Legacy, Galleries West & Altamira Openings; Creativity Award Winners
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
The Legacy Gallery hosts a two-man show for Western artists James Ayers and Jason Rich this month. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, August 6, at the gallery, 75 N. Cache, on the Jackson Town Square southwest corner. Both artists will be present.
Ayers, a Rhode Island School of Design grad, is noted for his portraits of Indians. (John Byrne Cooke almost decapitated me for using the term “Native American,” a term, according to Cooke, coined by wrong-headed white men.) His travels and observations of Iroquois, Sioux and Hopi inform his works, oil paintings on canvas. I’ve read that he’s influenced by a diverse group of great masters: John Singer Sargent, Gauguin, Klimt, and Henry Tanner. That list encompasses myriad uses of light and paint; the latter artist’s painting style alone varied extensively over the course of his career.
Jason Rich also chronicles the Western life, but with a focus on cowboys and their 
horses. Imbued with an illustrative golden light, Rich’s landscape-cowboy-horse portraits capture ranch life and individual moments of reflection, traversing the plains, resting the herd creekside, riding the range under endless skies fluffed by cumulous clouds. His love of ranch life springs from his own childhood on a Utah farm.
For additional information contact Legacy Gallery at 307-733-2353 or maya@legacygallery.com.
Item #2 : O’Connor at Galleries West
E.C. O’Connor’s solo exhibition, “Willing: Saying Yes to the Road Less Traveled,” is featured at Galleries West, August 6-19. The show highlights O’Connor’s productive Joshua Tree National Park residency, as well as landscapes painted in the Greater Yellowstone region.
Talented Jackson Hole artists of all ilk often go about their day-to-day lives unnoticed. O’Connor is one: she waits tables at Nora’s, landscapes, and does her fair share of outreach work in and around the valley. But, as has previous posts have reported, O’Connor is an accomplished landscape painter recently awarded the coveted Joshua Tree residency. At Joshua Tree, the artist created many new works–one painting will become a permanent part of that park’s collection.
“Many people perceive undeveloped areas as valueless and inhospitable,” says O’Connor. “In no place is this more true than in our nation’s deserts. My goal is to show the inherent beauty within a very harsh environment.”
She is a passionate on-location painter; no painting from photographs for her. As McHuron likes to do, O’Connor paints the “wow.” Her light recalls that of such master painters as Maynard Dixon, E. Martin Hennings and Edgar Payne.
An artist’s reception happens August 6, 5-8 PM. O’Connor will be in attendance–yay, I finally get to meet her!–and hors d’oeuvres, wine, beer, and the gallery’s hallmark chocolate fountain will be available. Call the gallery at 307-733-4412 or visit www.gallerieswestjacksonhole.com.
Galleries West twitters. You can also follow the gallery on Twitter (www.twitter.com/gallerieswest) and their page on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/gallerieswest).
Item #3
Mary Roberson opens her new show, Nature is the Life of the Dream, at Altamira Fine Art on Thursday, August 6. A reception will be held 5:00-7:00 pm. More on this exhibit in my next post, but don’t miss what promises to be a good kickoff for a special show. connect@altamiraart.com.
Item#4
Jackson Hole Center for the Arts’ founder John Tozzi and Center resident Dancers Workshop Artistic Director Babs Case are 2009’s Winners of the Award for Creativity.
Case’s 11-year devotion to Dancers’ Workshop has transformed a small, back-office company into a state-of-the-art outfit. DW provides dance classes and performances for all ages, all tastes; its electric current and constant vivacity are one of Jackson’s main creative arteries. It’s all due to Case, who, in addition to her dancing and directing, is an accomplished visual artist. It could be said that Case ignited finding new venues for artists not able to appear in galleries, with her popular summer “Harpo’s Art Fair,” a day-long fun arts n’ picnic in Bab’s back yard. Fun like Alice’s Wonderland fun. Jodeen Tebay beautifully writes, “while dance is what brought Babs to the community, space is her true passion. On the stage, on paper, in textiles, in architecture, and in life she sees and creates beautiful compositions of space.”
Nobody deserves this award more than Babs Case. Congratulations, Babs!
Congratulations to, to co-winner John Tozzi, without whom Jackson would not have the magnificent Jackson arts hub, the Center for the Arts. Said Bruce Hawtin, “It is at times difficult to be creative and make a living. Because of John, the arts, all of the arts in Jackson Hole, have a home; therefore they have a place to be creative. That doesn’t spell success but it removes one of the obstacles.”
The Cultural Council of Jackson Hole invites everyone to attend the 15th Annual Award for Creativity Celebration on Thursday, September 10 from 5 – 6:30 p.m. at Dancers’ Workshop’s Studio 1 in the Center for the Arts. 2009 recipients will be presented with awards made by a local artist. This year’s artist is Laurie Thal.
It’s all about the light. Landscape painter and pastel artist 
subdued values of rainy and foggy days. I’m much more interested in the subtleties of a scene than in big contrasts. I am equally interested in communicating the internal and external in my work. I think subject, composition, and palette are often more reflective of my internal state than the physical environment. Creating a work of art is, for me, a transcendent experience,” says the artist.
Landscape painter
pressure for industrial development on public lands. “Many people perceive undeveloped areas as valueless and inhospitable. In no place is this more true than our nation’s deserts. I’ve seen gorgeous, untouched expanses lost due to simple apathy in the public comment process. Art has the power to reawaken our perception of these places – even for those folks who’ll never venture past the pavement, art can make all the difference in inspiring preservation. By portraying the unique fragility and strength of a seemingly forbidding environment, I hope my paintings can make an impact on behalf of our desert lands across the West.”