When it's super cold...make art!

If you live here in Jackson, you know how cold it can get sometimes. -30f is pretty extreme for most people in this world. But some hearty artists in Jackson get inspired and actually venture outside during these cold spells to create art. Bland Hoke is the Center of Wonder's Ambassador of Public Art and he is responsible for the plethora of free public art that is sprouting up all over the valley for everyone's enjoyment. Add Ben Roth, Tony Birkholz and a few others into the mix with super cold weather and badly insulated buildings and you get amazing sculptures in front of my gallery. I loved coming to work the next day and seeing the spikey gas tank out front. Unfortunately, like Frosty, the artwork itself was made of the elements, thus it reacted to the sun and has slowly melted away into a few lonely stalagmites out front. I have a feeling that we will be experiencing a lot more of these impromptu, public art pieces. So if you missed it this time, keep your eyes open and enjoy!

30 Below 0, Impromptu Ice Sculpture from another being creative on Vimeo.

10x10 and ArtSpot events

We always love an opportunity to "Art It Forward", so we recently hosted two events which brought a variety of art and community lovers together in the gallery to enjoy each other and amazing local music while supporting wonderful causes.

October 10 was the Teton Area 10x10 party sponsored by Pursue Balance and 1% for the Tetons. It was a success at introducing the concept and goals of reducing our energy use by 10% by the year 2010, and they gave away a lot of free prizes: bike bells from Friends of Pathways, energy saving power strips, and I saw a few warm jackets floating around. Thanks to Rocky Vertone of Four4 Productions and a few energetic dancing souls who got the moving started, it evolved into a great dance party.





Last night Thom Yorke played here. (maybe I'll just leave it at that and see if anyone really reads this thing.) OK, it was local teen-band Rotating Superstructure. I became an instant groupie when Victor hit it spot-on with his version of Radiohead's "Nude". They played a lot of originals mixed in with some fantastic covers. Make sure you go see these boys when you have a chance, although I don't think they are old enough to be playing in bars yet. You'll have to come here this winter for their CD-release party. They were here to support the 5Spot for the ArtSpot art party and fundraiser, an event sponsored by Center of Wonder, the Art Association and Rocky Mountain Bank. Four huge paintings were auctioned off to raise funds to support the next ArtSpot artist stipends. Fill-in-your-own-artspot stickers and brightly colored sharpies added to the creative celebration!

Thank you for bringing such fun events here and for all of you supporting these important causes.