Posts Tagged ‘Jackson Hole Arts’
Musings: Jackson Hole’s Creative Journeys
“Life is a journey, not a destination.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Beginning with the end in mind is about examining why life is worth living and being true to your own values and dreams,” says Acton’s MBA Entrepreneurship. ”If you have trouble uncovering these fundamental goals and values, it is time to go back to your basic foundations. Query people you trust and admire. Read great literary works and books on philosophy. Spend time alone in a quiet place. If you are religious, reexamine the fundamentals of your religion. Question, examine assumptions, reflect, and question again.”
In recent weeks I’ve listened as artists and non-artists spoke on the subject of embracing failure as it relates to success; the conversation began at last month’s Culture Front forum. It’s so in the air! Â How do we stay afloat? It’s so easy, even comfortable, to allow our values and true wishes to take a back seat to daily demands. We want the public to invest in us, yet we often avoid digging in to the very problems we must solve in order for that to happen. It’s a conscious effort every day, and it’s a tough go. I’m reading a wonderful book that says the typical mindset of “success” is about “getting.” And “getting” is a fight.
A friend recently said that Jackson is full of wonderful people, and she’s right. We’re a persistent, well-meaning, cause-driven population. In all things creative, we’re on the hunt for that “groove,” and the unknowns are…unknown.
A positive development: Vertical Harvest was unanimously supported by Jackson’s Town Council! Â The next step is sending that proposal to Teton County’s Wyoming Business Council Representative Roger Bower, Wyoming’s West Central Region Representative. Bower’s office is in Riverton, Wyoming. Word is, he does not like the project. However, he’s the man who will approve appropriations. I’ve emailed Mr. Bower a question or two; if he responds, you’ll see it here. If not, assume “no comment” by post time.
Kiki Smith, Girl with Stars, 2004, bronze with buried green patina, 17-1/2 x 29-3/4 x 2 "
Camille Obering’s pop-up gallery, in operation through September 30th, is a compact, clean and charming space for the relatively small number of items on exhibit there. That’s a good thing. The number of objects is correct in order for the space to hold both visitors and artwork, for both to interact as they should.
Two bronze wall pieces appearing to be self-portraits by renowned artist Kiki Smith, created in 2004, are mounted on the gallery’s north wall. Girl with Stars, above, is mounted an inch or two off the wall, allowing Smith’s star patterns to cast their shadows against the wall’s white surface.
Lee Ufan, Relatum - expansion place, 2008 steel, stone
“Kiki Smith’s work explores the idea of our bodies as recepticles,” says curator Obering. “She is a storyteller. Her art is about mysticism, knowledge and belief. In these two works (the second Smith work, “Dreaming with Bear,” also carries an astrological theme), express our fascination and connection to the cosmos, to constellations of stars. The stars and planets have enchanted us always.”
Entering the gallery, one is immediately in contact with artist-philosopher Lee Ufan’s conceptual, minimalistic, highly “Zen” floor sculpture, “Relatum – expansion place.” Â To see the work is to feel its grace, and realize its size. Ufan’s biography describes the art movement Mono-ha, “the school of things.” It emphasized ideas of system, structure and process, arising “amid the collapse of colonial world orders, antiauthoritarian protests and the rise of critiques of modernity.”
“The occasion of the site-specific work and the network of dynamics it triggers is more important than the object per se, and we the viewer enter the scene as an equal part of the whole,” says Ufan.
“Lee Ufan is disciplined about not using many things to say something big,” notes Obering. “It’s about engaging space, and conception, how the objects are placed.”
The gallery is located on the corner of Pearl and King Streets, in the old “Paper and Grace” shop space. Hours:Â Monday – Saturday 11am – 4pm. Â http://www.camilleobering.com/
This logo just makes me want to ride my bicycle so bad!
The Jackson Hole Public Art (JHPA) Initiative is rolling out its new Rolling Gallery program, a platform for “artists and scientists to collaborate on artwork for Jackson Hole Community Pathways that highlights endangered and at risk species.” Â The project is another example of how wilderness and art are connected; that history has been repeating itself since the late 19th century, and whether we admit it or not we’re all descendants of those early naturalists, artists and expeditions. We’re still on expedition, in fact. If we weren’t, we’d not be here.
The Art Association’s 2011 CHRISTMAS BAZAAR is heeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrreeeeeee (I am thinking of that crazy, wire-hanger-bodied Target 2-day Sale Lady….)! Saturday, December 3, at Snow King Center, make your way up to the 46th Annual Christmas Bazaar. Doors open at 9:30 am and close at 5:00 pm. Local and regional artists, foodies, jewelers, fabric specialists and creative people who know how to use a knitting needle will be on hand….as will those phenomenal holiday WREATHS.
I don’t see an entry fee listed on the Art Association website, but as their summer Art Fairs charge $3 cover, I’d count on having that amount handy to get in. Leave pepper spray at home, mind your manners, walk in an orderly way to and from the entrance, please! Â Let’s show some holiday shopping class, Jackson Hole! Thank goodness we’re low on Walmarts! Â www.jhartfair.org.
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My sister went to Maui, and I got these cool pictures!
Sarah & Jeff had their belated wedding honeymoon in the Hawaiian Islands. A few cloudy days sent them exploring. These massive willow sculptures are installed on the grounds of Hui No‘eau Visual Arts Center, in Maui’s Upcountry. If you’ve visited Maui, you know the island’s landscape changes dramatically, depending on where you are on the island. Upcountry reminds me of Scotland’s Highlands, with its rolling mists, farms, livestock and stone walls. Hard to believe you’re on the slopes
of Haleakala volcano.
Hui No’eau’s art studios are the only public art studios on Maui. The facility offers year-round classes to island residents and visitors. It occupies an expansive historic estate, Kaluanui, designed in 1917, ”by the distinguished architect C.W. Dickey for Harry Baldwin and his wife, Ethel, who founded Hui No‘eau in 1934. The late Colin Cameron, grandson of the Baldwins and former president of Maui Land & Pineapple Co., generously granted Hui No‘eau use of Kaluanui as a visual arts center in 1976.” The center’s website says classrooms, studios, exhibiton space and offices are in the main house, while an “in-house dairy serves as Maui’s only public photography darkroom space.”  Kaluanui’s former den is a gift shop and gallery.  www.huinoeau.com
