Posts Tagged ‘Yellowstone’
What’s Our Economy?; Rocks Art
Recently, a Jackson economics summit/conference/brainstorming session took place. I’ve now had a chance to read some reviews of that gathering–how accurate they are I can’t say, because I didn’t attend. From time to time, I have my own little economic tutorials with friends and mentors.
Jackson Hole has always been a seasonal economy. We’re a tourist destination because our region is so astoundingly beautiful, is adjacent to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, is “Western,” has a great and growing arts sector, and when the snow falls skiers go nuts to come here. Until a few years ago, the lion’s share of full time jobs in Jackson were related to the construction and real estate industries. One of my mentors points out that real estate and construction don’t really create economic growth or wealth; they are the residuals of wealth creation. And yes, those are good jobs for Jackson, and it feels like the market will re-shape and rebound to a certain extent (see the Hole Report)—but smart money won’t rely on construction to sustain Jackson’s future. It’s millionaires and billionaires with fortunes built elsewhere who have erected big houses, supplying jobs for architects, landscapers, construction companies and real estate agents. And, we’re a tax shelter. They’ve also supported many of our critical non-profits.
Last spring Jackson photographer David Brookover unveiled what is sure to become one of his signature photographs, an iconic bromoil of a bison. Now, on the eve of Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival 2011, Brookover is introducing seven new platinum palladium prints. Traditionally, Brookover has favored landscapes and ancient architecture. For over a year he’s been shooting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s indigenous wildlife and Park habitats, redefining nature photography.
The downstairs of Brookover’s Jackson gallery has been transformed into a visitors’ sanctum. “It’s a meditative space,” Brookover says. “People come down and spend 30, 45 minutes. It’s calm; upstairs has more bustle, with the activity of Gaslight Alley and Town Square just outside. On the lower level it’s cool and quiet. When folks discover these images they want to remain with the photographs.”
Brookover’s wildlife images are crafted using traditional, ancient methods and materials. Japanese printing papers are made as they were in the 1st century. These fabrics enhance Brookover’s sophisticated, minimalist compositions, resulting in a thoroughly refreshed wildlife photography style.
Brookover talked about his bromoil process.
“It starts with silver gelatin; you strip away the silver and you’re left with a matrix of gelatin and paper. “You ‘go in’ with lithographic
pure inks. Using a special Japanese brush I tap it, brush it, work it for about an hour. I let the image set overnight, throw it in water, wipe off excess ink, and then repeat that sequence…for four more days. And usually, after four days, I’m not satisfied! So we play with different exposures, work on the negative, and I think about how to apply ink once as I get further along. We started on the Buffalo bromoil a few days before Superbowl Sunday and finished it April 15—over two months to get it right. It’s a challenge for printers! But we got it.”
A bromoil image of the Great Wall of China’s has striking perspective, its solidity and details palpable. Brookover creates thick atmosphere using a brush and a density of inks to build up shadows and enhance texture. “When silver gelatin papers were developed, they were popular because it was so much easier than bromoil,” notes Brookover. “But I love the process; there’s a certain masculinity to it.”
A photograph of Yellowstone’s Firehole River is as mystic as a sacred shrine. In another shot, two young great horned owls nestle in a cottonwood’s gnarled, sheltering trunk. “Silent Storm” is a hauntingly beautiful image of a Yellowstone bison bearing up under heavy winter snows. The animal is enveloped in hot spring mists.
Fans of Grand Teton National Park’s Bears 399 and 610 will want to see Brookover’s series of photographs of those two bears and their cubs. Like pages from a private ancestral album, the platinums portray touching family moments. The series is intimate, playful, and timeless. On a wall nearby, a wolf appears to be walking across the surface of the Madison River’s glittering waters.
“These platinums and bromoils are a team effort,” says Brookover. “We love exploring historical processes. That’s where we’ve been, and that’s where we’re going.”
I recommend stopping in to see David Brookover’s new platinum and bromoil images during Fall Arts Festival. Palates & Palettes night, the gallery will raise funds to benefit the Teton Raptor Center; Raptor Center avian “residents” will be on hand. For more information, phone 307.732.3988. Brookover will launch his new website this week! Stay tuned! www.brookovergallery.com
Marshall Noice’s paintings, wildly and emotionally vibrant, link contemporary Western art to early 20th century Fauvism. Those artists were known as “Les Fauves,” or “Wild Beasts.”
This I knew. But I’m finding out new and very cool things about Montana-based Expressionist painter Marshall Noice, whose new show of works Shadows & Light, opens at Altamira Fine Art on August 16, 2011. The show runs through August 30, 2011 and and opening reception will be held Thursday, August 18, 5-8:00 pm.
If you have an aptitude for rhythm memory and a fine sense of pitch, you may very well also be an excellent photographer or painter. Noice’s creative path includes music, photography and, most successfully, painting. In a former life he was a drummer, touring and opening for acts as big as the Allman Brothers Band, Cheap Trick, and Tower of Power. Eventually Noice quit the road, moved to Montana and discovered the great photography of Paul Strand, Edward Weston, and Ansel Adams.
Noice the photographer came upon the paintings of fellow Montanan Theodore Waddell. Riveted, Noice c0mmenced 100 paintings of Blackfeet artifacts. “After those 100 paintings, I’d found what I was looking for in terms of an art process,” Noice says. “Color doesn’t trump composition in my work. They’re pretty much on equal footing….I have spent a lifetime relating to the landscape in one way or another…I get direct inspiration from being in nature.”
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Jackson Hole artist Jennifer L. Hoffman opens her new show of works, Intrinsic Nature, at Trio Fine Art on Thursday, August 17, 2011. The show runs through September 3, 2011, and an artist’s reception takes place at Trio on Thursday, August 18th, 5-8:00 pm. Twenty-four new works will be included; most are pastels but Hoffman plans to include oil paintings and at least one drawing.
Hoffman says she’s never felt such energy for exploration and pushing her artistic envelope. Noted forher soft, tonalist light and muted palette, Hoffman’s paintings evoke real emotion. This show embraces the artist’s love and examination of “close-in” places: aspen trunks, winding streams and channels, ridgelines, snow and her exquisite, cloud-soft skies.
Nobody does Wyoming sky like Hoffman. Violet cumulus clouds reflect purple winter mountains and
bare trees. She’s a lover of shadow, of rubbing nature’s elements together, rich with texture, spare of detail. A delicate, misty scrim floats over Hoffman’s landscapes.
“Sometimes I find myself noodling around, adding branches and twigs, putting in more and more,” Hoffman notes. “The next day, I come back to the studio and wipe it all back down. It’s not always easy to make things say a lot simply, but that is what I find I want in my paintings. That is what the title of my show is about – trying to extract the essential inspiration from all the detail of nature, and of life….The more I paint, the more I want to paint.”
A final note: Hoffman’s landscapes are part of New York’s Salmagundi 34th Annual Juried Painting & Sculpture Exhibition, featuring works by non-members. View her work there through August 19, 2011. Congrats, Jen! www.triofineart.com
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Cayuse Western Americana “has assembled a fun assortment of maps from Jackson Hole, Grand Teton Park, Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and more.” Artists include Jo Mora, Jolly Lingren and Tom Carrigen. Western jeweler Dawn Bryfogle will be there, too; she’s expanded her range and plans to show big pieces, made of sterling, 14K gold fill and semi precious stones, all with her signature attention to detail.
Stop in to Cayuse (guess when?) Thursday, August 18th, 5-8:00 pm. 307.739.1940 www.cayusewa.com.
Jackson photographer Jeff Diener will teach a Fall Photo Workshop in Grand Teton National Park, September 28-October 2, 2011.
“We’ll be using the best light of the day, sunrises and sunsets, and visit some great, and lesser known locations,” notes Diener. “I’ve been exploring and shooting in GTNP for the past 15 yrs. We’ll help participants get comfortable adjusting to changing conditions and sites and create dramatic high-end images. Location scouting, assessing locations and weather, helping participants get to know their cameras, practice with functions and new techniques will be covered. We’ll also spend time each day discussing post-processing computer workflow.” Cost is $875 per person.
Wild West Photos will sponsor the workshop–check the agency’s website here. Contact Diener for more information. 307-734-4450 jeff@jeffdiener.com
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The Jackson Hole Historical Society offers free children’s art classes for kids in grades 1-4, Tuesday mornings, 9:30-11:00 a.m., during 
August. Classes will include storytelling, museum exploring, craft making, and the all important snack. Class sizes are limited to 15 children. Here’s the calendar:
August 2: “Pots, Paper, and Pouches” has fun with stories of Indians, explorers, and settlers. Build a fort and make pemmican to carry in your own handmade pouch.
August 9: ”Rod, Reel, and Rifle” explores the important roles that hunting and fishing activities have had in the valley. Includes storytelling, the creation of a “story” hide and a hanging three-dimensional fish.
August 16: “Awe Inspiring Art” discovers the role of artists and photographers in preserving the beauty of Jackson Hole. Includes storytelling, plein air painting, cookie decorating activities and more.
August 23: “Laughs and Lariats” explores the questions “Does the cowboy wear his tools?” and “Does a rodeo have clowns?” Kids make their own chaps and ride into history with a real cowboy to discover the answers.
For more information, contact Mindy Barnett at 307.733.9605. jhhsmeducation@wyom.net
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Wyoming Gallery, upstairs at Jack Dennis Sports, holds an artists’ reception for Derek DeYoung, Jeff Currier and Jim Berkenfield on Friday, August 5, 4-7:30 pm.
Berkenfield says he has been fly fishing for eighteen years and guiding in the Greater Yellowstone area for the past twelve. “I have continuously photographed my fishing exploits,” he says. “I have recently begun to focus on new perspectives of trout…fish in hand, and during the moments of release.”
Currier’s work is published in fly fishing magazines, catalogs, brochures, and books. He is the author of Currier’s Quick and Easy
Guide to Saltwater Fly Fishing and Currier’s Quick and Easy Guide to Warmwater Fly Fishing guide books.
DeYoung’s work has “veered off from the traditional fish illustration style.” His contemporary paintings focus on style and color rather than rendering realistic images of fish.
The store and gallery are noted fortheir fly fishing equipment, guiding and expertise. A.D. Maddox also calls Wyoming Gallery home. www.jdwyominggallery.com 307.733.7548.
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What is this? That’s what my Facebook friend Steve Mooney (SVP, Jack Morton Global Brand Experience!) would ask.
Answer is, it’s a detail (I think!) of one of two walls, each displaying 40 fused glass bricks. The wall is part of the new Home Ranch project, and will be designed and created by Jackson glass artist (and Facebook friend!) John Frechette. The shuffled, stacked stained glass resembles bison and grizzly DNA.
What do you say to that, Facebook friend “Grizzly 399?”
The Grand Teton Association’s Artists in the Environment series continues when Idaho-based artist Greta Gretzinger paints en plein air at Mormon Row, Grand Teton National Park, on Saturday, July 9, 2-5:00 pm. The event is free, and open to the public.
Greta Gretzinger is known for her large scale murals depicting wilderness landscapes and wildlife. She has painted in Jackson Hole and Idaho for more than 18 years, and is one of the area’s most beloved artists. Gretzinger’s lively and illustrative portraits of Western life appear in public spaces and local parks
across Idaho and Teton County. Gretzinger relishes painting on non-traditional surfaces. Trailers, garage doors, automobiles, and many an exterior wall have found new life as a result of her whimsical creativity. Gretzinger’s work leaves everyone smiling; her style is unmistakable. Incorporating a gentle joke and local personalities into her paintings is a hallmark.
“I particularly like to add a twist on traditional themes and subjects,” says the artist. Gretzinger’s “twists” are sparkling threads of color woven into Jackson’s fabric. Her vivid, celebratory murals adorn a variety of landmarks; many of her fans consider Gretzinger’s alley-length landscape mural behind Jackson’s Sundance Inn her masterpiece.
“I want to do a painting of Mormon Row as being populated by wildlife pioneers and homesteaders. The location is real, but the figures will be whimsical. I can’t wait! This demonstration will be lots of fun,” says Gretzinger.
“Artists in the Environment” is funded by the Grand Teton Association, an organization whose purpose is to promote appreciation, understanding and enjoyment of the Grand Teton National Park and the Greater Yellowstone Area. Free to all, viewers are invited to bring a chair and a snack; those who would like to are welcome to paint alongside the artist. Look for the “Artist Demonstration” banner!
Upcoming “Artists in the Environment” dates:
- Scott Christensen paints at The Cathedral Group on August 13, 2011
- Erin C. O’Connor paints at String Lake on September 10, 2011.
For more information, contact me, Tammy Christel, via email: tammy@jacksonholearttours.com. http://www.grandtetonpark.org
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September Vhay’s new collection of paintings, Alacrity, opens with an artist’s reception at Trio Fine Art on July 7th, 5 – 8:00 pm. Vhay will speak about the work 6:30-7:00 pm, and the exhibition remains on display through July 23,2011. Paintings and sketches are included in this show, and subject matter includes Georgia O’Keeffe inspired paintings and studies of orchids. And might Lee Carlman Riddell’s hummingbird studies have inspired Vhay’s own sketches of those zipping, capitvating birds? Look through her on-line sketchbook and you will see Vhay’s renderings of horses, orchids, dogs, otters, hummingbirds and more.
Trio Fine Art: 307.734.4444
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Factory Studios Open House Alert: The public is invited to an evening of art and music at Factory Headquarters, down on Gregory Lane. July 8 is the date, and the time is 6-9:00 pm. Good music by the Deadlocks, good mingling–hang out and meet Factory artist residents Abbie Miller, Aaron Wallis, Tony Birkholz, Peggy Prugh, Mark and Wade Dunstan, Camille Davis, XOWYO, Alissa Davies, and David Gonzalez (TreeFight!).
Jenny Meyer and other artists will exhibit work in the main gallery. Barring major rain delays Wimbleton will be over, but the Factory says attendees have the chance to play a little Wimbleton-style ping pong. Facebook Event page here.