Celebrating the Life and Work of Gennie DeWeese

A celebration of the life and work of the late artist Gennie DeWeese will be held at the Buck/Butterfield Ranch in Bozeman, MT (look for parking signs at Cottonwood and Kent Spur Rd.) on June 20-21, 2008. Over 200 works of art will be on display, spanning a 40-year plus period of the artist’s life. Many of the works will be available for sale. The celebration will begin with an opening reception Friday evening from 6-10 pm with music by Salsa Loca from Missoula, and will continue Saturday from 10am-5pm. The event is free and open to the public.

Gennie DeWeese was often described as the matriarch of the Montana art community. She and her husband Robert DeWeese moved to Bozeman in 1949 when Bob was hired to teach art at Montana State College. The DeWeeses nurtured students and friends and were a cornerstone of the Montana art scene for many years. Following Bob’s death in 1990 Gennie built a new studio and continued to produce paintings, drawings, and woodblock prints and exhibit regularly throughout the region. In 1995 Gennie and her late husband Bob were recognized with the Montana Governor’s Award for the Arts, and that same year Gennie was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Montana State University. In 2005, Gennie moved to her studio to devote her energy to making her work, and she continued to paint until weeks before her death in November 2007.

The exhibition this summer will include drawings, woodblock prints, and numerous paintings including a 121ft 360-degree panorama of the Gallatin Valley, painted with oil sticks. It will be a tremendous opportunity to see the life’s work of this important artist and to celebrate the life of Gennie DeWeese.

For more information please contact Tina or Josh DeWeese at 406-763-4920, or 406-431-5521. Information on volunteering is here.

Gabriel Kulka: MAYBE ENGINE @ Aunt Dofe’s

Sculptor presents MAYBE ENGINE at Aunt Dofe’s Hall of Recent Memory, 102 Main Street, Willow Creek. Opening reception at Willow Creek’s first 2008 Artwalk from 6:00 until 9:00 PM Friday June 20 and will run until July 13.

Frances Senska Pottery Residency at The Emerson

If you’re a potter, consider this opportunity (and note the imminent deadline for application):

The Emerson is pleased to announce a twelve-month artist residency program for artists with solid training in ceramics and a developing body of work. The Frances Senska Pottery Resident Artist & Studio Technician is a highly community-minded individual with a strong commitment to their studio work, wild imagination, full-on communication and proactive organizing skills, strong interest in teaching youth, and a burning desire to play a pivotal role helping the Emerson build the best community ceramics program in the Northern Rockies.

Position runs August 1, 2008 to July 31, 2009. Application deadline: June 1, 2008

Click here for application information, including full residency description

Gennie DeWeese: Solstice celebration

When Gennie DeWeese died last November, she left behind many paintings, prints, and drawings in her studio. Many of the works are destined for the Holter Museum of Art and other Montana museums, and some pieces will be kept by the DeWeese family. Some are still available for purchase. All—including a 121-ft 360-degree view of the Gallatin Valley (1985)—will be shared with the public in a grand Solstice celebration June 20-21 at the Buck Butterfield arena (11229 Cottonwood Road, south of Bozeman). Further event details will be forthcoming in June. But mark your calendars now!

This major event will require a lot of organization and preparation. Any volunteer time that you could provide would be very much appreciated. Please contact Tina DeWeese at 406-763-4920 or Josh DeWeese at 406-431-5521 (cell) or 406-586-9800 (home).

For more on Gennie DeWeese, see her page on the DeWeese art web site.

Julia Carpenter, Bozeman artist

I’m delighted to continue the Bozeman artist series with Julia Carpenter. Specializing in portraits, she produces some of the most emotionally powerful work I’ve seen. She received her MFA from Montana State University in 2006. Below is her latest news; for more, check out her web site.

Three oil portraits by Bozeman artist Julia Carpenter have been selected for inclusion in a new book Art &Addiction published by Johns Hopkins University Press for release in 2009. The larger than life portraits, Doppleganger, Autopsy and Goodbye, are paintings of the artist’s 24-year old sister, Amy Johnson, who died of a drug overdose in 2005. The paintings are part of a series of 10 that deal with the artist’s stages of grief following the death. Carpenter’s paintings were among 60 accepted out of 900 art submissions on the theme of addiction and recovery selected by the Innovators Advisory board.

This is the second award Carpenter has received from the Innovators Combating Substance abuse program in Washington D. C. Last year the portraits were exhibited in the Art and Addiction show that ran concurrently with the Innovators Award Conference where she received a prize for work that, “best exemplifies the human side of addiction”.

Introducing Bozeman artists

Reversing myself again, I’m now accepting submissions for artist’s self-introduction posts. Because of limited time on my part, I request that artists provide a brief blurb by way of introduction to themselves and their work, as well as one or two images to accompany a post. Just email your material to me (steve@stephendurbin.com). Naturally, this opportunity is in addition to any postings for specific events, such as openings.

I’m always looking to list artists on the Bozeman Artists page, whether or not they also want a self-introduction post.

OUR BEST PARTS: in poems and photography

Kristin Sutton‘s fourth and fifth grade class from Irving Elementary School teamed up with local photographer Rachel Cudmore in a literary and photographic project on the students’ favorite parts of themselves. The children spent three months learning introductory photography skills and practicing communication in images and poetry. See the students’ photos and poems, as well as the photography of Cudmore, this month at International Coffee Traders (720 S. 10th Ave). An artists reception will be held 5-6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 14.

Art Exhibit: CMR Art Teachers Exhibition

Beginning May 9th, the Helen E. Copeland Gallery will begin a summer exhibition showcasing 3 different high schools’ teachers’ works. The first exhibition, brought to us from C.M. Russell High School in Great Falls will be on display through June 13th. An opening reception will be held Friday, May 20th from 3:30 – 5:00pm. The reception will include the visiting teachers and their students who will be coming for a day trip to visit the School of Arts and Architecture.

The featured artists will be Jackie Van Heel, Kerry Brashear, Tess Jacobs, and Jennifer Pospisil, four women who teach studio painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, and sculpture to K-12 as well as at MSU-Great Falls. The artists work with different mediums from drawing and painting to encaustic collage. Recycled items become the subject matter in works that become personalized into figurative forms.

The Helen E. Copeland Gallery is pleased to host these fine educators, and to showcase their work to their students and visitors to the gallery. The gallery is located in Haynes Hall on the MSU-Bozeman campus. All exhibitions and receptions are free and open to the public. For more information call Erin W. Anderson at 994-2562.

Poinzy

Malcolm Gladwell, in a New Yorker article that opens with Bozeman’s own Jack Horner, points out that we tend to think of inventors like Alexander Graham Bell as lone creative geniuses, but it often happens that “unique” inventions are made independently multiple times. One Elisha Gray also worked on the telephone and filed an application with the Patent Office the very same day as Bell. This story comes to mind because I’ve just learned of a new web site, based in Bozeman, that has a very similar goal to that of Art Bozeman, namely supporting the local arts community. Must be something in the air. Here’s the intro from Jamey:

I thought you might be interested in a new website that a few smART people in Bozeman have been creating.  It’s a free service for artists and businesses supporting artists with the goal of connecting them to create more opportunity for growth.  Anyone can create a profile showcasing their art, easily create and send newsletters to as many people as desired, and display events with maps to the destination.  There are many more features available. I hope you’ll check it out and maybe share with your readers.

It’s www.poinzy.com

Poinzy is a different critter from Art Bozeman, though it also has some things in common. Its scope is broader than just the visual arts, and it’s also more focused on supporting marketing activities of artists and art-related businesses. It is pretty small at the moment, but has the potential to grow rapidly if people find it that it offers them value. Have a look!

Annual B.F.A. Graduate Art Exhibition @ MSU

The Helen E. Copeland Gallery at Montana State University will close out its spring schedule with the Annual B.F.A. Graduate Exhibition. The exhibit opens April 28th and runs through May 9th. A reception with the artists will be held Friday, May 9th from 5 to 7 p.m.

The exhibition showcases works by the many talented and creative young artists graduating from the School of Art at MSU. With just over 60 artists represented, the exhibit offers the opportunity to view artworks from a wide-range of artistic approaches and a variety of media. There are examples of artworks from all the disciplines in the School of Art. B.F.A. graduates from the painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, metalsmithing, ceramics and graphic design disciplines have all exhibited their thesis projects.

The Helen E. Copeland Gallery is located on the second floor of Haynes Hall on the MSU-Bozeman campus. All exhibitions and receptions are free and open to the public. For more information call Erin W. Anderson at 994-2562.