Call for entries: Habitat for Humanity's "Salvage Art Show & Auction"

Habitat for Humanity of Laramie County will be hosting a Salvage Art Show & Auction in conjunction with Habitat’s ReStore Annex grand opening in late spring and you are invited to participate! The Salvage Art Show & Sale will focus on pieces made primarily of recycled, salvaged and found objects. If chosen to participate, artists will receive a $15 voucher to use to buy items from the ReStore. If you would like to be a part of the show or have any questions, contact Elizabeth Williams at elizabeth@cheyennehfh.org or 307.637.8067 by Wednesday, February 29.

Reception tonight in Laramie for photographer Doc Thissen's first solo show

Doc Thissen’s first solo exhibition is tonight at The Cavalryman Restaurant, 4425 S. 3rd, in Laramie, (one mile south of town on US 287). This event is sponsored by the Works of Wyoming center and The Cavalryman. Show starts at 5 p.m. This event is a cheese and wine reception.

Doc started making images in about 1976 with a Minolta A5 Rangefinder, (circa 1960 model). After thirty years of being self-taught, I decided to pursue photography as a career. I've been
working on my BFA in photography from the Academy of Art University (online - based in San Francisco), since 2008. I expect to graduate in 2014. With my education, I have determined that my primary discipline is going to be documentary and photojournalism.

Currently, Doc is working on two documentary projects: the Laramie Plains Civic Center, and the former Midwest/Standard refinery located on north Cedar street, (the latter is in conjunction with the Laramie Rivers Conservation District). Both of these projects are intended to capture the current conditions, along with the restoration/renovation/reclamation projects that are underway. More information can be found on his blog: http://ddocspix.blogspot.com

Doc Thissen’s Artist Statement:

I've always been fascinated by light; finding that quality of light unique to every scene; be it sunlight or a derivative of sunlight; the incandescent, the fluorescent, or the mercury street lighting that are found everywhere is the result of fallen sunlight; from coal-fired plants to the wind turbines that power our modern world. Photography is a both a science and an art; a study in light and time. In the moment that the shutter is open, the camera captures how things are, and sparks the imagination to wonder how things used to be, and what the future may bring. My background is firmly rooted in science and technology - it's the curiosity of the world around me that drives me to make the images I make.

PHOTO: Photo by Doc Thissen of the four largest murals at the Laramie Plains Civic Center. More information about the murals can be found on the Civic Center website: http://www.laramieplainsciviccenter.org/TheatreMurals.aspx

P.S.: Doc Thissen is a member of the Wyoming Arts Council artist roster. You can bring him to your community for a presentation or workshop through an Arts Across Wyoming grant. Go to the WAC web site and click on the "grants" link on the left sidebar.

New University of Wyoming visual arts facility will be dedicated Jan. 20

The University of Wyoming's new visual arts facility will be dedicated Friday, Jan. 20, at 10:45 a.m. Refreshments and tours of the facility will be offered following the ribbon-cutting program.

Located at 22nd Street and Willett Drive east of the Centennial Complex that houses the UW Art Museum, the 79,000-square foot Visual Arts Center expands teaching space and provides additional rooms for student projects.

The facility offers teaching studios and spaces for art history, ceramics, drawing, foundations of art, graphics, painting, printmaking, sculpture and small metals. It also provides administrative offices, a large student commons area, a gallery to exhibit students' work and to support the Visiting Artists Program, and a large lecture room for art classes and other programs.

Photo: The University of Wyoming's new Visual Arts Center as seen from the southwest. (UW Photo)

UW Art Department faculty and staff moving in to new energy-efficient building

According to a story in ENR Mountain States newsletter, the $25-million University of Wyoming arts center is completed and ready for occupancy. The building currently is tracking LEED Platinum status due to a variety of energy-efficient features, including a solar-thermal heating system that produces hot water for in-slab radiant heating. Read the entire story here.

Challenge the orange cone zone at NMWA to see wonderful "Yellowstone to Yukon" exhibit

Dwayne Harty, "Mountain Goats"

Wildlife artist Dwayne Harty was working on a new painting in the lobby of the National Museum of Wildflife Art this morning. It was hard to carry on a conversation as jackhammers made a racket. The NMWA is under renovation. The deteriorating rock facade has been removed and a new one is going up in its place. Upslope from the museum, a new sculpture garden is being installed and parking lots remade. Downslope toward the National Elk Refuse, a new bike path underpass (complete with public art project) is being built.

The museum is still open (as the sign says) and we viewed the exhibit "Yellowstone to Yukon: The Journey of Wildlife and Art." It features the work of Dwayne Harty completed over a four-year span. He traveled the length of the Yellowstone-Yukon wildlife corridor three times over the course of as many years, painting in areas so remote that few, if any, painters have captured it. During the fourth year, Dwayne was artist-in-residence at the Murie Center working out of a studio at the Arts Center in Jackson.

Brave the construction and see the exhibit. It won't be there much longer.

Daily hard-hat tours of renovation work at National Museum of Wildlife Art

Another good reason to visit Jackson this summer:

Beauty is being restored to the rugged National Museum of Wildlife Art façade one carefully placed piece of Oakley Quartzite (shown in photo) at a time as the museum’s construction projects continue on schedule. More than 37,000 square feet of the multicolored stone, mined in Idaho, will eventually sheathe the building’s façade as part of summer improvements that include a new roof and initial work on the new sculpture trail in addition to the upfit to the exterior walls, with capital improvements to the building scheduled for completion by October 31, 2011.

The museum remains open on its regular schedule during construction, and visitors can check the work-in-progress on the new sculpture trail via free “hard hat tours” daily at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The three-quarter-mile-long outdoor art venue designed by renowned landscape architect Walter Hood will showcase nearly 30 permanent and temporary artworks and is slated to open September 2012. A special installment of the tours will be led July 1 at 10 a.m. by museum Director of Security and Facility Service Joe Bishop, who will share museum history, fun facts and hard-to-believe stories from his more than 20 years on staff.

In addition to the capital improvements and new sculpture trail, work has been underway on a new underpass to allow easy biker and hiker access to the museum from the Jackson-to-Grand Teton National Park North Highway 89 pathway. A panel including the museum’s Curator of Art Adam Harris recently selected artwork featuring playful ravens by Wisconsin sculptor Don Rambadt for the new underpass’s retaining walls.

Read this intriguing article about trailblazing landscape architect Walter Hood in Fast Company magazine.