Visiting the "Landscape as Metaphor" exhibit at Lincoln Center in Fort Collins

My son Kevin and I attended the opening of an art exhibit last night at the Lincoln Center Gallery in Fort Collins. "Specific Environments: The Landscape as Metaphor" features the work of 39 artists from throughout the U.S. They used "landscape, nature and the land" to portray new visions of the world around us.

Two Wyoming artists are in the show, which continues through January. David Jones of Laramie had a piece called "Car Dealership" that is basically a model of an abandoned structure that's attached to the gallery wall so the roof faces out. David, who attended the opening, is big on these sorts of industrial-themed installations. One of them is featured in the Wyoming Arts Council biennial show now at the Center for the Arts Gallery in Jackson. Georgia Rowswell has a handmade paper piece in the show. Georgia is from Cheyenne and you can see her work at her gallery/studio The Artful Hand or at the show at the Hynds Building downtown.

This isn't in the Fort Collins show but gives you an idea of Wyoming artist David Jones' industrial-based art installations: "Goldmines,"
acrylic and spray paint and graphite on branded panel with steel, wood, and threaded installation components, 11'x6'x1'

Juror for the "Landscape as Metaphor" show was Leanne Goebel of Pagosa Springs, Colo. The Arts Council has coaxed Leanne to be one of its jurors for its visual arts fellowships in 2012. She'll be traveling across the border to the "Click!" conference that the WAC, the UW Art Museum and the Pipeline Art Project are putting on in Pinedale March 30-April 1. More info available soon on the WAC blog.

Ran into environmental artist Lynne Hull at the exhibit. She once called Wyoming home and many of her pieces can be seen outdoors around the state. Also saw my former WAC colleague Liliane Francuz. She retired a few years ago and now has a thriving arts career in Fort Collins. She recently had a show with Florence McEwin at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs.

Kevin, who will be attending CSU next year, liked the video presentations by Chris Coleman and Laleh Mehran. He also admired the work by Gregory Euclide which uses natural and found objects such as sticks, rocks, lichen, moss and abandoned paint cans. I liked Amanda Small's two-story-high wall installation that used fabric, ceramics and wallpaper to portray a Norwegian fjord.

The fact that artists see the natural environment in new and interesting ways is nothing new. It's just a good thing that more and more exhibitions are featuring that work. Timely and thought-provoking.