LMC News

'08 Creativity award goes to McCandless

2008-08-06T13:58:00.000-07:00

JH News&Guide

Lyndsay McCandless, owner of Lyndsay McCandless contemporary art gallery, is winner of the 2008 Award for Creativity.

Given the past 14 years by the Cultural Council of Jackson Hole, the honor recognizes people who are enhancing and enriching the Jackson Hole cultural community through creative efforts.

"The extraordinary dedication, talent and kindness that Lyndsay extends to our community makes her an appropriate honoree," the group said in its announcement. The Cultural Council of Jackson Hole is dedicated to promoting arts and culture and includes 20 nonprofit organizations. McCandless who moved to Jackson Hole in 1991 and taught art classes, waitressed and worked at the Martin-Harris Gallery before hanging her own shingle, first as Jackson Street Gallery and then as Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary.

Nominator Tammy Christel said it's McCandless' activism that sets her apart. "She has overturned our traditional concept of art galleries by turning hers into a welcoming 'home' for countless worthy initiatives," Christel said. "Her energy and commitment are unmatched. "Through her exhibits and events, Lyndsay provides venues for women's initiatives, conservation, Latino resources, children and more. Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary does so much more than support the arts," Christel said. "There are few concepts Lyndsay won't consider. Artists are activists, and Lyndsay's personal brand of activism furthers and supports our ever-diversifying arts community."

The Cultural Council of Jackson Hole invites everyone to attend the 14th Annual Award for Creativity Celebration from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 11 at Dancers' Workshop Studio 1 in the Center for the Arts. McCandless will be honored at the free event, which will include hors d'oeuvres, wine and live music.

Kingswood, Hood interpret wildlife art

2008-08-01T13:07:00.000-07:00

JH News&Guide | Jack Murray

Tradition wildlife art and abstract style are two things that don't usually go together in the worlds of painting and sculpture. This blending of forms is exactly what Ron Kingswood and Barry Hood bring to Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary. Their work will be featured during a reception from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Friday for the First Friday event. Hood will be present at the reception.

Ron Kingswood dabbled in traditional wildlife art early in his professional career and only recently began exploring the abstract qualities of nature. His early work help the conceptual design he employs today but was rooted in more conventional representations of nature; featuring realistic animals, if not the actual landscape. But Kingswood's latest series explores the essence of the environment as opposed to the literal interpretation of it.

"The excitement in painting lies not in the executing of perfect likeness of images," Kingswood said. "There is one constant thread that has persisted throughout my work and that is nature itself. These visions of the landscape have only to be unearthed by wandering and roaming familiar refuges."

Indeed, there is a spiritual sense to his work. It is not a portrait of nature so much as a feeling. Kingswood utilizes large-scale canvases and open space to immerse the observer in the scene. The rough lines of reds, browns, blacks and yellows from his brush stand against a mosaic of a background. Gallery owner Lyndsay McCandless describes him as a "master with muted colors," and nowhere is this more apparent than in the powerful backdrops of his paintings. Kingwood finds strength in the swirling seas of white, blue and gray, creating a seemingly endless and beautiful overcast sky.

He makes no attempt to hide the erratic, scratchy strokes he makes. This rawness is part of what McCandless likes about his paintings. "His work is about gestures, about paring nature down to its essence," she said. "You can almost see him in the studio, imagine his movements and his marks."

Kingswood's style makes his paintings almost interactive in that there is no literal interpretation, only what the observer brings to the paintings. This type of work has to be felt as much as witnessed, and that is the core of his unification of abstract and wildlife art.

Bringing the same type of interactive art to First Friday is Barry Hood and his sculptures in glass. Using a unique process, Hood creates molds for his sculptures using the environment. This may mean pouring molten glass into a mold made from a tree trunk, or letting the glass settle over sprigs of grass or reeds to produce visual recesses in large panels.

Hood uses his art as a way to connect the onlooker back to the environment. "This is visual art that isn't meant to be talked about, it's supposed to be absorbed," he said. "The most important ingredient is that it involves the viewer."

The luxury of being able to touch the pieces and the natural aspects in the work remind us of our impact on the environment. Hood wants the viewer to appreciate and care for the environment through his art. Whether it's a frosty, multicolored hunk formed in a tree, or a clear, multipanel hanging piece, the texture is formed and embedded with organic features, giving the sculptures an utterly natural feel.

Live art by Wisdom

2008-07-26T13:45:00.000-07:00

Planet JH | Henry Sweets

Catch one of his two performances in Jackson this weekend to see his unique improvisational skills and styles at work.

Wisdom paints surrealist narrative landscapes to live music on an overhead projector. While a crowd watches on, Wisdom warms up, explores his imagination and adds layers of images until he has created a complete work of art. Wisdom - who thinks art is most valuable when the viewer experiences its creation - erases his projects once they are finished.

Wisdom sometimes communicates political or social messages with his stories, but his art is still fun. He constructs a modern day mythology with sprites and griffins interacting with oilrigs and dollar signs, but usually his art keeps a playful, uplifting tone.

The first time I saw Wisdom perform, I was skeptical of watching someone paint on an overhead projector for a $10 cover charge in Jackson. But the whole audience, including myself, was enraptured by his art throughout the entire performance.

As the jazz band played, Wisdom painted mountains, skies, skiers and creatures on the screen. He would paint a figure with one brush stroke, then put the figure on a flying horse. In the next moment, the figure would by floating off a mountain on a pair of skis. By the end of the show, everyone was grinning and abuzz with an artistic excitement rarely experienced in Jackson’s late-night scene.

Wisdom has collaborated with well-known artists in Opera Halls and at festivals all over the world. This weekend will provide two great opportunities to see him in person.

Wisdom will be performing from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, July 26, at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, and again from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. at 43 North that night. His performance will be free for all ages at LMC, and will cost $10 at 43 North for those older than 21. Call LMC at 734-0649 for more information.

Prints of his works will be on sale at LMC this week. He takes photographs of his paintings, prints the photos and then paints over portions of it. The prints are all priced at about $200 apiece.

Exhibit bolsters Freedom of Speech mantra

2008-07-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

JH News&Guide | Traci Angel

Art and newspapers share a foundation of First Amendment rights, bolstered by a Freedom of Speech mantra that is often a defense, and a crusade, for those who practice either trade. Keeping this cause in mind, plus marking our nation's most patriotic day, Independence Day, the Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary gallery features stacks of morphing newspaper structures and political commentary that stings through photographs.

The works from longtime Jackson, affiliated artist Bill Schenck and Kate Hunt from Montana are part of the gallery's First Friday (this month Second Friday) series. The exhibit's theme is subtle, and abstract, McCandless said.

Journalists and media types are scrambling to define the cultural role the print product has in this Internet age. yet Hunt's work seems to have taken the evolution of the ink smeared pulp to its literal, organic form, McCandless said. Her towers of newspapers are bound together, weathered and solidified, changing color over time. She uses real construction materials - bailing twine and rebar - to hold them in place. She also uses newspaper to form flats, another timely symbol for the exhibit.

Schenck is a recognized name and face around Jackson. He often rides in the rodeo when in town. Internationally, he's known for his ties to the contemporary "Pop" Western movement. His paintings and photographs offer a dichotomy of scenery and statement, often with conflicting themes. Schenck's move to Santa Fe, NM, provides the backdrop for his work now. The scenes, produced on set and moved around digitally, still provide striking images.

The gallery will feature about 20 photographs from The Desert Southwest series and about three from his more politically charged graffiti photos.

"He has strong views about the world - politics, religion and sexuality - and how all those collide in a difficult way," McCandless said. "He's not afraid to put himself out there."

One photo is a darkened figure against a clouded blue sky, The figure is shadowed wearing what appears to bea leafy crown and wields a machine gun. The all-capitalized scribbling reads, "The end of time is marked in centimeters..."

ARTWeek Review: Jane Rosen at Braunstein/Quay Gallery

2008-06-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

Jane Rosen's talent is in finding the shadows of things, the soft sepia tones of birds and mammals, the quiet and penetrating turn of a beak or gaze of a feral eye. Her recent show at Braunstein/Quay Gallery was a muted collection of painting and sculptures, evoking both the seen and the hidden of nature.

It is too simple to call her paintings "paintings" -- they are more like sculptural plaques colored by coffee and marble dust, shaped and textured by layers of gypsum stone. They often depict birds or deer, sharing the frame with grids of mesh in gentle, forest-y tones. It is as if the living and the geometric each echo the shadow of the other, an ecru play of liquid and stone, soft-hard textures, shades of rust and gray and black. Dust (Copper's Hawk) is a white-gray shadow of a perched bird - roosting at dusk in coffee and cream, or waiting behind a fog - leading the viewer to reconsider if there is much distinction between the substances humans and nature brew.

Rosen's sculptures are more evocative, less precise rendition of similar subject matter - and she pays as much attention to the material as to the shapes she forms with it. The Gamut series - vaguely animal sculptures in Provencal limestone - is composed rough, raw stone figures on pedestals. Sphinx is the sharply angled idea of a sphinx; Mayo (named for Rosen's dog) is barely chiseled as if the shape of a dog was found in the stone, then sketched in pencil on the surfaces and in the grooves. In Klimt, one can see some of Klimt's reaching lines and lateral segmentations, but the piece is just as evocative of a burned-out tree trunk. Rodin, on the other hand, is the opposite of Rodin's smooth, precise figures. It is a rough, highly textured, largely undefined shape - perhaps the Rodin-esque figure is buried underneath?

Rosen also has a sense of humor, evidenced for example in Oh Deer and Wall Foot. The former is a wall-mounted sculpture, a nearly five-foot high narrow bird's body with a deer head sculpted around a bundle of sticks, producing an organic, witty quality. Wall Foot emerges bony and elongated from the base of a wall, as if it were impishly waiting to trip an innocent passer-by. Rosen captures the private lives of creatures in her works - both the comic and dramatic sides. And because Rosen represents this privacy, we don't quite gain entry into it.

June 6th | First Friday Event: Art, exploration mix in show of paintings

2008-06-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

Miller N. Resor | Jackson Hole News & Guide

If Matt Flint had not become an artists, he would have liked to be an explorer. In a way, he is both. "I am constantly experimenting with different ways to get paint on the surface," Flint said of his semi-abstract work. "I like to give myself as much opening as I can to experiment."

At 5:30 p.m. on Friday, the public is invited to the opening of Flint's show, "Lost and Found," and other First Friday festivities at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary. Flint will attend and plans to speak at 6 p.m.

He sees his work as a "process contained," not just a finished piece. "My paintings are about isolation and transformation," he said. "They have this history underneath," he said. "There is never one that stays the same, if you X-ray them, you would see things moved about. They are always changing."

In his paintings, he mixes layers of earthy oil paint with collages of old maps and pictures of arctic explores. Images of plants, birds, deer and horses emerge from weathered backgrounds. There is an aged, historic feel to his paintings, and a touch of scientific curiosity seen through the blurred surrealism of a dream.

The lone artists in a family of scientists, Flint said he has always had dueling interest between science and art. As a child, on a self-sustaining farm in Missouri, he liked the aesthetics of things under a microscope. "I think a lot of that comes out in the mark making and some of the underlying stuff in my paintings," he said.

In high school, Flint decided to study art. He received his bachelor of fine arts from Central Missouri State in 1994, working after he graduated as a freelance illustrator and continuing to pursue studio work on his own time.

Motivated by a desire for more studio time for his personal projects, he returned to Wichita State University to attain his master of fine arts degree. Flint thinks that in the modern age of digital perfection, there is a demand for evidence of the artist's hand, for intimate connections and personal discoveries.

Flint now lives in Lander, where he explores nature and teaches art at Central Wyoming College.

Gallery Speaks out on Sustainability

2008-05-01T12:24:00.000-07:00

Melanie White | Jackson Hole News&Guide

How can art contribute to a sustainable community and environment? A "First Friday" show at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary. "Purposeful Expressions," will approach this question through the agency of artists, gallery owners and collectors ahead of the inaugural Women's Conference on Sustainability on Friday and Saturday and 10th Annual Spring Earth Festival on May 10.

All players make choices regarding content, medium and contribution programs, thereby elevating art beyond decoration. "For a while now, I have been contemplating and exploring how the gallery can find creative ways to contribute to both a sustainable community and environment," McCandless said in a release. To tie in with the Women's Conference on Sustainability and the Spring Earth Festival, McCandless curated a show from her current collection with the goal of educating people on how "the appreciation and purchase of art can be done in a very purposeful and sustainably conscious way."

Text will accompany each piece and explain its sustainable significance. Jackson photographer Wes Timmerman typifies the ways in which an artist and his art can contribute to a healthy community. Timmerman photographs nearby national parks and the Grand Canyon, according to his interpretation of color and texture, and the resulting pictures inspire viewers to appreciate the natural world around them. He also contributes a percentage of his annual sales to the parks he photographs.

McCandless will contribute a portion of all sales made in May to the Eco-Fair.

Sustainable Art at Lyndsay McCandless

2008-05-01T11:56:00.001-07:00

Henry Sweets | Planet Jackson Hole

Lyndsay McCandless knows the art business can do its part to support a sustainable environment and community. Her gallery’s May First Friday exhibition will educate artists, art buyers and art dealers about how the purposeful use of their creative energy, or their dollars, can benefit their neighbors and ecosystem.

Art can perpetuate sustainable ideas through content, but some artists are physically assertive about protecting or helping people and the natural world, McCandless said.
Some artists featured in the show will include: photographer Wes Timmerman, who donates a percentage of his sales to the national park where the sold photograph was taken; the designers of Chumil Jewelry, who donate a percentage of their sales to the people who inspired their jewelry; and sculptor Kate Hunt, who uses recycled materials in her works.

The reception will offer boxed wine because its production and recycling use less energy than glass bottles, and will use compostable cups. Heather Bupp will be on hand to serve Dragon Lady Teas, and Chris Howell will deejay. The event will go from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Friday at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, 130 South Jackson Street.

LMC artist Leo Osborne featured in Southwest Art Magazine

2008-04-10T11:57:00.000-07:00

original article can be found here

by Bonnie Gangelhoff; Photos by Peter Kuhnlein

A visit with Leo Osborne at his studio in Guemes Island, WA

In recent years, you have turned more of your attention to painting than to sculpting. Why? Well, when I started out in art school in the 1960s, I studied painting and had several shows in Boston and Cape Cod. But as the years progressed, I went to sculpting full time. Ten years ago, I decided it was time to start painting again. I knew I couldn’t sculpt 10 to 14 hours a day like I did when I was in my 20s. I needed to divide up my time physically.

How is your studio conducive to your new direction? I have just revamped my whole painting approach. I now have a hydraulic work table that I can raise and lower. I usually keep it about 18 inches from the floor and use an exercise ball to sit on. When I was standing all day and leaning over the table, it was stressing my back and neck. Now I have complete freedom to stand up and look down or move from side to side. Just by moving my rear end and legs, I can roll along like a ball bearing.

How does the outside environment influence your work? The gardens that surround the studio space are full of my sculptures, and it’s like having these old friends around all the time. This place is like a retreat, and people have asked my wife, Jane, and I if we would consider letting them rent our cottage.

What makes your home and studio special? Well, we have 13 great blue herons that fly over the house daily and then roost in the fir and cedar trees in our back yard. Then we have two great big bald eagles, and their song is so beautiful. Also, my favorite muse, Jane, is a fabric artist. She is a spinner and dyer of her own yarns that she uses in creating garments, along with her silk pieces she has created for me. I love color, and so does Jane. She has a natural eye and instinct for color, and she has the same gift about creating vignettes in our home. Each painting is placed in perfect “sculptural” harmony with all else around it. There are hundreds of such vignettes around this place—each nook and corner has a story to tell.

Why do you focus on animals in your artwork? I have always had a fascination with birds. I don’t know why. Birds have incredible power for me. I identify with them personally and spiritually even though other animals also are inspiring. I can go to the water and see a river otter coming up on the beach and get the thrill of being close to nature.

What are you working on now? We are just back from visiting our daughter in Maui. When we walked through a Japanese Buddhist cemetery there, we saw a pair of shorebirds standing on a stone monument. I came home knowing I had to paint that.

What music do you play in the studio? It’s usually a wild blend. I still love rock and roll—Van Morrison and Bob Dylan. But also some of the newer, younger people like John Mayer and Wendy Rule.

Any movies you have seen lately that have impressed you? “Across the Universe.” It was magnificent.

When you’re not painting or sculpting, what do you enjoy? Walking. We have a mountain on the island, and the hike up takes about an hour. Also gardening. It calls to me. It’s great because in between painting, I can get up and go out and weed for a half hour and then come back and paint.

When people come to visit, where do you like to take them? The beach.

What is the one thing people will never find you doing? Anything ordinary or normal.

'SoBo' connotes Jackson's most happening art zone

2008-04-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

By Melanie White | Jackson Hole News & Guide

Soho, London. SoHo, New York City.

SoBo, Jackson Hole.

Adopting an urban-trendy contraction for the downtown area south of Broadway, the owner of Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary hopes that christening the spot with a cosmopolitan moniker will identify it as a "hip" art zone. In recent years, "there has been a really wonderful emergence of a whole variety of expressions of art" in the area around her gallery, Lyndsay McCandless said. While the notion of "SoBo" started as something of a joke, it has evolved into a potential marketing ploy, aided in party by the April issue of Outside magazine.

In a segment about Jackson, the magazine notes, "Be sure to drop into SoBo (South of Broadway), reputed to be Jackson's most happening art scene, anchored by the hip Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary and the galleries and performance spaces at the JH Center for the Arts. McCandless emphasises that the notion of SoBo is not meant to revolved around her gallery, but "to encompass the whole sort of area."

"It's good PR for everyone," she said, referring to the Muse Gallery, Craft Gallery and the Center for the Arts, as well as eateries like Trio and Shades, all of which sit south of Broadway. The label draws attention to "a whole other element to Jackson besides the whole traditional, historic elements of town."

At the outset of the off-season, McCandless' "First Friday" event celebrates the "SoBo" philosophy with "An Art Funkshun," from 5:30-8 p.m. on Friday at the gallery. Lo-Fi - a band of familiar valley musicians and singer Karee Miller - will perform live funk music and drinks will be available. McCandless encourages art lovers to dress up in "their favorite fancy or funky art viewing outfit in honor of SoBo."

The idea behind SoBo evolved from a conversation McCandless had about her gallery's location off the Town Square. "I am constantly trying to explain to people where we are location," she said. "South of Broadway, just a few blocks off the square. My friend said it could be called 'SoBro.' I thought it was actually a pretty good idea, except that SoBo flowed a little better and it leaned more to the artsy side than the ski side."

Another element of the First Friday function will be a fund raising auction to support the Center of Wonder's "ArtSpot" sign on the corner of Scott Lane and Broadway. The auction of two banners by Ryan Haworth, which have been hanging besides the ArtSpot, will probably start at $400. Proceeds from sales of artwork at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary throughout April will also support the ArtSpot, which displays work by area artists. From April through June, Wilson fifth-graders will decorate the sign with an eco-friendly installation.

Plus McCandless is quick to note, the ArtSpot is technically part of SoBo, too. "Jackson has done an amazing job of promotion our Western heritage," she said. "This idea of SoBo adds an element of hipness and intrigue to that image. People get stuck circling the square."

"I hope SoBo inspires them to think outside the box and to take a walk around the other neighborhoods of Jackson," she said.

Celebrating ArtSPOT; SoBo; JHCS at Muse

2008-04-02T11:53:00.000-07:00

Henry Sweets | Planet Jackson Hole

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary (LMC) is hosting an event from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Friday to benefit the ArtSPOT and celebrate what might become a new movement in Jackson’s art world.

The ArtSPOT is a public exhibition space located on the old Chevron sign, next to the Best Western Lodge. Bland Hoke Jr. was driving by the sign last year while it was draped with black plastic and he thought it should be re-purposed as an art exhibition space. The project was then picked up by the Art Association and the Center for Wonder, and it now serves to inject a little art into thousands of passing motorists’ days.

In a recent project inspired by artist David Edgar, Wilson School 5th graders have reworked would-be waste with heat guns, scissors and grommet tools to create a sculpture depicting fish, flowers, and other things from the earth. The sculpture will hang Thursday, weather permitting, and will remain on display at the ArtSPOT through June.
Ryan Haworth made large banner prints of his colorful bird paintings to hang at the ArtSPOT, and they will be auctioned at LMC’s Friday event with bids starting at $400. In addition to these funds, McCandless is giving a percentage of her April sales to the Artspot.

The opening is not just about the Artspot, but is an opportunity to channel some recent publicity and embolden a movement in Jackson’s contemporary art scene.
A piece in the April edition of Outside magazine reads, “Be sure to drop into SoBo (South of Broadway), reputed to be Jackson’s most happening art scene, anchored by the hip Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary and the galleries and performance spaces at the JH Center for the Arts.”

While talking with a friend about the challenges of owning an art gallery off of the Town Square the idea of SoBo came up, McCandless said. She was always trying to explain to people where her business was located, a few blocks south of Broadway on Jackson Street. After she came up with the name, she realized that there was potential in it to flesh out a movement that was already happening.

“It’s sort of something that evolved … it can help the whole community, whether it’s my neighborhood or even more of Jackson,” McCandless said. “The concept of SoBo, being another sort of new cultural experience of Jackson, can only add another level of interest for people coming in to Jackson.”

The SoHo District in New York came into its own after factories were vacated and artists moved in. Eventually the artistic character blended with old industrial iron facades and rendered the streets south of Houston (SoHo) one of the hippest ’hoods in the world. McCandless drew inspiration from that historic transformation and the way it re-generated old character with new creativity.

“The square will always be the square … but only certain businesses can survive there due to financial reasons, or the type of business they are,” said McCandless. She wants to “hold on to the western image or myth, while also trying to embrace the changes” of our iconic western town. As the vacant lots and older buildings on the outskirts of our town center are developed, the changing neighborhoods will have a chance to form their own identity.

Ideally a SoBo event would be more like a “block party”where multiple galleries or businesses host people, McCandless said - and watch out for those sorts of community-building events this summer.

Gallery-goers are encouraged to wear their favorite art viewing outfit, whether formal, funky or downright casual. McCandless calls it is an opportunity to get dressed up for a night on the town, to express creativity or just to feel relaxed.

Local band Lo-Fi featuring Andy Calder, Karee Miller, Mark Longfield, Ed Domer, and Jeff Eidemiller will be providing some funk tunes at the party, and refreshments will be provided. Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary is at 130 S. Jackson Street.

LMC featured in Outside Magazine

2008-04-01T11:48:00.000-07:00

Among such tourist attractions as Old Faithful in Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park, and Jackson Hole's destination hotel, Amangani, Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary was mentioned as a must see in Jackson Hole. "Be sure to drop into SoBo ('South of Broadway'), reputed to be Jackson's most happening art scene, anchored by the hip Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary gallery and the galleries and performance spaces at the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts."

You care about breasts don't you?

2008-03-28T11:51:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-06T11:46:00.000-08:00

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.

Jackson Hole News&Guide: McCandless taps fresh art market

2008-02-07T11:44:00.000-08:00

“Gallery owner hopes to keep bringing new ideas into Jackson’s art world."
By Angus M. Thuermer Jr.

It wasn’t your usual Jackson art opening, drawing a crowd you would expect at the Mangy Moose rather than a Jackson art gallery.

But at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary on Jackson Street, the young athletes recently crowded the space for four hours solid, moving among the art and serving tables as if it were second nature. The event was the opening of Heather Erson’s show “Revealed” – black-and-white studio portraits of valley snowhounds, most of them from the younger set.

The location was the site of Cec’s Small Engine Repair and Glen Chamber’s welding shop, now McCandless’ “guerrilla” gallery space. Cecil Lynch died of a heart attack fighting the Wort Hotel fire; Chambers, also deceased, welded in the back bay. With a minimum of retooling – white paint being chief among the improvements of the industrial space – McCandless created an environment that allowed Erson to draw a familiar crowd to an unfamiliar event. And the next generation of valley leaders responded.

For McCandless, such events are critical to her marketing in a community best known for its Western art. Located “off the beaten path,” which means away from Jackson Town Square, McCandless has grown her business in four and a half years from a two-room consulting office to a gallery that features an opening monthly. For a painter, being close to art works has been critical.

As a consultant, “I didn’t have enough of the physical work to be involved with,” she said. “I really love showing the art, the challenge of getting it up on the walls.”

McCandless likes the anticipation of receiving new works. Opening the boxes in which they are shipped is “like Christmas, it’s so much fun,: she said. Setting up shows, deciding which works to juxtapose against which, is equally fulfilling.

“I love transforming the gallery,” she said. “That, for me, is one of my favorite parts.”

McCandless’ move to the valley is a tale often heard – one of a young athlete determined to take a year off after college and enjoy skiing. A Princeton student who played varsity hockey, she came out with a group of six others after graduating in 1991. “They all left after the first year and I didn’t,” she said.

Her Ivy League degree qualified her for the usual Jackson Hole career ladder; wait tables at Bubba’s, learn how to carry 10 Billy’s burgers at a time, work into the darkroom position at Powder Shots so you can ski all day. Since then there was a trip back East, time spent teaching and coaching at a boarding school, return to Jackson Hole, marriage, the adoption or two daughters, and the birth of a third.

Back in Jackson Hole, McCandless entered the world of nonprofits, signing up with the Snake River Institute. She taught at the Art Association, became engaged with pARTners and joined the Art Associated board, still using her waitress apron at The Range. An opening at Martin Harris Gallery allowed her to spend five years learning the gallery ropes.

The Jackson Town Square “has a strong historical traditional Western market,” McCandless said. “I’m trying to go down a different road.”

Response to contemporary art in Martin Harris was good, McCandless said, before the other galleries opened in Jackson to a different vision. McCandless thought about a gallery or office on the square but realized “that’s not the place for me.” Her alternative art space – 2,500 square feet of industrial interior as opposed to a formal gallery – required her to take a leap of faith, she said. To open a commercial gallery was instinctive and came after spending time as a painter, teacher and worker in nonprofit organizations; “I’m not an MBA,” she said.

Her approach requires “guerilla PR,” she said. “I don’t have a huge advertising budget.” Her “First Friday” events open the monthly shows and are becoming an institution.

With a father who was an orthodontist and a mother who was a painter, McCandless said she was destined while growing up outside Boston to become an artist. “It was sort of a given that was the direction for me,” she said. McCandless studied studio art and art history at Princeton, producing a show for her senior thesis.

Today, she continues to explore the untapped possibilities of her gallery space and its potential. A goal is to contribute to a sustainable community and environment. Ultimately she would like to build a green gallery and art space and run an organization that breaks the bounds of normal institutions. “It’s more than buying a beautiful painting to put on your wall,” se said about what should go into art purchases. “It’s about contributing to the good of our world.”
Not only does McCandless want her shows to be green, she hopes to offer a program of carbon offsets and would like to partner with nonprofits on different shows.

McCandless said she also would like to paint again, but doesn’t quite have time.

“I would like to have a show,” she said. Meantime, “I just live vicariously through everybody else.”

Broyles First Friday in Planet

2008-02-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

Andrea Broyles’ subconscious

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

By Kate Balog

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-In Jackson, three weeks will pass with minimal activity in the art world and then the first Friday of the month arrives and it’s suddenly party time. This Friday is no exception, with artist reception parties scheduled at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary and Muse Gallery.

“I have a memory. Not really a memory, but a memory of a memory that I fell into a well when I was little and almost drowned. My parents denied this ever happened, of course. But I remember the silence and falling into the green water.” One would think this statement came from a 21-year-old yoga practitioner listening to the Thievery Corporation, but, in fact, its speaker was a slender, tanned, blonde Jackson mother of three, clad in faded jeans and expensive boots. Artist Andrea Broyles used this scene from her subconscious to inspire her painting “The Well,” a composition of three faceless, undulating figures swirled in green ribbons.

Broyles’ appearance, statements, and artwork are slightly incongruous. She is private and reserved, but also funny and dark. Her 2006 diagnosis with thyroid cancer may have contributed to her fascination with mortality. She worked on a series of bullets using mixed media on paper after hearing the cure for her type of cancer was said to be “like a silver bullet.”

“Common themes I explore are loneliness, relationships, gravity, aging and small shapes found in nature. … The idea of falling or of being disconnected from earth has always captivated me,” Broyles said. She is also captivated by the figure and is inspired by Renaissance artists and 20th century figurative artists, Manuel Neri and Larry Rivers. Broyles tends to experiment with different materials as she does with themes.

She has used all type of media - sculpture (resin, clay, plaster and bronze), oil paints, and mixed media with found objects. She recently explored the concept of shadows in charcoal and white gesso but found “the shadow started to look like a grave or coffin. I didn’t want it to be so depressing and dark, so I stopped and started another one playing with perspective and a ghostly figure. I wanted to convey a feeling of aloneness and simplicity,” she explained.

Sometimes Broyles paints faces and sometimes not, depending on the kind of emotion she wants her work to portray. Faces directly reflect emotion and occasionally she prefers a vague sense of emotion to emit from the figure and the bodily expression.
“I Ask for a Word” features an elongated, faceless man with mini drawers containing found objects constructed at the bottom of the painting. “Self Portrait,” on the other hand, has a distinct, haunting, green face with no neck and a figure swaddled in a red coat. Broyles’ work also has a playful side. For example, her wood painting/sculpture of a plump woman whose body and head are wrapped in towels is an amusing rendition of the Venus Di Milo.

Trained in sculpture at University of Texas, Broyles later found herself attracted to the simplicity of materials in painting. “I didn’t have the resources to set up a studio for sculpture,” she explains. She recently worked on a study in small scale combining a wood panel background and layers of wax, oil paint and sculptural elements such as upholstery finishing nails.

Broyles has always been a professional artist, but took time off after having kids. She and her husband, screenwriter and author William Broyles, have lived in Jackson on and off for 10 years, but this show is actually her first one-woman show in Jackson. Broyles acknowledges in her new book, “The Gathering,” that she hasn’t followed the rules of being an artist. Instead, she got married, had children, never pursued an MFA, and moved to Jackson instead of a major art center. Nevertheless, she finds satisfaction in her creative journey, professional recognition, and even struggle in her work.
Her book will be available on Friday for purchase. Broyles will attend for book signings, and DJ Howler will spin. The artist’s reception runs 5:30 to 7 pm on Friday at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, 130 South Jackson Street.

Most Influential Person in Arts 2007

2008-01-01T11:39:00.000-08:00

Lyndsay McCandless: The most influential person in Jackson Hole's arts scene in 2007

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

By Kate Balog

Jackson Hole, Wyoming - The past year was a banner year for contemporary art in the Tetons. Jackson and Victor, Idaho, witnessed the opening of many independent galleries and co-ops with contemporary artists, a younger demographic, and new vision of the role of art in the community.

In Victor, Heather Keller and Michele Walters began Ciao Gallery, and Ryan Haworth opened Haworth Gallery. In Jackson, Travis and Lisa Walker and Tristan Greszko started Teton Art Lab, while Bland Hoke created the public venue ArtSpot on West Broadway.
All of the above were important figures in the area’s art community and played enormous roles in pushing the arts and culture; however, one person emerged as the most influential.

Lyndsay McCandless earned the distinction because through her gallery, Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, she has brought dialogue, philosophy, social commentary, boisterous monthly parties and contemporary artists to the small mountain town known for its traditional Western art, and helped pave the way for the newer art venues.
McCandless moved to Jackson Hole in 1991 after graduating from Princeton University, where she divided her time between studio painting, art history and playing for her alma mater’s division one women’s ice hockey team. It’s her ice hockey playing that brings competitive drive to her feminine, creative and spiritual personality. It also gives her the strength to weather the financial ups and downs of owning and operating a gallery while raising three daughters aged 5, 11 and 13.

In the beginning, she worked odd jobs for two years. Then she left Jackson for two years to teach art and coach soccer and ice hockey at an East Coast boarding school. But she returned to Jackson to teach at the Art Association and work at Martin Harris Gallery, where she stayed for five years.

With the support of two local artists who believed in her vision, she opened her own gallery four years ago in the front two rooms of her current industrial space on South Jackson Street. The relocation of the retail store Home Again allowed her to expand into the back room a year and a half ago, which gave her enough space to start her successful First Friday events in November 2006.

“Art has no off-season,” McCandless says. “I wanted to let locals know that I do not only cater to tourists in the high season.”

Three of her currently exhibiting artists are Ted Waddell, Ron Kingswood and Jane Rosen. Rosen relocated to the Big Sur area from New York to pursue her artistic fascination with animals and spirituality. Waddell and Kingswood were with McCandless from the beginning. Although very different in style and format, both are known for their abstracted interpretations of wildlife.

McCandless said she chooses all her artists based on her connection with their work and personalities. Recently, she connected with two Seattle jewelry designers whose company, Chumil, produces unique, chunky, sculptural pieces that McCandless will show and sell in the price range of $45 to $800. The jewelry is hand-constructed using sterling silver, 14-karat gold-fill, unusual beads and wire.

McCandless hopes that non-art connoisseurs will venture into her showroom and surprise themselves by connecting to art that is not necessary aesthetic in the traditional sense.
“Art can be hard and ugly and painful,” she said. “It’s not always beautiful.”
For example, two sculptures by Jane Rosen, “Hoof One” and “Hoof Two,” are interesting, comical and thoughtful in the way the abstracted forms completely capture the essence of horse legs and hooves, but they are certainly not pretty by any standard definition. It is all about the unspoken, emotional connection. After connecting with a piece, a person might decide to buy it instead of another pair of skis.
McCandless has sold works for $650 and $65,000, but she wants people to know they should come to her gallery even if they have no desire to buy anything.

“Art has affected me in a positive way, and I want to share it with others,” she said. “There is often a mystique of snobbery regarding art. It bothers me. Art might not be financially available to the masses, but at least the experience should be accessible to everyone.”

The future should continue to be exciting for Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary. She has dubbed her neighborhood “SoBo” – South of Broadway – a hip and vibrant section of downtown Jackson that includes Rocky Vertone’s Full Circle Frameworks, the Brew Pub (a venue for many local contemporary artists) and the Center for the Arts.

She envisions the area becoming a bohemian haven, where contemporary galleries and other venues all reside within walking distance. She also wants to see her neighborhood lead the way in the environmental movement. Her gallery has made some changes to become an example in sustainable living: She uses 100 percent recycled paper and vegetable oil-based ink for her invitations, serves organic wine and locally brewed beer at openings and events, and accept donations for the Murie Center.

A cool, hip visionary who is giddy about her artists and their art, McCandless brims over with ideas about future shows and installations. With the help of her assistants, Sam Fitz and Natalie Balthrop, her gallery will continue to offer thought-provoking shows, putting SoBo on the map and establishing Jackson Hole as a contemporary art center in the West.

“Jackson has a strong anchor of traditional Western art, and it’s a fabulous part of our culture, but that vision of Western art has been expanded,” she said.

Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, at 130 S Jackson, will stay open late on Friday for the Holiday Stroll, a downtown gallery walk, 5-8 p.m. Contact the gallery at 734-0649.