AspenColors.com Blog

2011 Roar­ing Fork Open — Aspen Art Museum — Aspen, CO

I am excited to be a part of the 2011 Roar­ing Fork Open. For those that are inter­ested, I thought that I would share just a few thoughts about the inspi­ra­tion behind the cre­ation of “Amer­i­can West”.

With such a large sub­ject as “Amer­ica: Here and Now” for the theme of the 2011 Roar­ing Fork Open, I decided to nar­row down my scope just a bit. Since Col­orado is now my home, and since it is the heart of the “Amer­i­can West”, I felt that a title by the same name would be appro­pri­ate for my art­work for the RFO.

 I also felt that more than one image could not do jus­tice to “Amer­i­can West”, so I decided to cre­ate a col­lage of sev­eral images that I felt was rep­re­sen­ta­tive of my vision. Of course, an Amer­i­can flag, fly­ing in a strong west­ern breeze, was the cen­ter­piece. Bor­der­ing the Amer­i­can flag on the right side is Maroon Bells, prob­a­bly one of the most pho­tographed loca­tions in the U.S. (judg­ing by the num­ber of pho­tog­ra­phers from around the world lin­ing the shores of Maroon Lake this past fall col­ors sea­son). On the left are a group of aspens adorned in their glo­ri­ous golden fall col­ors. In between these two icons is a herd of wild stal­lions run­ning free, one of the sym­bols of our west­ern heritage.

No art­work about Amer­ica would be com­plete with­out a bald eagle pro­tect­ing his turf as found in the upper right hand cor­ner. From my Air Force fly­ing back­ground and because the Air Force Acad­emy is located in Col­orado, I included the Air Force aer­ial demon­stra­tion team, the Thun­der­birds, sym­bolic of America’s mil­i­tary might, streak­ing through the sky. Last, but not least, is a hot air bal­loon with a Col­orado emblem loft­ing over the moun­tains at the 2011 Aspen-Snowmass Bal­loon Festival.

A long­stand­ing tra­di­tion, the Roar­ing Fork Open (RFO) is the Aspen Art Museum’s bien­nial exhi­bi­tion open to all artists resid­ing between Aspen and Glen­wood Springs. The RFO, first held in 1980, encour­ages local artists to share their work at the Aspen Art Museum, con­nect­ing with patrons, museum mem­bers, and other artists in the region.

This year, the AAM is excited to col­lab­o­rate with the Amer­ica: Now and Here project to engage Roar­ing Fork artists in a dynamic and cre­ative dia­logue about America. The AAM will exhibit 125 new works by Roar­ing Fork Val­ley artists that respond to indi­vid­ual expe­ri­ences, ideas, and points of view about America—igniting cre­ativ­ity, launch­ing thought­ful con­ver­sa­tion, and inspir­ing a bold vision for our shared future.

EXHIBITION: OCT 21–NOV 20, 2011

OPENING RECEPTION: THU, OCT 20, 6–8 p.m.

Par­tic­i­pat­ing local artists in the Aspen Art Museum 2011 Roar­ing Fork Open:

Chris Ander­son, Charles Andrade, Fred Annes, Cecilia Anthony, Burn­ham Arndt, Sheila Bab­bie, Diana Baker, Mary Bal­lou, Gail Bar­tik, Dáša Baušová, Stan­ley Bell, Joel Bel­mont, Lili Bel­mont, Shawn Ben­ton, Mary Bereska, Michael Bonds, Mary­Sue Bonetti, Nathan Bray, April Brooks, Patri­cia Bukur, Mag­gie But­ler, Amy McDow­ell Butow­icz, Anne Byard, Richard Carter, Brooke Casil­las, K Rhynus Cesark, John Cohorst, Shere Cole­man, Brian Col­ley, Bar­bara E. Court­ney, Charles Cun­niffe, Khaila Der­ring­ton, Staci L. Dick­er­son, Den­nis Dod­son, Katalin Domos­zlay, John Doyle, Lori Dres­ner, David Dur­rance and Dick Dur­rance II, Lisa Ellena, Con­nie Engeler, Eliz­a­beth Far­son, Mary­lou T. Fel­ton, Eliz­a­beth Fer­rill, Kim Flo­ria, Valerie Forbes, Paul Gan­non, Daniel Giese, Willi God­dard, Anne Gold­berg, Caren Goodrich, Richard Gor­dos, Bill Gru­en­berg, Shelly Hamill, Cindy Hansen, Chris Has­sig, Teri Havens, J. Henn-Nordhagen, Kathy Honea, Christie Inter­lante, Mike Jahn, Sandy John­son, Steve Kelly, Steve Keo­hane, Wewer Keo­hane, Michael Kins­ley, Linda Koones, Ross Kribbs, Nancy Kull­gren, Jason Lasser, Noel Lax­ton, Gor­don Led­ing­ham, Nicole Levesque, Steve Lewis, Karen YieMei Lin­damood, Stu­art Lin­damood, W. P. Linse, Char­maine Locke, Linda Loeschen, Yalonda Long, Sam Louras, Nancy Loven­dahl, Cor­nelia Mad­sen, Rick Mag­nu­son, Shelly Safir Marolt, Tori Mitas-Campisi, Cliff Mohwinkel, Steve Mundinger, Nicole Nagel-Gogolak, Patri­cia Neeb, Brad Reed Nel­son, Tracy Nichols, Susan Olsen, Mar­shall Olsen, Mike Otte, Jim Paussa, Tony Prikryl, Michael Raaum, Mitzi-Jill Rap­kin, David Ras­mussen Design, Olivia Daane Reis­che, Suzann Resnick, Jon Riet­fors, Andrew Roberts-Gray, Annette Roberts-Gray, Marina Romanov, Jill Sabella, Jill Scher, Jason Schnei­der, Jason Smith, Carter St. James, Susan Ober­meyer Strauss, Sue Bink­ley Tatem, Lucy Tré­mols, Car­rie Trippe, Michael Tul­lio, Katie Van Als­tine, Mindy Ver­non, Georgeann Wagga­man, D. J. Watkins, Chrissy White, Janine Whiterell, Bill Wiener, Karl Wolf­gang, Eric Wood, Amy Zausmer.

For more infor­ma­tion please con­tact Kelly Carver at 970.925.8050 ext. 13 or kcarver@aspenartmuseum.org.