Turner’s Wyoming Ode; Eclipse Me; Art Lab Shirt Show!

“The appreciation we all share for its undeniable beauty is a common thread. I hope to create paintings that tap into this shared connection, this oneness.” ~ Kathryn Mapes Turner

While she takes part in the 6th Annual “Plein Air for the Park,” Kathryn Mapes Turner is also preparing for her summer exhibition, “My Ode to Wyoming.” On exhibition at Trio Fine Art July 19 – August 5th, “Ode to Wyoming” opens with an artist’s reception on Thursday, July 20th, 5-8:00 pm.

Paintings of sandhill cranes, which one often connects more with Florida and other shoreline locales, make up much of Turner’s oeuvre these days. That being said, paintings from this show are being kept under wraps, and at post time we may not have the exhibit’s latest images. If you’re not from Jackson, you may be surprised to learn that sandhill cranes live in Jackson, Wyoming, too. It’s their dancing and courtship habits Turner seems drawn to, and the paintings strike a chord with her audience. She also re-visits other beloved subject matter, portraying wildlife and the habitat the animals call home.

Turner’s painting has become light and translucent. Many of the works feel like studies; often studies are more alive to the viewer than overworked final pieces. The elusive qualities of wildlife, the transitory truth of life and light, the moments something is within our view; then, suddenly, it’s gone. An apparation. Her paintings are, she feels, visual poems, odes to the place she calls home.

“I am honored and humbled to spend my days painting the magnificence of this valley,” she writes. “The appreciation we all share for its undeniable beauty is a common thread. I hope to create paintings that tap into this shared connection, this oneness.”

In conjunction with her show, Turner is hosting “My Ode To Wyoming Open Mike Night,” a chance for writers, musicians and all artists to sing the praises of the state we love. We’re a state of mind as well as a big square state! Details can be found on the event’s Facebook page. Whoop! www.triofineart.com 

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Fade to Black!

“Using the eclipse as a metaphor, the team aims to illuminate aspects of Jackson Hole as representative as “the last of the old west”. The constituent forms and images which create the illusion of the “West” often obfuscate that which they purport to represent. “Observatories” will offer viewers new ways of interpreting the past and present from which to consider the future of this community and its context.”

That’s the description for a series of art talks and projects scheduled to happen at Jackson Hole’s Center for the Arts over the coming weeks. It all leads up to the ECLIPSE, of course. Unless you live under a rock (and if you are a marmot, you might!) you, and seemingly the rest of the world, know that Jackson Hole lies smack in the middle of the 2017’s solar eclipse path.

Backward in time, forward in time. Past, present future.

The eclipse is an occasion hundreds of thousands of people are expected to witness here in Wyoming. “Creatives in Residence,” the group presenting eclipse-related art happening through the summer, includes Matthew Day Jackson, Camille Obering, and Andy Kincaid. All their works will be located outside on the Center’s “campus,” for the public to explore and enjoy. The first installation is already up. To find out more, visit “Obervatories” full schedule here.

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ARTY BLOCK PARTY ALERT!  SHIRT SHOW!

Really, it’s a shirt show. And a block “print” party.

Teton Artlab presents a one-evening Block Party and Shirt Show on Saturday, July 29th, 5-9:00 pm at Teton Art Lab’s laboratory and studios, 130 South Jackson Street. The Yellow House.

Teton Art Lab says the event includes “live printing of hand carved wood blocks,” which I assume means  artists will be printing on site. A sale of limited edition t-shirts, created by TAL artists, will happen. And participating artists include many local favorites: Katy Fox, Mike Piggott, Travis Walker, Taryn Boals, Claudia Bueno, Scotty Craighead, and Visiting Artists Claudio Orso from Torino, Italy and Rian Brown-Orso from Cleveland, Ohio. The event is free and open to the public!

“Block printing is the world’s oldest form of mass communication, dating back to [the earliest Chinese arts and communications eras],” writes Walker. “Modern printing has eliminated the need for block printing as a way of distributing books, but the technique has remained relevant as artists continue to innovate and utilize the medium as a democratic art form.”

Teton Artlab’s Artist In-Residence program benefits from sales; the program in turn provides much needed studio space, housing, and stipends to artists from all over the world. Those artists come to Jackson and share their craft, techniques and concepts with our arts community.

For more information contact Travis Walker at 307-699-0836 or [email protected].