Regional artists’ works plus free food, drink highlight annual tour

Courtesy of Ellis West Gallery Local painter Krista Harris’ new pieces were showing at the Ellis West Gallery during Friday’s Gallery Walk. These paintings,including “Asheville,” shown here, represent for Harris amove into modernism.

It’s September. The air is crisp, and on the third Friday of the month local galleries stay open late. The streets are filled with people checking out the art, eating free hors d’oeuvres and sipping wine.

The Gallery Walk symbolizes a lot that is great about Durango: local businesses coming together to promote creative industry, giving back to the community, bringing in artists from around the region and springing for free food and drink.

This year was no different.

Jonathan Frank, a Denver watercolor artist, and Sasha Scully, a painter from Los Alamos, met visitors at the Rain Dance Gallery. Frank and Rain Dance formed their relationship a few years ago during the Durango Arts Festival. His beautifully executed watercolor and ink paintings of the West fit nicely with the work at this gallery. And there’s a playful edge to his work: the buffalo rolling around on its back, the bison calf trotting away from the herd. Scully paints aspens in a thick, impressionistic style with impasto leaves that literally festoon off the canvas.

At LimeBerry, Becky Finn played bluegrass on her fiddle while guests checked out the fun collection of art created by friends of Melissa and Joe Carroll. New large canvases by Joe Carroll were the biggest surprise. Joe took to painting to explore spatial relationships for his large found and recycled object sculptures.

His colorful works are layered field over ground over field. His experience with patina in metal pours over onto the canvas. His colors are vivid, perhaps inspired by the work of Navajo artist Leland Holiday, whose inexpensive canvases are stacked against the walls of the gallery. Large and unstretched Holiday canvases hang from the ceiling at the gallery and are some of the strongest work this young artist has produced.

“Otters” and “Little Howlers” are two amazing new pieces by brilliant wood sculptor J. Chester Armstrong. Armstrong, whose Oregon studio burned to the ground, recently sent these new works from his rebuilt studio. What a surprise to see a small 1968 pot created by famed San Ildefonso potter Maria Martinez – a new edition to the offerings at the gallery . And Karyn Gabaldon focused on Silverton artist Kathleen Lashley and her “Haiku Collages.”

At Toh-Atin, visitors mingled with Santa Fe Indian Market prizewinner Dennis Ross. Ross is Hopi and creates gorgeous corn maiden kachinas. Also mingling with visitors was Robert Rivera, a gourd artist and Lance Mumma a landscape painter from New Mexico.

Next door at the Earthen Vessel, Nick Blasedale showed off his high-fired stoneware in vivid red glaze and his subdued incised work.

Sorrel Sky, where I work part time, featured jewelry artist Kai Gallagher, whose Kaizen line means “ongoing process involving everyone.”

At Ellis West, local painter Krista Harris and Vermont glass artist Randi Solin were the featured artists. Harris presented new canvases that are a combination of Joan Miro and Hans Hoffman. Solin’s gorgeous glass is weighted and organic in its shape, but vivid and painterly in its color, like molten silk. And I love looking through the cases here, checking out the contemporary jewelry by artists from around the country. The collection is the finest within 100 miles.

Up on East Second Avenue, the Durango Arts Center continued “Portraits and Masks,” a sparse show of mixed quality. The upstairs library gallery features the work of New Mexico book artists and life partners Nancy Culemone and Paul Maurer of Serafina, N.M. Culmone’s work is more refined and detailed. Maurer’s style is loose and expressive, hence the title of the show “Opposites Attract.”

At Open Shutter, “Spirit of the West” opened, an annual event that coordinates with the Durango Cowboy Gathering. Not to be missed is Jenny Gummersall’s “Chewy,” a photograph that has been featured in Cowboys & Indians and Colorado Homes & Lifestyles .

The leaves are changing. The days are shorter. Local businesses will begin paring back their hours, but we can still create our own gallery walk at any time.

Walk around, check out the art, talk to the gallery owners. You might be surprised at what you find.

artsjournalist@centurytel.net Leanne Goebel is a freelance writer specializing in the visual arts.

I recently finished a 40 page book for Chris Richter, an artist from Santa Fe. I met Chris at SITE Santa Fe in February 2006 and have watched his career blossom. In May, Hahn Ross Gallery featured him as one of three artists in a terrific show. Chris sold nearly every painting on display. This is the full wrap cover of his book.

Authors Note: This review was never published. I wrote it about the juried art exhibit at Shy Rabbit Contemporary Arts in Fall 2006. I was going through documents on my computer and felt that this was a well-written and insightful review of the show and that it should be shared on my blog.

Images, top to bottom: Ronald Gonzalez sculpture “Pincushion Man;” Jean Gumpper woodcut print “Wetlands;” Amy Wendland graphite drawing “Kelp;” Marcie Lenke acrylic painting “Untitled #63.”

Entering the back exhibit space at Shy Rabbit Contemporary Arts I continue to feel overwhelmed. My eye has no place to rest. More than 50 works of art are crammed into 1,000 square feet on four walls. I felt this way the first day the art lined the walls, before it was even hung. I felt this way the day the hanging was complete. I felt this way on opening night and I continue to feel this way about the show. It is just too much: there is too much art and definitely too much mediocre art.

I couldn’t write this in The New York Times and I can’t write this in The Durango Herald. You see; I’m a member of the Creative Development Team at Shy Rabbit. I spend hundreds of hours volunteering my time to bring contemporary art to Southwest Colorado and provide a venue for contemporary artists to show their work and soon a place for artists to continue learning techniques through workshops, classes and seminars. I am also one of a handful of writers who focus on the arts in this region. Working for and writing about Shy Rabbit is taboo. Conflict of interest they say. Biased.

Perhaps. However, I feel compelled to write about this show just as I’ve written about others. I feel compelled to be honest in spite of the perceived difficulties. I like Gerry Riggs, the juror of this show, and I value what we are trying to create at Shy Rabbit, but I have an objective side, too.

I first saw the chosen art for “Forms, Figures, Symbols” hours after Gerry Riggs finalized the selections. I saw them as he did, digital images in a slide show on a wide-screen Mac. Much of the work seemed intriguing, but even then I saw work that did not seem to be of the quality or standards Shy Rabbit had just set with “Mind’s Material.”

But it was exciting. Entries had poured in from around the country. Submissions came from New York, Indiana, Massachusetts, Texas, Illinois. Shy Rabbit was bringing art to Pagosa Springs from thousands of miles away. Some of the excitement waned as the work began to arrive: Fifty-nine works of art from 43 different artists. Denise Coffee logged in each submission; each box was opened and the artwork checked for damage, then repackaged for storage until hanging. The boxes were all marked with entry numbers, which correlated to each unique artist and work. The boxes are stored and the work will be repackaged and shipped back to the artist. No simple task.

It was when the work was unpacked and leaned up against walls that I had my first reaction—Too much art. Some of the Creative Development Team had already realized the need for additional walls and built an extra, hinged form to cover the large roll up garage door in the warehouse space.

As the art was unpacked, I realized that jurors have an incredibly difficult task. Work arrives that does not look like the photograph or slide. It is bigger, smaller, taller, shorter, messier, more amateurish, or poorly framed.

I expected Amy Wendland’s “Kelp, 10 pm” drawing to be larger. I thought Jean Gumpper’s prints would be smaller. I expected Lal Echterhoff’s “The Joshua Tree” sculpture to stand in the limestone base securely and not wobble around. I wanted Marcia Lenke’s “Untitled #63” and “Untitled #71” paintings to be bigger. I assumed Daisy McConnell’s “Figment—Botanical” intaglio print would be larger.

And there was work that seemed of such a poor quality that it shouldn’t be included in the show. I campaigned to have items removed because I felt they detracted from the great art—the work that blew me away in person.

The great art still intrigues and challenges, even after five weeks.

Which art in this show do I consider great?

The woodcut prints by Jean Gumpper are technically superior. “Wetlands” captures grasses and reeds standing in water, some are bent down, lying across the top of the water. The print is created with multiple shades of yellow, gold, grass green, spring green, moss green, pale blue. The swirl in the grain of wood perfectly aligned as ripples in the black water. “Aspens” captures the golden, orange and reds of aspen leaves and contrasts them with aubergine branches on a periwinkle background.

The paintings by W. Howard Brandenburg are intense and thought provoking. “Release” a painting of a man chewing off his own leg is a brilliant work of art. The painting captures movement in the style of Duchamps “Nude Descending a Staircase,” but Brandenburg uses that movement selectively, only the head seams to go back and forth. The figure is frantic to escape and will do anything for freedom. The painting brings to mind Aaron Ralston who cut off his arm to save his life. The passionate creature in the painting is willing to do anything to survive. “Rapacious” is a disturbing look at the avarice and greed of our society. The painting is divided into equal quarter panels in shades of blues with rodent type creatures eating each other—A reflection on capitalism and America’s insatiable appetite.

Ronald Gonzalez sculptures, are miniature marvels. “Mournful Drum” and “Pin Cushion Man” are simple, mixed media constructions. Masterfully created abstracted figures.

Amy Wendland’s drawing “Kelp, 10 pm” is brilliant and captures the knotted up sea plant, swirled and twisted by the tides. It is almost moving, slowly floating across the page. Wendland’s toys are whimsical. “Circle One,” a spinning eyeball surrounded by dark gray river rocks all with a white line through them, encircling the eyeball, is kinesthetic. I play with it each time I walk by. “Object Two,” a pull toy with the teeth is equal parts cree
py and playful.

Additionally, I enjoyed the work by Mary Ellen Long, “From the Forest Library,” her nature altered books and “Winter Pressing 2003/04” nature altered paper, are simple, yet elegant. Sarah Comerford paints her life in “Self Portrait as Resurrection,” with the passion of Frida Kahlo. Patrick Linehan photographs architecture, capturing the angles, geometry, shapes and shadows of buildings and structures in “Chicago #4” and “Milwaukee #8.”

Paul F. Morris’ “Stony Arcuated Ewer 2006” is a brilliant functional work in stoneware created in an amorphous shape with thick layers of moss green and goldenrod glaze all thick and crumbling on the surface.

The majority of the work in this show is average. It is well executed, but doesn’t challenge me in its subject or form. It doesn’t seem to do anything beyond be a painting or photograph or work of sculpture. It disappears and I can walk past it and not turn my head, go in for a closer look, see something new I hadn’t yet discovered.

And far too much work in this show is student quality, amateurish and not up to the standards I’ve come to expect at Shy Rabbit.

I think Gerry Riggs tried to be inclusive with this show. Even though he only selected one-third of the submissions, he said he tried to include something from almost every artist. In this case (and in most cases) this tactic does not produce the best show. It would have been a better show with about ten less works. Those ten works could have been weeded out when the artwork arrived.

Riggs even admits to selecting a lot of work.

“I’m certain I pushed the number of selections right up to [Shy Rabbit’s] limit. I recommended that particular related works be hung stacked in order to accommodate more work than is usually shown,” Riggs stated.

Shy Rabbit did their usual fine job of lighting the work, but the stacked salon style presentation and limited space between images does not benefit any of the work, least of all the quality work that deserves to have breathing room.

Because when it comes to art, you can definitely have too much of a good thing.

Photos clockwise from top: Works on paper by Kate Petley; “Sand Lots” by Monica Goldsmith; The Cloyde Snook Gallery at Adams State College with a print by Ron Fundingsland on the wall and a floor installation by Mary Ellen Long; “Genome” by Shan Wells and “Greenbelt” a diptych by Monica Goldsmith.

Gerry Riggs, the former curator for the Gallery of Contemporary Art at CU Colorado Springs, has been in hot pursuit of regional artists since he moved to the Four Corners two years ago. So when he was asked to curate an exhibit at the Clyde Snook Gallery at Adams State College in Alamosa, it was a fairly easy task.

“Hot Pursuits: 8 Southwest Colorado Artists” features the work of Shan Wells, Mary Ellen Long and Monica Goldsmith, all of Durango; Kate Petley, Shaun Martin, D. Michael Coffee and Gerry Riggs, all of Pagosa Springs; and Ron Fundingsland of Bayfield.

Petley’s recent resin, film and acrylic panels literally reflect her pursuit of light, atmosphere and reflection. Her meditative, abstract work is like liquid, merged with startling detail. Three large panels are mounted on one wall: “Striped Aura,” “Inner Topography” and “The Pearl Shirt.” The titles bring the viewer from abstract to concrete. Ah, yes, I see a pearl shirt in this panel.

Her resin process is complicated and involves photographing reflections and printing them on large sheets of film. The film is placed on acrylic and attached with liquid resin, an unforgiving medium. The artist can then draw in the resin. The lumps and bubbles are part of the process. The result is hypnotic, like snapshots of mutable flat screens. Petley is capturing brief moments that we take in unconsciously from the corner of our eye.

Another wall features nine of her mixed-media works on paper, drawings that are intricately detailed and amorphous. Some are colorful, others muted and many include writing in English and Sanskrit. With titles like: “Breathing Through the Hole in My Head Makes Me Happy,” “Seven Powers Speaking All at Once” and “Amputated Icicles,” Petley gives the viewer clues to her ideas.

Titles also provide a clue to Goldsmith’s hard-edged, color field painting. The acrylic paintings are about the environment and physical topography. Think land-use planning, open space and the environmental impact of unchecked development.

In “Greenbelt,” a diptych of vivid green and purple gray, the geometric abstraction is like looking down on the plans for a subdivision, complete with divided lots, roads and the greenbelts that developers incorporate. The subtle lines and beads remind one of an abacus, raising the question of who is keeping track of the houses, the greenbelts, the cars on the road.

“Circa,” and “Offset” are more abstract renditions in shades of turquoise blue. The colors of both paintings suggest water and our demand for it in the West. The lines bring to mind not only the abacus, but the buoyed ropes that string across swimming pools, and the markings along river banks that tell us how low the water levels have sunk.

Elements of nature are the preferred material for Wells. “Artifact,” is a limb from a pine tree, cut into sections and mounted on steep poles. The title suggests that he is also exploring the impact humans have on the environment. “Genome” is a large string of Mancos and Lewis shale fragments coiled into a snaking form. It intimates that we are all connected, made up of the same elements as the rocks.

Wells makes a humorous political statement with “Right Wing Sense Beating Tool,” a Styrofoam cylinder on a wood and steel handle, a giant club.

Riggs has curated a provocative show that is worth the drive to Alamosa.

Review: Hot Pursuits: 8 Southwest Colorado Artists, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, through Sept. 14, Clyde Snook Gallery, Adams State College, 208 Edgemont Blvd., Alamosa, (719) 587-7823.

artsjournalist@centurytel.net Leanne Goebel is a freelance writer specializing in the visual arts.

InfoBox(” Review “,”

Hot Pursuits: 8 Southwest Colorado Artists, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, through Sept. 14, Clyde Snook Gallery, Adams State College, 208 Edgemont Blvd., Alamosa, (719) 587-7823.

“); sizeInlineBox();

Photos left to right: “Sea Signs” by Susanne Carmack; “Pine Top” by D. Michael Coffee; “Water/Distance/Ash” by Nina Tichava. The works on display in “Suddenly This Summer” exhibit in Pagosa Springs are influenced by abstract expressionism, color-field painting and textiles.

“The work grows under my hand as I respond to previous marks I have made,” artist Susanne Carmack of Bluffton, S.C., wrote in the biography she sent to Shy Rabbit Contemporary Arts in Pagosa Springs.

“I think of these paintings as excavations. I discover the image as I dig into the rough terrain,” she continued.

The gallery has been digging into the rough terrain of the art world. It has excavated the work of six artists from across the United States for an exhibition that is ironically titled “Suddenly This Summer.”

Ironically, because art exhibits don’t come together suddenly.

Carmack’s work is part of the show. Her paintings are rooted in abstract expressionism. Their hushed colors are both opaque and transparent.

Her “Sea Signs,” a mixed-media work on paper is hanging freely, without frame, against the wall. It’s held in place with large magnets. The work features swirls and drips of multi-layered paint in a muted green that nearly blends with the color of the walls. To the left is a muted swirl of orange, red and yellow. The upper right hand quadrant is scrawled with indecipherable writing.

There is an element of nature in all of Carmack’s work. Nature is where we often find ourselves in the summer. Writing is the human element, naming and claiming the natural experience. The juxtaposition of Carmack’s work and a sculptural ceramic piece by D. Michael Coffee, one of the gallery’s owners, called “Pine Top” continues the human versus nature dialogue.

“Pine Top” is a tall cylindrical vessel, primarily in a yellow ash glaze. The lower portion of the sculpture is vivid blue. Atop the ceramic cylinder is a v-shaped piece of pine tree.

Coffee’s high-fired stoneware is created using glazes that incorporate elements from nature. In contrast, the symbolism he uses – written in glaze, stamped in clay or built up from the form – echo symbols of human communication.

Another artist in the show who explores forms in nature is Nina Tichava, a painter from Santa Fe. Tichava’s work is also influenced by abstract expressionism, color-field painting and textiles. She is a process painter, developing each work intuitively over a period of time.

Her most recent work hangs in the front gallery. “Minnow & Kite,” a triptych, and “Entanglement Principle,” a diptych, are oil and mixed media on panel. Her earlier work centers upon the four-petalled flower. Her paintings are fluid and patterned, yet rigid and structured, recognizable and symbolic.

The show also features floral paintings by Jill Sykes of Los Angeles, which are like the prints of Japanese fabric; earthenware shard vessels and plates by Patrick Shia Crabb of Tustin, Calif., which suggest a patchwork quilt of broken pottery; and the ethereal pastel drawings of Karl Isberg of Pagosa Springs.

Review:

“Suddenly this Summer” through Sept. 21, 10 a.m.-4p.m., Thursday-Sunday, Shy Rabbit Contemporary Arts, 333 Bastille Drive, Pagosa Springs, 731-2766, shyrabbit.blog spot.com.

artsjournalist@centurytel.netLeanne Goebel is a freelance writer specializing in the visual arts.

She once served on the board of Shy Rabbit Contemporary Arts, but has not been involved with the organization since 2006.

Taos museum chronicles painter’s student years

Photos clockwise from top: Plate 73 (RD 1086)
Untitled (Albuquerque), 1952. Oil on canvas, 68 ¾ x 60 inches (174.6 x 152.4 cm). The Buck Collection, Laguna Beach, California; Plate 49 (RD 1084); Untitled “M,” 1951. Oil of canvas, 43 ⅛ x 52 ¾ inches (109.5 x 134 cm). San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Gift of Rena Bransten in memory of Mason Wells (86.88). Photograph: Ben Blackwell; Richard Diebenkorn and a lost mural he painted on a plaster wall for Joan Evans in Albuquerque from 1950-52. It is 5 feet by 10 feet and is now painted over.

Richard Diebenkorn, one of the most celebrated abstract expressionist painters of the 20th century, said that his two and a half years in New Mexico were a time when everything came together for him as an artist.

The Harwood Museum of Art of the University of New Mexico honors the role the state played in the artist’s growth through a brilliant exhibition, a beautiful book and a scholarly symposium held Friday in Taos.

For Diebenkorn (1922-1993), abstract painting was not just a style; it was a conviction. According to scholar Gerald Nordland, a friend of Diebenkorn’s, the artist was certain that his role was to render deeply felt experience, divorced from objects, figures, stories and nostalgia for the daily world.

Influenced by Cezanne, Matisse, Gorky and cubists, he also took inspiration from his contemporaries De Kooning, Rothko and Clyfford Still, with whom he taught at the California School of Fine Art.

As Nordland pointed out during the symposium: “All artists are influenced by others. It is what one does with the influence that is important.”

What Diebenkorn did was focus on spontaneity and improvisation, attempting to work below the level of the conscious mind. He rejected drawing though he was an accomplished draftsman. He rejected academic mythology though he was an academic and teacher. For Diebenkorn, the challenge was the exploration of himself.

As an abstract painter, he got rid of anything he recognized and believed that every element – form, line, color and texture – must serve the painting materially.

Nordland told me last week that he had stacks of notebooks filled with quotes, interviews and observations about Diebenkorn (the artist would never allow his interviews to be taped nor would he allow himself to be photographed while painting).

Nordland said that painting for Diebenkorn involved a frenzy of emotional activity followed by quiet study from across the room and that Diebenkorn admitted that he was forced to strive to an extent that embarrassed him.

The exhibit at the Harwood Museum includes more than 50 paintings and works on paper, loaned from museums and private collections around the country. All work was created between January 1950 and June 1952 while Diebenkorn was a graduate student in the art department at the University of New Mexico.

The work is mature and powerful. Diebenkorn told Nordland that “Albuquerque 3, 1951″ was his breakthrough work. Diebenkorn said he painted it with the paint remaining on the brushes from the day before. The painting came after Diebenkorn had returned from his first flight over the desert.

“The aerial view showed me such a variety of ways of treating a flat plane, like flattened mud or paint,” Diebenkorn said to Nordland.

The flight took Diebenkorn to San Francisco where he visited the memorial exhibition for Arshile Gorky. As Nordland said, Diebenkorn knew what to do with the influence.

One can see influences in the work of Diebenkorn, but what is so compelling about his paintings is the unique expression of himself. The vigorous searching expressed in the work. There is something unexpected and surprising in each painting – be it a line, a color or a texture.

There is clearly a New Mexico landscape influence on the work in this exhibition, but these are not landscapes.

“Temperamentally, perhaps I had always been a landscape painter, but I was fighting the landscape feeling. In Albuquerque I relaxed and began to think of natural forms in relation to my own feelings,” Diebenkorn said.

Nordland describes the New Mexico paintings as “abstract improvisations in color and line,” in Richard Diebenkorn in New Mexico, the book that accompanies the exhibition .

He added that they have “intuitive reflections of landscape elements which slipped into the work. `85 In later years, he responded similarly to light and color wherever he worked but tended to recognize his new awarenesses only after weeks of effort and adjustment.”

At a time when most curators choose to focus on an artist’s later work, it is inspiring that the Harwood and UNM chose to bring together these early works. The artist is best known for his Ocean Park Series (1967-1988), but viewing these early, often masterful paintings, is worth a trip to Taos or San Jose or New York.

This is clearly a show of international importance launched by a small museum in the Southwest. Kudos to them.

If you go: Diebenkorn in New Mexico, 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, Sunday Noon-5 p.m., through Sept. 9, Harwood Museum of Art, 238 Ledoux St.,Taos. Call (505)758-9826 or harwoodmuseum. org. The show will move to the San Jose Museum of Art, Oct. 15-Jan. 6, then to Grey Art Gallery at New York University from Jan. 23-April 15.

artsjournalist@centurytel.net Leanne Goebel is a freelance writer specializing in the visual arts.

Photos: Ellie Goodman, owner of Goodman’s Art Bin, displays the children’s art materials she will sell at 600 East Second Ave., Suite C, on Wednesday afternoon.

Seventy-three-year-old Ellie Goodman is starting a new business. At an age when many people are thinking about retiring and spending time in their gardens, Goodman is exercising her entrepreneurial spirit. She’s opening a 5,000-square-foot art-supply store at 600 East Second Ave., Suite C, on the corner of College Drive and Second Avenue. “I had a dream,” she said when asked why she was opening a new business. For the last six months, she’s been turning that dream into reality. It’s taking longer than she anticipated, but she plans to host a grand opening Sept. 10.

Goodman’s Art Bin will be open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. The store has a broad, rounded-out selection of supplies including an area filled with children’s art materials and a book section with a comfortable sofa.

Goodman’s Art Bin will carry a wide selection of brushes and brush cleaner and the most popular lines of paints, pastels, drawing pencils, charcoal and graphite. She wants to specialize in papers from Thailand, Egypt, India and Japan, and she will carry a wide range of sizes and shapes of canvas. She also will have a framing department.

“I know I’m going to be busy,” she said. “I just know it.”

Goodman has set up round tables in the back where people can gather. She wants to provide coffee and be a gathering place for artists and the community.

“I want this to be a fun place,” she added.

Goodman is no stranger to the retail business. She worked with her husband at Goodman’s Inc., the family store that had been in operation since 1879. In 1979, they opened Gallery Marguerite. Both stores were sold in 1993.

Goodman also worked for 10 months at what will be her chief local competitor, the Art Supply House in Town Plaza, when it opened in July 2003.

Her business philosophy is simple. Wait on people, and they will come back. Her management philosophy is equally uncomplicated. Camaraderie is important. She wants her employees to enjoy their jobs and want to come to work. She already has six people working for her.

“I have the best help in the world. They laugh with me, and they cry with me. They are there when I need them, and they are just doing everything to make this place ready for opening day,” she said.

Additionally, they have set up two classroom areas in the large warehouse space for art classes. Goodman has scheduled teachers for classes in oil painting, tole painting, watercolor, calligraphy, drawing and sculpture. She is looking for someone to teach acrylic.

Goodman believes so passionately in her new business that she has financed it herself, though she does admit that it would be nice to have additional investors to help pay for advertising. But she is confident that with all her years of experience, she knows what artists want. Even a sales rep, she said, was impressed by her knowledge of the product catalog.

And though the store is not yet open, the easel in the window and the opening soon sign is tempting for many. People come and go and check out the progress.

“People are just flooding in here. A lot of people are waiting for me to open,” Goodman said. “I know a lot of people in town, and my customers are my friends.”

If you go: Goodman’s Art Bin, 600 East Second Ave.,Suite C, will open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, 382-2588.

artsjournalist@centurytel.net Leanne Goebel is a freelance writer specializing in the visual arts.

InfoBox(” If you go “,”

Goodman’s Art Bin, 600 East Second Ave.,Suite C, will open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, 382-2588.”); sizeInlineBox();

Photographers shine in Pagosa Springs annual show

Photos, clockwise from top: Barbara Rosner’s digitally captured inkjet print “Morning Fence and Bench” won second place in the Pagosa Springs Arts Council juried photography show. “Ribbons of Dew” by Linda Pampinella won first place and “Rubrum Lily” by Al Olson third place. “Traces” by Al Olson.

The annual photography show at Pagosa Springs Arts Council was juried this year by Amy Wendland, chairwoman of the Fort Lewis College art department. She said at the opening last week that she had selected the work from digital images she viewed on her computer.

It’s always a challenge to do so, and Wendland’s reaction to seeing the images matted and hung was typical of every juror I have interviewed. A certain red seemed brighter, the image appeared different on the screen or the image was cropped differently in digital version. Yet, all in all, Wendland felt the 25 pictures she selected were the strongest of the 41 images submitted.

The pictures were shown with colorful baskets by Pat Jeffers, which were vibrant and textural.

Awards were given to the top three photographs. Third place went to Al Olson for “Rubrum Lily,” a silver gelatin print ($245). Second place was awarded to Barbara Rosner for “Morning Fence and Bench,” a digitally captured inkjet print ($175). First place was bestowed on Linda Pampinella for “Ribbons of Dew,” a digitally captured inkjet print ($200).

Pampinella’s image may seem familiar to some; it was recently published in Arts Perspective magazine’s photography issue and won second prize at the magazine’s “Published Works” exhibit at Open Shutter Gallery. The image is of a rusted canoe and features horizontal layers of greens and golds with a ribbon of shiny varnish running through the middle; at one point, the ribbons are vivid red.

Olson captures the veins on the leaves of his lily and the speckled dots on the petals of the flower. The heavily flocked stamens are velvety black. But I would have given the prize to Olson’s other entry “Traces,” a landscape featuring a geyser spewing water into the air from a silky black lake.

The ground is covered in snow, but the trees are not flocked. Snow-capped peaks highlight the middle ground. The image is all about the sky. The geyser is shooting up into the sky filled with sheer clouds and jet trails.

Jet trails cross in an X, and the geyser juts up into that X like a line crossing it at its midpoint – a mathematical symbol. More linear clouds mark up the sky and then spiral off into the upper left edge of the image.

Rosner has three images in the show and was surprised when she received her award for “Morning Fences and Bench.” Rosner and others thought “Adobe Textures,” an abstracted image of adobe walls would get her the honors. And while the color and design of “Adobe Textures” is powerful, the image almost seems overworked.

In “Morning Fences and Bench,” the intense colors seem real, and there is a depth of field in the layers of fence and bench and shadow that provide a lot of interest. I admire the way the contrasting design in the fence and the bench keeps the eye moving and how the shadow and light allow the eye to rest.

As a requirement, all of the work had to be matted in white and framed in black. The presentation is elegant, and each work benefits from the classic display technique. The images are allowed to speak for themselves. And speak they do.

Artsjournalist@centurytel.netLeanne Goebel is a freelance writer specializing in the visual arts.

Santa Fe family of jewelry artists make splash at arts festival.

Photos by Leanne Goebel
Left: Best of Show winner Mitch Berg creates sculptures like “Enough for Everyone” from recycled metal, wire and glass.
Right: Pendants created by Ravelle Robertson.

I like art fairs. I like meeting the artists face-to-face. I like that art in a tent is less intimidating than art in a gallery. And I like to see people buying art because it touches them, moves them or makes them laugh.

This year, the 14th annual Durango Arts Festival unfolded along four blocks of Main Avenue with 108 artists displaying their work. One-fourth of the exhibitors were jewelry artists, so it wasn’t surprising that the Best of Craft award went to a jewelry artist. Not just one jewelry artist, but a family of jewelry artists: Humberto, Denise and Ravelle Robertson from Santa Fe.

I first saw the work of the Robertsons at the Contemporary Hispanic Market in Santa Fe a few weeks ago. The jewelry stood out then, and it stood out again in Durango. The work is textural, layered and made from mixed metals like silver, brass, copper and gold.

The Speakingrock collection is designed by Humberto and incorporates ancient Mimbres and petroglyph symbols. Humberto is half Hispanic and half Navajo. Silversmithing is in his DNA, and he learned from his parents. Denise has been making jewelry for 16 years and was taught by Humberto. He calls her the “saw woman” for her masterful ability to saw thin and curvy lines in metal. The Happy People Collection is a collaboration between Denise and the couple’s almost 17-year-old daughter Ravelle. The images are mainly from Ravelle’s drawings, and Ravelle does all the texturing and riveting.

Ravelle Robertson has been making jewelry since she was 8 years old. She already has sold her jewelry in two galleries. She paints jeans, makes dolls, knits hats and sold her drawings as bookmarks before incorporating them into jewelry. It is difficult to distinguish the work of this “art goddess” from the more experienced work of her parents. It takes a trained eye and knowledge of traditional jewelry-making techniques.

Until recently, Ravelle was home-schooled and allowed to pursue each of her interests fully, exploring and merging her passions and ideas. She loves animals, Egyptian philosophy and art.

“Ravelle prefers not to photograph petroglyphs,” Humberto said. “She wants to make her own history.”

Best of Show winner Mitch Berg is also making his own history.

Berg creates fused glass and metal sculptures. His work is playful, satirical and fun. Berg is a self-taught artist. He started out as a journalist with a passion for writing but he struggled to earn a living and worked other jobs to make ends meet.

Six years ago, his wife, Shannon (the family member with the bachelor of fine arts), started making glass beads. She taught Mitch how to use the torch and make the beads. He admits that his never turned out quite right; they always had a bump that looked like a nose, and so he turned them into faces. It was therapy for him – a way to play and deal with the stress of a bad job selling doors and his frustration with journalism.

When he chose to take a month-long kayak trip through the Grand Canyon and lost his job, it changed his life. When he returned from the river, there was an invitation in the mail to participate in a craft show in Berkeley, Calif. Mitch made his figurative glass pieces and took off for Berkeley. He sold everything and has made a living playing with glass and metal ever since, even developing a technique for fusing metal into glass.

“The people who buy my work have that same dream of being a creative person,” Berg said. “Some of it is goofy, and it makes you laugh. I consider myself an artist, but art is serious, you know? And my work is anything but serious.”

Berg’s work is figurative. He sees the figure in found objects, glass, rocks, just about everything. And now, all he writes are the great titles for his work. “The body does what the head tells it to.” “Making friends with Windmills.” “Can’t stop it, but I’m starting to enjoy it.”

Yes. I enjoy art fairs.

artsjournalist@centurytel.netLeanne Goebel is a freelance writer specializing in the visual arts.

Photo by Leanne Goebel

Donna L. Lish’s synthetic cotton, glass beaded and knitted “Subtext: Eruption” is part of the Fiber Celebrated show at the Durango Arts Center through July 31.

For centuries, art has been created by counting. Counting stitches, beads per row, rows per inch. Knit one, pearl two.

Weaving, tapestry, crotchet and needlepoint have been used to create blankets, wall coverings, clothing and containers. Some consider these traditional methods blas`E9, not visionary enough for the contemporary art world. Yet artists who use the traditional methods to create avant-garde work produce intriguingly fine craft.

One example is Jane Sauer’s Thirteen Moons, one of my favorite galleries on Canyon Road in Santa Fe. It’s a feast for the eyes and tantalizing to the touch, filled with amazing creations in metal, fiber and basketry.

While Durango has fine establishments selling traditional weavings and baskets, we don’t find contemporary fiber work displayed regularly. Yet, nationally recognized fiber artist Ilze Aviks has called Durango home for 25 years. Aviks teaches workshops around the world and her finely stitched creations are modern yet traditional.

Aviks is the juror for “Fiber Celebrated,” an exhibition on display at the Durango Arts Center as part of the biennial Intermountain Weavers Conference. The exhibit is textural, filled with rugs, tapestries and wearable arts.

“I wanted to pick work that showed a range of approaches, and I hoped that viewers unused to seeing art textiles might be educated and surprised,” Aviks wrote in her juror’s statement.

The most surprising work in the show is by Donna L. Lish. Her synthetic cotton, glass beaded and knitted works are suspended sculptures in black, white and silver-gray. “Subtext: Eruption” and “Present Text” ($1,000 each) are beautiful examples of creating nontraditional work with a traditional medium. She explores boundaries and challenges viewers to see things in a new way.

This is book art abstracted, focusing on splayed pages and giant beaded bookmarks. It’s methodical, yet not preconceived.

“I consider the spirit of a book the essence of a container – functional purpose subsumed by intellectual impression. A book is the splay of pages, the drape from a binding, the script like looping of stitches” Lish wrote in her artist statement.

A small surprise is found in Peggy Love’s “Blues” ($600) a framed work of embroidery and French knots. Differing shades of blue, varying patterns and textures all created with six-strand DMC embroidery cotton.

Another surprise is Susan McGehee’s wire-and-copper bobble-weave work. “Sartori Sunset” ($800) looks like a scarf ruffled in the wind, hanging on the wall. McGehee wrote in her statement: “I enjoy when the viewer assumes a piece is fiber and then is surprised upon discovery that it is entirely metal.”

A combination of photo transfer and quilting techniques allowed Sue Johnson to create “Headers and Footers” ($475). The wall piece is made with cotton, hand-dyed fabric, machine embroidery and fabric pens.

According to Johnson’s statement, the work is part of a series exploring relationships and new freedoms in her life. The narrative is evident.

Other work is more expected. There are lots of rugs and tapestries, quilts and fabric paintings, and beautiful wearable art: raunas, scarves and long coats.

Count the days until this show ends, and make time to be surprised by what artists are doing with traditional fiber methods.

artsjournalist@centurytel.netLeanne Goebel is a freelance writer specializing in the visual arts.

Photo by: JERRY McBRIDE/Herald

Rain Dance Gallery owners Lori and Bob Curtis, sitting in their Main Avenue store on Thursday, look for work that has a Colorado feel, an ethnic feel or an indigenous feel.

When Karyn Gabaldon opened her fine art gallery three-and-a-half years ago, she hosted an exhibition for local artists each month that first year. She lost money.

“Everyone waited until the exhibit ended and went direct to the artist to buy, even though I spent $3,000 on postcards and wine and food for the reception,” Gabaldon said.

Today, Gabaldon, like most of the other fine art galleries in town, represents a fairly consistent group of artists.

“People like consistency and quality, and to be honest, the local shows were all over the place in quality,” Gabaldon said. “The artists I represent today are quality artists that I enjoy working with and writing checks to.”

The gallery representation process is as subjective as everything else in the art world. When I asked several local gallery owners how they selected the artists they represent, the answers were fairly consistent.

“We have to like it, it has to fit in the gallery, it has to work,” Lori Curtis from Rain Dance said, then added: “And ultimately you have to listen somewhat to the market.”

Lori and Bob Curtis have been gallery owners for 12 years, four here in Durango. They are passionate art collectors. At Rain Dance, they represent many artists included in their own personal collection.

“We are familiar with a lot of artists. People find us by word of mouth. It isn’t too hard to find people to represent,” Bob said.

All galleries seem to be looking for a balance: The gallery owner has to love the work, the artist has to be interested in selling through the gallery and buyers have to be present in the market.

What makes it more challenging is that the product is a luxury item, not a necessity.

“We aren’t selling units or commodities. We are selling unique pieces,” Bob said.

At Rain Dance they are looking for work that has a Colorado feel, an ethnic feel or an indigenous feel.

At Karyn Gabaldon Fine Art, the focus is on contemporary landscape.

“I totally go by intuition. I’m looking for something different. If it doesn’t wow the customer, they aren’t going to buy it. It has to flow with the rest of the gallery. It has to resonate with me or I’m not going to be able to sell it,” Gabaldon said.

Ellis West is the only contemporary art gallery in Durango. Monica Ellis selects the painting and fine art in the gallery while Diane West chooses the jewelry. Both have a say on the glass and ceramic work they represent.

West, herself a jewelry artist, knows other jewelry artists and is familiar with some of the bigger names in the field. She and Ellis attend large art fairs in Baltimore and Philadelphia put on by the American Craft Council. (The Curtises also attend these shows).

“We both have veto power,” West said. “We both have to personally like it. We have to feel it’s well done. We have to feel it’s sellable. It might be artwork that we love, but we have to keep the doors open.”

“The paintings shown are my personal taste,” Ellis said. “I talk to the artists personally about what they expect and what they are looking for. If they are difficult to talk with, then I will pass on representing them.”

Most of the local galleries receive submissions, though they don’t post a submission process on their Web sites. But all agree that the standard process they prefer is to see digital images from the artist, a biography, a r`E9sum`E9, a list of their retail pricing and some idea of where the artist has shown his or her work in the past.

“Artists have actually asked me to represent them just so they can say they are in a gallery. That doesn’t work for me,” Gabaldon said.

Many galleries find artists via referral from a current artist they represent. At Ellis West, most of their artists are mid-career, pretty well-established and have won awards or are in museum collections. The same could be said of the artists represented at Rain Dance and Karyn Gabaldon.

“We do consider emerging artists. If we think they are fantastic, we are willing to give them a try,” West said.

Ellis West is the only gallery that has a contract with its artists not to sell within 100 miles of Durango. Gabaldon said she doesn’t do contracts, instead she prefers to lay all the cards on the table. If an artist isn’t selling, she has to move on and find someone else. But Ellis West said that it spends time developing a market for an artist. Sometimes an artist will hang in their gallery for a year before they begin to sell.

Lime Berry has a different approach.

“I don’t work with artists I don’t know. My gallery is filled with the work of my closest friends and family. We are completely different,” Melissa Carroll said. “This store is first and foremost about relationships.”

I think every gallery owner would agree.

lgoebel@centurytel.net Leanne Goebel is a freelance arts journalist from Pagosa Springs.

This collage of portraits, created by members of Kindred Spirits program, will be sold at auction tonight to help fund exhibits at the Durango Arts Center.
ELI RUBEL/Herald photos

Tonight’s auction of collaborative sculpture, painting, poetry and dance won’t compare to sales at Sotheby’s or Christie’s. No Rockefeller Rothkos for sale or Monet water lilies, but if you fancy a glow-in-the-dark mermaid or an ode to wine corks, head to the Durango Arts Center.

A mystery auctioneer will auction 14 works created by 77 artists; all money raised will fund exhibitions at the DAC. A performance by Laurel Schaffer’s ballet troupe and a basket woven by visitors to the gallery also will be for sale.

Groups of artists either agreed to collaborate or had their names drawn from a hat and were thrown together. Each team approached its collaboration differently. Some worked on the piece then passed it to the next artist. Others planned in advance what each person
would contribute. Still others did not speak or share.

A group of Barbara Tobin Klema’s painting students collaborated on three paintings, each getting a turn to take a painting home and add to it. The classmates are Aline Schwab, Susan Koonce, Leslie Talmon, Allison Andersen and Catherine Wagner.

“Spring Blossoms” is the best of the three. It incorporates collage to capture the cotton-like texture of blossoming trees. The mat and frame detract from the work and give it a dated appearance, but the painting is effective.

Dave Sipe, Nancy Segal and Amorina Lee Martinez created the bug with the illuminated tail. The wooden sculpture features a female torso, arms extended, elaborately painted, with lace-covered wings, wearing an expression of joy. The funky sculpture hangs from the
ceiling.

Only one collaboration uses a literary component. “Waiting for a Perfect Planet” includes a large abstract collage made with photographs by Claude Steelman and painted by Adele Kurtz. A companion piece is a poem by Kaibab. The collage is a spiral of bird-like shapes in a metallic swirl.

One of the more intriguing pieces is a digital collage of 25 portraits (mostly self portraits) by participants in the Kindred Spirits program. Kindred Spirits is a program for adults who are physically or mentally challenged.

Some of the drawings are remarkable in the emotion they express, their use of color, and even their use of line. Each work was scanned and placed in a patchwork format by artist Adele Kurtz.

The work was printed on a heavy stock and is presented as an unfolding accordion of color and imagery beneath an acrylic frame. I would have preferred to see the original drawings in a traditional collage. For me, the digital reproduction sucks some of the life from the artwork.

DAC accepted silent bids all week and the live auction happens today from 5 to 8 p.m. No minimum prices are listed, and the artists donated their time and materials.

artsjournalist@centurytel.net Leanne Goebel is a freelance writer specializing in the visual arts.

Contents copyright ©, the Durango Herald. All rights reserved.