30 minute read
Travel
COURTESY OF KENT VERTREES Do the Duffy
| BY EUGENE BUCHANAN
Duffy Canyon offers a Class I-II float through a sagebrush-covered desert canyon.
et off your duffs and head to Duffy Canyon.
Yep, everyone’s heard of world-class Yampa Canyon through Dinosaur National Monument. But with only a 5 percent chance of landing a private permit, the opportunities to run it are slim, or expensive if you go with a commercial outfitter. So, head somewhere closer and free that doesn’t require a permit: the Yampa’s unsung and unheralded Duffy, or Little Yampa, Canyon.
Little Yampa/Duffy Canyon is located just downstream of Craig and is home to one of the most family-friendly and wilderness flatwater stretches of the Yampa – a section that has been deemed suitable, even, for Wild & Scenic designation. Unlike Yampa Canyon, which requires a permit from Dinosaur National Monument, Duffy is managed by the Bureau of Land Management as a Special Recreation Management Area and doesn’t require one. Just show up and go.
“It’s a hidden gem offering solitude and scenery, and it gives floaters a perspective of working agriculture alongside the nature that relies on the Yampa,” says Jackie Brown, who chairs the
GYampa-White-Green Basin Roundtable. “It is a testament that the Yampa Valley Curse is running strong up and down valley.” While its 32-mile length discourages day trippers (that’s a bit long, unless you’re up for an all-day paddle in a sea kayak or canoe), the section is gaining popularity, thanks to Friends of the Yampa — in partnership with the BLM’s Little Snake Field Office, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Yampa River State Park, Mission Continues and Craig’s Parrotheads — building five riverside campsites on the stretch in 2018, complete with signs, fire rings, grilling grates, picnic tables and tent sites. The five campsites include Antlers (Mile 7.6), Friends (Mile 14.5), Railroad (Mile 14.8), Bubba’s Beach (Mile 25.5), and Charlie Mike (Mile 30.4). If those are full, look for other areas on the stretch’s cobblestone bars and banks. Run it at the right time and you’re in for a wilderness treat, floating Class I-II flatwater past large stands of old growth cottonwoods, sage-brush-covered hills and a sweeping desert canyon you never even knew was there.
Solitude, scenery and convenient proximity to Steamboat Springs make Duffy Canyon an appealing rafting option.
– Jackie Brown, chair, Yampa-WhiteGreen Basin Roundtable
“Little Yampa Canyon is a magical place,” says Kent Vertrees of Friends of the Yampa. “It’s remote, super scenic, and carries the allure of being in a truly wild place. And it’s great for boaters who are looking for a mellow, non-permitted, multiday river trip – especially if you have kids, love to bring your dog, or enjoy paddleboarding.” SM
Helpful Hints
Put-in: The South Beach put-in is located 3 miles south of Craig, off Colorado 13 (just after the bridge over the Yampa); no camping allowed. Takeout: The takeout is located at mile 32. To get there, take U.S. Highway 40 west of Craig for 19 miles to Moffat County Road 17. Drive 10.2 miles to BLM Road 1593 and turn left. The river access site is 1 mile farther on the right. From the river, it’s on river left. Toilet and camping available. Shuttles: Contact Good Vibes River Gear in Craig for shuttle services: (970) 367-3627; www.goodvibesrivergear.com Flows: Visit www.waterdata.usgs.gov/co/nwis/uv?site_no=09247600 to check on current flow levels (look for station “below Craig”). Weather: Check the weather forecast before your float and bring appropriate shelter and gear. Camping: With no official sign-up for campsites, talk with other floaters at the put-in or once on the river to figure out where others are camping. If you go: Bring a firepan in case the official campsites are taken (bring your own wood, or use only driftwood); a groover (portable toilet); practice Leave No Trace principles (pack out all trash); and respect the private property. Also, beware of mosquitoes after peak runoff (usually best before the end of June). Info: www.friendsoftheyampa.com/little-yampa-canyon
Photo Credit: Tim Murphy
DELIBERATE CREATIVE PROCESS. ELEGANT DESIGN SOLUTIONS.
Steamboat Springs, Colorado 970.819.1320 craftarchitecturestudio.com
ArtGolden Anniversary of
Steamboat Springs’ Past, Present and Future in light of Steamboat Creates’ 50th Anniversary
The Rehder Building in 1929 was home to Ford Garage offices, Northwestern Auto Parts, a dentist’s office, an insurance office and a uranium company office. | BY DAN GREESON 50Years. Five decades. Eighteen thousand, two hundred and fifty days. That’s how long Steamboat Creates, formerly the Steamboat Springs Arts Council, has served as a gateway for arts, culture and heritage in Steamboat Springs. Led by executive director Kim Keith, Steamboat Creates achieved Colorado Creative District designation in 2017. However, it’s impossible to have a comprehensive conversation about Steamboat’s arts community without looking at the big picture: honoring its past, appreciating its present, and looking excitedly to the future.
COURTESY OF STEAMBOAT ART MUSEUM
Artist Stephen Henry won the Historic Routt County Award of Excellence in 2017 for “Steamboat at Night,” his depiction of the Steamboat Art Museum, which currently occupies the Rehder Building. Today it is included on the National Registry of Historic Places, the Downtown Historic District, and is a cornerstone of the Arts and Culture Creative District designated by the State of Colorado.
Traces of Steamboat’s arts history can be found throughout town. In the very fabric of its visual arts, music, dance and theater communities, we find threads leading back to legends like the Crawfords – Steamboat’s founding family – Charlotte Perry, Portia Mansfield and Eleanor Bliss.
In 1913, Perry and Mansfield traveled into the Yampa Valley wilderness to found a dance/equestrian camp amidst the mountains. The humble camp these women founded saw prodigious success, attracting a star-studded repertoire of actors and dancers, from Agnes DeMille and José Limón to Dustin Hoffman and Julie Harris. Today the camp continues to bring internationally renowned performers to Northwest Colorado.
The historic Depot Art Center, home of Steamboat Creates, exemplifies the bond between the local arts community and its heritage. The building once housed the train depot that transported cattle, strawberries and people to and from town. With improvements to Rabbit Ears Pass, train service was discontinued in 1968, and the Depot was narrowly saved from destruction in 1972 with an enthusiastic “Save the Depot” campaign.
Two of those lobbyists, Eleanor Bliss and Carol Finnoff, founded the Steamboat Arts Council that same year. Bliss had originally come to Steamboat in 1924 to study dance at PerryMansfield Performing Arts School & Camp and stayed after falling in love with the Yampa Valley. Today, the Depot is home to rotating arts exhibits, artist-in-residency programs, youth art camps and other events.
Also in 1972, another long-standing Steamboat arts group started with a dozen dancers who wanted to hold an annual performance. Fifty years later, Steamboat Dance Theatre has seen continuous growth, hosting several sold-out performances of its annual show with over 150 dancers.
The Tread of Pioneers Museum has documented the rich history of the Yampa Valley since 1959. With a meticulously curated collection, historic walking tours, guided hikes and informative events and exhibits, the museum is a prime resource to explore Steamboat’s history, including the arts. The museum is housed in a 1901 Queen-Anne style Victorian home.
Historic Routt County also plays an integral role in preserving Routt County’s heritage. For over 20 years, this dedicated group has protected local buildings and land. One of its most high-profile projects was saving the Arnold Barn, aka “The Butterfly Barn,” which had been targeted for demolition at its former location adjacent to the Meadows Parking Lot. It was preserved and moved to the entrance of the ski area in 2018. “The Arnold Barn matters to me, to all of us here in Steamboat. It matters to people throughout the country, and we hope it matters to you,” says Arianthe Stettner, cofounder of Historic Routt County. “A group of riled-up women banded together in 1972 and said, ‘We’re going to save this building and make it an arts center,’ and it has been one ever since.”
Kim Keith, executive director of Steamboat Creates
COURTESY OF TREAD OF PIONEERS MUSEUM
1990, Eleanor Bliss, cofounder of Steamboat Creates
Eleanor Bliss stands beside the railroad tracks outside of the Depot Art Center.
Dancers in what is now the dining room of Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts Camp’s Main Lodge, constructed in 1918. The screens and lack of patio indicate the picture was taken relatively soon after construction. The Main Lodge was used as a dance studio until the Main Studio was built in 1922.
When it comes to the Yampa Valley arts community, there’s no more exciting time than the present.
Simply stroll down the sidewalks of Old Town to delight in commemorative banners created by mixed-media artist Katie Earixson. As part of its 50th anniversary celebration, Steamboat Creates and MainStreet Steamboat collaborated to present these banners, which depict Steamboat scenes.
Then stop in at Steamboat Art Museum, which exemplifies the fusion of Steamboat’s past and present. When the museum opened in 2006, the historic First National Bank Building was a well-known local landmark buzzing with potential. That possibility has been realized with nationally-recognized art exhibits – including this summer’s Oil Painters of America National Exhibition and fall’s Plein Air workshop and exhibit.
Strings Music Festival is the epicenter of the performing arts in Steamboat. What was founded in 1988 as a summer series of eight classical music concerts has grown to more than 60 musical performances of diverse genres throughout the year, plus an extensive education program. Since its inception 34 years ago, Strings has hosted more than 60 Grammy winners – and counting – plus musicians from all 25 of the nation’s top orchestras. Upcoming concerts include the world premiere of “Arabian Nights and the Dance of Life and Death,” with the Strings Festival Orchestra, the Drepung Loseling Monks, Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers, Béla Fleck and James McMurtry.
Steamboat flautist Mary Beth Norris dreamed of the day she could perform locally with an orchestra. Her vision led to the creation of the Steamboat Symphony Orchestra in 1991. When Ernest Richardson joined the orchestra as music director in 2005, SSO began inviting professional players from outside the community to perform with the local group. Today, SSO is made up of local, regional and sometimes nationally renowned musicians, and additionally, SSO has taken a lead role in music education in the county.
Musical stars from throughout the world converge each summer to perform with Opera Steamboat. 2022 saw the enthusiastic expansion of the company’s performance schedule, as well as the Opera Artists Institute, which comprises intensive workshops, master classes and performances for emerging artists. Summer highlights include a modern-day version of Puccini’s “La Bohème,” Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” and “Three Feathers,” by Lorid Laitman.
Among the many artistic endeavors that originated in Steamboat is Literary Sojourn, slated for Saturday, Sept. 10. This year’s event features Omar El Akkad, National Book Award winner Jason Mott, Gary Shteyngart, Claire Vaye Watkins and Man Booker finalist Karen Joy Fowler. “The pandemic obviously stoked the creative juices and boosted some imaginative and quirky new storytelling that is going to make this year’s Literary Sojourn extra current and extra special,” says Literary Sojourn Festival Director Jennie Lay.
The Yampa River Botanic Park is a meeting ground for the arts and botany. Springing up from a horse pasture in 1995, the park includes six acres of lush gardens and hosts more than 35,000 visitors each year. Public sculptures and a reflecting pond complement the gardens, which provide an idyllic outdoor venue for theatrical and musical performances.
Celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer, Steamboat Writers Group attracts authors from an eclectic variety of genres and experience levels. Meeting weekly, the group offers a place where local writers can bounce their ideas off of one another. Each July, the group hosts a writers’ conference, including workshops, readings and guest authors. “A lot of cool things happen in this town, but Sojourn is still my favorite day of the year. I’m ridiculously excited to be back live again with stupendous authors and a pavilion packed with book geeks.”
Jennie Lay, festival director of Literary Sojourn
Betse Grassby, executive director of Steamboat Art Museum
COURTESY OF TREAD OF PIONEERS MUSEUM
The Tread of Pioneers Museum, located on the corner of Oak and Eighth streets, is home to many art pieces from throughout Steamboat Springs’ history.
Wynton Marsalis performs in the Strings Music Pavilion.
What will the future hold? If upcoming plans are any indication, the Northwest Colorado arts scene is poised to make a meaningful statement in the world of arts and culture, not only locally but throughout the West.
To foster opportunities for young artists, Steamboat Creates is offering residencies to two local artists, Julia Ben Asher and Garrett Bock, in the Nazcaboose studio at the Depot Arts Center. Asher, a mixed media artist, painter and writer, is working in the space this summer, while Bock, a printmaker, will utilize the space in the fall.
Steamboat’s performing arts community is moving in a progressive direction, with Opera Steamboat performing the chamber opera, “As One,” in September. The piece focuses on a transgender main character, a new topic for Steamboat theater and one that may bring awareness to the topic of trans rights in the Yampa Valley.
Perry Mansfield Performing Arts School & Camp is merging with Friends of Yampa Valley Arts, likely by year’s end. The merger involves the renovation of the historic Julie Harris Theater at Perry-Mansfield’s campus and may allow the camp to expand year-round programming.
In 2023, Piknik Theatre plans to build the Yampa Valley’s first outdoor amphitheater next to Strawberry Park Elementary School and Steamboat Springs Middle School, in collaboration with the Steamboat Springs School District. The outdoor theater will create a venue for local arts organizations and for students to spread their theatrical wings.
The Colorado New Play Festival, an annual event in which playwrights from around the country debut new works, has an intriguing collaboration with the Boys and Girls Club on the horizon. The festival will expand its programming to include a new “playwright slam” next summer.
Steamboat Symphony Orchestra music director Ernest Richardson conducts a performance by students in the 2021 Immersion Weekend, when musicians of all ages and abilities gather for intensive study, culminating in a celebration concert.
Scott Parker, Colorado New Play Festival board member
Scott Parker with renowned magician John Armstrong
COURTESY OF COLORADO NEW PLAY FESTIVAL/BRUCE THAYER
Glenn Davis and Donté Bonner perform a reading of the Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins play “Purpose” during the 2019 Colorado New Play Festival. performances in a box,
but when you’re in the outdoors,
you really know you’re in Steamboat.” Stuart Handloff, executive director of Piknik Theatre
An artist mockup of Piknik Theatre’s planned outdoor amphitheater near Strawberry Park Elementary and Steamboat Springs Middle schools.
Yampa Valley locals in the African Drum and Dance group perform Lucky Moyo’s gumboot piece on the Steamboat Springs High School stage at the 50th Steamboat Dance Theatre Concert, February 2022.
This fall, Off the Beaten Path Bookstore is working with Steamboat Creates to install a mural, “Portal to Imagination,” at the local store. This is part of Steamboat Creates’ overarching plan to bolster public art within the creative district – the organization also plans to reinstall the newly refurbished, iconic bronze cougar statue along Yampa River Core Trail.
Steamboat may not be synonymous with the film industry, but that could soon change. The Steamboat Springs Film Committee is working to promote Steamboat’s media professionals, attracting more productions to the area with the hopes of, one day, creating a local film festival.
The Performing Arts Alliance meets regularly to formulate a vision for the future of Steamboat’s performing arts nonprofits. To create a secure future for these organizations, the council tackles problems like finding seasonal housing and lining up venues for new events.
The Young Bloods Collective, a nonprofit that works to help up-andcoming artists in the Steamboat community, is another integral piece in helping build the Yampa Valley’s artistic future. The Young Bloods hold art markets regularly in downtown Steamboat, providing a space for promising creatives to exhibit their work.
The Steamboat Springs arts community has transformed dramatically over the years, in ways even local arts forebears like Eleanor Bliss and the Crawford family could never have predicted. With that in mind, what wonderments do the next 50 years hold? SM
COURTESY OF PIKNIK THEATRE
“Fare thee well, nymph,” says Oberon, King of the Fairies, during Piknik Theatre’s outdoor performance of “Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Dancers from the Limón Dance Company strike poses in an aspen grove at PerryMansfield Performing Arts School & Camp.
Reimagining José Limón
A breathtaking renewal at Perry-Mansfield
| STORY BY JENNIE LAY PHOTOGRAPHY BY KELLY PULEIO
Infinite yards of marigold fabric draped the five lithe dancers hovering at the door. They stepped slowly into the glasswalled pavilion at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts Camp as late-day light glowed through the aspen forest. An audience of dance aficionados sat awed by a delicate weaving and unfurling as the women performed “Air for the G String,” a 1928 piece choreographed by Doris Humphrey to music by Johann Sebastian Bach. The effect was stunning.
The Limón Dance Company, America’s first modern dance repertory company, was resurrecting this legacy work on hallowed ground, reuniting last summer for a residency at Perry-Mansfield after the pandemic lockdown. Their presence marked an artistic convergence at the 109-year-old arts camp. Back in the 1930s, modern dance revolutionaries like Humphrey, Charles Wideman, Agnes de Mille and José Limón relied upon Perry-Mansfield’s discreet location in Strawberry Park to escape the prying eyes of New York, imagine cutting-edge movement, and create the foundations of modern dance. Limón, who died in 1972, is credited with creating one of the world’s most enduring dance legacies. His company has been at the vanguard of American modern dance since its inception and is considered one of the world’s greatest dance companies.
Nearly a century after Humphrey’s piece was first performed at Perry-Mansfield, the camp witnessed the revival of the classic piece performed by Limón’s legendary company. The moment was sweetened by the fact that the Limón dancers were making their camp debut in Steamboat – a long-due appearance that coincided with the company’s 75th anniversary season.
“In 75 years, the company’s never been here before,” says Dante Puleio, the company’s artistic director. A few days after the impromptu performance, he relaxed for a chat. Warm and
casual, he spoke with legs dangling off the porch of the historic, open-air Louis Horst studio while a Limón technique class proceeded behind him. The percussion of a live drum shifted to the adagio of stringed music as 24 college students sweated alongside 12 members of the Limón company.
“It feels like just the right moment. You know, José was part of the original era when modern dance was at its pinnacle, and it was happening here. To start off new, with a new generation, it feels wildly appropriate to be here. I’m excited to see this company actually start to find that performance groove,” Puleio confesses. “The other night was the first time a lot of them have performed in person since a year and a half ago, and I was glad it worked out that way. It was like open rehearsals – low stakes. It was more about sharing an experience.”
The Limón residency included two weeks with pre-professional students and a two-week solo intensive for the company. The camp allowed for something deeper than a two-hour audition – a chance to get to know one another on a deeper, more creative level. Growing dance in isolation
In March 2020, Puleio discovered that coronavirus lockdowns might offer an opportunity for expansion. No longer able to gather in their shared rehearsal space with Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Limón company went virtual. Instagram classes opened a portal for students throughout the world. Enrollment spiked enough to create two tracks, including one for more experienced dancers that grew into Limón 2, a second company that serves as a stepping stone to the main company.
“It opened up a lot of possibilities because you kind of had to go back to zero,” says Puleio, who was tapped as Limón’s artistic director one week after the world went into lockdown. “Having said that, what is important for me is looking at who José was as a person and building from there. How can we identify with what he did, why he did it? And how can we talk about that for the 21st century artist and audience? How can we make that interesting?” Limón’s return
The Limón legacy began finding its way back to Perry-Mansfield via Chris Compton and Tammy Dyke-Compton when they became the camp’s dance co-directors in 2015. Compton entered University of the Arts in Philadelphia a year behind Puleio, and “Dante was just this force for good. He took me under his wing,” Compton says.
Jump to 2021, “and next thing you know, we have Limón Dance Company at Perry-Mansfield. So that was kind of incredible,” marvels Dyke-Compton. She was a Perry-Mansfield camper long before she became dance director. “My first experience of modern dance was when I was 16 and I was a student at Perry-Mansfield. That’s where the seed was planted. I ended up going to Julliard, and I studied Limón for four years.”
Dyke-Compton constantly reminds her students about the modern dance pioneers who taught at Perry-Mansfield. This is where it blossomed, where it was born, where it was nurtured. “And we would not be here today without that lineage, and without that discovery that happened at camp,” she says.
Building green since 1980.
www.fox-construction.com 970-879-7529
Turning 75
José Limón’s technique is specific. “It really sits in the idea of our body’s relationship to gravity,” Puleio says. “We look at suspension and opposition … what are we doing at this moment, right before we fall, and examining that with the body.” It’s a vocabulary that originated with modern dance pioneers Humphrey and Weidman, who first brought Limón with them to Perry-Mansfield in 1935.
An aspiring painter, Limón discovered dance in his 20s through Humphrey and Weidman. As their dancer, and later as a choreographer for his own company, Limón
shaped the Humphrey-Weidman vocabulary into his own language. Puleio describes a feeling the opposite of ballet: instead of floating, the dancer is embracing what it is to give in to gravity and be connected to the earth.
In the 21st century, schools teach Limón and ballet as points of complementary focus. “That’s how they train their dancers because it offers them not only technique, but texture and how they use their technique, understanding your body and how it moves in space,” Puleio says.
Limón Dance Company opened its 75th season last April at the iconic Joyce Theater in New York City – another glorious return, as the Limón company was part of Joyce’s inaugural season. The anniversary celebration is a nod to both Limón’s historic choreography and who
Physically, Limón was known as a dramatic and athletic dancer with spectacular leaps. He was a tall man with a commanding presence, and his lofty jumps were captured in iconic photographs made at PerryMansfield. Company members re-staged the flying poses for a modern retake on Limón’s plein air photo shoot.
Wine-Collective.com
1875 Ski Time Square Dr. (970)-761-2638
Wine-Collective.com
1875 Ski Time Square Dr. (970)-761-2638
he was as a human. The company looked toward the future with two world premieres by guest choreographers in 2022 – new works that reflect a kind of conversation with Limón’s personal inspirations as the son of a musician who grew up in Mexico during a revolution. A new look at Limón
After marveling at “Air for G String,” last summer’s intimate audience migrated across the Perry-Mansfield campus. Inside the rustic main theater, the company performed parts of Limón’s 1966 piece. “The Winged,” ingeniously dancing on a stage that famously lacks wings. They were unveiling the bones of a work in process – just the kind of engagement that once gave founders Charlotte Perry and Portia Mansfield great glee – because the residency had given the company time to reimagine “The Winged” as a dance on film.
“It’s always interested me to take that work out of the proscenium and put it in nature, because we’re looking at the wing and we’re looking at birds. We’re looking at that human need for flight and freedom and power over our own destiny, and how we can bring that into nature. Why not put the piece where it can kind of live a little bit?” Puleio explains.
The company filmed later that week in the aspens, meadows and ponds of Perry-Mansfield, and “The Winged” transformed classic Limón stage choreography into a contemporary work for the screen. One imagines Mansfield, Perry and Limón applauding their audacity from on high.
“The Winged” dance on film is now touring global film festivals. SM
A Perry-Mansfield wood pile transforms into a stage for José Limón dancers.
“King of the Wild Things” | 30 x 30 ANNA ROSE BAIN 2022 GOLD MEDAL AWARD WINNER | STORY BY SUZI MITCHELL 2022 MEMBERS’ CHOICE AWARD PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID PATTERSON
The Best of the Best
| BY DEBORAH OLSEN
It’s a shame there’s no red carpet for artists to walk at the Oil Painters of America annual exhibit, on display this summer at Steamboat Art Museum, because the show is filled with celebrities.
The best representational oil painters in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico vie for a place in this juried exhibition, which returns to Steamboat Springs for the second time in four years. Almost 2,000 artists submitted works for consideration in 2022; approximately 230 pieces made the final cut. The jury selected three Yampa Valley artists for inclusion: Adam Zabel, Chula Beauregard and Bonnie McGee, whose work sold prior to the exhibition and will not be on display.
“These artists represent the top of the top,” says Dancy St. John, who curated the show for SAM.
The jury’s goal in 2022 was to select paintings that demonstrate the highest quality in draftsmanship, color and composition while emphasizing a diversity in style and subject matter. The resulting exhibit is all of that, as well as being emotive, captivating and even occasionally shocking.
The national show has been a hit since it first came to town in 2018. “People come in multiple times,” says Dottie Jones-Zabel, director of operations at SAM. “You just can’t digest it all the first time.”
Even selecting a few favorite pieces is difficult. The process begins with one or two that immediately stand out, but others quickly catch your eye. Before you know it, you have spent hours savoring the artwork, and hours more could easily be devoted to the task.
“There’s something for everyone,” St. John says.
It’s not surprising that Jones-Zabel’s favorite piece is “Ready to Ride,” a portrait of a white horse in golden light that was created by her husband, Adam. The horse comes alive, seemingly in motion even on the still canvas. In an agricultural community like Routt County, the horse is more than an excellent piece of art: it is emblematic of a lifestyle.
St. John, who curated the exhibit based largely on the OPA’s criteria, said she was immediately drawn to Gail E. Wegodsky’s “Cathedral of Shared Human Knowledge,” a depiction of the interior of Bibliothèque Nationale de France – Richelieu Louvois. The elaborate domes overhead, the murals, the extensive collection of invaluable manuscripts – all of the details of this architectural masterpiece are present in Wegodsky’s painting. In the center of it all stands a man, back arched as he looks overhead to study the magnificent domed ceilings, not unlike the pose we would likely strike if we could be there.
“Salish Sea,” a photorealistic study of water by Friday Harbor, Washington, artist Debbie Daniels, draws the eye back to it time and again with its strong lines, photo-like quality and strong-yetsubtle use of color.
“King of the Wild Things” by Anna Rose Bain also employs photorealism, in combination with other techniques, to create a whimsical portrait study of a child surrounded by wild animals against a wooded, fall landscape.
Some artists use their medium to make a social statement. Las Cruces, New Mexico, artist Vincent Figliola tells the story of the separation of an immigrant parent from his child in “Connected,” a study in contemporary realism that is certain
“Cathedral of Shared Human Knowledge” | 30 x 40 GAIL WEGODSKY
“Salish Sea” | 24 x 48 DEBBIE DANIELS
WagnerDesignStudio.com 970-846-0905
Creating unique architecture in harmony with the environment
525 LINCOLN AVE. • ACROSS FROM THE OLD COURTHOUSE 970-870-6658
to evoke emotion. Kristen Savage’s “My Body, My Rules” makes a strong social commentary, as it depicts a naked female figure, pulling a trench coat over her body, with her face turned away from the viewer.
The works of Master OPA artists, who enjoy the organization’s most prestigious status, are on display in the front gallery of the museum. “Night Shift Miner,” by Christopher Zhang, is among them. This new piece manifest’s Zhang’s expertise in portraiture. Look into this miner’s eyes and you will see exhaustion, pride and power.
Each of the 230-plus works in the OPA exhibit could easily inspire an imaginative backstory. To afford writers the opportunity to bring these stories to life, Steamboat Art Museum, Ski Town Media and Off the Beaten Path host Ekphrasis, an annual competition in which poets and authors enter short works based on any piece of art in the exhibit. Renowned locals read the winning entries at an Ekphrasis event, Thursday, July 21, and the winners will be posted online at SteamboatArtMuseum.org.
The Oil Painters of America’s 31st National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils is on display through Saturday, Aug. 27. The museum is open Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., and Saturdays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. SM
“Night Shift Miner” | 26 x 20 CHRISTOPHER ZHANG
Arts Rites of H Arts
Healing
| PHOTOGRAPHY BY GEORGE FARGO
Tibetan Buddhist Drepung Loseling Monks complete the mandala ritual by casting their completed piece into the Yampa River.
Letting go: a concept rarely captured in a work of art.
And yet, this enigmatic idea is fully embodied in the Mandala on the Yampa event, which at long last returns to Bud Werner Memorial Library this summer.
During a residency at the library, Tibetan Buddhist Drepung Loseling Monks create a mandala sand painting meant to heal the surrounding area. The monks have performed this ancient ritual in Steamboat Springs twice previously, but it has been seven years since the last iteration.
This year, the monks create an Akshobhya Mandala, meant to manifest harmony and healing. The ceremony begins with a blessing, followed by creation of a chalk outline, after which the monks meticulously fill in their tracings with colorful grains of sand using a traditional chakpur funnel. At the ceremony’s end, the monks sweep up the mandala and cast it into the Yampa River. This is an act meant to signify both life’s impermanence and a blessing for the rest of the world.
These photographs detail the sacred process that the Drepung Loseling Monks use to create – and destroy – their mandalas.
The monks use tools called chakpurs, which are gently tapped with a metal rod or another chakpur to precisely add sand to the mandala.
BETTER THAN NATURE INTENDED
Available in three collections, Karastan offers gorgeous luxury vinyl tile inspired by some of the world's most rare and beautiful materials.
Retailer Name & Logo
Children take turns using chakpurs to add sand to the community mandala. SM
more @ Mandala on the Yampa takes place Tuesday-Sunday, Aug. 9-14, in Library Hall. For the story of Jill Bergman, the local artist who created the pattern for the
community’s mandala, visit YampaValleyArts.com.
STEAMBOAT POWDERCATS
SKI TOWN MEDIA
Telling Genuine Steamboat Stories since 1978
685 Marketplace Plaza #6 Steamboat Springs, CO 80487 970-875-3728 www.TheGlacierLily.com
Steamboat Magazine Steamboat Springs Visitors’ Guide Yampa Valley Arts & Culture Guide Steamboat Wedding Day Steamboat Springs Tablet Map Digital Marketing
Subscribe to Steamboat Magazine and follow us on Facebook and Instagram 970-871-9413 | www.SkiTownMedia.com | info@SkiTownMedia.com
