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Fine Art

by Lauren Metzger
Marketing & Exhibitions Manager
Ah Haa School for the Arts

IndianSummer_wilsonrange-386x0 Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. It brings to mind new clothes, crisp blank notebooks and an abundance of newly sharpened pencils. While school is part of my past (thank god) I am happy that the Ah Haa School for the Arts still supplies it's own fall adventures that allow me to grow creatively and not be graded on.

I know that when I go hiking and exploring in our amazing Telluride backyard, I bring my camera and try my damnedest to capture the scenes surrounding me. And I have to admit I fail miserably. This is not to say that my pictures don't capture the beauty but they sure don't capture the depth of the beauty and the majesty of the landscape. So, I am excited to say that National Geographic photographer Dave Edwards is back this fall to give me some tips in making a strong photograph. Capturing dynamic compositions, learning about light, subject content and artistic elements are sure to help me blow my friends and family away. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and if I can truly learn to capture where I live, I will hopefully leave people as speechless as I am taking the picture when they view the picture.

17 August, 2010 /


A show of new work, her fifth at the Telluride Council for the Arts & Humanities' Stronghouse Studios, by local artist and county commissioner Elaine Fischer opens Thursday, part of the all-day showcase of Telluride's fine art and retail scene, with venues open late until eight. (For further information about what's happening at other locations, go to the TCAH website or call 728-8959 or 728-3930.)

"Mixed Messages" makes it abundantly clear Fischer has come into her own as an artist. A survey of the work, which runs the gamut from abstraction to portraiture to still-lifes, even a landscape and several bowl-like shapes, points to a virtuoso whose through-line is authenticity. Naturalism be damned. Fischer uses shape and color to express her true emotions with a detachment from any conventional notions of beauty: What she feels is what you get. And that is true even for the self portraits. Here is someone who can look in a mirror without squinting. The one in her studio. And the mirror of life.
04 August, 2010 /


Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts, 300 South Townsend, honors painter Robert Weatherford with a retrospective showcasing 25 years of painting, including florals, landscapes, still-lifes and portraits. The opening of the exhibit in the Daniel Tucker Gallery coincides with the Telluride Council for the Arts & Humanities' First Thursday Art Walk, August 5, 5 - 8 p.m. Across town, a show at the Stronghouse Studios, 283 South Fir Street, features the work of one of Weatherford's students, county commissioner Elaine Fischer. Fischer's work underlines the legacy of her teacher: the triumph of visceral over cerebral.

( For a list of the goings-on around town and a map of all participating venues, go to the TCAH website)
03 August, 2010 /

[click "Play" to hear Lauren Metzger's conversation with Ally Crilly] by Lauren MetzgerMarketing & Exhibition ManagerAh Haa School for the Arts Ally Crilly has made a splash with her dynamic and energy-filled Elephants over the past year in Telluride....

14 July, 2010 /
[click "Play" to listen to Scott Rhea's interview with Susan]

Mstrcopy_w_RoJune 26_for web copy I have covered Telluride cultural life over a career of 18 years and counting, and found that the parade of interesting people who gravitate to our Shangri-La never ends. You may not know the names of many of these people, not because they are not abundantly talented and widely accomplished, but because Telluride is their sanctuary, a place to get away from the faces they meet in the real world. Case in point: Scott Rhea.


Scott, who divides his time between Tinseltown and the Ski Ranches just outside the Town of Telluride, has had a very successful career shooting fashion print and editorial fashion. But it is book of unique underwater images released in 2009 that triggered his coming out party in Telluride.

06 July, 2010 /

by Lauren Metzger, Marketing & Exhibition Manager
Ah Haa School for the Arts

[click "Play for Lauren's interview with Julee Hutchison]


Julee_hutchison_web For the last two years, July has also brought a crazy overload of excitement and energy for me in the form of...the Ah Haa Art Auction. Now in it's 18th year, this local extravaganza is part of my job description.

As the Ah Haa School's largest and most important fundraiser, I am in charge of securing art for the live and silent portions of this one day event, as well as marketing, of course. This year I am once again amazed by the tremendous amount of support our community has for the Ah Haa School. The money raised in this one evening keeps our doors open for another year by covering operational costs that allow us to offer a wide variety programs and workshops.

06 July, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Greg LaRock's interview with Susan]

LaRock, Greg - Eight O'Clock Alley - 8 bit The Sheridan Arts Foundation's Telluride Plein Air is a robust weekend of fine art and music, culminating over the Fourth of July weekend starting July 2 with a Quick Draw and Sale, 10:30 am – 12 p.m.; the Oak Street Park gala premiere and silent auction,  5 – 8 p.m. and  gala concert featuring Janis Joplin's original band, Big Brother & the Holding Company, 8 p.m. (The sale of works by Telluride Plein Air artists continues throughout the weekend, interrupted only by the Fourth of July parade, 11 –  noon.)

Telluride Plein Air traces its lineage across the pond to the end of the 19th century.
02 July, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Susan's podcast with David Brankley]

The BeanMountainfilm Telluride celebrates the First Thursday of every month with the Telluride Council's for the Arts & Humanities' ArtWalk, a meet-and-greet on the street to experience the town's fine art and retail scene. (Stores stay open late until 8 p.m.) All participating venues are on or within walking distance of Main Street. For a list of what's going on where, go to www.telluridearts.org.


For the July ArtWalk, the spotlight is on artist David Brankley, whose concise, compelling paintings are on display at The Telluride Council for the Arts & Humanities'  Stronghouse Studios, 283 South Fir (one block south of the Village Market). The artist's reception is from 5 – 8 p.m.
01 July, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Lucy Boody's conversation with Susan]

Lucyboody Amy Jean Boebel is on a roll. All summer long the owner of Sapsucker Studios, 299 Sputh Spruce, is displaying the work of remarkable women like herself. In June, it was Ally Crilly's elephants. In July, it is Lucy Boody's scarf art, the artist's first one-woman show.

Lucy Boody was once upon a time the Town of Telluride's dogcatcher, a job she "co-chaired" with Michael Saftler. But there is a little more to her story than jailing our furry friends.

01 July, 2010 /

by Lauren Metzger
Marketing & Exhibitions Manager
Ah Haa School for the Arts

[click "Play" to hear Lauren's conversation with Brooke Ahana]

 

Brooke_tio

Every now and then, if you are lucky, people come into your life who inspire you. Brooke Ahana is one of those people for me. She reminds me to have fun. Fun in life. In my work. In painting.

As a Los Angeles artist, Brooke Ahana has been leaving the big city and spending her last 7 summers in Telluride, CO inspiring kids and adults alike at the Ah Haa School for the Arts. An impassioned visiting artist instructor, Brooke teaches a variety of workshops for kids of all ages. From Portraits with Personality to Abstract Expressionism, Brooke covers the gamut and pushes her students to learn, explore and believe in their creativity (a woman after our own Ah Haa heart).

30 June, 2010 /