News Articles about The ART Center!

O’Keefe subject of art event
The Daily Sentinel

Friday, January 11, 2008

The Art Center’s Second Saturday event will feature a gallery discussion and tour of “Master Printmakers,” “Shepherd and Davis: Works of Clay and Glass” and “The Outsiders: Art, Friendship and Travel.”

A gallery discussion and the film series, “Great Woman Artists,” will begin at noon on Saturday, Jan. 12, at the center, 1803 N. Seventh St.

The film is about Georgia O’Keefe, one of the most versatile and independent artists of our time.

The event is free for center members. There is a $3 suggested donation for nonmembers.

Call 243-7337 for information.

— Compiled by Tammy Gemaehlich

Cultural Confidential: Art Center focuses on The Outsiders

By Camille Silverman
Cultural Confidential contributor

January 4, 2008

The Art Center’s First Friday and Second Saturday of 2008 will focus on The Outsiders. Friday, Jan. 4, will feature a gallery talk at 6:30 p.m. with most of The Out­siders, whose current exhibition is in Studio Colorado. A reception from 7 to 9 p.m. will follow. Other exhibits at The Art Center for First Friday will be Master Printmakers: The Legacy of Mauricio Lasansky, Paul Pletka from the Permanent Collection and Shepherd and Davis: Works in Clay and Glass.

The Outsiders are truly adventurous, traveling to France, Spain, Eastern Europe and Mexico. They have hiked, skied and flown into areas unfamiliar, but specific, to their interests in painting and physical activity. The group has been together for over 17 years. Mary Ellen Andrews, Sheri Balke, Wilda Fortune, Geri Harris, Arleen Ruggeri and Gailen Schmidt have fostered an incredibly healthy process for art making. The way in which they make their art feeds the body as well as the creative spirit. Many in Grand Junction’s artistic community have considered The Outsiders as an important group based on artistic passion, support of community and the fostering of lasting friendships.

The exhibit has an interesting play between artists. Gailen Schmidt has works that flow in and out of entropy. They are very bold in composition and color. She uses landscape as a take off point for inventing new worlds, new passages and amazing forms.

Sheri Balke’s work is precise and sensitive using watercolor to describe the light and the colors in nature. She believes that painting on location (unlike using a photograph) gives one a real sense of the subject matter.

Wilda Fortune’s works have a rural sensibility. She was raised in the in this area and has watched the shift in land use, as well as population.

Mary Ellen Andrews has great confidence with color. She uses it to craft vibrant sensual landscapes and intimate portraits on canvas.

Geri Harris has an atmospheric mood in her paintings. She, like Schmidt, has tendencies that periodically move into the abstract.

Finally, Arleen Ruggeri is represented by one painting that is in the collection of Andrews. Ruggeri’s production has slowed this year, but The Outsiders have seen fit to support her through life’s challenges.

This artistic spirit and friendship will be further explored verbally with two short lectures on their friendship and processes during First Friday, Jan. 4 at 6:30 p.m. This will be followed by a reception from 7 to 9 p.m. giving the audience a chance to explore the four exhibits of The Outsiders, Master Printmakers, Clay and Glass and Paul Pletka exhibits.

Saturday, Jan. 12, The Art Center’s Second Saturday series at noon will feature The Outsiders as the main gallery tour in conjunction with a film on Georgia O’Keeffe that will follow at 1 p.m.

First Fridays are sponsored by US Bank and are free and open to the public. Second Saturdays are free for members of The Art Center. The suggested donation for nonmembers is $3. For more information on either event, call The Art Center at 243-7337 ext 6.

Camille Silverman is the Education and Exhibitions Curator at The Art Center.

Four for the show
Diverse works on display at The Art Center

By Samantha Stiles
The Daily Sentinel

January 4, 2008

With four vastly different exhibits in one location, The Art Center is deserving of repeat visits.

The stylistically diverse exhibits include glass and pottery, prints and paintings and are on display until Jan. 19.

• Argentinean artist Mauricio Lasansky, referred to as one of the fathers of 20th century American printmaking, is the star attraction of the “Master Printmakers” exhibit in the center’s North Gallery.

The 12 other artists with works in the exhibit all have instructional ties to Lasansky.

In printmaking, original works of art (not copies) are produced from a single surface such as a worked metal plate, wooden block or stone slab.

Camille Silverman, the center’s programs and exhibitions curator, has some of her own prints in the show.

“His (prints) make me think of disappointment,” she said about artist Charles Hardy’s prints while walking around the gallery recently.

Hardy’s artwork includes a print of a dog’s last day and road kill.

Silverman studied the craft under Hardy, an artist and retired Mesa State College professor.

The printmaking process is like journaling, Silverman said. It’s personal.

Gregory Porcaro’s work depicts the agony of having Crohn’s disease, an illness that affects the gastrointestinal tract.

His prints are of men with organs strung out of their bodies. His black and white work is done in a comic book style.

The rest of the printmaking styles vary greatly. Charlie Huang’s work is realistic and precise while Jack Orman’s work is more abstract and colorful.

• “Shepherd and Davis: Works of Clay and Glass” in the Gould Gallery and Atrium portray a variety of clay and glass work, from texture to firing treatments.

“You could say I get bored easily, or I like to keep my hands in several different areas,” said Terry Shepherd, a ceramicist, about his varied techniques exhibited in the show.

Many of his pieces aren’t glazed, but instead polished into what Shepherd, the center’s artist in residence, called a “burnished satin” look.

Jared Davis, a glass artist from Crawford, said he is inspired by the Southwest and how he can transcribe color, texture and form onto the glass.

He likes to bring “all those natural elements of this area and geography together,” he said.

Many of Davis’ vessels are sand blasted to give them a matte appearance.

He also uses a technique of smashing the hot glass on the outside to create a burst of the underneath colors in the glass to come to the surface, he said.

Davis said he and Shepherd both incorporate a sense of movement into their work.

“I try to capture as much movement into mine as I can,” Davis said.

Shepherd called their exhibit, “kind of a nice juxtaposition.”

• Orman, whose work is in the printmakers exhibit, also helped curate a few pieces in the center’s Atrium, the exhibit “Paul Pletka: Work from The Art Center’s Permanent Collection.”

• “The Outsiders: Art, Friendship and Travel” in the Studio Colorado Gallery is a collection of landscape artwork by local female plein aire painters.

Samantha Stiles can be reached via e-mail at sstiles@gjds

The Art Center focuses on womens' landcapes
The Daily Sentinel
Friday, January 04, 2008

The First Friday open gallery and gallery talk on Friday, Jan. 4, at The Art Center, 1903 N. Seventh St. focuses on the work by The Outsiders, six local female landscape artists.

A gallery talk with members of The Outsiders begins at 6:30 p.m. and a reception will be from 7-9 p.m.

The Outsiders have painted, traveled and exhibited together for the past 10 years, according to the group’s Web site, www.theoutsiders.org.

The Outsiders met while taking classes at The Art Center.

The women prefer to paint en plein air, which means they paint in the open air.

“The Outsiders: Art, Friendship and Travel” along with three other exhibits at the gallery will stay up until Saturday, Jan. 19.

First Friday is a monthly event that is free and open to the public and sponsored by US Bank.

For more information about the exhibits, call 243-7337 or visit www.gjartcenter.org.

— Compiled by Samantha Stiles

Art, craft fair rings in holidays

 By Bobby Magill

 The Daily Sentinel

Saturday, November 17, 2007

The annual Holiday Arts and Crafts Fair at Western Colorado Center for the Arts is the best in town, said Janice McCollum of Grand Junction as she carried out jewelry and other purchases Saturday.

The 36th annual show brought more than 600 visitors to the center, which is at Seventh Street and Orchard Avenue. They browsed the tables of pottery, food, paintings, jewelry and other original art while listening to high school students sing Christmas carols.

“We try to have high-quality arts and crafts available to the community,” while drawing attention to the Art Center and locally made crafts, said Robbie Breaux, president of the Arts Center board of trustees. “It’s a good kickoff for the holiday season.”

The Arts Center’s mission is to educate Grand Valley residents about all things artistic, and it will celebrate its 55th anniversary next year, Breaux said. The art show highlights everything the center has offered for the past half century, including numerous classes and art exhibits, she said.

This year’s show features scores of new vendors, Breaux said. One of those is Jo Campbell, sculptor of fine homemade Santas, which sold for up to $425 each.

“They’re my passion and my joy, so I don’t count the hours” it takes to craft each one, said Campbell, who has been sculpting Santa Claus dolls in Grand Junction for 15 years.

She said she has always loved Christmas, so making the dolls is her way to share her love with others.

Also new to the show this year is Wildcat Productions owner M.J. Gray of Montrose, who hand-crafts Southwestern cowboy art, including wall hangings, pillows and unfinished furniture. She said coming to the art show was worthwhile because she sold at least a dozen pieces of art.

For McCollum, visiting the show and shopping for local art was about more than the art itself.

“It is the people,” she said. “I see a lot of people I know here, too.”

The fair continues today from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Artists Demonstrate Craft at The Art Center

 By Sharon Sullivan

November 2, 2007

Grand Junction — November’s First Friday reception at the Art Center will feature a live exhibit of several different kinds of artists demonstrating their craft.

 Figure drawing will be demonstrated by Mary Ellen Andrews, Mary Moss and Jane Wood.

 Artist-in-residence Terry Shepherd, along with instructors Gary Andrews and Dan Patten, and several current students will be working the potting wheels in the ceramics studio.

 Shari Daly Miller will demonstrate fiber arts and Dan Loge will be painting with oils.
Sculptor Micki Harshman will demonstrate stonecarving in the courtyard.

 The Western Colorado Watercolor Society members exhibit is currently in the Gould Gallery.

 “The watercolors are extremely loose to extremely intricate,” Silverman said. “It’s just amazing how perfected their control is.”

 The Jac Kephart Retrospective exhibit is in the North Gallery.

 A nationally recognized, local artist, Kephart’s exhibit is a retrospective, or 50-year overview of his career as an artist. Works range from landscapes to the abstract. His use of different materials give a sculptural feel to his abstracts.

 A gallery talk at 6:30 tonight includes introductions of the artists and their media. A reception follows from 7 to 9 p.m. with a cash bar. Pianist David Schore will be performing the music for the evening. The Art Center is at 1803 N. 7th St.

 Reach Sharon Sullivan at ssullivan@gjfreepress.com.

  Brush & Palette Club celebrates anniversary

   Club history dates back 60 years

    By Judy Richardson
    Special to the Free Presser 5, 2007

In March 1947, five ladies attended the first meeting of Brush & Palette Club and they met in members’ homes. The club’s purpose was to study and practice artistic principals.

    After a year of hard work to achieve its goals, the members were rewarded with an annual show where they could exhibit. The first show in October 1949 was held at the City Hall’s new gallery. Frequently, guest artists of some renown were invited.

    When the membership grew to 15 in 1950, the group moved its meetings to the West Side Recreational Center.

    For the 1953 show, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was invited to display one of his paintings. He replied that it would be against policy to show his “so-called paintings” anywhere.

    June meetings were celebrated with an annual outdoor sketching picnic. Other meeting activities included lectures on French art, lectures on color harmony, working on portraits, critiquing of members’ art that were given by Verona Burkhard in the 1960s, and study techniques used by winning artists in annual show.

Ruth Moss was club president from 1952 to 1953. She and her husband, Harold Moss, a retired judge moved to Grand Junction in 1951. Ruth still actively participates in the annual shows. In 1988, Ruth started the Western Colorado Center for the Arts Bridge Marathon that raises substantial donations every year for The Art Center.

Birth of The Art Center

    In 1935 while FDR was working to bring the country out of the Great Depression and Grand Junction’s population was 10,200, the dream of an art center in Grand Junction began with a handful of artistic persons. The Brush & Palette Club later supported this dream with a bake sale that netted $30.

The first public announcement on the proposed Art Center was in September 1952. Artists of all sorts were invited to Verona Burkhard’s Fruitridge Studio for the announcement. Planning continued on until 1953 when the Art Center incorporated. April 3 of that year, Fred Mantey presented a deed for an acre of land on which to build The Art Center. The building was originally to be on a site overlooking the Grand Valley from Mantey Heights. In addition, he personally gave $1,000 toward the construction of the first building. In 1957, this first acre of land was sold and the property at 1745 N. Seventh was purchased. Five years later, the adjacent property north of 1745 N. Seventh was purchased. The Building Fund goal was set at $275,000 and the campaigning began.

A place for learning

    Since The Art Center’s inception, the development of a broad-based program of artistic activities and community service has been fostered. The start of the Art Center’s Summer Art Program began with the members of the Brush & Palette Club. They undertook the tremendous task of instructing and guiding some 180 children ranging from the first through the seventh grade in art classes every Saturday morning at the Tope Elementary School. Two classes were given each Saturday in the mediums — clay, poster paint or pastels. As an Altrusa member since 1963, Ruth started participation in art competitions for children in grade school through high school at the Art Center.

    Ruth also started a Rental Gallery at the Art Center in 1961. Paintings created by local artists were rented for 2 percent per month of their sale price to local merchants and homeowners. More than 50 paintings a month were rented out. The first year of rentals was so successful that the rental gallery expanded displaying a different group of paintings each month for the next five years.

    Also in 1961, The Art Center opened its ceramic classroom-laboratory with a kiln and other equipment donated by Mr. and Mrs. David Baker. Ceramics classes were taught by Verona Burkhard, a board member and local artist. Burkhard also created the four copper doors that Art Center visitors pass through as they enter the Gould and the Studio Colorado galleries.

Brush & Palette Club’s annual show

    Brush & Palette Club held its first show in the new Art Center in May 1970. Back in those days, the entry fee was $3 for three entries. Longtime volunteers, Glen Hopper and Dave Eckert, hanged the show.

    This year’s annual show, which coincides with First Friday activities, opens today, Oct. 5, at The Art Center. Gallery talk takes place at 6:30 p.m., reception is from 7 to 9 p.m. Also at The Art Center is the Western Colorado Watercolor Society Members Exhibit and the Jac Kephart Retrospective: Fifty Years in the Making.

    To celebrate its 60th birthday, the Brush & Palette Club will make $1,000 donation to the children’s programs at The Art Center. The club hopes this will be the first of many for years to come.

    New members are always welcome to join the club. The club meets the third Thursday of each month at The Art Center.

Pushing the envelope

Art Center exhibit celebrates Tom Stubbs

By Sharon Sullivan

Grand Junction, CO
August 10, 2007

When they were housemates, Tom Stubbs would stand outside his brother Matt’s bedroom door at 5 a.m. and bang pot lids together, yelling “Get up, we’re going running. You have 10 seconds to get up.”

    Matt would get up and go or else he’d get tossed with water.

    Matt said he didn’t mind. It got him out, running trails.

    “He was unstoppable. He’d get people to do things that were out of their comfort zone,” Matt said.

    Like the time he took their mother, Nancy Stubbs, climbing up the face of Independence Rock in Colorado National Monument.

    Tom climbed the monument himself for the first time when he was 18.

    An avid rock climber, trail runner and mountain biker, Tom’s love of the outdoors is reflected in a collection of his paintings called “Tom Stubbs: A Retrospective” currently showing at the Art Center.

    Tom painted the places he played in —the Grand Canyon, Colorado National Monument, Lake Powell and Colorado’s mountains. He’d set up his easel and paint in “plein air.”

    He painted those smaller “field studies” to capture the exact colors of the subject, and he’d take photographs to record the shapes and details, using both to make his larger paintings in the studio, Matt said.

    “That’s why his paintings look so realistic,” he said.

Mentors to each other

    Retired Mesa State College professor, Charles Hardy, taught beginning painting, drawing and print making to Tom in the early 1980s. Tom taught Hardy how to climb.

    In what Hardy called a “nice reversal of roles,” Tom eventually began teaching painting to Hardy.

    After college art classes, Tom sought out masters to apprentice with.

    He knocked on the door of nationally-known painter Dan Sprick, of Glenwood Springs and asked him to teach him what he knew.

    Then Tom went to Albuquerque and looked up internationally-known landscape painter Wilson Hurley.

    “He knew where he wanted to go so he picked out the people who could show him. He was pretty nervy,” Hardy said.

    “You can see how he changed. His work became more powerful, more abstract, more colorful. His brush strokes are very, very confident,” Hardy said. “He far exceeded me as far as painting goes.”

    Tom became sort of a spiritual mentor for Hardy.

    “He really did become my teacher on a lot of different levels. He certainly touched a lot of people. He’s still touching them through his art,” Hardy said.

Focused and intense

    While some of the Art Center exhibit includes paintings from private collectors, the majority of pieces belong to the Stubbs family who share the works amongst themselves. Some of the paintings have never been shown before.

    Mixed in with his Colorado and Utah landscape scenes, and a few still lifes, are paintings of tornados.

    Dreams were a huge part of Tom’s life. He dreamt of tornados repeatedly. Sometimes he was chased by them.

    Because of those dreams, he chased them, Matt said.

    He and a friend would drive to Oklahoma during storm season, get the weather reports and look for a tornado to photograph.

    “He was fascinated with tornados because to him they represented focused power and intensity — that was kind of Tom in a nutshell — focused and intense,” said Matt, the youngest of seven siblings.

    Tom had a group of friends he ran with regularly, that included Harry Brown, Baird Brown, Mike Hardy, Bill VonStocken, and in earlier days, Rex Goodrich. They’d run from the foot of the Bookcliff Mountains, across the valley and over trails in the Monument.

    “He taught me the mental part of running,” Brown said. “He cut six minutes off my personal best. He had me doing these mantras that got my mind off of my body.”

    On their runs together Tom told Brown about the people of his dreams, whom he called “friends on the other side.”

    He also mentioned to Brown his close relationship with his mother, and the deep conversations they had about life and death.

    Tom used to run up the trail to the summit of Mt. Sneffels.

    There are several Mt. Sneffels paintings in the Art Center show.

    Another time, Tom talked a friend into running from one rim of the Grand Canyon to the other. Starting at 2 a.m., with headlights, two water bottles and four power bars, the two friends ran down to the bottom of the canyon, up to the other side, and back again.

    He held records for trail running.

    Tom’s father Bill Stubbs remembers when his middle son placed eight out of 1,500 participants in the Pikes Peak Run in the early 1990s. He’d never run it before.

    Whether it was rock climbing, running, biking, or painting, Tom pushed himself to break personal records.

    Eventually he discovered free diving — a sport that involves deep diving on a single breath of air. Tom practiced holding his breath in a hot tub in Mesquite, in preparation for training with the free diving world record-holder two weeks later. He held his breath a second too long.

    Tom died Dec. 31, 2000 at age 41.

A fun brother

    Tom often used to visit his sister Karen in Hawaii, who’s just 13 months younger. He’d stay for extended lengths of time, painting Hawaiian scenes, and playing in the ocean.

    Always anxious to start the day, whoever got up first would clank pots and pans together to awaken the other.

    “Sharing coffee in the morning, and our dreams was a big part of our day,” Karen said.

    They’d swim in the ocean with the dolphins. And before she knew it, Tom would have her swimming across the bay for a two-mile swim in the ocean. Encouraging her, staying by her side the entire time.

    During a stressful time in her life two years ago, Karen had a vivid dream where Tom came to her. He took her by the hand and led her to a mirror and said, “Look Karen, don’t sweat the small stuff.”

    It’s so big, there’s so much more, he told her.

    “Our images began to fade, turning into a view of stars like what you’d see on a mountaintop at night when there’s no other light around, and it takes your breath away,” Karen said. “The mirror turned into a plethora of stars.”

    “It was one of the best dreams he sent me since he passed away,” Karen said.

    Another sister, Kathy Ziola, is a year-and-a-half older than her brother Tom. She remembers a feisty little brother who was prone to accidents and easily angered.

    Then one day during his mid-teens, he decided he wasn’t getting angry anymore.
“He gave it up. He gave up anger,” Ziola said.

    They climbed mountains and went backpacking together in the Maroon Bells Wilderness area, when he was 19 and she was 20.

    “He’d slide down the snow fields on his backpack,” Ziola said.

    Using an old tarp and sticks, Tom built a sweat lodge by a stream. He and his sister, and a friend crawled in together and did a sweat.

    The morning of the day of Stubb’s memorial at Unity Church, 70 people showed up for a run, walk, mountain bike ride up Tabeguache Trail, off of Monument Road to a lookout point called Eagles Wing. The spot overlooks the monument to the west and the south.

    Someone played an Australian aboriginal didjeridoo, a long wooden flute, while friends and family threw flowers over the cliff.

Reach Sharon Sullivan at ssullivan@gjfreepress.com

                                                      

First Friday features outstanding Colorado Landscapes

By Cheryl McNab
Cultural Confidential contributor

Grand Junction, CO
August 3, 2007

    The Art Center will open several outstanding exhibits on Friday, Aug. 3 from 7 to 9 p.m., a highlight of the August First Friday event.

    Chief among the exhibits is the traveling show, Masterpieces of Colorado: A Rich Legacy of Landscape Painting. This major landscape exhibition will showcase more than 60 works by artists from the late 19th century to the present. Many of the paintings of late 19th century artists have never been in shows outside of their respective collections and, therefore, never before accessible to the public.

    “We are delighted that our local sponsors came forward to bring this unique exhibit to The Art Center,” said Camille Silverman, The Art Center’s exhibitions curator. “The show not only can be interpreted through a historical context, but these paintings also can be viewed from a purely experience perspective. There are works that take you above majestic mountains, then into our valleys and finally settle you into a representation of grass pattern which feels as though it is six feet from your nose.”

    This exhibit is sponsored statewide by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Colorado Council on the Arts to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Colorado Council on the Arts. Local sponsors A.G. Edwards Sewell/Arledge Group, Halliburton and Williams Energy made the exhibit’s Grand Junction stop possible.

    This important collection will be in The Art Center’s Gould Gallery and the Atrium now through Sept. 23.

    Also opening at August’s First Friday will be “Tom Stubbs: A Retrospective,” sponsored by Alpine Bank. Stubbs was a local artist who had achieved a national reputation before his untimely death in December 2000. A landscape artist, Stubbs painted and studied on location learning from nature and living his art. This exhibit will feature works that remain with the family as well as some private collectors. Some will be shown in public for the first time.

    “The family of Tom Stubbs has been incredibly generous to share Tom’s art with the public,” said Robbie Breaux, The Art Center’s president. “We are grateful that they chose The Art Center to exhibit this unique retrospective.”

    The Retrospective will be in Studio Colorado until Sept. 29.

    The Pastel Society of Colorado also will open its regional juried show at August First Friday. Grand Illusions will be judged by award-winning artist Bob Harper and will feature some of the best pastel artists working on the Western Slope. The Pastel Society exhibit will be in the North Gallery until Aug. 25.

    Today, a gallery talk will begin in the Gould Gallery at 6:30 p.m. with a presentation by Mike Hurshman, the locally well-known art collector, and will be followed by a presentation in the North Gallery with the comments of pastel judge Bob Harper. A reception follows from 7 to 9 p.m. with a cash bar. Music for the evening is provided by David Schore.

    First Fridays at The Art Center, sponsored by US Bank, are free and open to the public.

    Best kept secret: August workshops at The Art Center

    The Art Center will host two ceramic workshops in August featuring nationally known artists.

    Colorado clay artist Paul Soldner will host a workshop Aug. 11-12. Soldner is a prominent figure in American Contemporary ceramics. In the 1950s, he was instrumental in moving ceramics into the abstract-expressionism arena. One of his biggest contributions was the development of American style Raku.

    Nationally recognized ceramicist Bill van Gilder will present a workshop Aug. 17-19.

    Van Gilder, a professional potter for more than 30 years, has taught all over the world including southern Africa and England. He writes a regular column on teaching techniques for Clay Times magazine, and is the creator and host of “Throwing Clay,” a DIY Network television series about making pottery.

    For more information and registration fees, call 243-7337, ext. 2 or check out the Web site www.gjartcenter.org.

Busy is one thing, but too busy is a bad thing (excerpt)
By Samantha Stiles

The Daily Sentinel

Grand Junction, CO

Thursday, August 02, 2007

New exhibits at The Art Center open Friday, Aug. 3.

The exhibit in The Art Center’s Studio Colorado Gallery of landscape paintings by artist Tom Stubbs blends his love for the outdoors with a passion for painting.

The most arresting painting is the one he was working in 2000, before he died.

The mountains in the background are finished, but the mid and foreground are a blur of yellow and a wash of dark maroon.

It stands out instantly in a room filled with some great work.

Not far down the hall from Stubbs’ show is the Masterpieces of Colorado: A Rich Legacy of Landscape Painting exhibit.

As I took a deep calming breath, felt the air conditioning around me and entered the Gould Gallery, I was immediately drawn to two paintings.

The first, “Twin Peaks” by Tracy Felix, is an oil on board that is so smooth with rich dimensions that the marshmallow-creme clouds look like they’ll float off the painting.

The second was “Ruins of Central City” by Vance Kirkland, another oil landscape, but slightly more abstract. The ruins are these misplaced walls surrounded by boulders and trees that look like arms growing out of the earth.

The above exhibits, along with an exhibit by the Pastel Society’s local juried exhibit, open to the public at The Art Center’s First Friday open gallery from 7-9 p.m. There will be a gallery talk at 6:30 p.m.

•Samantha Stiles can be reached via e-mail at sstiles@gjds.com.

The Art Center opens three new exhibits

By Cheryl McNab
Cultural Confidential contributor
Grand Junction CO, Colorado
June 29, 2007

    The Western Colorado Center for the Arts will open three new exhibits at the Center’s monthly First Friday event on July 6. All of the exhibits will feature work by local artists.

    “We are delighted that our exhibits for July will focus completely on local artists,” said Art Center Board President Robbie Breaux. “Grand Junction and the Grand Valley are such rich arts communities having the opportunity to highlight some of the region’s great talent is wonderful. We are particularly pleased with our partnership this month with Artspace and Open Studios. We’re working together to raise the visibility of artists and their work.”

    Opening in the North Gallery will be “TRANSFORMATIONS,” an Artspace & Open Studios members’ exhibit.

    “These illuminating artworks take us on a spiritual quest, offering a glimpse of individual visions of our world, art, and traditions,” said Artspace Director Linda Brotman-Evans. “This exhibit offers others a means of sharing intimate and gentle revelations of artists whose work has been influenced by change whether personal, technical, artistic, political or social.”

    Artspace & Open Studios is a non-profit organization whose mission is to foster the continual growth of the arts and individual artists thereby enhancing the cultural and economic vitality of the Western Slope community.

    Opening in the Atrium will be “In Tribute: Trees of Serpents Trail, Pen & Ink Portraits” by Rose Nordenberg. Stemming from her background as a photographic retoucher, local artist Nordenberg finds herself absorbed with details. After experimenting with several mediums she settled on pen and ink as her main means of expressing herself. Recently she has branched into colored ink and some watercolor renditions of botanicals and small wildlife.

    While she admires all of the beauty in nature, Nordenberg has a special relationship with singular trees that she passes daily while hiking with her husband on Serpents Trail. A book of Nordenberg’s thoughts about the harsh but noble lives of these survivors, complete with her illustrations is available in the Gift Shop. She will be signing copies at the First Friday opening reception.

    “Being able to see all my drawings together and have the public able to enjoy what I see is beyond my expectations,” Nordenberg said. “Working with The Art Center has been such a pleasure; they are so professional. This opportunity is a dream come true.”

    The final opening for July’s First Friday will be in Studio Colorado. The Art Center’s Instructors & Students Show will feature the work of present and past instructors and students. Pottery, sculpture, oil, watercolor and collage are just some of the media that will be represented.

    “It’s a good opportunity for students to showcase their progress over the year, and it’s a chance for the public to see what can be accomplished by taking classes from some of The Art Center’s talented instructors,” said Terry Shepherd, The Art Center’s artist in residence. “It’s the highlight of the students’ year to be able to display their art in our gallery space.”

    First Friday will be July 6 at The Art Center, 1803 N. 7th Street from 7-9 p.m. There will be a gallery talk at 6:30 when the public can hear about all three shows. First Friday is free and open to the public. Light refreshments and a cash bar are offered.

    First Fridays at The Art Center are made possible with the generous support of US Bank. Artspace & Open Studios exhibit was made possible with the generous support of Chuck and Robbie Breaux.

    All three exhibits will remain up at The Art Center until July 28.
For more information, call The Art Center at 243-7337.
 

Art Center opens 3 exhibits

Friday, July 06, 2007

Samantha Stiles

No more boots and belt buckles, the cowboy artwork is packed up.

New exhibits at The Art Center, 1803 N. Seventh St., offer a glimpse at the work of all local artists.

July 6, First Friday at the museum, marks the opening of three exhibits; “Transformations”; “In Tribute: Trees of Serpents Trail, Pen & Ink Portraits”; and The Art Center’s “Instructors and Student Show.”

“Transformations,” in the North Gallery, is an exhibit by members Artspace and Open Studios, a nonprofit arts enhancement organization.

Linda Brotman-Evans, Artspace executive director, said in a news release that the artworks will take viewers on a “spiritual quest, offering a glimpse of individual visions of our world, art and traditions.”

Opening in the Atrium is “In Tribute,” a collection of pen-and-ink drawings by Rose Nordenberg.

The “Instructors and Students Show” is exhibited in Studio Colorado, and is a collection of pottery, sculpture, oil, watercolor and collage, to name a few.

All three exhibits will stay up until July 28.

The opening event on Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. and the gallery talk at 6:30 p.m. the same night are free to the public. Light refreshments are offered as well as a cash bar.

For information, call (970) 243-7337. 

Three shows opening tonight at The Art Center

By Sharon Sullivan
July 6, 2007

    Grand Junction — Ever since she moved to Grand Junction 11 years ago, Rose Nordenberg has hiked Serpents Trail in Colorado National Monument nearly every day. The trees, flowers and animal life of the monument has become the subject of her artwork which is one of three exhibits opening tonight at The Art Center.

    “I just fell in love with the trees,” said Nordenberg, who used to be a photo retoucher in Illinois.

     Nordenberg’s “In Tribute: Trees of Serpents Trail, Pen and Ink Portraits” will also include a few animal drawings. One of them is a collared lizard titled “Lizzie” — a drawing featured in “Strokes of Genius: The Best of Drawing” — a collection of 168 drawings from all over the world, edited by Rachel Rubin Wolf.

    July’s First Friday art opening features three separate exhibits, all featuring local artists.

    Nordenberg has also created a 100 handmade books that include her writings, and reproductions of all the original drawings currently exhibited in The Art Center’s Atrium Gallery. She’ll be signing books at tonight’s reception.

    The North Gallery’s opening show is “Transformations” — an Artspace and Open Studios members exhibit.

    Artspace and Open Studios is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to foster the growth of the arts and individual artists, and the cultural and economic vitality of the Western Slope.

    The third show opening tonight in Studio Colorado is The Art Center’s annual Instructors and Students Show, featuring the work of present and past instructors and students. Works will include pottery, sculpture, oil, watercolor and collage.

    “It’s a good opportunity for students to showcase their progress over the year, and it’s a chance for the public to see what can be accomplished by taking classes from some of The Art Center’s talented instructors,” said Terry Shepherd, The Art Center’s artist-in-residence.

    “It’s a great show. A lot of our students have been with us for four or five years,” said The Art Center Director Cheryl McNab.

    The galleries open at 7 p.m. with a gallery talk on all three shows taking place at 6:30.

    “We are delighted that our exhibits for July will focus completely on local artists,” McNab said. “We are particularly pleased with our partnership this month with Artspace and Open Studios. We’re working together to raise the visibility of artists and their work.”

Raku at The Art Center

By Sharon Sullivan
May 31, 2007


    Grand Junction — There’s fire, there’s smoke, and it’s relatively fast.

    During the Western Colorado Center for the Arts First Friday gathering, people will have an opportunity to glaze and fire their own piece of raku pottery under the guidance of ceramics instructors Terry Shepherd and Gary Andrews. A variety of shapes and sizes of bowls will be available for people to purchase for $20, to finish and take home that night.

    “It’s a fast fire. You can watch the whole process,” said Shepherd, The Art Center’s artist in-residence.

    Raku pottery originated during Japan’s renaissance in the 1500s, said Shepherd.

    “Raku sprang up as a method for making utensils for tea ceremonies. Zen Buddhist tea ceremonies sprang up out of that,” Shepherd said.

    Americans started doing raku-style pottery in the 1940s.

    Raku is done by low temperature and quick firing, and then quickly cooled. The glazing and firing demonstration will last about an hour and a half, starting at 6 p.m.

    Meanwhile, there’s other things going on at The Art Center that night.

    Friday is the final day of The Art Center’s annual ceramics sale. Pottery pieces are donated for the art center fundraiser by instructors, students and occasionally out-of-town potters.

    A reception with H’doerves and a cash bar will go from 7 to 9 p.m.

    Also, The American Cowboy exhibit continues until June 23. It is the 10th annual contemporary Art Center juried show. The North Gallery is exhibiting works by juror H.T. Holden, and invited artists such as Larry Bees of St. George, Utah.

    The Gould Gallery contains selections of works from The Art Center’s permanent collection.

    “We have a tremendous collection of western Colorado art — either by western Colorado artists or art about western Colorado,” said Director Cheryl McNab. “Every First Friday we have a new happening or new opening.”

    The juried collection, which contains cowboy-themed works of art from several western states is displayed in The Art Center’s Studio Colorado.

    First Fridays — when galleries hold receptions and events on the first Friday of each month, are becoming common in art communities in many cities, said McNab.

The Western Colorado Center for the Arts is a nonprofit corporation organized to promote the enjoyment and understanding of the arts through educational programs, exhibits, and the acquisition and display of a permanent collection.