Posts Tagged ‘Yellowstone’
Chicago, Chicago—-That city plans to bump up its international arts scene by repeating its successful “Gallery Weekend Chicago” this fall. The event is a compact arts festival, targeted to attract the nation’s highest end art collectors and curators to the city, and expose them in a very pointed way to the best of Chicago’s trending art. Here’s what “Gallery Weekend Chicago” is all about…..
A dozen of Chicago’s best contemporary art galleries participate. Visiting curators and collectors are chauffered to each of the galleries and museums for private tours; tours are led by Chicago’s own curators and arts specialists–arts historians, I would hope, and museum directors. Reservations at the city’s finest restaurants are secured, special menus planned. Private VIP parties happen. Chicago’s own prominent collectors help guide the process, mingle with the weekend’s guests, and sing the praises of local arts.
Chicago throws in a private boat tour. Jackson Hole’s version might arrange a series of educational expeditions into Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park, and other regions. Jackson Hole’s exclusive dude ranches and collectors could open their doors. Eco-tours, river floats…you get the picture. Chicago has an official hotel for their event; we have so many great lodges that we might be able to rotate them annually. And why stop here? Let’s reach out to our friends in Cody~~~the Buffalo Bill Historical Museum, Simpson-Gallagher Gallery and other arts specialists would be partners. Schedule artists’ studio tours, arrange pack trips. Dubois is pretty cool!
I hope Spring Break is being good to everyone here in Jackson Hole!
As noted in a previous post, this summer Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) plays host to the Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters (RMPAP); the nationally acclaimed group arrives in the Park to paint July 1 – 12th. July 13-15, a fine art show and sale, benefitting GTNP, will be held at the Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitors Center in Moose, Wyoming. A gala opening reception takes place there on Friday, July 13, at 7:00 pm. Thursday, July 12, artists will participate in a Quick Draw, 4:00 – 6:00 pm. Please note: Quick Draw paintings will be included for sale in the show at the artist’s discretion. There will NOT be a sale or silent auction following the Quick Draw. The show concludes Sunday, July 15th, at 4:00 pm.
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.
