[self]PORTRAIT

An exhibition featuring work of artists from around the state will be featured at the Art Association of Jackson Hole Gallery from January 8-31. Curated by David Klarén, owner of Mystery Print Gallery in Pinedale, and Camellia El-Antably, owner of Clay Paper Scissors Gallery in Cheyenne. Invited artists were asked to create a self-portrait in any style or concept and encouraged to play with the concept of the self-portrait. The resulting works were displayed first in Pinedale, then Cheyenne, and now at the Art Association Gallery this month.

Exhibition on display January 8 - 31, 2023 Gallery Hours: Mon-Fri 10 AM - 4 PM

Mae Orm
Pinedale, WY
acrylic on canvas, oil on panel, glass, water
NFS

In the midst of feeling like we are drowning, we have the option to sink or swim: to give up or keep trying, to become consumed or to fight back.

In a personal challenge to incorporate my colorful geometric style into portraits, I have submerged or partially submerged the subject of the painting, in water. In keeping the piece ambiguous, the viewer must decide whether she is sinking or swimming.

Sheila Tintera
Kelly, WY
acrylic on panel
$500

I have a quotation by Pema Chodron I look at every day on the studio wall that essentially sums things up for me; “You are the sky. Everything else is just weather”. It felt natural to incorporate this into a self-portrait amongst the light and landscape I paint and inhabit here in Wyoming.

Robert D. Bryans
Laramie, WY
acrylic on canvas
NFS

The process of creating is a true oasis for the health of us all but maybe more-so in Wyoming than most other places in America and the world. Our vast uninhabited spaces force us to self-reflect, maybe too much at times, but hard places drive inspired work and deep introspection. My creative goal can be as simple as a t-shirt design that positively affects our environment or artwork as complex as a mural, sculpture, or large canvas that attempts to do the same. We reflect on our true abilities and our true selves when we are focused intently on artmaking, this process of problem solving… communicating. I use the natural language, colors and environment from Wyoming, the hidden or passed-by places that hold special treasures, to capture that event-horizon, the meeting, the filament between calm and chaos, permanence and passing. My goal is ultimately to promote a lasting and evolving conversation with the audience about our relationships with nature, ourselves, our attempts to control our environment, justified or otherwise, and where the equilibrium may be.

Jennifer Rife
Cheyenne, WY
digital photograph, archival inkjet print on Canon Pro Luster photo paper
$450

I create objects in my studio using scrap and found materials that reference the human-built environment. I carry the objects to a location (some close to home, some while on road trips), install them on the land, capture images that play with size and perspective, record the geographic location, pack up the objects and walk away. My intent is to leave little trace and no scar at the site, knowing the materials I’ve used to create the objects, my camera, my computer, my car, my life, all scar and shape our environment through extraction, manufacture, distribution, and use.

My experience is intimate, ephemeral, and spontaneous, in contrast to monumental Earthworks that intentionally shape the land. My work is not a performance or permanent, nor is it site specific. It is only seen by others through the medium of photography.

I use a Fuji x100s digital camera for my installation photos, however this image—my interpretation of a self-portrait while I work—was taken with my iPhone.

Trista Coble
Pinedale, WY
wood, bone, glass, resin
$650

They say the eyes are the window into the soul. I feel like my eyes are one of the most distinguishing features of my face. When I was younger, my eyes were a deep emerald green. As I have aged, they have dulled and gotten gold flecks. Now instead of emeralds, they remind me of my mother's eyes. I used to be upset that they lost their gem-like glow; I now see that they hold the wisdom of not only my life but of the generations of my family that have led me here.

Karyne Dunbar
Shell, WY
acrylic on three panels
$325

A dream, an elder Arapaho friend and dual spirit guides made me feel like a rock star when I had brushes in my hands.

Now my life has changed drastically.

I have advanced cancer. I live on the common roller coaster of hope and fatigue.

My energy wanes, my hand trembles. I may lose my most faithful companion which has always been my art.

What a loss, my reliable guides and this miraculous window on our glorious universe.

Dan Abernathy
Pinedale, WY
acrylic, rusted steel, copper
$851

With this piece I visually offer a statement to evoke a thought that we are all unfinished poems waiting to find completion.

This piece is on cold pressed steel using acrylic paint pens. The background metal is rusted and painted. Allowing the paint to mix with the rust creates a unique, weathered color and expression that becomes one of a kind. The edges are wrapped with patinaed copper.

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Dannine Donaho
Lander, WY
screen print on 3 linen panels
$400

The past 5 years have been a certain transition. My children have become young adults. I have aches and pains associated with aging. I am fully in menopause. Am I old? Do I look old? What is old? Can I be old and still relatable to younger people? Does age matter? Should I accept that it’s time for me to relax and look at birds?

In the modern world we live in, we now find ourselves with access to tools we never had before. Apps that we can add to our phones provide us with simulated images. We can make ourselves look young or old. We can explore how we might look as another gender and as a cartoon. And although I am tired even thinking about what this means for knowing the Truth, I found the exercise of exploring age in my face through a simulation enlightening.

The original photos used for this exercise were selfies that I sent to friends going through hardships over the past year. In a show of daily support, my face became the sign that “I am here for you.” Often, I made silly faces, shared my outfits and my hairstyles. Later, upon looking back, I found the daily documentation fun to review. And so I decided to use some of these photos for the simulation.

And though I look older in real life than I have ever looked before, the simulated images suggest that I am only partway down the road. This isn’t really a surprise, but it’s nice to have a little proof to the contrary when you first begin to feel aging. There’s a bit of a “the sky is falling” feeling associated with empty nesting, menopause, and sore hips. I feel a little less confused. I feel a little more accepting and prepared.

From the simulations, I did one-color digital drawings and then screen-printed the drawings onto white linen. I like the connection of fabric to life, the symbolism of the fabric of life, and the classic (aged) look of linen.

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Charmian McLellan
Boulder, WY
watercolor on paper
$300

There aren’t many occasions when one is invited to paint or sculpt a self-portrait. It is an interesting challenge given the many facets and quirks of one’s personality.... some of which are hidden even to one’s self. It is definitely not “one size fits all”.

The title of this self-portrait could also be “Self Portrait with Cat” or “Channeling a Monster”. I recently had the opportunity to paint a piece in the style of a famous artist: Picasso, Monet, or Da Vinci. I chose Picasso because, upon closer study of his portraits of women, I began to discern, just by his compositions and hues, which of those he loved and which ones he disrespected and abused. It is no secret that he was “monstrous” in his treatment of women. Are we able to separate the creative genius from the “monster”?

In her review of Claire Dederer’s new book MONSTERS: A FAN’S DILEMMA, Stephanie Zacharek says “...there is surely some artist whose behavior, known to you or otherwise, is scurrilous, reprehensible, possibly worthy of life imprisonment—and yet you continue to love the work of that artist, defiantly, secretly, or in ignorant bliss”.

How would Picasso have painted MY portrait? I had a good time painting my own as I pondered what might have been. Is a “monster” lurking in there? In all of us?

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Shanoa Gardner
Pinedale, WY
encaustic and copper wire on panel
$950

Listen is a visual depiction of my journey through a difficult period of struggle. I was facing resistance that felt too heavy to carry. This painting taught me that struggle is simply a season, and spring will come soon. In the painting, the woman crouched down on uneven footing is me. The lone wolf is teaching me to embrace the natural flow of things. She taught me to face what is, and radically accept the emotions and lessons but to process through them in a matter-of-fact way. Like the wolf in winter, we too must endure the elements while maintaining our daily responsibilities. Somehow creating this painting gave me the freedom to sit in the space and rest, to slow down a little and be gentler on myself, considering the circumstances. Ironically, the acceptance and permission to rest gave me to the strength to let go and move forward to better weather.

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Sam Dowd
Alpine, WY (formerly)
clay, slip, copy paper
NFS

I lost my mother to cancer last year and ever since I've felt more aimless and scattered. I tried to depict my self-portrait via these little crab-like creatures. Each is moving in a different direction; each has a different expression. Hopefully one day, they will move in one general direction.

Jenny Dowd
Alpine, WY (formerly)
porcelain, underglaze, glaze
$250

Little Snakzel the Snake loved to tie herself into knots. “Snakzel! If you keep doing that, you will get stuck as a pretzel,” claimed her mom. Snakzel didn’t care. “Knots are fun.”

One day she realized she had become a pretzel. Mom was right.

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Jenny Dowd
Alpine, WY (formerly)
porcelain, underglaze, glaze
$52

"These mugs are a self portrait. You learn a lot about Jenny by the tools she uses and her quirky way of depicting them." David Klarén, curator.

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Jenny Dowd
Alpine, WY (formerly)
porcelain, underglaze, glaze
$52

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Jenny Dowd
Alpine, WY (formerly)
porcelain, underglaze, glaze
$52

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Jenny Dowd
Alpine, WY (formerly)
porcelain, underglaze, glaze
$52

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Jenny Dowd
Alpine, WY (formerly)
porcelain, underglaze, glaze
$52

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Jenny Dowd
Alpine, WY (formerly)
porcelain, underglaze, glaze
$52

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Linda Ryan
Casper, WY
graphite, shoe polish, gouache on paper
NFS

Joseph Cipro
Alpine, WY
oil and pastel on Arches Huile paper
$500

This self-portrait pays homage to Agnes Martin (with a nod to René Magritte), a self-declared Abstract Expressionist painter, who refused to have her identity be associated with interpretation of her art. In an interview for a catalogue to a major exhibition of her work, when asked a series of questions to identify herself, she answered that she “was not heterosexual, not a lesbian, not a woman, not a schizophrenic...”—she “was a doorknob.” Martin believed that she was an empty vessel and that images for her paintings appeared to her (usually in a small size) and that she was to scale them up (72” x 72”) and strive to perfect the concept that had come to her. She eschewed any personal identity being responsible for the realization of her work and painted with her “back to the world”. The identification with a non-human being was a liberation from the self which allowed her to pursue life as a work of art.

Sue Sommers
Pinedale, WY
acrylic and conte on molding paste on canvas
$650

Working on this piece made me think more deeply about why self-portraits have mattered to me over the decades. I imagine for most artists, it’s not just a drawing exercise.

Translating ourselves into an image or object is an opportunity to see (and construct!) ourselves not as a mirror, camera, or other person sees us, but as we truly are – or might be.

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Susan Durfee
Alpine, WY
acrylic on panel
$480

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Jennifer L. Hoffman
Hoback Junction, WY
oil, graphite, fabric, thread, collage on canvas
$1150

When I was quite young, my mother’s mother taught me to embroider. She took me to the fabric store to pick out needles, special threads, an embroidery hoop, and fabric. I still remember sitting next to her as she taught me backstitch, chain stitch, satin stitch. I remember watching her confident fingers manipulating needle and thread to make beautiful, even stitches.

My father’s mother taught me to tie my shoes, and not long after, she started teaching me to crochet. I remember her sitting in front of the tv on her davenport (as she called her sofa), crocheting huge throws without even looking at the stitches she took. I still have her favorite crochet hook.

Ever since, I have continued to sew, knit, crochet. I enjoy the feeling of mending items and adding to their story with each repair. Mending a favorite sweater or pair of jeans is a practice of utility and beauty. But my practice of handwork began to take on new significance for me since COVID. My family has gone through some very difficult times that have limited my time to make art. But stitching small items became a creative and mindful outlet - a way to ground myself in the moment, a tactile and repetitive task that helped calm a racing mind, to be still, to breathe. The stitching began to take on a life of its own.

The Self-Portrait Exhibit gave me the impetus to incorporate fibers and stitching into my artmaking as a metaphor for who I am and how I am connected to my family, my past, and my history. The piece began with a scrap of a pillowcase my grandma had carefully stitched. I added bits of old clothes, a snippet of my grandpa’s bandana, a scrap of handmade lace. My grandmothers shared with me the skills that their mothers and grandmothers taught them, and in doing so, they stitched themselves to me and gave me a way to stitch myself back together, one thread at a time.

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Sharon Thomas
Jackson, WY
conte crayon, pencil, watercolor, pastel, acrylic on paper mounted on board
NFS

If heaven and hell are not an option, then what? "...Nearly all the elements in the human body were made in a star and many have come through several supernovas." If we are of the universe then the universe is of us. And unlike the flash of a supernova perhaps fading with "a long gamma ray sigh" and collapsing is the future, with remnants forming new life.

excerpts from:
Dr. Ashley King
Ker Than

Karla Bird
Pinedale, WY
acrylic on canvas
NFS

I had a life before I started to paint in my mid-50’s, so for a self-portrait, I can’t just paint a traditional head and shoulders, or person at easel view. My self consists of being a grandmother, a community member, an adventurer, and more, but the identity I have had of myself since I was 12 is that of a runner.

Running set me free as a young girl and has allowed me to maintain health, fitness and an interest in being outside. My Instagram tag is @WyomingRunner, but I have run all over the world. This painting captures a view of me in my last best half-marathon race in 2021. I can connect here with my daughter, as she is a talented runner. I connect with my husband and son who are former Marines by wearing this shirt. I am slowing down, and new limits to my heart rate as I age disallow setting new PRs. Alas. But those memories of running in Paris, in Hawaii, and San Francisco, in the Redwoods, and along the Danube River in Budapest lift me up. This is my self-portrait, where I am happily running, surrounded by both the wilds of my home in Wyoming and the wonders of the world.

Christopher Amend
Gillette, WY
acrylic, gouache on cradled clapboard panel
$700

For the last nine months, I’ve been working on a series of paintings involving portals —windows into alternative realities. Portals can appear in many forms: gates, windows, mirrors, books, paintings, mailboxes, reflections in ponds or footprints, openings in clouds, or simply a curious mind open to unexpected possibilities.

Most of the paintings in this series involve gorillas, with portals designed to offer these close cousins of ours some access to realities other than the zoo environments where I photograph them. This painting, however, is a self-portrait. Titled My Portal, this one shows me looking through the portal into my own imagination, and contemplating the denizens of the familiar but altered view of the Human Condition that appears so often in my work. I have long thought that the alternate realities presented by my work reveal so much more of my deepest self than my face reveals.

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Holland Dutton
Cora, WY
ink, graphite, and acrylic on paper
SOLD

Exploring facial characteristics is a tradition self-portraiture. How much time does an artist actually spend peering into the mirror or identifying with what they see there? Yet hundreds of moments a day, our vision naturally falls to our hands; hands that have accomplished more than any image in a mirror had ever hoped. Hands are golden.

David K. Klarén
Pinedale, WY
raku-fired clay
$750

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Justin Hayward
Casper, WY
graphite and charcoal on paper
NFS

The focus of my art is form and content. In order to emphasize form and content, I choose from among the parts and impressions of an observed or envisioned subject, characteristics that hold meaning to me, and I paint or draw them using various elements of art and principles of design. Accordingly, I merge what I see in the subject with what I want to see in the artwork, thereby sharing an integration of inquiry and intent in the completed work.

James Overstreet
Cheyenne, WY
oil on panel
$299

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James Overstreet
Cheyenne, WY
oil on panel
$299

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