Jackson Hole Art Blog

The National Museum of Wildlife Art (NMWA) has acquired works by two artists new to the Museum:  Contemporary painter Walton Ford, sculptor Simon Gudgeon and an oil painting by 19th-century artist-explorer Titian Ramsay Peale.

At left is Ford’s Swadeshi-cide.  Sixth in a very limited edition of 50, the work is an etching, aquatint, drypoint and roulette on paper.  NMWA has acquired six different prints by Ford; each of those prints is the sixth print in a series of fifty (6/50).

United Kingdom artist Gudgeon’s Isis, a 10-foot bronze streamlined avian piece, will take a prominent spot in the Museum’s now-under-production sculpture trail.   The work is a smaller scale version of Gudgeon’s work installed in London’s Hyde Park. The work is depicted in this blog’s previous post.

“The works of art purchased this year signal the diversity of the museum’s collection,” says Curator of Art Adam Duncan Harris. “Traveling west in 1819, Peale was one of the first artists to record the fauna of what was largely unexplored territory. One hundred ninety years later, contemporary artist Ford is fascinated by wildlife and by the history of depicting those creatures. Coming at the subject from a different angle, Gudgeon hones his representation of avian life to its purest, elemental form, creating a work of power that will be a highlight of our sculpture trail.”

Highly influenced by the artist-naturalists in the museum’s existing collection, including John James Audubon, Ford  is an artist-naturalist, but he adds his own political commentary, “using complex symbols to layer his flora and fauna studies with satire on some of the darker moments in U.S. cultural and environmental history.”  Ford is a Guggenheim fellow and has been featured on the PBS arts program Art:21.

Peale’s “Three Elk” is an example of his “…recalling the animals he saw as the official artist on Stephen Harriman Long’s government expedition to the West in 1819, years before artists such as Catlin and Bodmer ventured up the Missouri in the 1830s.”  It is a paramount example of works by the earliest artists recording Western fauna in a planned reinstallation of the museum’s collection.

www.wildlifeart.org

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Heather James. I share sentiments that this gallery has so much going on that it’s almost frustrating to those of us keeping up with the arts in Jackson. The new gallery is really several smaller galleries rolled into one cool contemporary space.  It serves Jackson’s art scene—and, during the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival in particular—in more than one way. The gallery presents contemporary art that appeals to naturalists.  It introduces many genres to Jackson not previously accessible.  It exhibits landscapes by great Western artists.  It has on exhibition and display works by the luminaries and legends of art history.

Heather James has the feel of a museum, complete with multiple galleries that you can see in an hour.  And you don’t have to stand in long lines to buy a ticket.

“There is no where else in the world where you can experience two national parks, Picasso and Monet all in one day,” offers gallery director Lyndsay McCandless.

In the realm of artist super stars, Heather James has new works by Léger, Chagall, Picasso, Warhol, Matisse, Morisot, Hofman, Andrew Wyeth, O’Keeffe and more.

One visit is all it takes to taste any and all of the above.  But, most certainly, multiple visits are required in order to truly receive what Heather James has to offer.  These gifts are simultaneous, parallel. Instantaneous.

Forest   for   the   Trees, on exhibit through September 30, 2010, examines the natural world through a variety of contemporary lenses. Though contemporary art dealing with nature can be so detailed as to reveal microcosm, this group of works avoids over-detail in favor of broader interpretations and the meditative sensation we gain from viewing the natural world on relatively large scales. The show, says the gallery, “…addresses  the  concept  of  individuality…as  each artist  expresses (their feelings on) important  topics… such as politics and the environment.”

Wildfires were common in southern California when I was a child. Houses constructed of concrete were amongst the few escaping devastation when fires swept through. For artist Naomi Safron-Hon, a “Forest” contributor, interest in cement as material sprang from “the cement wall that is being built in [her] home country in order to separate Israelis from Palestinians.

“Construction of identity interlaces with construction of landscape. Pushed against lace and domestic materials cement references the way in which political reality infiltrates personal life. War, conflict, and politics penetrate every aspects of daily life, similar to the way cement pushes through lace and kitchen appliances,” says the artist.

Timothy Tompkins’s high gloss enamel paints on aluminum look like topographic maps.  It is surprising to realize the pigments are enamel;  Tompkins’s  works recall Google Earth at its coolest and most fluid; in actuality he photographs television screens as they transmit. “His intent with the series,” says the gallery, “is  to explore  the  use  of  images  as  narrative  and  deconstruct  the  same  narratives  by removing  them  from their original  context.  The   viewer  is  then  free  to  bring  their  own  associations  depending  upon  their relationship  to  what  is presented.”

Log onto www.heatherjames.com and, as you would when visiting a museum, plan on devoting ample time for perusing the gallery.

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I’ll fly away…

The Diehl Gallery currently features a new series of paintings by artist Dirk De Bruycker.  His new collection is inspired by an emotional, no doubt traumatic, discovery by the Belgian native.  Upon entering his Granada, Nicaragua studio De Bruycker came upon a dead Cocoa Mort Bleu butterfly. Lying on the studio floor, it was consumed by an army of ants.

Overcome, De Bruycker used the beauty and tragedy of the finding and channeled them into a series of paintings.  Liquid crimson pools dissolve across his canvas, melting into “melted butter” yellows, chalky whites and other pale hues.   A butterfly’s wing patterns overlay and link with these color pools, shaped like a butterfly’s wing. They are lovely.

De Bruycker now resides in Santa Fe, where color and natural scales must remain significant influences.

The Teton Literacy Center receives 10% of each sale from this show.  Email: info@diehlgallery.com.

It’s a sometimes dark, sometimes cosmic, and sometimes beautiful view photographer Thomas Macker shares with us in his new collection of images Western Heritage – Expansion/Consumption/New Age, opening at Teton Art Lab Friday, August 27. An opening reception takes place on the late side, (yes, I can hear the young folks laughin’) 7-9:00 p.m.

A visiting artist resident, Macker is in from Los Angeles.  He is a candidate for an MFA in Photography and Media at CalArts.

Macker describes this show as being concerned with “Wyoming and the western landscape….spiritual, cultural, and environmental tourism.”  In much of his other work, he takes special interest in the ironies and complexities of California.  Western Heritage delves into activities and issues as mountaineering, car camping, gmo seeds, migrant workers, alternative energy, “intergalactic colonialism,” Black Elk and the psychedelic.

I’ve spent an hour checking out Macker’s website.  I find his photography deeply affecting.  Intimate.  Political.  These are the kinds of photographs that, in this election season, those running for office should see. The photographs–portraits of place–illustrate ubiquitous ironies and plights. They more than hint at American tragedies. Private lives are exposed, fates admitted. Throughout his work Macker treats all his subjects, no matter how jarring, with unblinking honesty .

Without being noticed we watch from behind as a lone, aging man fills water bottles from a forest stream.  The night sky’s astrological patterns surrounding Perseus (The Hero) are reinterpreted by what I first thought were scattered bullets holes in glass.  A friend thought he saw the eyes of the universe. The connected spheres are in fact spores.  Domestic workers pose for Macker’s camera inside the properties they tend;  their employers are nowhere in sight.  These spotless, manicured California homes are proof of attentive care and work provided by these workers, not of the property owners. Nannies, likely immigrants, assume motherhood to babies they push in strollers.

One Macker series, With God, All Things Are Possible, depicts a region of the Ohio River Valley and is a not-so-subtle rip on the concept of a generous Deity.  A thick and heavy summer yard is vacant, save the black hole of an ignored trampoline.  A dead coyote lies at the side of a road, a woman nuzzles her shepherd; but the most heart-stopping image concerns a young cougar tethered to a pole in a back yard.  The cat stalks our photographer and its jailer—some guy I presume is trafficking in wildlife, or he works for a circus—plays ringmaster.

It took me a moment to notice the pistol lying on the bed next to a man in a motel room.  The man talks animatedly; he’s wearing a Carnegie Mellon t-shirt.

These are only descriptions of Macker’s photographs, and I fear I may put you off checking out the contents of Western Heritage. This show’s cover image  — girls in blue plastic innertubes lolling about in tall Wyoming grasses while a buff dude repairs a chain link fence protecting solar panels — reveals sharp, wry humor.  Go see it.  Put your thinking cap on.  In America, concerned as we are with issues of constitutionality and culturalism, this a potentially thought provoking show.

To view Macker’s work check out http://www.fotocoyote.com/

www.tetonartlab.com

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Jackson Hole’s 2010 Fall Arts Festival is fast approaching. Portions of the  National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Western Visions/Sixth Annual Photography Show & Sale/ Fourth Annual Sketch Show & Sale are now available to view.   Events continue through Sunday, September 26, 2010.

Highlights include:

• The Sketch Show & Sale (King Gallery) displays work by participating Western Visions artists and includes simple pencil sketches to studies in oil or acrylic.
• Tuesday, September 7, 2010 —  5:30 to 8:30 pm enjoy Tapas and a presentation by 2010  Featured Scupltor Simon Gudgeon for a special Art After Hours. Program is free. Reservations for tapas required and can be made by calling 307-732-5434.
• Thursday, September 9,  12:05 pm. —  Art Alive @ 12:05 features a talk by Simon Gudgeon.  Museum galleries;  free.
• Wednesday, September 15  —  12th Annual Jewelry & Artisan Luncheon, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  Register by Wednesday, September 8.    307.732.5412.
• Thursday, September 16, 2010 —-  Plein Air Sketching Workshop led by Featured Painter Mary Roberson.   8-11:30 a.m.   Hands-on outdoor instruction overlooking National Elk Refuge.  Cost:  $45.    Reservations required via Jane Lavino.    307.732.5417.   ALSO: Museum Gallery Walk,  1-2:00 pm.  Led by Simon Gudgeon, he will talk about some of his favorite NMWA works.   Free for members or with Museum admission.  AND, Jewelry & Artisan Show & Sale begins today, continuing through Friday, September 17.  View and select offerings of exquisite handmade jewelry, silver items and accessories.

• Thursday, September 16  —- 23rd Annual Wild West Artist Party,  6:30 – 10:30 p.m.  Location is National Museum of Wildlife Art.   Live music, dancing, plenty of good fare.   Register by Wednesday, September 8.   307.732.5412.

• Friday, September 17  —- Featured Painter Presentation and Poster Signing, 1:00 pm.    Mary Roberson will speak about her art and influences.  Free for members or with Museum admission.
• Friday, September 17  —-  23rd Annual Miniatures and More Show & Sale. Doors open 3:30 pm;  Bidding closes 5:30 pm; Presentation begins 6:30 pm.   Event features over 150 top American artists. Reservations required by September 8.   307.732.5434.

And, a new addition for 2010:

Wednesday, September 29 — Art A’Brewin’ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm.   Enjoy coffee and fruit at the Museum, and pick up your purchased artwork.  Browse works still available.  Fun, free, open to the public.

An online Western Visions Catalog can be found here; you can read succinct artist biographies and, for some artists, interview content.

www.wildlifeart.org

A year or so ago, Altamira Fine Art had its first opening.  The show was notable for three reasons:  1) Altamira’s space wasn’t completed, and the opening took place at what was then the Oswald Gallery; 2)The show belonged to expressionist John Nieto;  3) Nieto’s new work was new and totally re-energized, revved!   It was the freshest, most exciting Nieto exhibit in recent memory.

Once again, Altamira Fine Art welcomes master contemporary artist John Nieto, and his newest show of works, Forces of Color and Spirit.  The show opens July 1 (fireworks of color appropriate for a pyrotechnic holiday!) and runs through July 14.   An opening reception takes place July 1, 5-7:00 pm.

Nieto’s comprehensive new book of the same title features more than 180 color plates of works defining the life and career of Nieto, a ground breaking legend of an artist.  Nieto originated a style of painting widely emulated, but never matched, by countless contemporary artists. The book is described as “lavishly illustrated.”  Nieto will be on hand July 2, 1-4:00 pm, to sign copies of his book.   Forces of Color and Nature , written by Susan Hallsten McGarry, includes 179 pages and features Nieto’s twenty-five painting series exploring the chromatic persona of Sioux Chief Sitting Bull.  Collectors will find a chapter on limited editions and documentation of Nieto works.

Altamira Director Mark D. Tarrant says the gallery is privileged to represent Nieto and share this new exhibition.  Nieto is widely regarded as one of America’s most accomplished, dynamic and exciting contemporary artists, says Tarrant, pointing out that Nieto’s work concentrates on themes that transcend mere representation. Nieto’s intense primary colors and bold use of paint “create both dimension and character on the canvas.  He is truly an American master.”

Nieto’s portraits are striking, but in addition to loving the Wolf, count me as a huge fan of his Feather Dancer paintings.  Filling the canvas with energy, dynamic swirling, arcing paint strokes, Nieto’s dancers cut powerful abstract compositions into each canvas surface.  These works make my heart pound and my pulse race. Here, footsteps of Native American spirit and the totality of earth’s primal music ring.

Like his buffalo, bears and coyotes, Nieto himself  is a symbol of survival.  Every work embraces what Nieto knows is the spirit of life.   For information, email connect@altamiraart.com.

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On Thursday, July 8, NMWA will hold a special reception to open its summer exhibitions:  Karl Bodmer’s Western Wildlife: Original Sketches from the Joslyn Art Museum, Travels in the Interior of North America: Etchings by Karl Bodmer, and Wild New Ways: Maurice Sendak’s Animal Kingdom. The evening includes actor Jeffrey Bratz’s portrayal of Bodmer and atalk on Sendak by Patrick Rodgers.    AND, the inaugural winner of the new Bull-Bransom Award will be announced.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m.   www.wildlifeart.org!

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Two artists relatively new to Jackson’s contemporary art scene will be featured at Teton ArtLab, occupying studio and exhibit space on the top floor of the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts.

Victoria Reynolds and Jeff Brown open their joint show at the Lab on July 2, (First Friday)  6-8:00 pm.

These artists, painters both, “explore the challenging realms of abstraction,” says Artlab Director Travis Walker.  Jackson’s contemporary artists often thoroughly explore the natural world, down to the tiniest microcosm; the examination and reproduction of nature’s forms lend themselves to abstract work and can be fastidiously detailed.

Reynolds currently hails from that creative West Coast hub, Portland. Her works are “frenetic, map-like images on wooden panels using oil, pencil, and other mediums.”  By contrast, Brown, a Jackson artist whose recent Pearl Street Bagels show came close to selling out, creates “labyrinths of line.”   This is Brown’s Artlab debut.    The show also features a series of Brown’s etchings created in collaboration with the Artlab.

For information on this show, you have permission to contact the artists directly.   Victoria Reynolds: (203)-249-5766;  Jeff Brown: (251)978-3194. (Victoria, you have a Connecticut area code; where are you from in the Nutmeg State?)

The National Museum of Wildlife Art (NMWA) will build its new sculpture trail, designed by Oakland, California landscape wizard Walter Hood.  In the planning process for several years, funding for completion of the project was secured via a $3.5 million gift from NMWA trustee Debbie Petersen.   The trail will be named for her late husband, Jim Petersen.  Ms. Petersen’s gift funds the trail and supports “future projects.”

Last year, the Jackson Hole Art Blog presented a three-part series on Walter Hood and his vision for the NMWA sculpture trail, and his prophesies and recommendations for future sustainable, artful landscaping in Jackson and Teton County. Those articles are available to read on this site.

The Museum says the trail will provide new ways for visitors to view wildlife art within a landscape; sculptor Richard Loffler’s Buffalo Trail will be part of the project.  An amphitheater will replace the current drive at NMWA’s entrance and an “edge trail” will run along the east ledge of the current visitor’s parking area.   Hood’s hope has always been to meld NMWA’s vantage point and contoured landscapes with views of the Elk Refuge, creating a greater visceral connection between the two sites.

The museum’s new sculpture trail will directly connect to the North Highway 89 Pathway Project, a new branch of the Pathways system planned to lead from the north end of Jackson to Grand Teton National Park.  An underground tunnel will provide access to the museum, creating an inviting opportunity to mix culture and outdoor activity for bicyclers.      www.wildlifeart.org.

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The Cultural Council of Jackson Hole, with a mission to “ bring the arts and cultural organizations in our community together for the purpose of communication, collaboration, coordination and promotion of cultural life in Jackson Hole,”  has opened nominations for this year’s “Award for Creativity.” The honorarium

acknowledges those whose contributions to the arts—visual, musical, written and performing—have impact and meaning to Jackson’s cultural base.  2009’s winners were Dancer’s Workshop Executive Director Babs Case and Center for the Arts major patron John Tozzi.   Other past winners include Lyndsay McCandless, Joffa & Bill Kerr, Evie Lewis, Ken Thomasma, David Kornblum and more.

Submit your nominations by Monday, June 21st, to the Cultural Council.  Nominations may be mailed to the Council at P.O. Box 3706, Jackson, Wyoming 83001.   Or, email your choice to:  culturalcouncil@gmail.com. The Council’s Alissa Davies notes that submissions must include “ your name, address, phone number and/or email, 500 words about the individual and their impact on the cultural fabric of our community, and two additional references with contact information. Consider the significant achievements of the individual; the broad and lasting impact of their work; and qualities that contribute to their artistic excellence.”

May I add that there are a number of folks whose contributions to the arts, though highly significant, are grass roots and community-oriented in nature. Often subtle, they are no less crucial.  Please nominate anyone you believe helps support the arts;  supporting the arts can mean a nominee provides significant financial support and boosterism, or it may mean that a shop owner dedicates continuous space and time to young artists.  A person can be artistically innovative, build diversity, provide a service, teach, or actualize physical venues for the arts.   The sky is the limit!

Each year winners are celebrated at a festive gathering, usually at the Center for the Arts.  This year’s party and will be held Wednesday, September 8, 2010, a great kick-off to Jackson Hole’s Fall Arts Festival season.

For more information contact Alissa Davies at 307.690.4757 or email culturalcounciljh@gmail.com.

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No details yet, but here’s a handy list of shows scheduled to take place this Summer and Fall, at Mountain Trails Gallery in glorious Jackson Hole, Wyoming! If a detail you need isn’t here, it’s because that info is TBA.

Show #1 :

Western Artists of America – Western Heritage Show - July 2 – July 10 Opening Reception:  Saturday, July 3.

Show #2:

Jeff Ham – One Man Show -  July 15 – July 22 Opening Reception:  Saturday,  July 17

Show #3:

Edward Aldrich – One Man Show -  Aug.6 – Aug. 13 Opening Reception: Sat. Aug. 7

Show #4:

Landscape Show (Andrzej Skorut / Shanna Kunz) – Aug. 19 – Aug. 26 Opening Reception:  Sat. Aug.21

Show #5:

Robert Hagan – One Man Show  - Sept. 2 – Sept. 9 Opening Reception:  Sat. Sept. 4

Show #6:

Ty Barhaug & Tom Saubert – Sept. 15 – Sept. 22 Opening Reception:  Wed. Sept.15

Show #7:

Oil Painters of America Regional Show -  Oct. 9 – Nov. 10 Opening Reception:  Sat. Oct. 9

Information: 307.734.8150.

Press materials describing the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s exhibit of field sketches from the American frontier read like the pages of a scholarly tome.  So I’m thinking a scholar–namely Adam Duncan Harris, NMWA’s Curator of Art–wrote it.

So it’s quite difficult to improve upon what Harris has already told me.

May 8 – August 29, 2010, visitors to the Museum will have a chance to see “…a veritable snapshot of wildlife roaming the American frontier in the early 1830’s, Swiss artist Karl Bodmer’s detailed field studies made while on expedition up the Missouri River…”

Karl Bodmer’s Western Wildlife: Original Sketches from the Joslyn Art Museum showcases some of the earliest works depicting the American West.  The sketches combine the best of two observing schools, Science and Art.   In fact, the exhibition has an accompanying, complementary exhibit, Travels in the Interior of North America: Etchings by Karl Bodmer, on display through October 17, 2010.

Studies are often closeted in favor of finished works, and that’s a shame because studies can offer up lively compositions and “first takes,” unfettered by possible over-working.    The show presents a fine opportunity for scholars and lay people alike; those who know these sketches exist but do not get a chance to see them will relish the opportunity;  those seeing wildlife art for the first time will appreciate its roots.

These sketches represent Bodmer’s observations from 1832 – 1834, while the artist was on the Missouri River Expedition.   Bodmer completed studies of animals, birds and reptiles, created either out in the wild or in studio, using deceased animal specimens.   Omaha’s Joslyn Art Museum holds a great cache of Bodmer’s original work.

If you read the excellent monthly art magazine Western Art Collector, please take time to read Harris’ excellent essay (April 2010 edition) A Diverse View of the West: Works on Paper. I think Harris is one of the most passionate of curators.  He loves the wildlife art genre.   Time and time again he has expressed to the public–using either the written word or by giving a talk–his great ability to “see” what we may not immediately be able to describe to ourselves when looking at wildlife art.    Harris acknowledges the difficulty artists face trying to keep renderings of wildlife fresh; even when “fresh” is not an element in wildlife art, Harris knows what makes great wildlife art great.   And in the case of artist Geordie Millar’s large drawing “Moose #4,” it is simplicity of line and the fact that the artist pushes traditional boundaries by coming close to filling a 60 x 63 inch field with a female (not an antlered male) moose trying to stand.

First sketches often contain an Asian minimalist quality.  And that is lovely indeed.

More info:  www.wildlifeart.org

While we’re still in NMWA land,  I will mention that former NMWA gift shop manager and plein air artist Jen Hoffman is prominently mentioned in the May/June edition of Fine Art Connoisseur, as an Artist to Watch.   That is huge.   And, this art blogger is proud to be mentioned at the end of that article, in relation to Hoffman’s work and Blurb catalog.   Congratulations, Jen!

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Whodunit?
Artspace Main & Loft Galleries
ONE NIGHT ONLY! | May 7, 2010

An annual favorite, Whodunit is a one-night event exhibiting and selling many dozens (that’s my best estimate) of small works (6 x 6 inches) that sell for $99 each at the close of the evening.   The twist is two-fold:   1)  Artist identities are unknown    2) Works are sold by lottery to one of the list of bidders listing their name as wanting to purchase the art.

Familiar with many local artists’ styles?  Well, you may guess correctly on who created what some of the time…but usually, there are many surprises.  Artist names known, artists names not-so-known;  it doesn’t matter, the talent and diversity of work is the stuff of legend.

A great fundraiser for the Art Association!  Check it out.     www.artassociation.org

PS:  Summer Classes sign up – Do it!   Lots of great classes to be taken, art to be made, creative roads to be traveled.   Classes start in June, and that is SOON.

A Jackson Hole cultural and community rite of Spring, the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Contest, is on view May 1 – August 10, 2010 at the National Museum of Wildlife Art (NMWA).  The show hangs in the Museum’s King Gallery and a virtual exhibition can viewed on line at WildlifeArt.org/Learn/FedJrDuckStamp/.

2010 marks 16 years of Federal Junior Duck Stamp art exhibiting at NMWA.   The contest and subsequent show, lovingly administrated by Sugden Family Curator of Education Jane Lavino, has a mission to awaken children’s knowledge of the connection between wetland conservation, natural resources and, I must add, art.

Pictured top-of-page, left,  is this year’s winning entry, “Flight of the Blue Moon,” by 17-year old Pinedale, Wyoming student Lisanne Fear.    The exhibition features the top 36 ribbon winners out of 610 total Wyoming entries. In addition to the top winners on exhibit, 64 Honorable Mention ribbons were awarded in each of the four age groups (grades K – 3, 4 – 6, 7 – 9, and 10 – 12).

Fear’s oil painting depicts a pair of Pintail ducks, a species common to Wyoming.   For her efforts Fear will have her work representing the state at the National Junior Duck Stamp contest scheduled for Friday, April 23, 2010, at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul, Minnesota.  If she wins there, she will win $5,000 and head on to Washington D.C. and also be the artist whose work is the image for the 2010-2011 Junior Duck Stamp.   Buy the stamp for $5.00 and your contribution goes towards supporting conservation education.

There are many more winners in many divisions.   Get a full listing by visiting the Museum’s website, AND by visiting the exhibit itself.  Doing so is a great treat, and a reminder of the talent and heart behind each and every Jr. Duck Stamp competition.  Conservation lay people will gain new knowledge of duck species.   This exhibition educates adults as well as youth.

First through Third place contest winners will be honored at a dinner and awards ceremony at the National Museum of Wildlife Art on Saturday July 24, 2010. For more information, please contact Amy Goicoechea at agoicoechea@wildlifeart.org or call (307) 732-5435. Information for next year’s contest will be posted on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service homepage at DuckStamps.fws.gov.

Lately, plein air painter Jen Hoffman has been screeching.  “Scree!”  I suspected she’d mistaken herself for a hawk, but she’s just excited about the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s upcoming exhibit, Birds of Sage and Scree.  Twenty-seven paintings by artist Greg McHuron with correlating text by writer and conservationist Bert Raynes will be on display.  The show opens Thursday, March 4, 2010 and as  Raynes and McHuron wouldn’t think of not having a party, there is one!  The party starts at the Museum at 5:30 pm, with a targeted end time of 7:30 pm.    I predict a packed house.

Are there two more admired and loved men in Jackson? Two figures whose passions are never dimmed, whose work is more purely motivated…devoid of narcissism?  I don’t think so.  Franz Camenzind is the only activist/conservationist/artist who holds a candle.  These spiritual leaders follow their muse, waking up daily considering and honoring the natural beauty surrounding us.  They wonder what they can do next to help it all along, and they don’t think about how they might benefit professionally or politically.

Back to the point, the show.   McHuron’s paintings and Raynes’ text are combined in a book, also titled Birds of Sage and Scree. This party celebrates that book’s upcoming Spring 2010 release, the finish line to a collaborative quest.   All proceeds derived from book sales will benefit the Meg and Bert Raynes Wildlife Fund. That organization’s mission is to “…initiate, augment, or simply fund projects or activities to help maintain viable and sustainable wildlife populations into the future, especially in Wyoming and Jackson Hole, through support of research, education, habitat protection and habitat restoration.”

A Raynes-McHuron collaboration provides an excellent in-your-hands example of the power of connection between nature and art.  Wildlife art nurtures love for, and engagement with, the natural world.  This show and the book are beautiful, and they are a tool.  The exhibition is also an opportunity for NMWA to  “…highlight two long-time supporters of the Museum,” says Museum President and CEO James McNutt. “The show furthers the Museum’s mission to inspire visitors to examine both fine art and humanity’s relationship with nature.”

Raynes, with his late wife, Meg, have been recognized for their dedication to conservation and wildlife issues by the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the Wildlife Heritage Foundation, the Wyoming Chapter of the Wildlife Society, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, and the Town of Jackson.   As the book profile on Raynes notes, he “….noticed that some promising bird habitats with difficult access got (little) attention. In particular, Raynes found that students in beginning birding classes tended to avoid scree slopes and attempting to cross expanses of sagebrush. Thus, birds that inhabit these ecosystems are lesser known. (Raynes) has long thought that these birds should be better understood.”

Greg McHuron especially delights in painting en plein aire in locations ranging from northern Alaska to the Grand Canyon. McHuron regularly participates in the Museum’s Western Visions® show and received numerous awards and special recognition from his peers and the Museum. In 2009, his painting Alpine Flush won the Trustee’s Purchase Award.

“I prefer painting…en plein air as the drama and excitement that occurs all around me is difficult to recreate in a studio environment,” notes McHuron.  “When I paint the rapidly changing scenes, I put into each of them the feelings and excitement that I felt while watching the scene unfold. Years of watching, analyzing and learning from nature’s school ground has helped me to understand the interrelations between organic and inorganic entities and how different lighting, seasons and locations affect how they look and react. If I can capture that particular feeling, I know that those viewing my works will come to feel some of the emotions and excitement that motivated my wanting to record this particular fleeting moment.”

Birds of Sage and Scree remains on display through April 18, 2010.   Phone the Museum at 307.733.5771.

The University of Wyoming has put out the call for entries for their nationally acclaimed literary and arts journal, the Owen Wister Review (OWR).  The competition is open to all writers and artists contributing work about the Western experience.

The University recently provided the following information:

OWR, printed each spring, won its second Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker, the college equivalent to a Pulitzer Prize in October.

“We are looking forward to another great year and can’t wait to start looking through this year’s submissions,” Editor Joshua Watanabe said.

Journal editors will be selecting original works of fiction, poetry, photography and art for inclusion in the 2010 edition. Submissions are open to artists, authors, poets, photographers or designers of any age.

Visit www.uwyo.edu/studentpub/owr for detailed submission requirements and contact information. All submissions, regardless of media, must be unpublished, original works and may not be simultaneously submitted elsewhere. Submission deadline is February 15, 2010.

University students published OWR’s first edition in 1978 with the goal of producing a magazine “the magazine reflected the talents of writers and artists in our community, recognizing them in the great tradition of Western literature and art.”

Named after Owen Wister, who set the first modern western novel, The Virginian, in the town of Medicine Bow, the review’s focus remains on the western experience interpreted by western people, but all writers and artists are invited to contribute their visions and stories.

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The National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Winter Carnival Quick Draw takes place Thursday, January 28, 5:30-7:30 pm.   Proceeds from the 1-hour paint-in and auction benefit NMWA’s educational programs.

This year’s Quick Draw will include more than a dozen artists, including four young up-and-comers from Jackson Hole high schools.  $10 admission for members, $15 for non-members, and children under 18 are free.   Get your “Chilly Bar, and some short beers, courtesy Snake River Brewing. Gessler gets tall ones, and so does McHuron.  Not sure why….Website: www.wildlifeart.org.  Phone: 307.733.5771

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!

The first part of this series (planned as two parts, it is now a three-part) touched upon landscape designer Walter Hood’s cursory views on Jackson’s approach to its own landscape. This second installment addresses Hood’s vision for a new NMWA sculpture garden and connective earth design.

“It is not the stuff you have. It is the stuff you no longer have. A lot of planning is too much about “what we need” v.s. “what we have.” In a reciprocal way, planning should be about the things that connect us-how to connect us. That makes us special.” – Walter Hood

Walter Hood has travelled to Jackson Hole to consult with the National Museum of Wildlife Art (NMWA). In a recent edition of NMWA’s member publication Call of the Wild, Hood described the beginnings of his collaboration with NMWA that will, ideally, result in a new museum sculpture garden.

It’s not as if Hood’s work to date has included an ongoing interest in wildlife museums, but the environment and how people use it drive his work on the project. Process and progress, inspiration ignited by how people choose to make “place.” On a certain level, he says, it’s all the same, whether one is talking about a sculpture garden or an entire community.

“The museum is interesting in that there are these cultural artifices, pieces of art, that are trying to represent nature,” says Hood. It’s a bit ironic that bronze elk are stationed at the base of the Museum’s driveway right across from the Elk Refuge; the installation seems an attempt to convince the public that there is a connection between NMWA and the Refuge.

“If the landscape itself was powerful enough it could move people in fantastic ways. That is what I am interested in. Standing out on NMWA’s hill, is there a way to allow a visitor to be in the Refuge? It is possible. NMWA’s architecture builds on the idea that it is “with the landscape,” and ironically that is one of the issues they are dealing with.”

Hood believes he could scale and shift existing landscape, so that art as well as the landscape is legible. “Attempt to eliminate design dichotomy, the experience of being either here, or there – either at the museum or in the landscape; either in Jackson or in the landscape.”

Check out parking lot ratios to the buildings they serve, suggests Hood. Looking at the Museum’s site, the parking lot stretches incredibly far, perhaps taking more space than the building itself. Part of the lot might be converted to trail, and a pervious surface is healthier for surrounding growth than asphalt, an oil-based material.

Rarely filled, and within a couple of miles of town, a reduced parking lot would be no problem if more mass transit options existed. “You don’t even want to know what asphalt is doing the environment; pervious surfaces would change our world drastically.”

Will NMWA pursue traditional design for its sculpture garden? Hood thinks both representational and contemporary design will be utilized.

“As a designer I have my own preferences, but when I do work I accept that scope,” he affirms. “What they are interested is figurative art with a long tradition, pre-Renaissance. But they had a show last year with Picasso and other contemporary artists rendering wildlife. Fantastic! Jane (Jane Lavino, NMWA’s Sugden Family Curator of Education) talked about the possibility of having contemporary installation in the landscape that would talk about wildlife in very different ways. I think then the project becomes broader in scope.

It is not about placing things; it is about creating more of a visitor experience where you can have permanent and temporary pieces co-interacting in the setting. Helping people make discoveries without bringing in the artificial. We have some strong ideas on how that might be achieved. It is my job to provoke. NMWA has the ability to create amazing indoor and outdoor experiences, and those are what museums are about today. It could be fabulous!”

It’s all already there. It’s only a question of how to make it visible.