inthearts

Art Meets Function

Three local artists turn their talents into sought-after home décor

Nestled in Eagle, family-owned business WoodLab has been taking Idaho’s natural old-growth trees and turning them into modern art and furniture pieces for five years.

According to WoodLab team member David Gosse, “In 2017, we visited a local wood mill that housed some of the largest, live-edge wood slabs we had ever seen. We were struck by the splendor, variety, and sizes of these old-growth trees, but we also realized that most of them can’t be used for commercial manufacturing.” In order to save these slabs from being turned into board lumber or firewood, WoodLab started buying them to turn their imperfections into modern art and furniture. At its core, WoodLab is a collection of handcrafted solid-wood epoxy-resin furniture pieces, but they also offer a variety of stand-alone wood slabs as well. These slabs come from trees of all varieties, including black walnut, elm, silver maple, catalpa, ash, sycamore, and white oak. After ordering a custom piece of wood slab, WoodLab applies an ecofriendly, non-toxic epoxy resin to their products to ensure that their products last a lifetime.

Dedication to reclaimed products and sustainability is present in everything WoodLab does. “Everything we do and produce is based on an eco-friendly and community ethos,” Gosse says. “We believe in supporting small business, buying local, using reclaimed products, and doing meaningful work with our hands, hearts, and minds. We believe in creating durable and beautiful items that can be passed down through multiple generations.”

DAVID GOSSE

Custom handcrafted dining tables, coffee tables and cutting boards are lovingly crafted from reclaimed trees that are sourced locally. Gosse’s goal at Wood Lab is to create “tree to table sustainable” pieces using eco-friendly resins and finishes that support local artisans.

Oil on canvas 50” x 60”

JAMES COOK

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

Laura McPhee • Hung Liu • Michael Gregory • Gary Komarin • Judith Kindler • Ed Musante •Alexander Rohrig Kathy Moss • Jane Rosen • Jennifer Markowitz • Nicolas Africano •Theodore Waddell •Victoria Adams • Lynda Lowe Gwynn Murrill • Marcia Myers • Robert Polidori • Anne Siems • Jun Kaneko • Diane Andrews Hall WilliamRobinson • LauraWilson • Luis González Palma • Chris Maynard • Raphaëlle Goethals Robb Putnam • Pegan Brooke • Divit Cardoza • Kenna Moser • Linda Christensen • Lisa Kokin Margaret Keelan • Allison Stewart • Bean Finneran • Sheila Gardner • Morris Graves

GAIL SEVERN GALLER Y

SALLY KERN

Vintage fabrics and out-of-print patterns dominate the designs of Sally Kern’s custom pillows, napkins and placemats. “My aunt Katrenia taught me how to do the piping on a pillow and I think of her every time I make one.” - Kern S ally Kern has been sewing her entire life. She started when she was 12 after being taught the basics by her mother and aunt while living in Maine. Her career as a seamstress started like many others, sewing clothes for herself and making quilts with her family. She made her first windsock in 1983. Her father, a one-legged lobsterman, cut all of the material for those first windsocks, which now hang outside her home and shop at 602 S. Main Street in Hailey—brightly colored calling cards fluttering in the breeze.

Kern landed in the Wood River Valley more than 40 years ago after putting 10,000 miles on a Honda traveling around the U.S. with a good friend “We rolled into the Valley and just stopped,” said Kern. “That car died coming over the pass on Galena Summit,” remembered Kern, “so I sold it for thirty-five dollars and bought myself a pair of sneakers.”

Since then, Kerns’ love of specialty vintage fabrics—most especially Western-themed, outof-print patterns related to fishing, cowboys, camping, ranching and travel trailers—has earned her quite a following for the placemats, pillows and napkins she creates daily. “Hunting for fabrics all over the country is a really fun part of my job,” said Kern, “and I love the process of creating something out of nothing.”

Kern ships all over the country through her Etsy shop and always has a full booth at the Ketchum Farmers’ Markets on Tuesdays.

Oil and mixed media on canvas 80” x 66”

GARY KOMARIN

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

Laura McPhee • Hung Liu • Michael Gregory • James Cook • Judith Kindler • Ed Musante • Alexander Rohrig Jun Kaneko • Jane Rosen • Jennifer Markowitz • Nicolas Africano • Theodore Waddell • Victoria Adams • Lynda Lowe Gwynn Murrill • Marcia Myers • Robert Polidori • Anne Siems • Kara Maria • Diane Andrews Hall William Robinson • Laura Wilson • Luis González Palma • Chris Maynard • Raphaëlle Goethals Robb Putnam • Pegan Brooke • Divit Cardoza • Kenna Moser • Linda Christensen • Lisa Kokin Margaret Keelan • Allison Stewart • Bean Finneran • Sheila Gardner • Morris Graves • Kathy Moss GAIL SEVERN GALLERY

LAUREN STREET

Custom handmade bowls, plates and serving ware shaped, trimmed, glazed and fired right here in Ketchum.

Lauren Street’s first big job as a ceramicist was a commission for custom bowls for Ketchum’s Sego Restaurant—the brainchild of Kevin Steussi, former vice president of food and beverage at Wynn Resorts. “I wasn’t sure I could do it,” reflected Street, who buckled down and got to work, producing 180 bowls in less than three weeks. Her work had officially hit the marketplace. Sego Restaurant came and went, but more commissions followed, and Street has made bowls for many area restaurants, including Ketchum Grill, Saffron, The Valley Club, The Covey, and many others.

“It’s a labor of love,” said Street, who has been throwing clay since she was a teenager. In fact, her first big show happened during her junior year in high school, after Diane Kneeland saw her work and invited Street as the only student to create ceramic sculptures for the 1989 “Buckaroos” show at The Kneeland Gallery in Ketchum.

Perhaps it was that event that inspired Street to graduate the Otis Parsons School of Design with a fine arts degree with an emphasis in ceramics. Street has a deep love for the art of clay—“every shape you make on the wheel comes from a cylinder” she says with reverence—so perhaps the outcome would have been the same, but it is clear her work is in high demand. She has made full dinnerware sets for interior designers and private clients—all of it custom-designed, hand-thrown, glazed and fired, right here in Ketchum at Boulder Mountain Clayworks, the nonprofit clay art studio in Ketchum that she manages and runs. ï

“Dinner Is Almost Ready” by Myriam Esther at Myriam Esther Fine Art Gallery, acrylic on canvas, 48 in. x 60 in. x 2.5 in.

Art is Love

The heartfelt and powerful art of Myriam Esther

BY WINSLOW BROKAW

Where do dreams, ideas and stories come from? Most of us are so immersed in our physical lives that we forget to ponder our multidimensional potential. For example, where do we go when we daydream? Where do we exist while drawing, designing or creating? As we rush about the main lobby floor of the physical world, we forget that we exist in multiple realms. So, what if we were to consciously travel up the elevator shaft of our imagination? There are so many floors available to us that hold unique perspectives and possibilities.

“For me, painting creates a place of quietness where the soul dips itself into the realm of creation. Art is love.” So proclaims new resident artist Myriam Esther, who recently opened the first fine art gallery in Hailey.

Creating has always been a part of Esther’s life. She started writing and illustrating children’s stories when she was five years old in Paris, France, and didn’t look back. As an

“The Thirteen Principles of Mercy,” by Myriam Esther at Myriam Esther Fine Art Gallery, acrylic on canvas, 60 in. x 48 in. x 2.5 in.

‘‘ For me, painting creates a place of quietness where the soul dips itself into the realm of creation. Art is love.”

—MYRIAM ESTHER adult, Esther discovered that her drawings were ultimately stories, serving as a powerful tool for conveying important messages with no language barrier. For example, her recent piece called “Knowledge is Power” was inspired by the story of Ruby Bridges, the first African American to attend a white school. She had to be escorted in and out by police for her safety. Although Bridges is not the exact girl in this painting, she served as Esther’s inspiration for this work of art. Another of Esther’s paintings, called “The Thirteen Principles of Mercy,” speaks to a true story about a cow who refused to be slaughtered. The cow cried real tears and kneeled. It turned out that the cow was pregnant. “Thankfully, she was spared and now lives happily in a monastery with her calf,” says Esther.

Although Esther grew up in Europe, she always loved the mountains of America’s West best. She learned to ski in Aspen, Colorado, and spent many winters in Colorado, enjoying the mountains and finding freedom on her snowboard. She laughs, “I used to be a city girl, but even then, I always needed a long break in the mountains. I like to joke that I must have been a snowman in another life.” Esther fell in love with Park City as a young adult and thought that someday she would live there… until she discovered Sun Valley. Sun Valley won her over the first time she visited. “It has everything I love about Park City but with a small village feel, and it is even more beautiful,” she says.

Drawing upon her life in diverse settings and cultures, Esther’s art is an amalgamation of stories, emotion, and instinct. Inspired by her love for the environment and lesser-known historical figures who shaped history, Esther lets her emotions guide her into a painting. “When I feel an emotional connection to a story, something I see, or a historical fact, I know it is a story I want to paint,” she says. “My art is me responding in art form to things that touch me.” Once her imagination is triggered, she perceives the idea as a movie in her head and immediately sees the whole drawing. She then does a brief sketch before eagerly diving in to paint. Her medium of choice is working on a large canvas using acrylic paint.

Some pieces go smoothly, whereas others give Esther a harder time with their “all is lost” moment. “Fortunately, even then, victory prevails with an ‘aha!’ moment, where my creation and I cross the finish line hand-inhand,” says Esther.

Currently, Esther is wrapping up two collections called “Snow” and “Defiance.” “Snow” is inspired by the abundant wildlife of Blaine County, and “Defiance” is a collection of art that reflects Esther’s emotional reaction to people, animals, and stories around the world. “They are creations that have lives of their own,” says Esther.

Esther plans to give back to the causes that are near and dear to her heart: three percent of the profit at Esther’s gallery goes to charities in Idaho for endangered species or environmental causes, and three percent of the profits on specific paintings goes to charities for children and education. ï

2022FALL GALLERYBUZZ

The Sun Valley area boasts a diverse and cosmopolitan art community. Here is a sampling of what’s in store at galleries this season.

“A Medieval Moment, 2022” by Pamela DeTuncq at Gail Severn Gallery, vintage tapestries, foam, leather, glass, antlers, bucktail, wood and steel, 24.50 in. x 29 in. x 34 in.

SEPTEMBER EXHIBITIONS

GILMAN CONTEMPORARY

September - October

GREG MILLER AND STEVE WRUBEL

Drawing on the cultural and geographic influences of his California roots, Greg Miller explores images of the American urban and rural landscape of the mid-twentieth century. His mixed media paintings are nostalgic, rousing a shared cultural memory while also commenting on contemporary perception. California raised and Texas based, photographer Steve Wrubel turned his lens towards the power, leather, dirt, and sweat of the American rodeo. Moved by stories from his family’s past in the Mojave Desert, “Rodeo” takes us to a place of light, motion, space, energy and detail that begs us to question what it is to be alive.

KNEELAND GALLERY

Sept. 1 – Oct. 12, 2022

ROBERT, ROBBIE, ANNA, RACHEL AND CALEB MOORE—FAMILY GROUP EXHIBITION

Renowned plein-air painter Robert Moore will exhibit alongside his two sons and two daughters in their first-ever show as a family. Anna’s chosen subject is trees, which she conveys using layers of color and texture. Rachel uses reference photos from favorite vistas and endeavors to communicate the beauty, energy and life from each of these moments in a playful, impressionistic style. Caleb began assisting his father with his palette in 2019 before discovering a passion for sculpting (clay and other mediums) the following year. Robbie strives to marry logic and realism with a romanticized view of life in his expansive canvases.

MYRIAM ESTHER FINE ART GALLERY

August - December

Myriam Esther will be presenting three new collections: The “Love” collection often approaches the subject in a humoristic way. The “Snow” collection is inspired by the beautiful wildlife in Sun Valley, and the “Defiance” collection is often inspired by history. Born and raised in Europe, Esther is fascinated and influenced by lesser-known characters that shaped recent American history.

SUN VALLEY MUSEUM OF ART

Aug. 26 – Nov. 12, 2022

DAMS: RESERVOIRS, RECLAMATION, RENEWAL

The BIG IDEA project is an exhibition that explores the history of damming in the Pacific Northwest, the effects of dams on the region, and a reimagined future for rivers and the life dependent on them. SVMoA has commissioned four artists—Carolina Caycedo, James Prosek, Eirik Johnson and Rachel Teannalach— to consider local and regional dams through new bodies of work. Featuring work by Caroline Caycedo, photographer Eirik Johnson, painter Rachel Teannalach, and artist, writer and naturalist James Prosek.

OCT/NOV EXHIBITIONS

GAIL SEVERN GALLERY

October – November

COLOR V Featuring artists working in both abstract and representational forms whose work employs color in various ways. Composed of paintings, works on paper, and sculpture with powerful hues. Gary Komarin, a master of Post-Painterly Abstraction, has been at the forefront of contemporary art with a bold style recognized worldwide. Pegan Brooke mixes minerals into her palette, which creates colorful and reflective canvases. Marcia Myers utilizes natural pigments and encaustic to capture the essence of Italian Fresco. The exhibition will additionally feature work by Linda Christensen, Cole Morgan, Rana Rochat, Allison Stewart, and others.

ANOTHER VIEW II This group exhibition challenges the way we interpret our natural surroundings and the wildlife within our landscape. Another View II demonstrates artists who shift our perspective of the natural world in multiple different mediums. Laura McPhee’s photographs focus on the intersection of man and nature, while Victoria Adams shows no human trace in her ethereal scenes. James Cook, Sheila Gardner, Michael Gregory, Theodore Waddell, Robert McCauley, Chris Maynard, Diane Andrews Hall, Berkeley Hoerr, Kiki Smith, and newly represented artist, Maggie Shafran, offer unique and introspective views on the great outdoors, inviting us to see our landscape through their lens.

AGAINST THE GRAIN Artists using textiles including fabric, yarn, and thread, both

“Drinks with a Kick” by Greg Miller at Gilman Contemporary, acrylic, collage and resin on canvas, 36 in. x 36 in. “Panhandle,” by Steve Wrubel at Gilman Contemporary, archival pigment photograph, various sizes

natural and synthetic. Focusing on materials and the time-consuming labor involved as part of its significance, this exhibition will feature Lisa Kokin, Robb Putnam, Pamela DeTuncq, Mary Snowden and Jennifer Markowitz. These fiber artists work with unconventional materials to create astonishing works of art. Each artist’s process is unique but made similar by the painstaking time that goes into every stitch. Kokin hand sews vintage book covers to create sprawling wall sculpture, while Putnam uses his own technique applying textiles to armatures. Jennifer Markowitz uses panels of silk as her canvas, using the “drawn thread” method. She embroiders images and text pulled from personal memories, traumas, confusions, artifacts, and maps.

GILMAN CONTEMPORARY

October - November

MARCO CASENTINI, PETER CLARK, SOLO EXHIBITIONS Marco Casentini — Casentini’s work continues his signature exploration of materials. These include acrylic paintings on plexiglass, paintings on canvas with applied plexiglass elements, and paintings on colored metal with aluminum supports. In his latest paintings, Casentini has introduced layers of dense grids or stripes over his signature overlapping planes of color. Painted on the metal surface of composite panels, the intricate linear work of Casentini’s compositions vibrates with color while still revealing the color forms underneath. In other paintings, Casentini uses a myriad of overlapping squares and rectangles. Casentini’s paintings are elaborate compositions full of color vibrancy, visual rhythm, and movement.

Inspired by urban landscapes, Caseninti’s work draws inspiration from the structural environments of urban centers. Experimenting with relational shapes and formations, Casentini combines opaque, translucent, and reflective blocks of color to create distinct compositions that echo the energy and light of the cities where he lives.

Peter Clark — From animals created from maps, labels and discarded tickets, to garments carefully crafted from gift wrapping, musical scores and love letters, Peter Clark has the rare ability to turn ordinary printed matter into exquisite works of art with character, beauty and wit. Whether it’s at a car boot sale in Chiswick, an antiques fair in Sussex, or further afield to flea markets in France, USA, Japan and India, he travels far and wide to source materials for his next pieces

OCHI GALLERY

Oct. 1 - Nov 12, 2022

“GLEANERS”

Gleaners is a solo exhibition of new works—created using the ancient Japanese process of Shibori—by Hely Omar Gonzalez that depict the quotidian activities of a clandestine community living and working on a marijuana processing farm in Northern California. Gonzalez’s series is inspired by and named for Jean-François Millet’s The Gleaners (1857), a controversial painting that features three women collecting leftover wheat stalks on a farm in rural France. Gonzalez’s Gleaners is a love letter to a California in which rich immigrant experiences and hippy counterculture can peacefully coexist.

DECEMBER EXHIBITIONS

GAIL SEVERN GALLERY

December

MICHAEL GREGORY Michael Gregory’s paintings depict the iconic American landscape as a terrain where space seems infinite, where light can shine in the sky uninterrupted by the debris of civilization. These painting harken back to another time, yet strikingly contemporary. Stripped down to the essence of structure, a barn sets the stage for a sense of moody nostalgia and memory. Gregory’s skies are as important as the land and the structures in his paintings. Sometimes the atmosphere is ominous and stormy, while others are peaceful and filled with golden light. There is an interesting tension created by a style that is simultaneously hyperrealist yet exorbitant in scale and color. This exhibition will feature new paintings by the artist, who has work included in the collections of the Boise Art Museum, Idaho; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington; Denver Art Museum, Colorado; Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science, Indiana; San Jose Museum of Art, California, and numerous private collections.

KNEELAND GALLERY

Dec. 15 - Jan. 31, 2023

CALEB MEYER, SMARK GIBSON AND LORI MCNEE

Caleb Meyer — A native of Hailey and a graduate of Boise State, Caleb Meyer served as apprentice under artist Robert Moore. Meyer compares his time in Moore’s studio to the laying of a strong foundation. “The painting process is like building a house; a painter must understand the principles of design to create a strong painting, much like a carpenter must understand the principles of architecture to build a strong house.”

Mark Gibson—Born and raised in Montana, Mark Gibson originally trained in architecture. This formal training had a direct effect on the architectural forms of the teepees that characterize his work. Gibson has been pushing himself to focus on purity of color and masterful composition, working to move the viewer’s eye around the entire piece.

Lori McNee—Local artist Lori McNee is talented in several different media including oil, cold wax and encaustic. This exhibition will include both her signature still life imagery and poignant landscapes. Her work is opulent in color and texture, and her imagery is as ornamented by detail as it is rich in symbolism. McNee’s work has been compared to that of the Dutch masters.

“Sawtooth Summer” by Caleb Meyer at Kneeland Gallery, oil on canvas, 24 in. x 36 in.