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s t a n l e y • F a i r f i e l d • S h o sh o n e • P i c a b o
Jazz Jamboree Returns for 24th Year this Weekend Page 3
What’s on Your Plate to Challenge Kids’ Thoughts About Food Page 5
Ways to Cope With the Seasonal Change
Don’t Miss Our Annual Women in Business Pull-Out Section Inside this Issue!
Page 22
Pages 11-18
O c t o b e r 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 • V o l . 6 • N o . 4 2 • w w w.T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
Fifty-Five Artists Will Open Studios for Free Tour
COURTESY PHOTO: TAL ROBERTS
Crosstoberfest Rings in 10 Years BY KAREN BOSSICK
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ikes, beer and brawn will meet in Hailey Friday and Saturday when the 10th annual Idaho Crosstoberfest combines two days of cyclocross races with a craft beer festival. The races—a spectacle for cyclists and spectators alike—will take place at the Old Cutters Park in Hailey amidst an Oktoberfest-type atmosphere with live music, German brats and 75 different crafted beers from more than 20 breweries. To get there, turn east off Main Street onto Myrtle by the green Sinclair dinosaur and follow Myrtle to the end. Cyclocross racing, which had its roots in places like Belgium and The Netherlands more than 60 years ago, is now America’s fastest growing cycle sport. It involves making laps on short tracks filled with logs, ditches and other obstacles that occasionally force riders to dismount and carry their bikes. The muddier the better. With races geared toward all ages and abilities, the event has drawn as many as a hundred kids 6 and under in the past. “It’s a spectator-friendly course and a great family event—there’s even a playground there,” said Idaho Crosstoberfest founder Billy Olson, a former professional road bike racer and owner of the Powerhouse Pub & Bike Studio in Hailey. Crosstoberfest veteran Josh Ringelstetter says he always wants to throw up after a cyclocross race. “For 45 minutes to an hour you’re going 100 percent. Your lungs are seared; your legs are burning. But it’s a short race so the pain is short,” he said. “And it’s fun because your friends heckle you as you go by—they even have beer hand-offs.” Information: crosstoberfestidaho. com. tws
Josh Ringelstetter says Crosstoberfest racing is painful but fun. PHOTO: KAREN BOSSICK/SUN
Steven Houts says the studio tour is a good chance for people to see the array of talented artists who live in the Valley from Bellevue to Sun Valley. STORY & PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
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heets of banana stalk, also known as abaca, line the shelves in Steven Houts’ studio. Prized for their strength, flexibility and buoyancy, they’re used in the Philippines to make ship ropes, fishing lines and fishing nets. Houts mixes this plant fiber with industrial hemp, one of the strongest materials in the world. Then he adds willow and dogwood twigs, embroidery hoops, rattan hoops made from hollow vines, hawk feathers, fox skulls and other materials to create unique art panels. Some of the panels resemble a unique take on Native American dreamcatchers. Others resemble big-eyed comets or tadpoles. Still others serve as lighting screens. “I’m not a realist when it comes to my art. I like to be unique and I’ve never seen anyone else do something similar to this,” said Houts, who moved to Bellevue a handful of years ago after retiring as park maintenance supervisor for the County of Santa Cruz. The curious will be able to see Houts’ works, as well as the process through which he creates his art, during the free self-guided Wood River Valley Studio Tour from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 19-20. Those who visit Houts will get a double dose of art, as his wife Janet Houts—a quilt designer—will have her quilts on display. The couple will sprinkle their art throughout their complex, including the greenhouse where they will showcase
their works along with hors d’oeuvres. Steven Houts has long had a bent for art, which he first expressed at age 5 drawing the dragsters that he saw at the Pomona drag strip near his boyhood home. As years passed, he used his graphics ability to design T-shirts. His interest turned to handmade paper when Janet couldn’t find the paper she wanted for her folded lanterns. “I said, ‘How hard can that be?’ I tried a couple fibers and came out with a crude paper. But it became addictive,” said Houts. Houts works his magic in a large Bellevue studio where Jeff Whittaker used to craft his metal sculptures. The shop, he boasts, has enough electricity to launch a spaceship. Its radiant-heat floor warms to 70 degrees in winter, allowing him to comfortably work 24/7 if he wants. He starts off coloring his sheets by dipping them in a vat filled with iron oxide, titanium dioxide, carbon and other pigments. Each piece gets five to six coats of acrylic, nearly turning to fiberglass by the time he’s done. “It’s not rocket science—it’s touch and feel as I go,” he said. He crinkles copper and brass sheeting, rolling them out with a rolling pin. He rubs rock salt on his paper. And when done, his creations, whether round or triangular, have enough relief to give them a 3-D effect. Houts is happy to sell his works. But he’d create them, even if he never sold a single piece. It’s part of his need to
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Painter Jean-Pierre Chesnel, a Bellevue Artist has murals throughout Twin Falls and Arizona Read About It On Page 21
“I like to be unique and I’ve never seen anyone else do something [like] this.” –Steven Houts