Telluride Council for the Arts & Humanities features new gallery on Art Walk, 1/7

Last January, TCAH’s Strong Studios featured the work of newly minted local Amy Jean Boebel, a recycler with massive creative chops. “Seventeen Scrolls of Screen” featured playfully elegant sculptures created entirely from rolls of wire screen. Exactly one year later, Boebel managed to open her own gallery: Sapsucker Studios, 299 South Fir Street, where the idea is to feature cutting-edge work produced by regional artists. Sapsucker’s debut show this Thursday features her own “Screen Scapes and Shapes,” illuminative aluminum screen wall hangings and sculpture in which shadows complete the picture in a play of movement and light.

A graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, Boebel has been an artist her entire life. For years, however, she spent more time in non-art related activities such as motherhood and work. (Boebel’s disparate resume includes managing director of the Maryland Ballet and partner in Market Tech, software for trading in the commodities market and Executive Director of the San Francisco Parks Trust.) Since moving to town in May 2008, however, making sculpture (and ice climbing) has become her full time job.

No big surprise considering the upward trajectory of this successful entrepreneur/artist: Boebel’s collaboration with Tellluride-based fabric artist Sue Hobby gained the attention of the international community. The two women got invited to New Zealand’s World of Wearable Art Awards Show, where their three garments made from recycled aluminum won top prizes:  “Highly Commended”  or third prize in the Gen-i Creative Excellence Fold category and “Runner-up”  or second prize for the American Express Wellington International Award, which included 47 design teams.

Join Boebel at Sapsucker for champagne and munchies (and a prize for those who show up early).

To learn more about Boebel and Sapsucker, click the “play” button and listen to her podcast.