Posts Tagged ‘Travis Walker’
Jackson Needs a United Arts Nation
Shattering news for the Art Association that its most recent executive director, Nick Van Hevelingen, has walked. When an organization of the size and complexity of the Art Association—still the Center for the Arts’ most significant tenant in terms of square footage—loses two new executive directors in such short order, it’s safe to assume internal conflict exists. Unfortunately, the Art Association isn’t the only local non-profit grappling with leadership and staffing issues.
My first impression of Van Hevelingen was that he was a natty dresser. Pressed and sharp, his business experience and pedigrees surely impressed board members. I was impressed. My first conversation with Van Hevelingen was surprising, because he openly discussed his frustrations. Pacing the room, he fiddled with connections and hook-ups on his computer. He produced a folder thick as a New York City phone book; that folder was full of research and plans to restore Glenwood Street’s Western Motel. The idea was to renovate the hotel’s single floor annex, clean up the hotel rooms and facilities and turn the building into artists
studios. I and a friend had come to talk about the Art Association becoming the anchor group for a public-art-in-store-windows initiative. He liked the idea, and said that insuring such a project would be relatively easy, but that he and staff would not be able to do the footwork of canvassing Town Square commercial real estate owners. Fair enough.
Travis Walker compiled the research in that folder. The Western Hotel project never happened, for the reason most projects-in-waiting don’t happen. No money. It seems Van Hevelingen hoped funding would come from a source other than the Art Association; the emperor had no clothes. Walker’s group backed off. Too bad, because reviving that space and bringing artists back downtown would help connect the Center for the Arts to Jackson’s Town Center. Visitors would be able to see artists as they worked. And those visitors would walk across the street to the Center and experience the Art Association’s superb gallery space and exhibitions.
It’s curious that despite strong suggestions from Jackson’s most prominent industry consultants that local non-profits consider consolidating, almost nobody has done it. Why?
The answer can only be ego. And it’s so past time to get over that.
Until our economy improves, non-profits should actively look for ways to hook up to solve common issues. Walker’s Factory Studios now provides affordable space for a large number of Jackson’s contemporary artists. But there is high demand for more space. Wouldn’t the ideal be to have those artists back downtown, making art that could be displayed in town? We should think of Jackson’s cultural health as a whole, not as individual entities fighting for dominance. The Art Association has traditionally been Jackson’s power contemporary arts hub. Many young artists got their start there. That’s changing, much as the world’s economic balance has changed.
Let’s think globally, locally. Our non-profits are countries whose fortunes are changing; creative groups barely on the map a few years ago now provide sustainable solutions and venues. Until recently, Germany‘s economy was troubled. Now the country is an economic model and much of the world would love to use its credit cards.
At September’s United Nations General Assembly, driven by national political agendas, the United States attempted to block a Palestine bid to gain U.N. membership. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, an underdog on the world stage, forcefully broke with the Obama administration and proposed a compromise: enhance Palestine’s status to that of an observer state.
“This would be an important step forward,” Sarkozy said. “Most important, it would mean emerging from a state of immobility that favors only the extremists.”
It’s not the size of your sign anymore; it’s innovation that counts. You may be an activist non-profit; you may be a “get it on the ground” organization. If you share a “big picture” cause with other groups, don’t isolate; seek strength by finding ways to come together.
The information below was written last Wednesday—but I was subsequently asked to push back the release of the post; hence all the references to events last week. Bottom line: Teton Art Lab is back in Jackson Town.
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Briefly: You might have seen Travis Walker walking around, and he’s walking around because Teton Art Lab will end up moving into a studio space at Jackson Hole Center for the Arts. This happens soon. No details yet.
Walker plans to attend Rocky Vertone’s Friday night opening of his new gallery space, located at Full Circle Frameworks, North Glenwood. 5:30 start time. Come and get your scoop! Rocky has not responded to my fears that the Associated Press may come raid the party; the news service ‘retained’ a certain HOPE artist behind bars, just yesterday.
More publicity! All publicity is good. It all makes for good chat material tomorrow evening, and beyond. Welcome back, Travis! Kudos to the Center for incorporating new tenants, and strengthening our arts community resources. One for all!
End.
Jackson Hole artist and Teton Art Lab gallery owner Travis Walker will host what will be the shop’s last opening, this Friday evening, December 5, 6-8:00 p.m. The gallery, converted to non-profit status with a mission to exhibit and nurture emerging contemporary artists, recently completed all the paperwork necessary to convert to non-profit, only to learn that crucial funding will likely no longer be available after year’s end.
“Wallpaper,” a show featuring the works of over 30 artists–many recruited by sculptor Abby Miller–will showcase unframed, affordable art imported from New York City and other east coast locations, as well as work by local artists. The works will literally paper the walls, and the evening presents a rare opportunity to see and purchase works by artists exposed to the most innovative trends and techniques.
Walker’s exhibitions are beautiful and edgy…he explores every opportunity to support and grow new Jackson Hole art traditions; he’s an arts pioneer for today.
“We need to regroup and downsize,” says Walker, who has financed the gallery with his own savings, and that of his wife. When she lost her job and benefits, the couple worried. Now, their web design jobs are evaporating; with additional funding losses looming, the couple may be looking to move to a larger urban venue where graphics work is still relatively plentiful.
“Everything we’ve worked for over the past five years disappeared,” says Walker. “But I couldn’t ask more of Jackson Hole than I’ve been given. It’s been amazing on so many levels.”
A fractured economy and a dearth of alternate venues threaten Teton Art Lab’s future. But, as Walker says, “Take time to look around and you will see some very special work.”
The following is a forward I wrote for Walker’s summer exhibition “Views of Jackson.” This essay is not just about Walker’s work; it’s also about the Western spirit we value, the spirit that brings us here. I hope you read this, and I hope you pay a visit to the gallery. Located at 135 N. Cache, it’s next to Teton Thai. 307-699-0836. – Tammy Christel
Travis Walker’s Long Look
“Everywhere I’ve ever been, my art has been about that place. I remember most powerfully the places I’ve painted and drawn. The act of recording them makes me remember.” – Travis Walker
Stories of the frontier spirit’s death are premature. Alive in our contemporary art movement, it brings Jackson’s transient arts subculture to new creative levels. If and when artists leave, they take away inspiration drawn from western space and consciousness.
“Views of Jackson” is painter Travis Walker’s plain and simple title for a collection mining deep emotional turf. A child of the military, Walker is well acquainted with transience. As a result, he recognizes that just as the first settlers ventured into unfamiliar territory, Jackson’s new artists drop all trepidation. The east coast’s cultural cacophony is silenced, and a singular natural process takes over.
Walker is a satellite, zooming in and out of our landscapes, freezing vast spaces and solitary formations. We’re light years away from a moment just captured. Flaxen parachutes float forever. Still, purple evening shadows never give way to night. These landscapes are our ideal; they’re uninhabited, but histories are embedded. Deserted cabins hold the energy and sadness of generations. Blank windows and headlights, eyes of the universe. Beneath Walker’s surfaces is an extraterrestrial glow he never quite paints down, a light peeking out from behind closed doors.
“I want my paintings to be like windows, points of light that brighten a room,” he says.
Trailers are Walker’s most current symbol of the transient west. Manifestations of contradictory words, “mobile” and “home,” trailers epitomized the American dream. Paraphrasing writer Bruce Caron, Walker notes it is difficult to travel more than five miles in the west without seeing trailers. They’re everywhere. Where did they come from, seemingly plopped down from nowhere? Built for transit but stuck to the earth, these bodies are hunkered down like hermit crabs.
“Now trailers are extra sleeping space and repositories for junk,” says Walker. “They represent paradise lost, the decayed American ideal value. We’ve come back to earth as a society; we put our faults on display on reality television.”
Walker believes small town dialog is stronger than that of a large city.
“The benefits outweigh childish tendencies to avoid someone because you’ve had an argument. I’ll take the exchange of ideas—we’re all tapping from the same well, this western idea of space and color. Our art is unique; you won’t find work like it anywhere else unless it’s in a European context or another mountain town. Take time to look around, and you will see some very special work.”
In the end, inspiration is everywhere, even in trailers. “I paint them for the same reason I paint other things,” says Walker. “I think they are beautiful.”
Tammy Christel
July, 2008