Live art by Wisdom; Centers moves captured

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

By Henry Sweets

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Norton Wisdom’s artistic personality has elements of Salvador Dali, Louis Armstrong, a Buddhist monk and a third grader playing with his math teacher’s overhead projector.

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.

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For most of his life, Zac Rosser has had an intimate view of the performing arts as a stagehand. He’s now sharing that perspective through photographs taken of dance performances at Jackson’s Center for the Arts.

Since the theatre opened in 2006, Rosser has only missed a few dance shows. He is often backstage, moving from one side to the other and making use of the available light to show a side of the dancers rarely seen by the audience.

Sometimes capturing a single dancer’s contortions, and other times showing an entire troupe suspended in the air, his photographs show what the dancer experiences and feels while expressing the choreographers’ ideas to the crowd.

Rosser says that his artistic focus is on muscle tone, the human form and the limits of the human body’s capabilities. The son of an art school director, Rosser has no formal art education but has been photographing performers for the past 11 years.

An opening reception for Rosser’s work will be from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Friday, July 25, at the Hard Drive Café, 1110 Maple Way. Expect to find beer, snacks and live dance performances.

The CIAO Gallery is hosting a reception for a new show, “Adventures,” featuring the works of five local artists.

The show will feature oil paintings of scenes from around the world - Shannon Troxler’s works of Mexico, Alissa Hartmann views of Nepal and Natalie Goss’s paintings from Italy and Argentina.

In addition, Emily Boespflug, who is known for her oil landscapes, will show backcountry snowboarding photographs, many of which were taken in Teton County. Martin Hagen, an Olympic biathlete, will show his bronze sculptures of Nordic skiers.
A reception for the show will run from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, July 26, at the CIAO Gallery, 1921 Moose-Wilson Rd.

Photo by SPENCER SIMENSEN
Zac Rosser in his domain.

PERMALINK:
Live art by Wisdom; Centers moves captured | Planet JH News Article: Arts Beat

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