This is my Spectrum column for Sept. 4, 2012
This month my wife, Cherie, and I celebrate the fifth anniversary of the opening of Gallery 873 in the Coyote Gulch Art Village in Kayenta/Ivins. The gallery is her brainchild and project but we are both inspired by the words of Roy Adzak; “Good art is not what it looks like, but what it does to us.”
Cherie finds the more than eighty artists that we represent; organizes and arranges their work in our gallery guided be her innate artist’s sensibility. One artist we represent is Edward Hlavka, a nationally known bronze sculptor, who created “The Mustangs” in the roundabout on Snow Canyon Parkway. While we generally represent artists from the Southwest we also have artwork from other regions of the country.
We have scheduled a reception for Saturday, September 22 from 5:30 to 9:00 PM so the public can meet two of our featured artists, April Bower and Lynette Thompson, while enjoying live music and light refreshments.
April, an established artist, has been with us since we opened and has been working with copper and silver jewelry for more than 18 years. Also, using chemical patinas, she makes “Patina Paintings” on thin copper sheets supported by wood backings or “boxes”.
Lynette is an emerging acrylic artist. Her favorite material is gesso that she blends with sand, metal, copper, twigs, and other materials creating organic, multi-layered, richly textured images of shaman, horses, quail, and many other natural inhabitants found in the desert southwest.
Trying to find the words to express the importance of my own late life immersion in the world of art in all of its dimensions is challenging. But acting as an intermediary between artists and the public can be exciting and life affirming. Being in an artistic environment with others of the same mind is energizing be it at Tuacahn, the Shakespeare Festival, or in Gallery 873. Just the opportunity to interact with those who are open to exploring the mysteries of the creative process inevitably broadens our perspective of the complexity of our world.
Just now, as I write, a young woman is approaching the gallery and a smile broadens on her face when she sees the outdoor art in front of our building. Entering, her growing enthusiasm is obvious even before I hear “It’s so beautiful” as she spontaneously responds to a Giclée of a horse embellished with copper feathers and leather by artist Lynn Bean. She leaves with a few cards containing smaller images of the work that caught her attention.
Customers sometimes express feelings of disappointment about the lack of creativity in their own lives. I remind them that artists need those of us whose role it is to appreciate and be inspired by their work and that we are each artists in some sense.
As Houston Llew, one of our artists, reminds us: “In art you can find your own spirit. This very simple act is art in itself”. That opportunity is open to all.
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