Adrienne Vetter shoots for realistic and fanciful views of Wyoming

Adrienne Vetter is Wyoming born and raised. She went from Fremont County schools to Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs to the University of Wyoming in Laramie to the graduate art program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Wyoming? Isn't that some far-off place where the deer and the antelope play, a mythical land of Hollywood shoot-em-ups and cowboys and Indians?

Not real, right?

At least that seemed to be the view of her fellow students, most from urban places of the East.

In her grad school art pursuits, Adrienne tried to portray the complicated and strange and wonderful place of her youth.

Now back in Wyoming, Adrienne continues her mission. She was named one of three winners of a 2011 WAC visual arts fellowship. The fellowship judges liked the scope of her work, the vision and ambition she brought to it. A sampling of her work will be part of the 2011 WAC fellowship biennial Nov. 4-Dec. 30 at the Center for the Arts in Jackson.

Until recently, she was program manager for Wyoming Kids First on the Wind River Indian Reservation. She is collaborating with Native artist Colleen Friday on at least one project and there may be more. Her interests include "social class, cross-cultural organizing, autobiography and rural culture."

Adrienne has exhibited some large installations, including a mock-up of a small-town laundromat at the UW Art Museum and an inflatable camper trailer. When exhibited, the trailer, complete with hitch and fake propane tank, was hooked to headphones. When visitors to the installation picked up the headphones, that triggered an audio of Adrienne telling a story of her time living in her father's small trailer while he worked construction in Sweetwater County. As the story played, a pump inflated the trailer. Both the narrative and the trailer finished at the same time. When the visitor put the headphones back on the hook, the installation deflated.

Adrienne now has a trailer of her own, a vintage Airstream, which she plans on using as kind of a portable artist's studio now that her job on the Reservation has ended.

Have art (trailer), will travel.

Photos (top to bottom):

1. "ClassiFICTIONs," multimedia installation by Adrienne Vetter

2. "Camperwagon," digital image

3. "(Not) Mutally Exclusive" by Adrienne Vetter. Cowboys vs. Indians and vice versa.