July 15-22, check out the bold, illustrative paintings of Jeff Ham at Mountain Trails Gallery.
Last summer’s personal statement on Native American history will be replaced (I believe) with more celebratory Western imagery. As has been noted, Ham’s color and composition spring from a background in illustration.
“I do my best to translate emotion and feelings into color and communicate my individual interpretation of each subject,” he explained. ”My goal is to capture spontaneity. As an artist I am learning to express myself in an honest and straightforward manner.”
I’m still loving the memory of Jeff Ham’s large scale works, his O’Keeffe and Warhol portraits; they once hung in the J.H. Center for the Arts Theater Lobby, and may still be there.
Email: [email protected]
Item #2:
“I paint with passion, risk and abbreviated images instead of capturing realism. Set against transit texture and vivid color, images and figures cannot be situated in reality. These painterly expressions challenge our emotions and communicate with our sense of mystery. Mystery is a part of life. Not everything is easily explainable.” – Rocky Hawkins
Rocky Hawkins: Lost At Last, is the new show at Altamira Fine Art. A reception will be held at the gallery July 15, 5-7:00 pm.
What can’t be ignored in Montana artist Rocky Hawkins’ work is the ghostly quality of his portraits. Conversely, there is a direct confirmation his Native American subjects demand of viewers. Confirmation of existence transmitted by apparitions. Thirty-six expressionistic paintings make up the artist’s roster of images on the Altamira gallery site. All are potent, highly vigorous compositions — an approaching army of ancestry and imminent spirits.
Hawkins is a brave artist, true to his own inspiration. His work sells, appealing to a cache of sophisticated collectors of contemporary Western art. Inspired in part by Terpning, Hawkins’ works are painterly anti-war messages conveyed through portraits of a culture that fought for its right to exist.
And isn’t a break with “the rules” what we often search out for in great art? Gallery director Mark Tarrant has said that Hawkins’ work
recalls “the primitivism that Gaugin sought, and pays little attention to the classical use of perspective and color.” To my eye, his work recalls Gaugin’s breakout character combined with Jackson Pollock’s rhythmic use of paint….there may be homage to Motherwell’s sweeping black forms.
Lost At Last (if you meet Hawkins, ask him about the meaning behind the title of this show; then get back to me, please!) remains on display through August 4th. www.altamiraart.com.
Item #3:
Jackson Hole Art Fair Rap Revisited!
(July 16-18 Miller Park 10am-6pm; 10 am-4pm Sunday. www.artassociation.org )
Hey, it’s July, so it’s time to share / ‘Bout that annual gig, the Jackson Hole Art Fair! / “Art Fair Jackson Hole” it prefers to be called / Nobody asked me. I’m not involved.
Hey man, don’t be bored! / Sometimes Harrison Ford / Comes to check out the art / And he brings Flockhart. (If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it!)
Buy ceramics, toys, fibers–/ This poem’s the town crier / For Art Fair Weekend / Come rain or come shine-er. / Paintings, baskets, jewels, tents / Sunscreen and some fivers / All make for a day / The whole family could die for!
See the Fair. Have Fun. This rap is all done.
Item #4:
Hammock painting helpers needed! July 15, beginning 5:00 pm, convene at the Multipurpose Ceramics Studio at the Center for the Arts. Help paint 2,000 feet of hammock that will be used as part of Sunday, July 25th’s Vertical Orchestra concert at the Teewinot lift ( I am enough of a non-skier to not even know if that lift is at Snow King or Teton Village. But I bet you will know, dear readers!)
If you help paint, you’ll go home with a free hammock. Bring along any unused paint you might have handy, but most importantly, bring yourself. You can also sign up to volunteer the day of the concert. Questions: Bland Hoke, 307.690.0097.
Tammy Christel 
