Potter, Trigg at Artlab; sustainable work at Lyndsay McCandless; local youth share multimedia with pARTners

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

By Henry Sweets

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-The Teton Artlab show, “The Architecture of Display,” features new works by two artists, Charlotte Potter and Sharon Trigg, starting this Friday.
Charlotte Potter recently returned from a fellowship at the Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center in Millville, N.J., where she strayed from colorful, functional forms and delved into a sculptural exploration of taxidermy.

“It originally started as a sort of commentary on the antler-centric world that we live in, in Jackson Hole,” Potter said. She wanted to make “provocative” western work representing the “young population that is moving [to Jackson] that is informed by more than just Cowboys and Indians.”

While Potter was in New Jersey, she did “a lot of research into naturally occurring silica carbide antlers,” and into the science of taxidermy. She also created a glass blowing circus with her co-fellows, and visited the Mutter museum of medical oddities in Philadelphia, which houses the world’s largest colon. Potter said that “cabins of curiosity” and “freak-shows” were the first museums, which often offered visitors scientific truth to tall tales.

Her body of work was inspired when Potter was a waitress and artist who answered “ridiculous” questions from tourists in Jackson Hole. Potter decided to magnify the fine line between fact and fiction, and meld research and creative license to create narratives that inform, as well as fascinate, viewers. The results are statements in the secret dialogue between outsiders that seek the mysticism of the American West, and the young western culture that guards it.

Sharon Trigg makes multimedia shadow boxes and collages with a rich sense of time and narrative. Trigg thinks of her art as “building stories through collage, using layers and layers of images constructed with incongruent bits of photos, paper, wood, wire, fabric, metal, thread [and] paint,” she said in an emailed response. “The multiple layers invite the viewer to take a second look at what is going on.”
Trigg also noted that the materials she uses lend an old-fashioned feel to her art, and the playful juxtaposition of certain images adds a sense of humor.
The Artlab holds a reception for the show from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday at the Teton Artlab, 145 N. Cache, Number 5, next to Teton Thai.


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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.

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This weekend pARTners will show works made over the last year by kids ranging in age from kindergarten to high school.

Eighth graders have contributed multimedia-collage self-portraits called “Inside-out Portraits,” and seventh graders will show their stained-glass works made as a math project related to their renaissance fair. There will also be recycled sculptures of aquatic life from third graders, animal drawings from sixth graders and a textile sculpture from Megan Stordahl’s high school students. An English as a Second Language program has contributed its “Two worlds/Two Visions” mural. Video projections and other art will also be on display at the event.

The show will take place from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Friday at the Center for the Arts, 240 S. Glenwood. Performances begin at 5:20 p.m. with Shannon Shuptrine’s K-1 class performing an excerpt from “Sing Out.” At 5:30 Jackson Elementary kindergarteners will perform a sample of “The ABC Dance,” and from 5:45 p.m. to 6:15 p.m., eighth graders from the middle school will read poetry from their belief manifestos.

Charlotte Potter’s ‘When the Deer Turn to Elk.’

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Potter, Trigg at Artlab; sustainable work at Lyndsay McCandless; local youth share multimedia with pARTners | Planet JH News Article: Arts Beat

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