The subject may be roaches but, if you look closely, you see so much more

My latest piece for Wyofile's Studio Wyoming Review has the header "The subject is roaches," a review of Laramie artist Shelby Shadwell's exhibit at Blue Door Arts in Cheyenne. Pretty good header for an arts review as cockroaches and bugs in general don't come up that often. For good reason -- nobody likes a roach, at least the kind in the animal world (none of the other kind in WYO, at least not legally). I have never seen a roach of any type in WYO. Bugs prefer the hot sweltering climes of the South.

I grew up in the South and have seen hundreds of cockroaches. You turn on the kitchen light at 2 a.m. for a snack, and you hear them skittering back to their hideouts -- you might even catch a quick glimpse of one. You can wake up on a sunny Florida morning and see one staring at you across the pillow. You might be driving along and see one riding shotgun in your rusty 1972 Ford Torino. It's not merely bad housekeeping, although I have been guilty of that. Roaches will inherit the earth. It's not too much to imagine that roaches and their pals in the insect world will be running the show in the year 5020. Of course, we may be living in Kevin Kostner's Waterworld by then. But if I know my roaches, they will find ways to backstroke their way into your giant catamaran or floating fortress or wherever our soggy future relatives live.

Shadwell's show is a small one in a relatively small gallery. The art is big. Blue Door Arts proprietor Terry Kreuzer cracked me up when I asked her how she got a rising star such as Shadwell to show in her gallery in Cheyenne's most famous downtown building that would be deserted if it weren't for the enterprising artists on the ground floor.

"I asked him," she said.

Later, I was puzzled by the fact that the artist has shown rarely in Wyoming. He's been at The Nic in Casper and at the Jackson Art Center. Never in Cheyenne, according to his artist resume. Ironic since I note in my SWR piece that he has received two visual arts fellowships from the Wyoming Arts Council headquartered right here in Capital City. It just shows there are few exhibit spaces for contemporary artists in Cheyenne and Wyoming. You might say that is fitting in a state where artists are more interested in quaking aspen and the Grand Tetons than in abstractions and gigantic roaches. Au contraire, I say. I worked at the Wyoming Arts Council for 25 years and came to know plenty of artists who walk on the wild side in their work. For artists, it makes it tough to survive in an already tough place if there are no places to show your work,

It's not all about artists and galleries. It's never been more important to express yourself. That goes for everybody. Members of the ruling junta, Trump and his cronies, have no aesthetics. Art is just a commodity to them, like a yacht or a 50-room garish Shangri-la on the beach (any roaches at Mar-A-Lago?). It's no accident that Trump wants to review all government architecture, make sure it is "classical" instead of some crazy-quilt modern architecture that doesn't imitate the Parthenon. Trump and his GOP pals are working to defund the arts, humanities, and museums. The creative world is what threatens their destructive impulses. No accident that artists have worked to transform Trump's No Brown People border wall into something artistic. The odds are stacked against them as they are up against the monoliths of power and money. But you gotta try.

Their daily assault on our democracy is also an assault on our senses. It's important to create to counter that. It doesn't have to be a direct blast at No-Nothingness. The creative act itself is a blow against negativity.

Go make something. And vote. Get involved. Participate in your community. Be kind. And get out and view some art. It might inspire you to do all of these other life-affirming acts.

Latest post on Studio Wyoming Review talks about dystopia and book arts and boxed wine

From "Liberty Walking" by Sue Sommers

Studio Wyoming Review is in the Extras section of Wyofile, Wyoming's online publication. It's kind of like a newspaper in that it features fresh content every day. But it's also like a magazine in that it does long-form features which newspapers, especially small ones, don't do, unless they come from wire services. And just like this blog, it is only online.

Here's some background info on Studio Wyoming Review.

I've been writing for the site for a couple months. I have written two reviews during that time. You can read my first one here. The second one appeared today and is available here.

I am not an artist. I am an arts appreciator. I worked as an arts administrator for 25 years, mainly in the literary arts and publications. What I know about the visual arts I picked up from wonderful artists in Wyoming, Colorado, and others across the U.S. I have to view an exhibit two or three times to get down what I want to write about it. That's not too unusual for magazine writers. It is odd for newspaper reporters, especially beat reporters who often have to interview people on the fly or by phone and submit an intelligible story before deadline. That's what I had to do as a sports reporter.

Me: Hey coach how does it feel to whip the tar out of the Bulldogs?
Coach: Great. The boys gave it 110 percent tonight. They left it all out on the field.
Me: What exactly did they leave out on the field?
Coach: The usual. Guts. Heart. Attitude. Spleen. Brain matter.

Artists leave it all out on the canvas, or in the 3-D piece. Guts. Heart. Attitude. Spleen. Brain matter. Artists, though, care less about the score and more about what shows up in the finished work. It's up to us to see what that is. Sometimes I can be off base. Sometimes I'm dead-on. It's subjective, as are all things human.

Take a look and see what you think and feel. You have to hurry for the "Utopia/Dystopia" exhibit, as it is only up through Aug. 7.