HAILEY
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KETCHUM
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SUN VALLEY
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BELLEVUE
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CAREY
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S TA N L E Y • FA I R F I E L D • S H O S H O N E • P I C A B O
RIDE IDAHO VISITS SUN VALLEY PAGE 3
BLATANT COUNTY NEWS SEE INSERT
SUN VALLEY ARTS FEST PAGE 4
FISHING REPORT PAGE 10
A u g u s t 1 3 , 2 0 1 4 • V o l . 7 • N o . 3 5 • w w w .T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
Gondola Car Gets Facelift
A Balancing Act
BY ALEXANDRA HAUPT
A
Sun Valley Resort gondola car, now a piece of art created by the renowned local artist and ski instructor Ralph Harris, was presented in Ketchum Town Square on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. The Ketchum Arts Commission fired up this project as a part of its popular Cover Art project, in which several downtown utility boxes have been wrapped with original artwork. Harris has created a vinyl “wrap” using the same material process applied to the utility boxes throughout Ketchum. Claudia McCain, Ketchum Arts Commission chairperson, mentioned how featuring Harris was “the perfect fit” (in the Cover Art project). Sun Valley, McCain explained, is impressive with its growth in the arts. “This is a really exciting project that has never been done in the U.S,” McCain said. “A lot of partners have been part of the feat. It’s unprecedented.” Other important participants in this artistic community event include Sun Valley Resort, the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the City of Ketchum. Dave and Trish Wilson, owners of Wilson Construction in Ketchum, since 1977, donated to the Ketchum Arts Commission to pay for the project’s expense. Harris, a ski instructor for 40 years, has illustrated various ski magazines and posters for local events and has also created works for the U.S. Ski Team. He has won 10 Idaho Fish and Game stamp design competitions, as well as an Idaho Upland Game Bird stamp competition. He collaborated with the Stained Glass Studio in Ketchum to design the windows for Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church in Ketchum. Harris’s work can be seen in the Pearce Museum in Corsicana, Texas, and the Western Heritage Museum in Billings, Mont. For more information, visit www.ralphharris.net. The gondola will remain on display in Town Square until this fall, when it will be moved to Baldy to be used for the upcoming ski season. tws
Gabriel Embler is inspired by the work of British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy, who is considered the founder of modern rock balancing.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
“People are so fascinated by what I do—children especialabriel Embler is a rock star. ly. Everyone, it seems, wants to know how to stack rocks,” He stands knee deep in the Big Wood River, Embler said. his neoprene gloves keeping him warm, and Embler grew up stashing rocks in his pocket around Lake stacks rocks towering to the blue sky above. He lines Chelan, Wash. He moved to Ketchum in 1998 after a stint in stones up horizontally to make an arch. He summons Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, where he worked as a cithe patience to stand one point on top of another. vilian employee for the U.S. Department of Defense arranging And last February he even created a 7-foot tower of hiking, climbing, mountaineering, mountain biking, kayaking ice and stone below the confluence and skiing recreation for American soldiers. of the Big Wood River and Warm “They don’t call Idaho the Gem State for Springs Creek, oblivious to the inch of nothing,” he said. “Ketchum’s the perfect ice that covered his waders when he place for someone who loves rock the way was finished. He added ice balls he’d “I became fascinated I do. It has a much broader diversity and frozen in balloons and colored with availability of rock than Washington. I can food coloring. And he poured water with the idea that I find almost anything—lava, fossilized coral, over his creation, giving it the appearshale, agate, jasper, basalt, different types ance of dripping ice. of granite—within a four-hour drive from could take a little stone “It’s fun when friends heading up here.” Baldy look off the River Run bridge In Ketchum, Embler began work as a off and polish it and custom and spot a dozen of my sculptures and tile worker, shaping and polishing say, ‘Gabe’s been here.’ I take what’s granite countertops. And he learned he had create something more, a creative side he didn’t know he had. offered by Mother Nature and try to create work that shows the natural “I became fascinated with the idea that I call my technique I could flow of the stone,” said the Ketchum take a little stone off and polish it artist. and create something more,” he said. “I call ‘peel and feel.’ “ Embler will teach others about his my technique ‘peel and feel.’ I let the stone craft when he conducts an “Art of depict the finished product. Every time I try Stone Balance” workshop from 3 to 6 to intentionally force my will on stone, it -Gabriel Embler p.m. Sunday for the Jennifer Bellinger doesn’t work. It’s a cooperative effort.” Art Studio & Gallery in Ketchum. One Christmas when he was flat broke The workshop, limited to 15 particEmbler turned some of the scrap tiles he’d ipants, is $45 for adults and youth been working with into jewelry boxes for his 12 years and older, with registration available at 208-720-8851. CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
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