Telluride Arts: First First Thursday Art Walk of 2014

31 Dec Telluride Arts: First First Thursday Art Walk of 2014

Two Bureau of Indian Affairs firefighters take a break in a blackened aspen grove during the Burn Canyon Fire near Norwood, Colorado, Ben Knight

In the halcyon days of the 1990s, Telluride was flush, the local daily was fat and happy and the go-to guy for images was a young man with a megawatt smile. For 10 years, Ben Knight captured Kodak moments around town – until the latest new owner decided $13 an hour was too steep an investment for a full-time shooter.

After three years of soaking up indomitable spirit as the Assistant Chief Slide Projector Focus Puller [ACSPFP] for Mountainfilm in Telluride, Ben began dabbling in documentary filmmaking with his friend Travis Rummel. The duo’s Felt Soul Media went on to produce several documentaries about the sport of fishing that won awards at festivals around the world, with appeal way beyond the fishing community. Their “Red Gold” focused on a proposed gold and copper mine at the headwaters of an indigenous salmon spawning ground in Alaska, rallying people to oppose the massive mining project that would have altered both the river’s ecosystem and a longtime way of life for the community. New Year’s Eve, Ben offered guests of the Ah Haa School for the Arts art sneak peek at his latest project about removing dams in America and restoring free-flowing rivers.

“I still avoid calling myself a filmmaker or a photographer. It’s weird. I guess I just avoid taking myself too seriously because I see people around me doing it all the time, and for the most part it’s not making their work any better. I couldn’t tell a good story verbally if my life depended on it, so I think film was my way of filling that void. I love the challenge of transforming an obscure subject into something easily digestible that almost anyone can relate to.”

And when Ben executes that transformation, his photography bears the imprint of his nature: quietly penetrating, focused, and compassionate; all heart, without a lick of sentimentality.

Ben Knight and Brucie Holler, two uniquely talented artists, were the featured artists at Ah Haa’s New Year’s Eve gala. Ben’s photography and Bruce’s paintings, a series entitled ‘Murmurations’ based on the flocking of starlings, remain on display for Telluride Arts’ First Thursday Art Walk.

It is a stunning show (we were among the admiring crowd on New Year’s Eve) you won’t want to miss.

Art Walk is a walkabout downtown Telluride for art lovers, a time to meet and greet new friends and old, and celebrate the creativity of local, regional, and national artists. Seventeen venues host receptions from 5 – 8 p.m. to introduce new exhibitions and artists.

Other highly recommended shows include:

Black Bear Trading Company, 218 West Colorado, features new black and white photographs by master photographer Robert J Franzese.

Part of “Snow” series, Tony Marra

The subject of “black” and “white” is clearly not black and white. It is open to interpretation, as you will see when you visit Telluride Art’s Gallery 81435 and Stronghouse Studios, where the extraordinary mixed media artist (and the new president of the Telluride Creative Dsitrict), Amy Jean Boebel, curated Dichotomy/Dualism, a holiday show in black and white. Featured artists include Adrienne Lent, Amy Levek, Britt Markey, Meredith Nemirov, Stephanie Morgan Rogers, Henrik Haasland, Riley Arthur, Antonio Marra (see Related Post) and the Silk Dyers of Telluride.

Dolce, 226 West Colorado Avenue showcases the fine jewelry of Kir, a Boulder-based company owned and operated by a team of women, who oversee design, development, quality control, stone sourcing, raw material planning, and customer service.

Lustre Gallery, 171 South Pine, welcomes the New Year with Aaron Henry Designs, nature’s own designs crafted in solid gold and precious gems: golden aspen, oak leaves, pearl acorns and dragonflies. New this week, Gurhan’s gold and silver collection has been expanded with delicate diamond chips and hammered gold and rubies of every shape and size. Also featured, Jodi Pinkert’s terracotta talisman sculptures, primitive design interpretations from around the world.

Melange, 109 West Colorado, showcases a “Menagerie,” featuring artists Jennifer Bonaventura, Billy Fefer, Nathan Sanders, Ally Crilly, Mara Breedlove and an installation by Turner Kilgore & Meghann McCormick in the vault.

Oh-Be-Joyful Gallery features plein air artist, Don Sahli, in town for the gallery’s artist-in-residence program. Sahli’s treatment of color and light reflects his training in the Russian School of Painting.

“Snow White” is the name of a classic fairytale. It is also a redundancy: snow is after all white. But “snow white” perfectly sums up the rationale for the winter kick off show at the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art. “White” celebrates the bounty just outside our windows – and what’s now on display throughout the gallery.”White” features the paintings of Rebecca Crowell, Catherine Courtenaye, Krista Harris, Shawna Moore and Susan Sales; the ceramics and porcelains of Nicholas Bernard, Jeffry Brown, Mark Leuthold, Michael Wisner and Godele VanHille; and the jewelry of Petra Class, Barbara Heinrich, Melissa Muszynski, Joan Parcher, Cheryl Rydmark, Jeff and Susan Wise, and Marki Knopp.

Knopp specializes in pre-sixth-century techniques of goldsmithing. She uses ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Etruscan methods. All of her work is fashioned from pure 24k gold which is hand-alloyed. The result is a brilliant yellow 22k gold. Every stone and piece of jewelry Knopp creates is one-of- a-kind. For Art Walk, Knopp offers a special presentation, showing the tools and materials she uses to produce her hand-fabricated collection, on display.

Rings, Marki Knopp

The Wilkinson Public Library, 100 West Pacific Avenue. Telluride Arts and the Wilkinson Public Library collaborate to showcase regional artists work on the walls of the library.

There are five main exhibit spaces in the library that host revolving exhibits that change monthly. Work can be found in the following spaces this month: 1.) Geoffrey Alexander photographs above the music area behind the desk on the main floor, 2.) Youth Art Projects in the youth room, 3.) Kellie Day, Paintings in the stairwell, 4.) Alicia Nogueira mixed media works on the exterior walls surrounding the stacks on the second floor and in the Palmyra Room.

Maps are available at participating venues and at the Telluride Arts offices located in the Stronghouse Studios + Gallery at 283 South Fir Street.

For more, go to Telluride Arts.