Meytras’s bovines go for gold – and blue and orange, too; Bush favors the ordinary; NMWA launches ‘virtual foundry’

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

By Susan Burkitt

Everyone has their “How I got to Jackson” story. Christine Meytras, whose “Cows … ’til  They Come Home” show hangs at Pearl Street Bagels through Sept. 15, is no exception.  Meytras, a native of France, obtained her education in Grenoble, including a master’s of art history, before seeking adventures through mountaineering and rock climbing.

Almost on a whim, Meytras joined a friend in climbing the Grand Teton in 1991, and, like most of us who were not fortunate enough to have been raised in its shadow, was completely taken by the area’s beauty and unspoiled look, the artist said.
“On that trip I was really in and out,” Meytras said of her brief introduction to the place she has called home for 12 years, since 1995 when she was offered an opportunity to work for Tom Mangelsen’s Images of Nature gallery.

After a long break from painting, Meytras picked up her brushes again this past fall, having settled on a subject so common in the local area, and yet given a jauntier look by Meytras – cows. Meytras explained that the subjects in the show reflect two of her earlier influences: Henri Matisse, whose love of textiles gave her the idea of adding texture to her work using exotic papers like some made with burrs found on her Nepalese yak; and Andy Warhol, who Meytras says brought dignity to contemporary animal paintings through the use of bright color.

“Colors are a window to a world of depth,” Meytras said.

Meytras went out to ranches near Riverton, Wyo., and Buffalo Valley this past year, where she photographed cows and bulls in different seasons for use in her paintings. Unlike nature’s browns and blacks, Meytras’s cow painting get dolled up in gold leaf for a collage effect that the artist likens to an iconic element in her work and a nod to the abstract. Her bovines, including one transporting newlyweds in full wedding regalia, have a self-conscious quality and invite a closer look.

“Cows … ’til They Come Home” will hang at Pearl Street Bagels for a little longer than that, until Sept. 15. Pearl Street Bagels is located at 145 W. Pearl St. in Jackson. Call the shop at 739-1218.

                                                      •

A newcomer to the Jackson art scene – but not to Jackson’s scenery – part-time resident and photographer Kenner Bush will show 22 of his latest black-and-white gelatin silver print photographs Thursday through Sept. 28 at George Leys’ Blackrock Gallery.
The show, titled “The Lyrical Landscape,” includes landscapes from the greater Yellowstone area and the Tetons, as well as some of the southeastern Appalachian area of Ohio and Zion National Park in Utah.

After an earlier career on the business side of the newspaper business in his hometown of Athens, Ohio, at age 50, Bush turned his workshop into a darkroom and began to focus exclusively on his 20-plus-year-old hobby of shooting landscapes in black and white.

“Our lives are crowded with noise, screaming color, instant communication,” said Bush. “I favor the ordinary over the spectacular, subjects that whisper rather than shout.”
Bush educated himself in both photography and printmaking at workshops at Zone VI with Fred Picker in Vermont and with John Sexton in California. He also counts the late photographer Paul Strand among his influences.

The smaller details of a landscape are where he finds his art, Bush said: “a dash of magic or mystery or make-believe,” as he put it.
Bush has exhibited his work at the invitational Dairy Barns Art Center in Athens, Ohio, as well as other Ohio venues. A reception for the artist will be held 5:30-7:30 p.m. tomorrow, with food and refreshments, at Blackrock Gallery, 150-D Scott Lane. Contact the gallery at 733-5077.

                                                      •

In other art news, the National Museum of Wildlife Art, through its education department, has just launched an educational Web site devoted to the ancient art of lost wax bronze casting. The web site was introduced in celebration of the museum’s “Remington & Russell Revisited” exhibit, to educate the public in the technique used by both Western artists to create their bronzes.

The “Lost Wax” web site covers the process and materials used in the technique, and also includes an interview with noted Colorado wildlife sculptor Gerald Balciar on his sources of inspiration and work with foundry artisans.

In creating “Lost Wax, Found Bronze: The Art and Technique of Lost Wax Bronze Casting,” the museum has jumped in to the next level of web education, said NMWA Director of Marketing Zeenie Scholz. “It was a Web 2.0 endeavor,” she said in describing the “Virtual Foundry” available for viewing and experiencing at http://wildlifeart.org/Foundry.

Geared to all audiences, the site was created with the assistance of Educational Web Adventures LLP, whose services were underwritten through Mr. and Mrs. Aubrey McClendon and the Wyoming Arts Council. Educational Web Adventures is a developer of online learning games and activities.

The site follows Balciar at the foundry he has worked with for most of his career, Lands End Sculpture Center in Paonia, Colo., as he creates a sculpture titled “Little Bear.” Balciar, known for his wildlife sculptures in both bronze and marble, started his career as a taxidermist and has an extensive collection of wildlife reference material.
“When I go to do something like the baby bear, I dig out all my books and photos of bear cubs,” Balciar said.

NMWA has other pieces of Balciar’s in its permanent collection, said Scholz. “Little Bear” is currently on display in its various stages of creation by the lost wax technique in the museum’s King Gallery.

Call the museum at 733-5771 for more information.

Courtesy Christine Meytras
“Chromo Cow”


PERMALINK:
Meytras’s bovines go for gold – and blue and orange, too; Bush favors the ordinary; NMWA launches ‘virtual foundry’ | Planet JH News Article: Arts Beat

Leave a Comment