solstice celebrations

Happy Summer Solstice! And Happy Birthday to my daughter Sara, 12 today. What a great day to have a birthday! The longest day of the year. A time of celebration and abundance. There is an abundance of celebration happening here in Jackson this weekend and it is difficult to decide what to do.

Thanks to Vista 360, the Fire Festival is filling the town square with street stalls, drumming, and fire! www.vista360.org/fire-festival/ Last night the square was an amazing gathering place for our community. I love it when it's blocked off and becomes pedestrian friendly. The early evening saw a continuous flow of people of all ages, locals and tourists alike, there to enjoy the collective energy, music, food and entertainment. Late-night, cruising around on my bike, I was drawn back to the square by the many bonfires happening there, and again, the flow of people was an amalgamation of all sorts from the always-happening BRAVO! party at Davies-Reid to the fundraiser at Thai Me Up for KHOL, the new community radio station.

By the way, can I say it?...KHOL rocks!! I'm sorry, such a cheesy cliche, but the thing is, it really does. It's such a fabulous mixture of music; personal and collective tastes of all kinds merge there. Every time I listen it's something different. I am looking forward to sending some of my artists to the station to get interviewed by Nicole. Let's all support it. 89.1 is where you'll find it on the radio. www.jhcr.org

An amazing group of non-profits in town collaborated to bring Matthieu Ricard, renowned Buddhist monk, author, photographer and French translator to the Dalai Lama. We are so lucky to have him here, speaking at the Center for the Arts at 7:30pm.
www.centerofwonder.org
www.pursuebalance.org
www.tetonwellness.org

These are a few other things on my personal radar screen...
Tonight there is a Shoshone Star Dance to calm the fires of Yellowstone and celebrate the solstice happening north of Jackson. You need camping gear for that.
Over the hill, Victor is dancing to an all-funk weekend at the Knotty Pine.
Sunday could be skiing at Targhee or paragliding in the village. Biking is also an option in some places finally. So is celebrating Stew Robertson's 40th birthday!!! A great way to end the weekend. Again, happy solstice!

Pop!Tech...create positive change

Last night I found one of those websites that made me stay up 'til 2am. www.poptech.org "Pop!Tech is a one-of-a-kind conference, a community of remarkable people, and an ongoing conversation about science, technology and the future of ideas." I also found that there is a lot of ART (art & science! Imagine that?!) incorporated into these visionary ideas. I suggest going right to the pop!casts section and in their own words, "Download. Discover. Do your part to create positive change in the world!"

Jonathan Harris and Bill Shannon are my favorites so far. I will have to get my tech-crew to get these pop!casts onto our site, as I am challenged in that realm. But here is the quick "entice you to go view them" scoop on these two artists.

Jonathan Harris...I have to get him out here to Jackson. In the last month I have randomly come across his work/projects/ideas numerous times. A fellow Princetonian, he obviously spent way more time in those scientific buildings then I did, and probably more time in the art building, too. He is one of those artistic visionaries who must never, ever sleep. I can't begin to clearly describe what he does, so watch the video, and enjoy his website. www.number27.org

Bill Shannon dances-on four legs. Born with a bilateral hip deformity, this performance artist will challenge the way you think about disabilities, and movement. A fascinating exploration of dance, psychology, and education. He also has a great website www.whatiswhat.com

ARTWeek Review: Jane Rosen at Braunstein/Quay Gallery

Jane Rosen's talent is in finding the shadows of things, the soft sepia tones of birds and mammals, the quiet and penetrating turn of a beak or gaze of a feral eye. Her recent show at Braunstein/Quay Gallery was a muted collection of painting and sculptures, evoking both the seen and the hidden of nature.

It is too simple to call her paintings "paintings" -- they are more like sculptural plaques colored by coffee and marble dust, shaped and textured by layers of gypsum stone. They often depict birds or deer, sharing the frame with grids of mesh in gentle, forest-y tones. It is as if the living and the geometric each echo the shadow of the other, an ecru play of liquid and stone, soft-hard textures, shades of rust and gray and black. Dust (Copper's Hawk) is a white-gray shadow of a perched bird - roosting at dusk in coffee and cream, or waiting behind a fog - leading the viewer to reconsider if there is much distinction between the substances humans and nature brew.

Rosen's sculptures are more evocative, less precise rendition of similar subject matter - and she pays as much attention to the material as to the shapes she forms with it. The Gamut series - vaguely animal sculptures in Provencal limestone - is composed rough, raw stone figures on pedestals. Sphinx is the sharply angled idea of a sphinx; Mayo (named for Rosen's dog) is barely chiseled as if the shape of a dog was found in the stone, then sketched in pencil on the surfaces and in the grooves. In Klimt, one can see some of Klimt's reaching lines and lateral segmentations, but the piece is just as evocative of a burned-out tree trunk. Rodin, on the other hand, is the opposite of Rodin's smooth, precise figures. It is a rough, highly textured, largely undefined shape - perhaps the Rodin-esque figure is buried underneath?

Rosen also has a sense of humor, evidenced for example in Oh Deer and Wall Foot. The former is a wall-mounted sculpture, a nearly five-foot high narrow bird's body with a deer head sculpted around a bundle of sticks, producing an organic, witty quality. Wall Foot emerges bony and elongated from the base of a wall, as if it were impishly waiting to trip an innocent passer-by. Rosen captures the private lives of creatures in her works - both the comic and dramatic sides. And because Rosen represents this privacy, we don't quite gain entry into it.

JH Film Fest...YOU are amazing!

The Jackson Hole Film Festival has been the happening thing this past weekend. We were lucky to be blessed with absolutely perfect movie weather...that's kind of a buddha-like way to embrace cold, sleet, and snow in June. The Center for the Arts was filled with people who must never, ever sleep because they are bursting with ideas and passion for what they do 24 hours a day. And then they are actually doing it...they are creating their movies and documentaries and they are making change through art. They are getting people to laugh, cry, get angry, get happy, get involved and open their eyes. Some in the crowd were the kind of people who make other's dreams come true...whether by financing a film project or perhaps making someone a star. The accomplishments that I was surrounded by just blew me away, and I only saw a few of the movies and met a very small portion of the people involved there. Here are some of my fav's...

I first met Brian Liu in the gallery Friday night as his alter ego DJ Yellow Fever, a Washington DC dj who kept the gallery rocking (I mean that literally, ask Trace who lives upstairs...sorry Trace!) 'til midnight. I was especially excited when I heard that he was a part of the Thievery Corporation tour, played in the Buddha Bar (Bosnia), all over Playa del Carmen Mexico, and "your house when you weren't home!" But I later discovered that as amazing as his music accomplishments are, what Brian has done in his young life as a designer, photojournalist and documentary film-maker are even more impressive. Go to www.disarmfilm.com to find out about his documentary about the global landmine problem. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iraq, and Thailand are just a few of the places where he was right in there, filming the search for and disarming of landmines. You can find out all sorts of other things about Brian by going to www.toolboxdc.com and www.gypsyeyesrecords.com

The movie Made In America, directed by Stacy Peralta (Dogtown and Z Boys, Riding Giants). Go see it...everyone...please. I did not expect to be so affected by a movie about the Bloods and Crips in LA. I mean really, what do I know about gang warfare and it certainly doesn't effect me here in Jackson. But that's the point here...I don't know about it. We don't know about it. But we should. It's a 100-year history that should be taught and discussed in our schools. What began as trying to establish an identity has evolved literally into a warfield right here in the US, right next to Beverly Hills and Hollywood. Children growing up in south central LA were tested for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Do you know that their rate was HIGHER then children living in Baghdad, Iraq? Do you know that over the last 30 years, gang warfare has caused the death of over 15,000 people in Los Angeles? I could go on and on, but really, just find it and see it.

Validation, by Kurt Kuenne is a short film that was very fun, my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. It's about a parking attendant (TJ Thyne) who gives out free parking and free compliments...REAL validation. For example, "You are AWESOME! That necktie looks GREAT with your eyes! YOU are an amazing addition to this world!" Maybe we should all dispense free validation to others on a daily basis. Here is your validation for the day.
"You are amazing. You make a difference. You are a ray of sunshine on this rainy day. You are a creatively inspiring person. Your smile is radiant. You are very special in this world."

June 6th | First Friday Event

First Friday Event 5:30 - 7:30
followed by Film Festival Party

The next First Friday event is upon us. This month will be featuring Matt Flint's painting. Flint's quiet geometry is a study of isolation and transformation. His work incorporates primitive, geometric patterns combined with a variety of subjects. Rich texture and subtle lighting, the result of working and reworking the canvas, are a meditative journey hovering between the concrete and temporal. View more of Matt's work here.

Also featured tonight will be the photography of Richard Speedy. Here is a brief blurb about Richard, his work and more:

Photographer Richard Speedy first heard the name “Julio Pagliani” around a crackling campfire while on assignment deep in the heart of Mexico’s rugged Sierra Madre. It was bestowed upon him by fellow wanderers of the Barrancas del Cobre as he was led by backcountry guide and friend, Santiago. He fell in love with the people of this region and made it his cause to help them sustain their way of life and culture without having to leave their homes and families for work. In collaboration with the Center of Wonder, we are happy to host Richard Speedy and his photographs, along with Julio Pagliani jewelry created by his extended family of Norogachi villagers. Joining Richard at the gallery for an artist talk will be Santiago, a Copper Canyon region backcountry guide.

Come join us to enjoy the beautiful works, a glass o' wine or a cold beer. When the opening ends, the party will just be getting started. The JH Film Festival will be having a party here at the gallery for pass holders with one of the rotating DJs from Thievery Corporation!