You care about breasts don't you?

by Ben Cannon | Planet Jackson Hole

1ST ANNUAL BREAST FEST TO RAISE FUNDS, AWARENESS

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-When valley resident Hampton Kew was affected by cancer last year, she decided to get involved in the fight against it.

It was not Kew who had cancer but her cousin, who lost his life to the disease. He left behind two young children and a wife, who is currently battling breast cancer.
“Every day I just learn about more and more young and active people getting cancer,” said Kew. “Obviously we’re doing something to ourselves.”

By that she means people may be exposing themselves to a higher risk of the disease through daily contact with products containing synthetic ingredients.
Kew discovered the Breast Cancer Fund, a group dedicated not to cancer treatment but prevention by identifying and eliminating environmental causes – everyday products, she said, like shampoos, antiperspirant, face cream and nail polish.
“Since World War II we’ve been using over 80,000 synthetic chemicals in stuff people use all the time,” said Kew, a ski rep who also works for a personal products company that only uses mostly natural ingredients.

To help spread the word about the possible dangers of using products linked to higher rates of cancer (if not identified outright as carcinogenic) Kew is planning to participate in Climb Against the Odds, a charity-driven ascent of California’s Mt. Shasta. The annual event will take breast cancer survivors and others touched by the disease up the 14,179-foot peak in June.

Before that expedition, Kew is looking to raise $10,000 for the Breast Cancer Fund. All donations will go to the charity, and Kew will pay for the trip herself.
To help kick off the fundraising, Kew enlisted a handful of her gal pals to help raise money. She and her friends are throwing a party intended to generate awareness and dollars for her cause.

From 7 to 10 p.m. on Friday at Lyndsay McCandless Gallery (130 S. Jackson St.), the group is holding the 1st annual Breast Fest, perhaps the most intriguing party name of the year. Donations will be graciously accepted.
Beer from Snake River Brewing, wine and shots of, ahem, “buttery nipple” should help keep focus on the theme of the night. A silent auction and raffle will feature prizes, including skis from Rossignol and clothing from Powderhorn. A deejay will keep the tunes spinning.

And Kew is already well on her way, with pledges received so far totaling a quarter of her $10,000 goal. To learn more about Kew and her efforts, or to donate, go to www.BreastCancerFund.org.

Immigrant families tell their stories through mural

By Amanda H. Miller | Jackson Hole News & Guide

The waterfall in a mural being unveiled at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary tonight represents the turmoil felt by local immigrant families. More than 30 families worked together to create a large-scale mural representing their dreams, desires and goals as well as the adversity they face and the obstacles they've overcome in their journeys in Jackson Hole.

There's a door handle on either side of the work, representing two open doors. The mural artists are participants in the La Puerta Abierta ("the open door"), a Teton Literacy Project program designed to help families develop English proficiency.

"It was a fun project," said Antonia Martinez of creating the mural. "I drew with my daughter." Martinez attends La Puerta Abierta classes every Monday and Wednesday and meets with an English tutor every Thursday. She is from a small town in Tlaxcala, Mexico. Her two children, Andra, 7, and Isac, 2, were born in Jackson. Martinez stays home to care for her children and look after their while her husband works.

Now that Andra is in school, Martinez is acutely aware of her need to speak and understand English. That's why she spends so much time at Teton Literacy Project. And it's working. She speaks a lot of English and understands more.

The drive and desire to learn English united the families who painted the mural, which is why the central element of the painting is a book. "The book symbolizes the importance of knowledge and learning in the journey for immigrant families," said Bille Metzger, a teacher at Teton Literacy Project.

The mural also features several butterflies painted the colors of different flags from around the world. They represent the different nationalities of area immigrants who participate in the program. The butterflies symbolize the flags of Argentina, Mexico, Germany, Peru and others.

Under the book at the center of the painting is a bridge over a peaceful river. It means different things to the different artists who worked on the project. "It's the flow of life," Metzger said. But the river has more literal meaning for Martinez. It's the Rio Grande, a river many of her friends and family members had to cross in order to reach the United States and make a new life. Many died trying to reach it, and many died after crossing it. "It's really hard for us to do something for our children in Mexico," Martinez said. "There are more opportunities here." So, with every stroke of the brush when the group painted the river, Martinez sought to honor those people who lost their lives seeking better ones.

The mural will appear tonight only during a reception from 6 - 8 pm at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary. The artists will be at the gallery to explain the significance of the different elements. Metzger said Teton Literacy Project teachers expect to display the mural at Teton County Library and the Art Association as well. It will also be featured at the organization's Luncheon for Literacy.

Jackson Hole News&Guide: Contemporary encaustic artist waxes poetic

Thirteen artists peered into the glossy depths of an encaustic painting by Shawna Moore, as captivated by its myriad details as her description of it.

After a morning of instruction last weekend, Moore took students enrolled in her Art Association workshop on wax painting technique on a field trip to Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, where her most recent works make up the next “First Friday” show. A reception will be from 5:30 – 7:30 on Friday at the gallery. The show hangs through April 28.

A yoga instructor, Moore led the tour of her 20 works – some free standing, others matted on roughedged paper and framed – as she would a movement class, sharing the techniques and philosophy she has cultivated over the course of two decades in art.

Every morning at home in Whitefish, Mont., she reads passages from Words to Live By, Eknath Easwaran’s collection of daily devotions of philosophers and poets from different world traditions. Afterward, she meditates and writes, honoring all thoughts that surface.

“I start with words and then I gradually work into painting,” she told her students.

In her new paintings, she celebrates these morning readings and reflections in cursive script. Their legibility fades under wax layers but their lines anchor the paintings. One piece – Spinoza – began with a quotation from the Dutch philosopher. Other tidbits – from radio segments or graffiti on trains passing her studio – also appear in her flowing hand.

“We are exposed to so much text,” she said. In encaustic, she distills her visual vocabulary down to its essence. “These are my artistic sutras,” she said, referring to the precepts from Vedic tradition. They are meditations on her process, influences and surroundings.

“All her works over the years have built up to this,” said gallery owner Lyndsay McCandless.

Script began to appear, as did Asian element, in a series of panels McCandless asked Moore to make for Mizu Sushi. Moore is a trained architect, and structural and landscape features also appeared in earlier works.

In the last six months, however, Moore has shifted from the color and geometry of her previous works into large-scare narratives, told in earth tones and incandescent layers.

McCandless considers Moore’s latest works “ah-ha moments.” To capture these fleeting epiphanies, “you better be there,” McCandless said. “You better be watching.”

The painting Sutra highlights the moment Moore realized, in yoga class, that her recent works represent stories.

Approaching the paintings as she would her journal, Moore lays the large panels on a table and moves around on top of them. Once while writing, she inadvertently made knee smudges in the wax, but erased them in subsequent layers. A wall easel allows her to add final layers.

Some techniques began as accidents. She dribbled wax pellets on one painting that popped like air bubbles when heated. The subtle circles make appearances on other paintings.

Her materials are as inventive as her process: she uses oil sticks, paint thinner, pigment and iron, and found or hand made tools like old T-shirts, squirt bottles, wool socks and handmade stencils.

The finished works invite myriad readings. Sam Fitz, assistant director of Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, saw a map in Blue Lotus, Forgotten Spring, a painting inspired by the birth of Hindu god Brahma from a lotus flower. The scratchings of Tempio relay punk rock, Moore proposed, while its rust coloring channeled Western iconography.

To encourage art conversation beyond receptions, the gallery has started the “SoBo” (south of Broadway) blog at www.lmcontemporary.blogspot.com, with snapshots from openings and links to art happenings.