Jackson Hole Art Blog

The message at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary is CHANGE.  Somehow, in a sour economy for most Jackson Hole Galleries, LMC keeps on happening.  The large, loft-like space sitting at Jackson Street level has transformed itself into a place for happenings, 60’s style.  2009’s version of a record player is a d.j. named Mr. Whipple ( a 1960’s and 70’s lab-coated, bespectacled advertising character hawking toilet tissue–nice, soft toilet tissue ), wall art is the new tie dye, and a  communal creativity prevails.   Getting any attention in today’s art market is real tough;  galleries are asking their artists to go small, in order to bring down price points.  Three Jackson Hole galleries I know of have closed in as many months.   Galleries with strong client stables are calling upon those clients more often.

LMC is the Madonna of Jackson Hole art galleries, working feverishly to stay fresh. Author readings, AIVO, children’s art, musicians in white vans rocking the night away, fire throwing, collaborations with non-profits, joining 1% for the Tetons (says you feel confident you have enough net income capital to donate, going forward, and you’re comfortable providing full access to your income ledger, and you are going with green marketing, and you get your picture taken by the very cool David Swift),  openly political art projects.   With the exception of regularly scheduled art openings around town, there’s no other action of the sort LMC provides monthly.

So what’s going on over there?

McCandless has a marketing background and she’s pumping it up.  Her next happening, pARTicipate for Change,  gets hopping this coming First Friday, Februrary 6, 5:30-7:30 pm.  The project keeps Obamamania going–I’m all over that.

Here’s the skinny: This First Friday, you can’t just show up to eat  organic pizza (Where was that yummy pizza January 20, at Pub Place?  We ate bad cafeteria food! Even kids pushed that stuff around on the plate.  The dancing, however, was FAB! )  This coming Friday, all comers are asked to actively participate in the creation of a work that will come to life on a wall-sized piece of canvas. Create to the theme of participating for change, and the finished product will be photographed and sent to the President.  We audaciously hope!  We hope with audacity?  I’m still stuck on the “hopefully” grammar thing.

“I also want people to experience that excitement and joy of acquiring a
piece of art…so we will be giving away small pieces of art all night
to everyone who walks in the door. Maybe it will create a mini-trading
sensation,” says McCandless.

Here’s some ways to participate:

1. Hang/install your artwork, up to three pieces, framing optional.    Explore “Change.”

2. Contribute to the free-art collection. ( LM: “I am taking old photos/paintings/sketches and cutting them up into mini-art pieces (@ 2″ x 3″). I have one that Alissa Davies gave me in September as her ‘card’. I carry it around in my wallet as a little transportable piece of art that makes me smile. I will write on the back of all of them “www.lmcontemporary.com Art It Forward”)

Lyndsay!  I love you!  You used single quotations around a word! ( ‘card’ ) I get in trouble from Swift when I do that on Tammy & David Fight About Movies!  You go girl!  You mean, by single quotes, that the card isn’t a real business card, but you use it as such, it has that spirit, that function, is some way related to the entity “business card.”   Did we go to the same high school? Did you have Miss Cole for English class?

3. Bring art supplies/inspiration to use for the art wall-markers, sharpies, charcoal, adhesive stuff, photos, scraps of paper, crayons, safety pins, post-its,—paint requires lots of extra’s, brushes, water, containers—”but we
could make it work!”

Artists need to get their work to LMC by Wednesday, February 4.

Artists who have signed up (I’ve corrected spelling as far as I can; apologies for any remaining misspelled names!)

Anthony Birkholz…video installation
Nicole Burdick and Micah Richardson…ice installation
Bland Hoke…Center of Wonder Public Art ambassador
Amy Larkin
Bronwyn Minton
Alissa Davies
Babs Case
Rachel Kunkle
Ben Carlson
Susan Thulin
Emma Adkisson
Bryce Billings
Ashely Hogge
Jeremy Kusmin
Rich Goodwin
Steven Glass

Gone Missing Teton Art Lab will make an appearance, with its own installation.

Visit www.lmcontemporary.com, or call 307-734-0649/cell: 307-413-4331.

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It’s Wyoming native Jackson Pollock’s birthday today!  He’s an Aquarian.  Of course!   Have fun scribbling!

“Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.” - F.D.R., Inaugural Address

Is the media too attentive to our economic plight, feeding our fears in the process? Nobody can answer how much better or worse the economy might be without the coverage; if you think the economy is worse than is being reported, you’d answer one way; if you think the economy is not as broken as is being reported, you’d answer another way.

But Roosevelt’s point was not that we, the public, are our own worst enemy.  His point was that LEADERSHIP need be trustworthy, apt, fearless and true.

“Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.”

In his inaugural address, Roosevelt did what media does now: state the obvious. Generally, we don’t like change.  F.D.R.’s speech was pretty radical. It is only in stating the obvious in such times, though, that reality is fully dealt with.  Citizens gain courage when leadership is dynamic.

“In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.”

As a response to the economic crisis we’ve created by living beyond our means, (The World Resources Institute is a resource for information on living beyond our means environmentally )  and that the rash, selfish economics of the past decade have led us to, we can redefine ourselves for the better.  But we can only do that if we are open about taking a good hard look at ourselves, and gain strength from the effort.  We are about to experience new leadership, most likely of a sort existing generations haven’t experienced.   There will no doubt be problems; there always are.   But if our new president runs his presidency like he ran his campaign, he will be one of our greatest leaders.  And with great leadership, fear and distrust fade away.

“Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.”

Pulitzer Prize winning economist Paul Krugman said that our economy will only start to turn around when jobs are created again.  Here in Jackson Hole, people need work.  We’ve long needed more good work, but with visitors spending their dollars in our tourism economy, we all felt safe.     I don’t know how much Obama can reasonably be expected to accomplish during this first term, but as an 18-year-old noted on National Public Radio, he should be counted on to maintain the honesty and openess he’s exhibited thus far.  That will establish trust on our end, which will encourage us towards putting our economy back together again.

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.

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