the Dead,” a holiday that, despite its name, celebrates life. It’s a wonderful holiday, filled with creativity and possibility. Jackson traditionally holds a “Day of the Dead” walk, a guided tour of local “Day of the Dead” altars around town. Altars are an invitation to the departed to celebrate with those of us still of this world, and to that end altars feature costumed figures, humor, artistry, and food.
Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, in conjunction with Ladrillos par alas Artes and the Teton County Library, will provide party space and special classes.
Festivities take place at LMC, 130 South Jackson Street, on Sunday, November 2, 5:30 – 9:30 pm. Other scheduled events follow, and families are welcome!
At LMC, view “Day of the Dead” altars, decorate a sugar skull, watch traditional craft demonstrations and enjoy homemade tamales, “dead bread” and Mexican hot chocolate.
Cooking classes and sugar skull class is limited to 12 participants. Reserve a spot by calling Oona Doherty at 690-5264, or email oonadoherty@gmail.com
Other “Day of the Dead” Events:
Look for a Stagecoach Stop Halloween altar installation on the Town Square, created by local artists on Friday, October 31 from 4-8pm.
Thursday, October 30
Cooking Class: Mole Poblano taught by Marta Arribillaga
6-7:30pm
Location: e.leaven Food Company
Mole is a common dish prepared during Dia de los Muertos. Participants will learn how to make chicken mole with rice and will eat the final product.
Saturday, November 1
Live Altar Performance directed by Raul Juarez
11-11:30am
Presented by the Teton County Library
Watch a short “Day of the Dead” theater piece followed by traditional Mexican food and sweets. For ages 5 and up.
How to make a traditional Altar with Laura Rodriguez
Teton County Library Auditorium
12-12:30pm
Sugar Skull Decorating taught by Bronwyn Minton
1-2pm Children 5 and up
2-3pm Adults
Library Conference Room
Participants will learn how to make sugar skulls (Calaveras de Azúcar) using a mold and decorate a skull to take home.
Baking Class: Pan de Muertos & Champurrado with Blanca Rojas
4-6pm
Location: Hard Drive Café!
Pan de Muertos (Bread of the Dead) is sweet and shaped into skulls or round loaves with strips of dough on top to resemble bones. Champurrado is a warm, thick beverage made with ground corn and chocolate.
END
