Now in the midst of July, we find ourselves at the height of tourist season, a time that is both exciting and exhausting for valley residents. The same question pops up annually: do we even need tourists? Maybe. Probably. Yes, definitely. It’s a balancing act each summer, but a fact of life that summers in Jackson are crowded.

It’s easy to lose patience when the streets are full and lines pile out the doors, but those same crowds fill our hotels and dine in our restaurants. Kick back, relax and go with the flow while summer is still around. On tap for this weekend we have three days of music and art and an afternoon of fried chicken.

Friday
Targhee Fest
All weekend long at Grand Targhee
Grand Targhee’s 5th annual Targhee Fest kicks off at 4 p.m. with live music that will last for three days. The show you will want to see on Friday is Grace Potter at 7:15 p.m followed by Gov’t Mule at 9 p.m. Tickets for Friday’s show are $55 or $130 for the entire weekend. You must buy tickets in advance, as there are no gate sales. Read the entire line up and get tickets here.

A Work in Progress: an night of art, music and the love of Vinyl
6-11 p.m. Full Circle Frameworks and Gallery 335 N. Glenwood Ave 733.0770

If you’d like to check the pulse of the Jackson art scene, attend this event. For the past five years roughly 20 of Jackson’s young contemporary artists have gotten together to create art together in one space for one night. There is a collaborative, momentary vibe to the whole thing where the artists are given a certain amount of time to complete each piece they are creating. They feed off each other and as a spectator, you have a lot of fun watching art come to life right before your eyes. This year’s the artists will be reinventing the album cover and will be creating art on old vinyl records. If you are not going to Targhee Fest, you should be here.

Saturday
44th annual Jackson Hole Art Fair
July 17-19, Miller Park

Every year the Art Association of Jackson Hole brings in over 160 artists from around the country to Miller park for 3 days (twice a summer) to create what is the Jackson Hole Art Fair. It’s a great way to spend Saturday afternoon, walking around checking out the diverse array of art. Admission is $3 and is well worth it. You never know what you’re going to find. If you miss the art fair this weekend, it will be back August 14-16.

Targhee Fest, continued
All weekend long
The music starts at noon on Saturday and goes until at least 10 p.m. The line up goes as follows: Tift Merritt, Vedera, James McMurty, Sonny Landreth, The Wall Flowers and Jonny Lang. It can be a very long, very fun day in the sun.

Sunday
Wilson Volunteer Fireman’s 42nd annual Chicken Fry.
12 p.m., Stilson Lot, on the corner of the Village road and Hwy 22.

I have never been to this Chicken Fry but I really want to go. Apparantly 3,000 to 4,000 people show up to eat. It raises money for a good cause and really, how can you deny a plate of fried chicken in July for $8?

Last day of Targhee Fest
Last Day of JH Art Fair

Popularity: 4% [?]

The Teton Village Art and Antique show was created by Mary Vidano and Cynthia Brooks of MC Presents Antiques. The women, natives of Boulder, CO, work tirelessly to bring in quality dealers from coast to coast who, “have a passion for their items,” stated Vidano.

The show has made magnificent gains since its beginning, and put Jackson on the map as a valuable outdoor venue, serving to benefit the community as a destination area. It is now one of the top 100 art and antique shows in the US.

I sat down with Vidano and Brooks, two women brimming with enthusiasm for their show and their own antiques, and more than willing to share their plentiful knowledge. They poured praise over each booth, explaining how each vendor had a passion for their items and how each display was unique. One man made all his knives by hand, some carved out of mammoth tooth, while another lady did her own framing of exceptional antique photographs, slides, and paintings.

Brooks and Vidano showed me a handmade American flag from the Civil War. They explained  how the government did not set a standard for the shades of red, white and blue used or the configuration of stars, leading each flag to be unique. This flag was thirty five stars forming one large star and is the only one in existence.

The ladies have a following of vendors, some, such as Bill Alder from Utah, who has committed to every show for the last ten years. There are also newcomers, such as Katy Schor, a Texas native, who displays a tent full of vintage beads, pendants, earrings, and other unique jewelry pieces you can purchase to create your own designs. Many tents held the entire range of a full antique store in their small areas, from bureaus to classic tin signs for companies such as Campbell’s. The old west motif was in full swing as well.

The assortment of art and antiques was vast, offering treasures for all ages and interests. The range of prices was astonishing as well, from incredible deals for those simply browsing, to pricey pieces for serious antique collectors. “To be quality antiques do not have to be expensive,” the ladies explained.

For those who have shied away from art and antique shows in the past, perhaps under the misapprehension of a certain vibe, take a break from hiking, biking, fishing or whatever your passion may be, and step into the relaxing world of art and antiques, for perhaps a very new and enlightening experience.

The Teton Village Art and Antique show will return August 28 through the 30.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Catch some tunes and go to market

It’s been a long time coming but summer has officially arrived; the main indicator being that the first Farmers Market of the season is happening Saturday morning from 8 to 11 a.m. on town square. And as I mentioned earlier,  Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary is having her first art Market of the season directly after. These events should not be missed, unless, of course, you’re too tired to make it—a distinct possibility considering the music line up on Friday night which includes local favorite Boondocks reuniting for the only time in ’09 to play at the Mangy Moose with New York City’s Benyaro and local band Screen Door Porch ($5) starting at 9:30 p.m.  Meanwhile, in town, Leo Rondeau from Austin, TX, will play at 43 North starting at 10 p.m. for a small cover at the door. Now let’s take a look at what else is worthwhile this weekend.

Calle Mambo Concert at Snow King

This sounds promising. Calle Mambo is a 10 piece Latin-Rhythm-Jazz-Salsa-Dance group that will be playing at Snow King Resort inside the Grand Ballroom from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. on Friday night. The concert supports the cause, Cuba Travel Freedom. Mojitos and Cuba Libres will be served. If you’re down to get tropical, this is your scene on Friday.

Teton Freedom Riders Volunteer Dig Day

After you hit up the farmers market and Lindsay McCandless on Saturday, you may want to head over to the pass to help the Teton Freedom Riders with mountain bike trail maintenance. Bring your work gloves and your bike and meet them at the Philips Pass trail Head. If you bike the pass and use the trail system, lend a hand to keep these trails pristine.

A Mid Summer Night’s Dream

Saturday at 8 p.m at the Walk Festival Hall in Teton Village the Grand Teton Music Festival will be performing the music of a Mid Summer’s Night’s Dream. Tickets are $50 for Adults and $10 for students. Their web site describes the concert in this way: “An expert in eighteenth-century style, guest conductor Nicholas McGegan joins the Festival Orchestra, along with narrator Terry Schwab, for a program that celebrates the 200th birthday anniversary of Felix Mendelssohn whose incidental music for the great Shakespeare work, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” is on the program alongside two other masters celebrating anniversaries this year: Haydn and Handel.”

And on Sunday 22local suggests you go swimming, fishing or boating. Celebrate the summer by practicing aquatics. It’s free.

Popularity: 11% [?]

“Here are the realities, I’m not leaving Jackson, I don’t want to get out of the art world and I don’t want to get away from what I’ve already started. But, the traditional gallery business model, in my mind, is over. I doesn’t work for me, it doesn’t work in Jackson,” said Lyndsay McCandless. Her gallery, the beloved Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, located on 130 South Jackson, will be changing the way it does business. Right now it is struggling along financially and many have speculated it’s imminent demise. But this Saturday, McCandless hopes to begin to right her ship with the introduction of the Saturday Local Arts Market (SLAM).

SLAM will happen right after the farmer’s market ends and will function in a similar way. Local artists, selected by McCandless, will come to her gallery to display, install, set up, play, and show their art. The art is promised to be affordable, locally made and McCandless is stressing that the artists add an eco-friendly twist to their work, if possible.

“Anomaly Farm, those guys came in the other day, we had talked about it previously, they were my motivating factor. We just have to start doing it,” McCandless said, “because otherwise if we wait, it will be the end of August before we do anything.”

If SLAM becomes successful, it will take place every Saturday into the future. The idea is to bring the creative community together time and time again and to make LMC more than a place where art simply hangs on walls.

“I sent out an invitation to a whole bunch of different creative people. The idea being we want to support our local creative community. We’ll have people doing jewelry, clothing, artwork…I don’t want it to be an inside art fair, I want it to be funky and creative and a whole collaborative art event. There is potential that in the future there will be film screenings happening in the afternoon. There’s been an interest to bring a music element to it. And the idea is that every Saturday things will be different.”

McCandless is looking to create a full art experience, not just a space with art hanging on the walls, but an interactive community event that taps into everyone’s creative side.

“There are so many creative people in this valley and there just isn’t a consistent venue for them. And I’m trying to make things work, so it’s really about trying to pull every ones creative energy together here on Saturdays to fuel something. I don’t have an exact picture of what that might look like two to three weeks from now, or a month from now, but I really want it to build and I see it as hopefully doing more than just selling art. That’s sort of the big theory behind it.

Popularity: 6% [?]

During John Gibson’s featured opening at JH Muse Gallery, 22Local caught up with gallery goers to find out what they thought of the opening. Editor’s note: click the photos below to see expanded sizes.

JH Muse Gallery

John Gibson: Inter-play

Alissa Davies, Marketing Director: “John was my instructor and advisor at Smith, so I took a number of painting classes from him. And I was pointing out to Jamie that he does a lot of underpainting, meaning that he paints colors underneath it to make stand out more, usually using the opposite color on the color wheel, like there is probably red underneath the green on this one.”

Jim Hume, Sculptor: “I have a great time working with John.” “I want to go bigger.”

Madeline Gibson, Artist's daughter: “It’s not that I hate them, it’s not that I love them, but, well, I know them too well.”

Pam Case, Fundraiser: “I have friend in Jackson who has a piece in his home, and I loved it when I saw it last summer, and now, it is nice to see it in the Gallery. I love how Tayloe has exhibited it. And I love the vibrant colors.”

John Gibson, Artist: "It is really exciting when paintings are really flat and really spatial at the same time. I don’t know why it’s exciting, but I find it particularly, deeply satisfying. That painting does it! I worked a long time on that painting.”

Popularity: 7% [?]

Center for the Arts photo by David Swift via the Art Association website

Local artists take over the ArtSpace Galleries at the Center for the Arts in March, with four Art Association shows honoring homegrown talent.

Openings start on March 6 in the ArtSpace Loft with “Photography to an Exhibit,” the final exam, of sorts, for a class led by the Art Association’s Jon Stuart in which four valley shooters produced new work, selected images to display via a jurying process, and orchestrated all stages of the culminating display.

Read the rest of this article »

Popularity: 5% [?]

When others in the community see construction site waste, Bland Hoke Jr. sees potential for art – big, public art.

This fall, Hoke turned pieces of plywood left in construction site dumpsters into shapes of buffalo, moose, ducks and geese, and called it the Wonder of Winter Wildlife. He then gave some 150 local elementary school students rollers of paint and told them to let their creativity flow. The young artists painted wolves white, polka-dotted pink rabbits and coated foxes in rust red.

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Popularity: 3% [?]