New Western Talent 2022 Opening Reception

Hello out there! Hey everybody! Don't mind me, I'm just about to pop a bottle of— a tiny bottle of champagne. Very small. Because I'm not going to share it. I can't pour you a glass through the screen yet. We'll get there someday. There's printers coming. Printers for drinks. So, wow. Hey, how's it going everyone? It's great to see you all getting on here and, uh, this has been really fun. A really fun week, especially like everybody getting excited about the show and seeing it all come together has just been really super awesome. I'm extremely grateful to all of you artists and to the jury for helping me put this together. It's a great— I mean, I think it's a great show this year, especially of new Western talent. So congratulations, everyone. With that, I'm going to do this tiny bottle of— it makes my hands look really big. There we go. Tiny bottle of bubbly. So I guess first off, I would like to just make a toast to all the artists and to the jury members Ashley Rolshoven-Lovelace and Christina Alexandra Voros for helping me do this, and for all the artists for making the amazing work. So here is to you, and thank you so much. Um, so I think one of the— or a couple of things, uh, that we were going to do here tonight were to announce some awards. Um, I'm sure people are curious about that, and also to chat with a bunch of the artists. Um, there are, there are, uh a bunch of artists who are ready to talk about their work, and I think it'll be really fun to kind of hear from them personally and see what we have to say. So I guess, um, let's see here. First up, let's see if we got anybody— like, everybody's on here.

All right.

I was just gonna try and go through this list of artists who said they'd be interested in chatting and—

oh wait, what's this?

Okay, well, Joe's taking the initiative, so let's see if we can figure out we can talk to Joe A. Oaks, who's been in this show before, and this is his second New Western Talent, I think. And it's been fun to see— hey, Joe, I think we got your fan going on. Oh no, that was Emily. Oh, it's always fun to try and work out these technical things. But I'm seeing more familiar faces pop on, which is really fun. And people recognizing each other. This is amazing. It's almost like real life, except not really. All right, well, how about if we do this? Instead of jumping right into the artist talks, um, I will go into some awards, um, since I think that would be something that people are, are very curious about. Um, all right, so I have to pull them up. They are on my spreadsheet. Before I do that, how about if I talk about a little bit about how the jury process happened? I think people are curious about this, and I need to be a little bit more, um, I need to be a little better, I feel like, about communicating how this happens. But it's all pretty numerically based. The first round, um, of jurying for this particular show is a— you get, um, the jurors each choose They're presented with the 3 pieces of work and the artist's name, and then they're asked to choose to accept the work into the show or mark it as unsure— they're not sure whether or not they should accept it— or to deny it. And each of those has a numerical weight, and then that goes together to sort, like, how many people are going to be in the show, like, where I need to draw the line of of works accepted or not accepted. And then the very highest scoring artists then go on to round 2 where there's more information including the bio and statement. And then each work is juried at that point by 4 different sliders. Rank, you know, going from like positive 5 to negative 5 or something like that. And then so each one of those then is assigned a score, and based on those scores with the sliders, that is how the bulk of the awards are, are determined. So with that said, I will pull up the results and we can talk about it.

All right.

Okay, here we go. All right. So first I want to start off with— wait a minute, let me make sure I got all the applicable awards here. Back to the appendix.

All right.

So, yes.

So we're going to start with the category awards, which are broken out for like by medium really, and the community awards. I've created sections of awards for this year. The director's award that I'm gonna, I'm gonna pick, I have not done that yet, so that one's not gonna be given tonight, and the artist choice award, the artists have yet to to vote.

I haven't—

I usually do that in the— while the show is happening, and the Public's Choice Award goes on throughout the show as well. So we'll do those 3 awards at the closing, but tonight we'll do the category awards, which is— there were 5 categories, and I'll just tell you right off that the Digital Media Award, there were not any— there were like very, very few entries to begin with, and none of them were accepted into the show. So we're not going to have an award for that this year. Um, and so that leaves the other 4 category awards of drawing, painting, photography, and mixed media or collage. And let's start with, um, let's just go in that order. Drawing. The drawing award goes to Tammy Luhaller. I think I said your name wrong, but Tammy, you won the drawing award with a very high score. And so congratulations, Tammy. That's exciting. It was actually very difficult to figure out who that was going to be, but That was the— you win, you win. It's not like a win or lose thing. Oh, maybe it's a win, I don't know. It's a win. All right, so then the next award, everybody, I want everybody, uh, to congratulate Tammy. Let's do this. This is called— my friend does this, um, we call it a dog pile. So whenever— yeah, you guys are already doing it, which is awesome. But so whenever anybody wins or something, we're all going to comment on them, and you can tag them if you want, and just so that they feel some of the love through the screen. So congratulations, Tammy!

Bravo!

All right, next up we've got the painting award, which when I started doing this, it was pretty much all paintings. So this is a big award, and There are, uh, what was I gonna say? I don't, I don't remember. But anyway, uh, there are a lot of paintings, and, and this, uh, is exciting because this particular award is going to someone who has shown in New Western Talent previously and did not win an award. I don't know even if it was in, uh, made like juried into the top 10 in a previous year. So it just kind of goes to show how 2 things are happening. One, um, in a year's time, artists can develop significantly. Two, in a year's time, the judges— the judging— the jury panel can be completely different. So, and it is. Um, so in that case, uh, the painting award goes to— and I don't— Tim, you're gonna have to tell me how to say your last name. Tim Maieri. Mietti. Tim Mietti. Anyway, so congratulations, Tim. Very cool stuff this year especially. Love to see how your work is developing. And it's just, it's great to see. You've had a wonderful entry this year. All right. So congratulations, Tim. Everybody dogpile congratulate Tim. Tim! I don't know if he's on here or not, but we will, we'll see. How about if I say your name and you're on here, let me know that you're on here. So that goes for Tammy, I saw you. So that's, that's good. We'll circle back and say, maybe talk to, talk to these award winners first up next time. So next we have the photography award. And this has been exciting to incorporate more photography in the show. My, you know, I don't actually know a whole lot about photography as a fine art medium, comparatively speaking to what I know about, you know, painting and drawing and more traditional, I guess, I don't know, photography is pretty traditional, but In any case, I'm learning a lot, and it was— it's been really fun to incorporate more photography into the gallery's program and to have more photography represented, um, in this show this year. So, um, in fact, our one of our photographer from last year— I don't know, we had a few, I guess— but one of them, um, is now in the like roster of represented artists that, that we show. Greg Piazza, and he's a participant this year in New Western Talent. Greg, you didn't win this year the photography award, I'm sorry, but the winner for this year's photography award is Denise DeLeo.

DeLeo.

All these names I'm gonna have to get pronunciations for ahead of time next year. But Denise, congratulations. It's been great to get to know you a little bit through this process and your work is just really stunning. And I feel like there's a real— not only is there like a great technical aptitude happening with those, but there's a real sense of atmosphere and place and interesting choices for these photos. So congrats, it's really— this is fun. So congrats everybody. Alright, the last category award. This is the Mixed Media and Collage Award, and we had only a few entries that kind of fit the category, but they were all good. So again, that, you know, we had to just go with what the scores said. And the score for this one, you know, well deserved all the same, is—

where'd it go?

Tim McMeans. Tim, congratulations. Sorry, there's too many Tims. There's not too many Tims, but there are multiple Tims. There's a lot of Ts in the awards. So Tim, Tim, Tammy, Tim. And then that's it.

Okay.

So anyway, congratulations, Tim McMeans. Apparently this year, if your name was Tim, you win an award. So congratulations, everybody. There is one more, one more award. It's the big one. It's the Best in Show. And I'm not going to make you wait for that. That would be kind of mean while we're doing all of this. So Best in Show, again strictly based on a numerical scoring system from the jury, is Sarah Bloodwolf. So Sarah, congratulations! Congratulations everybody! Sarah, your work is stunning and I am thrilled to show it. So congratulations everybody. I would like to have like a soundtrack or something going on here. I don't know how to do that, but I would like that. Um, imagine clapping, and to all ye award winners and the rest of the artists nonetheless, and everybody in the world, there you go.

Cheers.

So, um, that was fun. So let's see, let's see if I can actually get some people on here. We can talk about a little bit. I'll I'm going to just start with— let's see, I'm just going to start inviting people and if they accept, they accept. I don't know how this maybe will work with multiple people at once, but I don't know. Let's try that out. Who will accept popping on? All right. Speech. Yeah. Hey, there we go! We have more than one person. That's amazing. I've never done this before. Okay, Denise.

Hi, how are you?

Hi.

Hi, how's it going? Can you guys see each other? I assume—

what's that?

What's that?

I assume you can see each other also?

Yes.

Okay, I think it's cool, too bright. Well, congrats! So we've got, yeah, Tammy just got the drawing award and Denise just got the photography award, so congratulations y'all, and thank you guys so much for being in the show. This has been really fun to get to know your work and, you know, kind of get to know you guys just a little bit in the process too, and you guys just had such strong, strong entries. It's been great. It's fun to actually— I'm just thinking about this right now, that both of you guys are very like, it's black and white grayscale work. And that's interesting for me to think about. We have like— I usually just always default to color, but congratulations.

Yeah, right. Thank you. Broke through.

It's cool.

Thank you.

Yeah, so, um, sorry, because I've never been on live. Like this.

Me neither.

It's a little nerve-wracking.

I've never talked to two people at once on live, so thanks. We're all trying this out at the same time. So, right, yeah. Let's see, so I might have some questions for you guys if I can find them. Eh, that's not what I'm looking for. I'm gonna click through.

Clickety-click.

Okay, Denise, I have, uh, well, okay, never mind. Okay, I thought maybe you had given me a lead or something, but no, um, okay. Yeah, so I, I do want to know a little bit because I know that a lot of, like, from my research and, and looking up at your work, you've done a lot of, uh, commercial photography and like work with models, um, and like figure work, I guess. But have you always been doing kind of landscape, um, or other, you know, kind of other fine art stuff on the side, or is that more of a recent, uh, exploration?

Um, well, it was funny because earlier my friend and I were with an amazing artist down in Albuquerque, and we were kind of talking about that actually. In the '90s when I first started into art and photography, I did a lot of appropriated imagery.

Okay.

And, you know, I think I put in my bio, I'm not sure, I stopped, you know, I didn't do photography for the longest while. I had kids and I stopped and it really probably about 4 or 5 years ago that I picked up a camera again. And wow, and you know, I want to see if I can make a little bit of money off of it. I started shooting models for portfolios in Las Vegas, and then, you know, Instagram's been crazy because I've met a lot of different artists. One of my best friends is a fashion designer out of LA that I started collaborating with, and and she's worked with some of my fine art images designing gowns for them. But every time, you know, I was born and raised here in New Mexico. I'm in Santa Fe right now. I would always come back. Actually, I travel here once a month, and I'm just really drawn to the landscape. I'm very much into history. I'm into— we were talking about this at lunch— I'm very much into, uh, people and experiences, um, and how everyone has a story. Yeah, I guess that's me in a nutshell.

Yeah, well, that's— I mean, that makes sense to me, especially like thinking about, you know, I guess like your work with the models or whatever, that there's a lot of storytelling there. Um, but also in these 3 images you have in the show, it's kind of like each one has got a story to it as well, even more so than just looking at, um, you know, a landscape image, you know, that you're like, oh, that's pretty. Each of these has something that really draws you in and makes you think like, okay, where— what's the story behind like the house? That's, you know, where train goes or whatever.

That's what I hope to get from an audience. Because I think especially nowadays with everybody having a telephone and everybody being able to take a pretty good picture, you know, there's sometimes I go out in the road and I travel and I don't know what it is that I'm doing. I'm just out in the road and look up the— look at the— I always say that I look up the sky and let it tell me where I'm going, or I take a dirt road, literally, what I can find. And, you know, even on this trip, I've been here for 2 weeks in Santa Fe. There's ants all over the place. I haven't shot anything. I haven't, you know, for me to shoot something, it really has to resonate with me. And I think I might have mentioned, you know, I'm really enthralled by the work. I'm more so interested in painters' work than I am in other photographers. So like, I love— and I think You know, seeing Christina's World at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, that really spoke to me. And there's something for me about the desolate landscape.

Yeah.

That there's, I don't know, I just, I connect with that, with the loneliness, the feeling, whether, you know, different times of the year, whether I come and shoot the same tree 4 times year. I have for the past 4 or 5 years, just to watch it grow.

Yeah, yeah, very cool. Well, that's, that's awesome, Denise. I, I, and I hope to, uh, you know, continue to see more of your, more of your images, you know, as, as you figure out more to put out, you know.

Right, thank you. Me too, me too.

Yeah, awesome.

Cool.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask Tammy, uh, I guess too now. Um, so Tammy, you have been, uh, you do these crazy realistic drawings in, um, is it pencil or charcoal? I don't remember.

It's both charcoal and graphite pencil.

Yes.

Gotcha.

Um, and they're just, they really are super clear and in a way that's not just like, you know, just like because of the rendering, something else about them kind of jumps out. How did you get into drawing, I don't know, cattle and horses? And has it just been like since you were a kid you've been scribbling? I was Well, first I want to say thank you to George—

you— because this has been an amazing opportunity. So thank you very much. I was artistic as a kid and then started out in college as an art major, but back then there weren't a whole lot of opportunities, so I kind of veered off that path. So it's been about 10 years now that I've been back into it. This particular style— and Angus is back there because this is my first Instagram Live art reception. I didn't know if I should have a piece here, so there he is. Um, yeah, the style came about, it was very serendipitous. Um, years ago a designer found me on Etsy and she was actually logged on to find an artist that she had used previously to create large-scale detailed animal drawings, and that artist wasn't available, so I was the next best thing, I guess. So we started working on a project and I realized very quickly that I love working in detail and at a slightly larger scale. So, and it's just, it's gone from there.

Very interesting. Yeah, it's wild to just like get into finding your style through just like answering, you know, like a request. That's so cool.

Yeah.

So funny, you know, so this Angus cow looks a lot like The famous Angus. You know what I'm talking about? I don't. Well, so for years, um, like when I was, you know, a lot younger and playing in a band in Austin, we had a rehearsal studio and it was just like black walls, but I had this giant Angus poster. It was like, I mean, it's, I don't know, 4 or 5 feet tall by 4 feet, and it was like, it's all red and just Angus at the bottom, and it's got a black and white photo of the cow, like almost like exactly the same. I mean, it's not the same cow because I actually looked, I was like, did you just redraw the Angus cow? But, but no, it's not the same, but it's, it's so close. And, uh, I saw that a whole lot when I was, uh, when I was younger, and gotcha, caught my attention.

Yes.

And the cattle, um, I've always loved cows and horses. It just took a few years of drawing more domestic animals and then animals in my region. I'm in the Northeast, so a lot of deer and bear and birds. But recently I said I want to try because I love them. I live right across the street from a farm, so I can get photos from there, and I love it. I just love it.

Yeah, well, that's, that's so, uh, that's so great. Thank you so much, um, for showing these, and congratulations again on the drawing award. They're Thank you.

Thank you very much.

If you guys haven't— I know you can't see them very well through the tiny screen, but, um, go to western.gallery and, and look at the, the show, and you can see some zoom-ins and, and take a look at all that detail. So thanks, Tammy.

Thanks, George.

All right, I'm gonna see if I can— I think so. I've been doing this for, I don't know, 2 years now, Instagram Lives periodically, and I just now today this very minute figured out how to remove someone after we're finished talking. I've always been dependent on other people just leaving somehow or the other, and thankfully that's not the case right now. So anyway, so we just announced the awards a minute ago. I'm going to run through them real quick for people who are just joining us. And the best in category, we had mixed media and collage, we have Tim McMeans. Photography, we had Denise. Denise, I don't know if you told me how to say your last name. Deleo? Deleo? Deleo? Sorry, I don't mean to make a— I'm not making a joke about your name. I just can't say it. Painting, we had Tim Miedi. Again, name situation, maybe you can pop on here in a minute and tell me. And drawing was Tammy Liu Haller, who we just spoke to. So I'm gonna see if— I'm gonna see if the— and Best in Show, Sarah Bloodwolf. Denise, can you pop a phonetic spell or phonetic pronunciation of your last name in there since you're laughing at me? Oh yeah, let's see if I can get the Timms on here. I don't know if they're on or not, but we will find out.

Let's see, using technology.

All right, let's see if, if this works. DeLeo, excellent, excellent. Hey, here we go. Hey Tim, how are you? Congratulations on the Mixed Media Award.

Thank you very much, it's a huge honor. I appreciate it.

Yeah, I mean, I'm excited that you entered the show and we get to show this amazing work. I'm guessing this is probably not the first award you've won, so—

No, I've won a few.

Yeah, I've been blessed. Yeah, this is great work. And thank you. And it's very striking, you know, like it's, it's, uh, you have a very unique— I mean, you know this, but you have a very unique style. Starting with your surface and then the way that you, you work it and bring your subjects out is really, really very cool.

Thank you.

Um, would you mind, just for people who I guess who are not familiar with your, your work, would you mind talking, uh, a little bit about your process?

Um, it, it pretty much all kind of starts with the photograph, uh, in, in in many ways because it's, it's the experience that I have with the animals that I'm using as my subject matter. And so I really try hard, and I usually, I really don't work from any kind of internet references or things like that. I use my own photographs. So we're out traveling and taking photos and kind of having these experiences with these, these creatures, and they're just, they, I'm just always amazed by them. And so that you know, while I'm there having that experience, you know, the images are just kind of running through my head as far as what, you know, the compositions are starting to build themselves basically.

And the narratives.

And so getting back to the studio, I build the panels and really kind of start to develop colors that are kind of the borders that you see. And then I also put the paper that I use this collage down on top of the panels, and the paper is put over fire first, and so I'm capturing the smoke that's coming off the fire that's creating all those kind of textures and things that you're seeing in that surface. And then the drawing comes, the drawing happens after that, and I'm trying to really capture that, you know, that spirit of the animal, that kind of— sometimes it's the intensity of the gaze, sometimes it's kind of the struggle of that animal, whatever it's going through, and a lot of times it's also related to, you know, the experiences that I'm going through or family or friends or whatever it is. And because we just, you know, we have, we do as humans have a connection to nature. Sometimes we forget about it, but I also want to kind of bring that shared connection through with the pieces too.

Very cool. Yeah. Is, so do you think, is the smoke, is that primarily like just an aesthetic choice? Or is that— is there something about it that makes you feel, uh, a little bit more connected with the— I don't know, I don't mean to lead you anywhere with that, but tell me a little bit more about like the smoke and how that came to be.

I— it was, it was a kind of a— I mean, I'm very much about just kind of trusting process, um, and it was— I was at a point where I was doing a lot of acrylic paintings, but I wasn't— I didn't feel like I was doing anything that was moving anything forward. You know, I wasn't doing anything that was, you know, just kind of challenging myself. And I don't know, I just, I was kind of bored with it. I just started looking at paper and thinking about drawing because that was my really kind of our, our, all of our first loves.

You know, when we start off as an artist, draw, you're a little kid.

And so I wanted to do something that kind of elevated the drawing process to a fine art kind of level because sometimes we see drawing as the step to something something else, right?

Sure.

And so I, I started thinking about piecing things together and the size and the scale and things like that. And then the idea of trying to damage the paper but then bring that back as well— the fact that something can be damaged but then brought back to something of value, I think, was really intriguing to me. And so I started thinking about how to, how to manipulate the paper in that way. And so started toying around with putting it over flame and experimenting there and kind of starting to learn how to manipulate that, capture it, and then move from there. And then, you know, obviously it is, but then how do you present it? How do you do this? And do you put it in a frame? Do you, you know, and I didn't like the idea of a frame because frames One, are really expensive. But two, I felt like if I was— when I was representing the animals, it contained them in some way.

Okay.

You know, kind of held them in, and I just felt like they needed room to, you know, proverbially move off the surface if they wanted to, you know. And so that kind of, I think, all started just coming together, and it was really just about play, you know, just kind of seeing where I was going to go with it. You know, push and pull, give and take, and what's working, what's not. And then, and then the other part of that was, well, how do I do this? Do I paint it? Do I draw it? And so I use ink washes, especially on that bigger piece you see with the raven. That one was acrylic ink and wash. And then the others are pen and ink, the traditional, you know, old school dip pens, um, you know, to to create those, those types of images. And so, and they're, they're fairly large, and I do go fairly large. It's kind of basic sometimes, that kind of old-school technique, but it's, um, I don't know, I like the look, I like the feel, I like it, you know, it comes together.

So, um, I'm curious, so it was your decision, uh, like the, your decision about not framing, did that lead to, um the design elements in it? Is that what led you to start putting design elements on the, like, around the animals, or was that a different idea?

I think I needed to— it was— no, that is a design element. I mean, there is, there is that aspect of it because, I mean, ultimately you're, you're wanting to tell your story, you're wanting to present the narrative, but at the same time, visually, you have to make something that's appealing to the eye and something that works. You know, you've got the but you got these rules to, you know, follow basically. And so the circles really came about just as a, as kind of the idea of things coming full circle, as the idea of a journey, a cycle, and things like that. And then you'll also notice in those pieces, you'll see little pieces of text occasionally when you look closely. And the words there, those are pulled from poetry books. I haven't, I have an old poetry book that I have from high school that was discarded, and I just opened it up one day and thought, you know, we have these holes to fill in our lives, and what do we— how do we fill these holes in our lives? And so the text kind of leads you to that, that point or that idea, that thought. Um, and so a lot of it is designed, but a lot of it also really does tie back into the, to the meaning or whatever is happening there.

Very cool.

It's, it's got to have some sort of story narrative element otherwise I don't, I, you know, I, I don't have a connection to it and I've gotta, yeah, I've gotta pull that in, you know, into the work. Very cool.

Well, I think it's, I mean, it's remarkable work and I'm really happy to have it in the show and, uh, thank you so much, Tim, for telling us a little bit about that and, um, and for showing. And absolutely, I'm pleased to be here.

Thank you, George, for this opportunity.

It's great.

I've never done anything live like this before. I'm also one of those— it's all brand new for me. So I think— but it's a great platform and a great, uh, great way of, you know, getting art out there. So congratulations to the other artists, their amazing work, and I'm proud to be showing. Congratulations.

Cool. All right, thank you. I'm gonna do this thing where I, I, uh, it's— I feel kind of bad about it because it's like you have to push a button that says remove But I just want to say, like, see you later. All right. Bye, Tim. All right. Well, that was great. Let's see where— let's see if other— I think Tim Maietti might have— oh, that's my keyboard. That's not going to work. Tried to connect earlier and it didn't work, or maybe he was just like, it was too much for the— to have two people on there at once. Tim, are you out there? Would you like to come on for a minute? Um, it's okay if you can't, but if, if you would like to pop on and say hello, I would love to chat with you about your work as well. Um, and then following Tim, I think we should see if Sarah is available. I know she was maybe going to be available maybe tonight, so we'll see. I'm gonna go ahead and just see if she can get on here too, so we're not— so I don't have to start telling jokes because nobody, nobody wants that. Let's see. Working, working.

We're, yeah, always working. Never stop working. We're doing a realistic lion here.

All right, so yeah, so Sarah's day job, as you might be able to guess now, is a tattoo artist.

And kind of a vampire, so it's like a daywalker job.

A new walker.

Um, my client's holding the phone for you.

Wow, thank you.

This is pretty hilarious. I can kind of hear you.

Do they know that you're— you just won Best in the Open and Juried Art Show?

Yeah, I, I, uh, what we had— we had a little, uh, here's what's going on. This is why you're gonna hold my phone while it's at the Very cool. No, he doesn't want to say hi. He's shy.

Um, well, well, Sarah, yeah, congratulations. I just realized that I think that last year's, um, uh, Best in Show winner was not a tattoo artist but was very heavily influenced by tattoo art.

Oh, I didn't know that.

And that makes me I don't know, I'm curious why that is, but other than—

Well, I think we're all a little crazy the same way that way.

There we go, had to get more ink.

There we go.

Yeah, well, I don't want to like interfere with the client.

I feel— We've been working on this one for a while here. But I just wanted to let you know that we were here and I appreciate the awesome award. And I've been a fan of your gallery and I was kicking myself in my own butt every time there was a call for art and I didn't submit for it.

Oh yeah.

Well, I'm thrilled to show your work and I think we'll be showing you some more in the future.

I love it. I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah, yeah, cool. Well, we will talk again in the future, uh, maybe get some more like behind the process and whatnot. But thanks for popping on, um, anyway. And congrats, congrats. I hope you guys—

yeah, I'm looking forward to listening to everybody's stuff a little more thoroughly after the show. Everybody's stuff was great.

Yeah, yeah.

All right.

Alright, Sarah. Good night. Good night. Wow, I've never Instagram lived with someone getting a tattoo before, or giving a tattoo even, you know, more specifically.

Let's see.

Alright, so who else would like to come on and say hello? I think there I don't know if Joe, you sent a request, if you're still out there or not. And let's see if we can find some more folks. If you're an artist on here and you're hanging out that, you know, you're showing in the show, or if you show, you know, if you were any past New Western Talent and want to chat, that'd be fine. I would like to chat with y'all for sure. Oh, there's Gina.

Hey, how you doing?

All right, how's it going?

Going great. Yeah, sorry for the delay there. I was actually on a call with my husband. I said, I locked the front door, don't barge into my shot, I'm about to go on.

Awesome.

Anyway, thanks for having me. I'm excited that this is all coming together. I know you not everybody sees all the behind-the-scenes things that you do, but I really wanted to thank you, George. You've put in a lot of work. I'm not certain when you sleep, but thanks for getting this going for everybody. It's turned into a really cool show, so honored to be part of it.

Oh, well, I'm so glad that you're in this show, and I'm really like pretty blown away by these two pieces, especially behind you, like from this, you know, this in this entry. I never know what you're going to make next, I guess, Gina, but I like the direction that things are heading in for you, and I'm glad that we get to show these pieces.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

What I guess— I think I have an idea about kind of like how you got into doing these pieces. Maybe we talked about it before, maybe I just imagined it, but can you talk to us a little bit about like where your inspiration for these particular scenes, um, or like more figurative work has come from?

Yeah, absolutely. Um, so some of you might be familiar with other work I've done, um, here at Western Gallery. Um, but really it's been about the past year or so that I've really started to gravitate back toward figurative painting, which is what I, you know, really focused on in school. Um, but, you know, I mean, every artist kind of goes through phases where they're trying to figure out who they are, what they want to say. You know, I was really conceptual for a while and all these things. But I really kept coming back to the figure as this thing that we all gravitate toward. Maybe it's because we're kind of vain as human beings or something. We want to see ourselves in a painting. But it's been really fun for me. And honestly, I've just kind of been tapping my friends who just happen to be tall and beautiful and have strong shoulders and gorgeous babies and great sets and all sorts of things. But it was really fun for me to kind of dive back in and sharpen those skills again. Because I think a lot of people think like, oh, well, you're either talented or you're not. You're like, well, technically, you know, people who are in the NBA practice 5 days a week, you know?

Yeah.

So for artists, I think really being able to get those skills warmed up again, it was humbling and really fun for me. But I think I just, I like the human element. I like that people connect with other humans. You look at the painting and you're like, wow, I can see myself in her maybe, or she reminds me of someone I know, or 'What an awesome dress,' or—

I think, yeah, yeah, that's— that makes a lot of sense. I was also thinking about, I guess, maybe like when you were working on a lot of— so you also sell vintage jewelry, and you've worked that into your fine artwork before, and to see it like even go further and to have a figure wearing it, I think is really cool. That's one of the things I thought was kind of neat about these.

Thank you. Yeah, not everybody knows, kind of fun fact that maybe I kept secret for a while, is I had a former life in the fashion industry. That's kind of how I ended up even being able to afford to go to art school, honestly. I had been modeling, and it was just one of those kind of jobs where, like, you can make a lot of money with a short amount of time. So it left you with days to paint, days to show up to class, opportunities to miss class all the time because you get booked on the one day you had a presentation. But I really like the idea of incorporating a little bit more of that kind of design-forward element into paintings as well. You know, it doesn't have to be grounded in reality. There can be a little bit of a fantasy element or a little bit of, you know, kind of a glossier magazine feel. When I was kids, I actually used to get those catalogs, you know, for like prom dresses and things. And I would draw those figures. Those were the first figures I had ever really drawn. So I'd sit down there, and I'd take, you know, prom dress girl in purple and turn her into like Greek goddesses or something. But me and my sisters would sit around and do this, which was really kind of funny. And as I got older and I started modeling for prom dress catalogs, all my friends happened to be women in those. So I guess I haven't really changed all that much. I'm still— Still drawing prom dress catalog girls.

Well, I think I would, uh, I would probably think about a little bit differently, but I can see how, yeah, maybe, maybe you can think about it, um, from that perspective for sure. Yeah. Um, they don't— I don't— they don't strike me as prom dress catalog girls.

It's a high compliment. It's not meant to be an insult at all.

Gotcha.

It takes an awesome woman to shoot 45 prom dresses in a day. You are tired at the end of the day.

Oh, I believe it. I believe it. Well, um, okay, well, tell me about the snake then too. You also have this, this piece that features, uh, is it a rattlesnake?

Sure is. Yeah, I actually didn't put it up here behind me because, um, it could be jarring.

I didn't want to have one of those trigger warnings going over our video.

But no, Snakes are an interesting part of my life now. I'd been in the city for about 13 years, and I got married and moved onto a little property in Northern California. And, you know, I had grown up on a ranch, but like country girl Gina had been stagnant, dormant for a while. And I remembered some other elements of living in the country, one of which is encountering snakes, like all the time. So the snake painting I have in this show is called Sympathy for the Devil. You know, and honestly, it's kind of a nice snake, like a cute snake, but it's still a rattlesnake. If you were to encounter it on your property, in your yard, you have kids or dogs or things, like, you know, you've got mixed feelings about it. So for me, I'm really thinking about kind of that friction between humans and animals, because we are sharing space. And, you know, there's urban coyote problems and all these sort of things. I'm not saying one's right or wrong, or who you know, deserves the space. It's just I'm interested in that kind of spot between there, that friction between humans and wildlife. So that's kind of where Sympathy for the Devil came out of. It's a— snakes are a big part of my life now. Didn't expect that coming.

Very cool.

That's—

yeah, I like—

I mean, I like that perspective a lot because it is— I mean, it's something we all have to figure out how to, um, I guess we have to figure out how to coexist or not. So Yeah, it's a— there's always a tension there.

Very cool.

Well, thank you, Gina. Um, it's great to talk to you always, and I love your work and the show. Thank you for, um, for applying and, and for sharing with, with us.

So yeah, well, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. And thanks to the jurors, you're badass ladies, and I respect what you do.

All right, well, excellent. All right, I'm gonna see, uh, there's some more, more artists, and I'm realizing that, that, um, this is actually going for, for a while, which is fine, and I'm having fun. I just don't want it to like feel like it's too long. So I'm going to see, um, uh, who else we can get on here too.

Let's see.

Aha, Sarah!

Yes!

Hey Sarah, how are you?

Good. Just watering all my plants as usual. When you're in Colorado, you go from, you know, winter to the surface of the sun in like 4 hours.

And then do you go back at nighttime or does it stay hot?

No.

Yeah, you go back to winter.

Yeah.

Needless to say, my plants are not, not doing awesome. And, and I'm a plant physiologist, so it's particularly embarrassing.

Um, you're a plant physiologist. Yes, I was going to ask you about this actually. You were, um, yeah, tell me about that.

Uh, I feel like when I was younger I had 3 choices. Well, my family is all doctors, so my dad was like, you're gonna be a doctor. And I was like, no, I'm not, I'm gonna be an artist. 'cause my mom is an artist. My mom's a painter. And I was like, "No, I'm gonna be an artist." And he was like, "No, you're gonna be a doctor." And then, you know, when I got to the critical juncture of trying to figure out what to do with myself, I was like, "Well, I can't be an artist. I won't make any money and then I'll die." And then I was like, "Well, I could be an interior designer. I love doing that." And then I was like, "But I also really love plant physiology. So that seems like the hardest, longest option, I should probably get that out of the way first. Gotcha. So I was a research technician at the Hopkins Marine Station in Monterey for a while, then I worked at the Biosphere 2 for a while, and then I finally did my PhD studying kelp ecophysiology. Basically, ecophysiology is just like, what are the traits that plants have that let them live in really harsh environments?

Wow.

So wait, should I be addressing you as Dr. Tepler-Drobnych?

You may. Should is a strong word, but you may. Sometimes I fill out the doctor field when I'm like applying, you know, getting flights or something just for fun. But yeah, so, um, but you know, I never stopped painting, and I am like, I'm driven. I'm like driven to paint. I don't know how else to explain it. It's like there's a clockwork mechanism in me that's like, you gotta paint, you gotta paint, you gotta paint now, you gotta paint that thing, you gotta— I think that you saw that, that you really, really, really love.

Well, I think you've said a couple things that, that, um, you know, are common threads through a lot of very dedicated artists, which are I didn't think that I could make a living doing this, and so I didn't try to. And I still don't. Right, but that's not to say that you don't take it seriously and have a real craft doing it. And the second thing is the plant thing. I mean, this, that seems like it is very related to, you know, your love of landscape, I would assume.

Yeah, I mean, I'm really— I love plants, and I love particularly desert plants that, you know, have really difficult lives and really interesting morphologies. And I love the desert. Like, I have a favorite ecosystem, you know, like I'm that kind of ecologist. For people like, where do you want to live? And I'm like, well, only someplace with pinyon juniper forests.

And they're like, what?

I'm like, I'm sorry, it's the only place I want to be. And they're like, what?

Wow.

Well, it's, it's a weird requirement for finding a place to live, but this is sometimes weird.

Well, I, I mean, I think that's, that's a— yeah, that's a good question. Vanessa, um, Compton wants to know what your favorite ecosystem is, which you just told us.

Yeah, I mean, it's the desert, but But specifically the pinyon juniper woodland part of the desert, which is common to, I would say, upper elevations of Arizona and New Mexico and lower elevations of Colorado and Utah.

Yeah, cool. So Sarah, this is fun, I think, for people to be able to have, like, hear you talk because you have You have a really fun, I think, kind of personality, and I think that that really comes through in your work. You— your work is very energetic in a very cool way. And I guess, is it because you're being like quick in how you're applying paint, or how's— how is the— how do you work?

I don't really—

you know, it's a really good question. I've often pondered this. I kind of think that what makes a painter's style unique is ultimately the ways in which they are misunderstanding the landscape in front of them. That it's like the ways that we're unable to exactly—

Yeah, I think, I think you just got muted.

The visual element in front of us. Oh, did I? No. Well, my sister—

Oh no, there's just a lag, I think. We just got like a little lag.

Okay, let's count to 10.

Take a deep breath.

All right, we're back.

We're back.

Okay. Yeah, I was just saying that like, I think it's the way that like, we are trying so hard to find a version of the landscape that speaks to us also, you know, because like you're in this landscape and you feel it so powerfully and you love it so much. And then you take a photo and you look at the photo and you're like, what?

Yeah.

That wasn't it. That wasn't it at all. And so then you're back home and you have this memory, this feeling, and you kind of have the photo with you that's helping you a little bit, but ultimately you're like trying so hard to find what it was that, that couldn't be captured visually that first time and put it down the second time.

Yeah, find that emotion perception of the— that moment and figure out—

that's what I do. I do paint very quickly. Most of my paintings, I get most of it down in an hour or two, mostly because I'm really impatient. I really don't, you know, I'll agonize over it for a couple days after and like maybe switch a few things, but like ultimately, like, I just don't— it's like the inspiration is there, I get it out, and then I move on.

Gotcha. Well, I think that's a very valid way to approach it.

Yeah, I prefer it to agonize. I, I hate the agonizing process. It's the worst part. It's like, and I always, you know, I always hate my art after I do it. I always finish it and I'm like, this is the worst piece of shit I've ever made. And then a week later I'll be like, I guess it's not too bad. I don't know. But I think being able to say like, I'm okay if everything I make is a piece of shit helps.

I think that that's— I, you know, I know you're saying that, you know, sort of tongue-in-cheek, but I think that really is true. I think that actually applies to basically everything. Yeah, like, it's— you just have to be able to—

nothing's ever really done—

get out of your own way, right? Like, don't, don't, like, yeah, don't, don't hold yourself to a standard that you can't achieve and and just be yourself. I mean, people say it all the time, like, just be yourself. But really, if you can get out of your way enough to be yourself, that's when you do something good. And that is really, uh, that's— I think that's great that you just kind of articulated that.

I think a lot of artists will, like, especially people who take photos of their work at different stages of their work, will go back and be like, oh God, the first pass was the best one, why did I keep going?

You know?

And so I think a lot of challenge of making a painting is like stopping before you feel like you should, you know? Yeah, like giving— trying to recognize like the beauty and all the different stages of it. And that's why a lot of my work looks different.

Yeah.

Are you about to get rained on?

Maybe.

It's okay. All right, well, I've got, um Ian Blackhall Scott here as well, and so maybe I'll let you go. Okay, it's been great to talk to you.

You too, good to talk to you.

Thank you for showing in New Western Talent. It's— I love showing.

Thank you for having me. I love you very much.

All right, adios.

Hello.

Hey, Ian.

Caught me off guard, just typing stuff.

Yeah, sorry, I just—

I'm—

oh no, it's good.

I decided 2 years in I'm going to become a professional at this and like load up the next artist before I say goodbye to the first one. And yeah, yeah, let's move over.

I'll stand right here because so you can see.

Oh great, yeah, it's awkward. Okay, this is, this is really fun to see. I love, um, I love your work and I was really excited to discover it through this, uh, this show. I think, I don't know that I was aware of your work before. I might have been.

Oh yeah, I'm pretty—

this is 2 years of doing art full-time, fresh out of art school.

So yeah, just trying to create a kind of revolution of old ideas. It's kind of my, my thing.

That's, you know what, that is a great way to— I think that's a great way to be 2 years out of art school going that way. And in a couple years, you are going to have a really good kind of like grasp on what you're doing. You're already doing things that are very—

no doubt.

I mean, the obvious comparison I guess is like the Hudson River School influence perhaps.

Those guys are my idols. I mean, they're like my BFFs. I mean, I spent a lot of time talking to them even though they're dead. They're just a lot of master time making master copies and things like that. So that's mostly how I learned to paint landscapes like that because there's no real instruction book. I mean, I learned, you know, the classical figure and cast drawing. That's what I went to school and I spent all my time doing that. But that's— those aren't landscapes. So I've just had to— I'm trying to figure out how they did. A lot of it is Sometimes I have no idea how they do it, but I'm trying to figure it out.

Um, what is the— is it like alchemy, I guess?

Yeah, kind of. It's kind of like that.

Either, either that, or like you have to like put a— like melt some Smurfs in a pot and, and that's how you do it.

Yeah, I mean, I, I do, I do find— try to find like old books and stuff with they talked like just like these 1800s books or— and it's just kind of the way they talk is so dated, you know, just like, "If you don't do this, you are a fool," you know. It's kind of fun to read those books, but yeah, it's very dated, but it, uh, I mean, that's, that's how I learn. I'm trying to kind of revive that style.

So what is that like trying to like take a century or more old writing and then apply it to a visual medium with actual materials?

Well, I'm trying to think of who's the artist that I read a lot of Ruskin and his stuff is just so clear about what is bad and what is good. I'm not saying I agree with everything he says, but it's like a lot of it is focusing more on tone and less on color, you know, focusing more on the form and kind of the philosophy of the landscape and less on the actual reality. So yeah, it's very much influenced by, I guess, kind of Emerson philosophy and things like that. It's very transcendentalist and classical. So I guess I read a lot. It doesn't necessarily show me how to paint, but shows me how to think. And right, that's a huge influence on the idea of painting this sublime.

Very nice.

Wow.

Well, that's great. I guess, okay, so this is all making sense to this point. Good afternoon, Tamara. I guess, so in kind of going down this road and just trying to discover this magic that the Hudson River School captured, but in, you know, your present modern-day context, I guess, what like, what are you trying to accomplish, do you think?

Oh gosh, I mean, I just want people to— I mean, I live up at Lake Tahoe area. I was down in Sacramento a couple weeks ago. They got a great museum there called the Crocker Museum. So a railroad tycoon kind of had this art collection So they have a very modern section. I love modern art. Don't get me wrong. I have some hanging on my walls. I could show you my— I have my modern art side over here. That's what I hang. But like what I like to create is not so much. I hear that. But you go through this modernist section and it's—

You can show us if you want. Oh, oh yeah. I guess this is just my wall of like, you know, more modern landscapes.

I love printmaking, stuff like that, but I'm creating more, you know, this work would be an example of— not going to go into my studio room, it's a complete disaster as usual, but I was just there and then you see these old paintings, there's such luminescent light, such grandiose feeling and emotion to them. And you just— for me, I just sit there and cry. The first time I saw Thomas Moran in person was when I was 17. It just changed my world. It just— I never had a more emotional experience with the painting or more of an appreciation for the landscape. And that's what Thomas Moran did when he went on that first survey expedition to Yellowstone. And did those great paintings, that was— it created the emotional argument for creating the national parks. So, right, I guess we still have a need to defend those spaces. And absolutely, I guess in a very old way of communicating how beautiful it is, that's, that's what I'm trying to accomplish. Very cool.

Well, I think that's— I mean, obviously I feel like that's like noble and, uh, and needed, but I think that the way that you're going about it through fine art, through inspiration, um, you know, of Thomas Moran and, you know, in the, in the wider school of the luminosity painters, um, yeah.

It's trying to understand the guys that kind of got off their comfortable East Coast life and went out west. And that's, that's what I love because there, there is a grandeur that is unparalleled anywhere else compared to the west.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And so I was going to ask you, like, do you, you know, the, with This style of painting, you know, is frequently associated, you know, mostly with the Northeast. Is it because you're in the West and you're painting the West you are identifying as like a Western artist, or do you identify as such?

Well, yeah, I mean, I haven't spent much time out back East. I need to go out there because there is a guy, Eric Copple, he's kind of my hero. He's the one that's really trying to bring back that— that's his mission too. His goals are very similar to mine. But I guess it was Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran that they— people were first put off by it because they were like, oh, this is so un— it's so unmanicured, it's so wild, it's so kind of dangerous. And I guess I love that. I, I identify with— I mean, I've lived— I mean, I haven't lived in New Mexico or Arizona yet, but every other state in the West I've lived in so far. Um, so, or at least spent a good couple months. So yeah, it's a— this is part of who I am, and gotcha, communicating my love for that. I hope it passes on to some other people and they feel like these places are worth, um, worth having kind of emotional love and protection for. I don't know, I'm not great with words. I, I—

no, that's—

yeah, that's what I refer to this as, paint.

Yeah, I think that's a common feeling. Um, I think that, yeah, like For me, having— it's, it's interesting. It's so interesting because it is like— so maybe like Tim was talking about, Tim McMeans, earlier about the circle, you know, coming full circle, um, with his subject. Like, the subject inspires the artist, and then the artist inspires, um, you know, somebody else to care about the subject, and then it just kind of continues. Maybe they make another piece, or they just appreciate it and it does something. I don't know. Yeah, but I think, I think it's a, it's a, it's a good cycle. And, um, I'm glad that you're doing, doing the work you're doing.

Well, thank you so much, and thanks for letting me join the show. It's been a great honor.

Congrats. Um, I don't know, I got congrats on showing, I guess. But thank you for showing your work and I look forward to seeing more of it and talking more in the future.

All right, we'll see you. Thank you so much.

All right, see you again.

Yeah.

Bye. All right.

Hey everybody, let's see. You are all dismissed. No, if you— of course you are. If you want to leave, leave, but I'm just going to keep talking to people if people will keep wanting to talk. Keep wanting to talk, um, at least until I finish my tiny bottle of champagne.

I don't know.

Um, so I'm trying— sorry, I, I can't like— there we go, now we're talking. All right, so, um, I don't know if, uh, I'm just inviting a lot of people at once. Don't feel like you have to join if I've invited you. Hey, Hello, Vanessa and Bailey.

How's it going?

It's going good.

Going great. Thank you, George.

Thank you so much, George.

Well, thank you guys for showing, first of all, and for tuning in and chatting. Vanessa, we've talked a couple times before, so do you mind if I chat with— I just started, I invited a bunch of people at once. I didn't know who's gonna pop on. How about if I talk to Bailey and then we'll get back and chat about your work as well in a minute? Is that okay?

Sounds great.

All right, cool. I'm gonna, I'm gonna remove you so that there's more screen room for Bailey.

All right.

All right, Bailey, hey, how's it going?

It's going well. How are you doing?

Good.

Remind me the name of, of this guy behind you.

This is Ember behind me, and it's pretty much just kind of inspired by the those ember eyes that bighorn sheep have.

So yeah, very cool.

Um, you are just— I want to say, like, has it only been like a couple years that you've been taking painting seriously?

And yeah, I just started this last March since I moved out to Montana and kind of realized that it could be a real thing, kind of like you said earlier. I think everybody approaches this thinking they can't make a living out of it. So I never ever even considered doing this. So it wasn't really until I kind of had a struggle getting a job where I kind of picked painting back up, because I finished my degree at Michigan State with, um, a degree in Fish and Wildlife. So that's obviously, I think, kind of what inspired my work and the subject of my work to be wildlife. But yeah, when we moved out here, my husband and I— he's a warden here, so he's what brought us out here.

And very cool.

Yeah, I tried getting a job and in my downtime started painting again, and this kind of, kind of led to this. So it's been a great year, and being a part of this show is a big step for me. So Very thankful to be here, definitely. It's a great opportunity.

Well, yeah, I'm, I, uh, I'm really glad that you entered and that we've discovered this work because you're making these, these are really quite like large, remarkable, big wildlife pieces that are at once like, you know, they're traditional wildlife art, but at the same time they feel very contemporary.

Sure.

And I don't know if that's because of like you're setting them on like the black background or what, like maybe the same kind of thing, you know, I was talking to Tammy Lee Holler earlier and her livestock and horse images, she usually sets on like a solid background too and it makes those feel kind of contemporary, but these are very cool.

Thank you. And then I think the, just the simple black frame too kind of helps give that temporary tie in there. That contemporary tie. And I kind of went for that because obviously it is very fine art doing it this detailed and being so tight with it. So I wanted to have that kind of modernistic feel where you can kind of go both ways with it and have it in different settings. And right, also I'm just intimidated by doing backgrounds, so I'm just throwing black on there and rolling with it.

So it was an intention. I mean, it was an intentional decision, but yeah, yeah.

And then also just to, I don't know, just bring the passion that I have for wildlife in and just kind of focus on the natural beauty of as they are, as is. And detail is just my thing. I just— that's my sweet spot. So everybody will ask why you don't paint looser or whatever, and it's just like, man, like I don't know, the detail is where I find the most joy, so that's kind of what I'm going to stick with.

So, oh, that's awesome. Yeah, that's very cool. I mean, I think that, you know, subconsciously the fact that you, um, you know, have a love for these animals comes through. Like, nobody who didn't, like, love these would be able to spend the hours that you put into making this, you know, this work. Um, and it It comes through very, you know, very well. And obviously you're— you finish these really nicely. And, uh, congratulations on— I mean, your career to date, you know, as short as it has been, it seems like a great start.

And thank you.

Um, I, you know, I'm excited to see what, you know, what's in your future.

So thank you. Yeah, me too. It's been— it's been great. So each one gets a little bit more developed, so I'm excited to see where the road takes me.

Mm-hmm, very cool.

Thanks again for having me in the show. You're helping me boost the career, so it's all I can ask for.

Yeah, that's my pleasure. And I hope that, um, I don't know, I hope more animals get— find their way into your paintings.

Oh, they will, for sure. I'm sticking kind of to the Western wildlife right now, and everybody's like, are you gonna do elephants or tigers eventually? And we'll see. I got a long road ahead of me, so I'm sure I'll get them in eventually.

Yeah, did you say tigers?

Yeah, a lot of people ask for like jungle animals or stuff like that, or safari animals. And right now I'm just really focusing on the western wildlife because I've just been so inspired since I moved out to Montana. Sure, kind of been submerged in this landscape, in the wildlife. Yeah, kind of intertwined in all that right now.

I mean, it makes a lot of sense, and especially also, yeah, you know, your husband working in Fish and Wildlife and you coming out, you know, with the degree, and that's great.

Cool.

Well, Vanessa's back, and Bailey, it's been great chatting, and thank you. See you in the future.

Absolutely.

Adiós.

See ya.

Remove.

You're such a pro, George, now.

I'm becoming professional, finally. How are you doing, Vanessa?

I'm doing great. It's a privilege to participate and to learn about all the artists' work, and I've especially enjoyed learning about the other things that they're into, from from the prom dresses to the pinyon pine to, you know, just there's all these other things that feed our creative worlds and they're not necessarily like the medium that we do. And so I love hearing about that.

Yeah, I mean, you're setting yourself up, by the way, but every artist that I've met, I probably could come up with exceptions, but almost everybody has like a different, like an alter ego, like alter creative ego or something, you know, like somebody who does like, well, for example, like Aaron Garlick, I was talking to last week. Now I have to come up with the name of the martial art. I don't remember. He does like some kind of martial art, has his own dojo now. Um, he's like really advanced in it, but he's also like an incredible painter. So, um, yes, people can have more than one kind of creative outlet or practice that ties in with it for sure.

Totally.

Yeah.

What— all right, so what's yours?

Well, I think it's the thing that got me into the West, like into the landscape, which then kind of has me just obsessed with it 20 years later, which is rock climbing. So that's like what brought me out west West.

Very cool.

I did a NOLS semester and just became like seduced by the Four Corners region, which is where I was based out of. And then I stayed there on and off for the last 20 years, you know, different parts of the West. And I'm now in the Northeast, but the West is just like— when you walk into my studio and it's, it's a host of that and it's a host of like weird other things that I'm obsessed with. Like jellyfish. I've been blowing them up really big. And I've been recently obsessed with the old Marlboro Man ads from the '70s and '80s. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

I mean, a lot of artists have been, like Richard Prince. And so I want to do a series that has kind of like a feminist take on the Marlboro Man. So we'll see what happens with that. But I've been ordering a lot of old ones on eBay late, late at night.

So—

Very cool.

Very cool.

I'm curious, I think that Marlboro is doing campaign— well, I want to say they're doing like advertising campaigns with women now too, especially.

Really?

OK. With a focus maybe. I don't know. I'm curious like how that might work in with— I mean, not that I want to like promote smoking, but—

No, I—

right, yeah. But the imagery, you know, is iconic.

It's iconic. And the photographers themselves, most of whom are like in their 80s now, are incredible like portrait photographers, landscape photographers. And I did a residency last fall out in northern Wyoming, and that was the town where one of the Marlboro Men was from. So it was like, you know, but I haven't heard of the female ones. I'll have to check that out. Interesting.

Yeah.

Cool.

So yeah, you mentioned residency in Wyoming. So that's one of the ways I think that you still have like a lot of not just like memories of the West or traveling here and there, but you go out to the West and spend some time out there fairly frequently.

Yeah, it's kind of a migration that I do. You know, at least once a year in some capacity. Ideally it's like for a month in a, in a residency program. So if any artists are out there and are interested in different residencies, feel free to reach out. There are some incredible programs out there that get you directly in the landscape. So you can have this unadulterated time to create either plein air or your studio windows literally looking out on like an incredible, you know, 5,000-acre range with elk and deer. And, um, but yeah, it has to be— I have like a lot of memories of it, but I, I find I have to kind of like put my body in it also to kind of, um, kind of charge my battery. Yeah, like especially because it's in Vermont, we just like a long, cold, gray winter. And so it's just— you want to get that like desert those reds, those oranges.

Yeah, good time to go somewhere else maybe. Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

Um, so I love these pieces that you have in the show. Um, thank you. And I can see some definitely like some Marlboro Man influence in them. And I think you mentioned— did you mention, uh, was it Remington or Frank Tenney Johnson's Nocturne as like an influence?

Yes.

These night, I guess, nocturne collage pieces?

Yes, I was really inspired. I made those pieces out in Wyoming, but I was looking at Remington's Nocturne series, you know, where there's this incredible gorgeous blue tonality over the whole piece, and I wanted to try to do that with my work. And I titled one of the pieces, you know, The Scout, kind of like clearly after Remington's piece. And it's that word that we were joking about, the crepuscular, which is this period between darkness and lightness that happens, you know, twice a day. And there's animals that come out only in that time period. And it's when—

it's—

I just feel like for the painters out there, that's probably one of the times when you know, they're out there being inspired, but it's a good challenge to try to capture that in the work, you know, that's like the goal I'm trying to do. But there was a period of just like being obsessed with the color blue, you know.

Oh, I understand that. I mean, yeah, I had a photography project, you know, I took like a color photography class in college and one of the assignments that we got, which was really good, I thought. And maybe this is common, but I've never taken a different color photography class. Um, it was to go out and to like take bracketed shots like every hour for 24 hours. Oh, and so you can really like see the same subject in, in each light setting and how it, you know, how it, um, how that affects everything in it. And those, those moments you're talking about, the— let me see if I get it. Crepuscular, right?

Crepuscular, yes.

Crepuscular, um, in between, you know, light and darkness. Those are really just like naturally intriguing, I think, because it's the in-between, um, and the light is, is confusing, uh, so it is confusing, really, you know. If you can get, get a way to communicate that and, um, and get something that, you know, that works. And that's, that seems like it.

Yeah, that sounds like a good assignment for you. That must have been pretty cool.

Yeah, it was fun. I was, um, I was in Austin and I was like, uh, camped out in my car under a railroad bridge.

So you're like, what's this guy doing over here?

Yeah.

Yeah, um, it's, you know, some, some interesting photos came out of it, which is good. Yeah, yeah, cool. Well, um, what else are you working on right now?

Well, yeah, I've been really into, um, the mall room and just kind of investigating the parts that I'm really drawn to and then the parts that are, you know, problematic in this moment right now, you know, and just trying to un— kind of tangle that. And then I'm doing a bunch of smaller pieces which have been therapeutic featuring animals. I think like hearing about the last artist with her beautiful work and like we get obsessed with certain things. So right now I'm obsessed with polar bears and I have these incredible books, you know, they're in these incredibly harsh conditions and how they represent kind of this latent power. Like, they're not using it unless they have to, and they look so cuddly and sweet, and the mamas with their little babies and snuggled up, but they can be incredibly, incredibly powerful too. So it's that tension, you know, and they're just so beautiful. So I've been really inspired by them. I've been cutting out a lot of them.

I saw that actually on Instagram. Instagram recently, and I was— I made a note of it in my brain because, um, I love polar bears also, and I've always grown up like having like— when I like— when ever since I was a little kid, like, my like teddy bear was like a polar bear, um, and, and I just always really liked them. And then also, like, the photos of them when they're in the water are really kind of magical.

Oh my God.

Oh my God, I know.

I know.

Like, there's just something about those that are like, this is almost like a different world.

But totally.

And then kind of juxtaposed against like a warming world, you know, like a landscape that isn't as hospitable to them. Like, what will these creatures that are so durable in so many ways, like, how will they adapt? And yeah, um, they represent so much if you want them to represent it, you know. Otherwise they can just be beautiful creatures on their own as well.

No, yeah, I think that, you know, they're definitely, um, I don't know, they, they can be a good, a good subject to, you know, to bring up environmental issues. Yeah, yeah, that's that for sure.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, cool, Vanessa, it's always good to talk to you. Thank you for, for coming on, and thank you for showing your your work in New Western Talent. And yeah, keep us posted about the Marlboro Man work and whatever else is coming up.

I appreciate you.

Thank you for the opportunity. And it's wonderful to see all the different artists represented. So thank you.

For sure.

For sure.

Same to you. Adiós.

Adiós.

I guess that's my, like— I don't mean to always say adiós to people, but I do. I think it's because I lived in Austin for a long time, and the Hispanic culture in Austin is more prevalent than it is in Dallas, where I live. And I don't know, you just start to learn and speak Spanish to people sometimes, which is interesting. All right, I'm gonna see if there's anybody else who wants to come on here before we wrap it up. If there is, actually, why don't you, if I'm missing anybody, please let me know. I periodically been inviting people and they either come on or they don't. So let's see. Here we go. Terry, let's see if we can get Terry on here. Hey, Terry.

Hi, George.

How are you?

Thank you for having me.

Oh, absolutely. Thank you so much for showing and for coming on to chat.

I appreciate it. I'm so excited because this is actually the first thing I've ever entered, so the fact that I got chosen is pretty thrilling for me.

Wow, that's, that's fantastic.

Congrats.

That's so cool. Thank you. Your work is awesome.

Thank you.

Really, uh, is really special. I love— I don't know what it is about it exactly. Like, I'm not— I don't know, like, I mean, it's, it's abstract, it's sort of primitive, emotional, and it's beautifully done, like, in a— from like a compositional and color perspective. Um, all that together I think makes for some really compelling work, and, uh, I love what you're doing. I don't And so if this is your first time ever applying, have you been doing this for a long time, or have you been doing this?

No, you know what, I've always dabbled in art, like everyone else was saying. Like, um, although I did in the '80s and '90s— you can see I'm an old artist— um, in the '80s and '90s, I had, uh, hand-painted clothing, and it was all like a cowboys and Indians kind of theme. Maybe not too PC for right now, but it was very graphic, much more plain than what I'm doing now. But that was my biggest foray into art, and then I was in interior design, but I moved to Mexico and I just like said to my husband, "If I have to leave here now in the middle of this, I'm gonna be an artist. I just am." And literally the day I moved into a place, I walked right by a studio. They waved me in and we were best friends for the whole time I lived there, and they're— one was a printmaker and one was a painter. And I didn't learn a whole lot. Yes, and I didn't learn a whole lot about painting. I learned a lot about printmaking. It was— that was the major thing. It was a printmaking studio. Um, but, uh, we kind of adopted each other. And, um, I remember now, like, I didn't have a lot of Spanish. I hadn't had Spanish since junior high. And I know that my friend Luis was telling me, "Layer, layer, layer," when I was painting. I had no idea what he was talking about. Like, I literally— he kept emphasizing what I needed to do, but he didn't show me what I needed to do. And I was like, "I don't get it. I painted something." And he was all about the layers. Well, you know, this many years later, —when we got locked in, I just said, well, that's it for me. I'm going to have an art practice. And I started painting every single day. And most everything I've been painting are my memories from Mexico and from my trips back and forth, road trips all the way down the Baja and that sort of thing. And I have just incredible memories of my time there. And I think the color part— shows up because of the time I spent in Mexico.

Oh, I think that, that, you know, is once— as soon as you said that, uh, went to Mexico, is it all clicked for me. Like, it definitely has that, um, you know, just— it just has that kind of like Mexican vivaciousness in the color, you know, and the— and then in the, you know, the way that you, you put it all together.

Well, I tried like, like kind of like taking the color down a notch, and right now I can't do it. It just cannot be done. The color wants to be there in full force no matter what. So, and I was afraid, you know, I was nervous about, um, applying. I'm a big fan of Taos. We live in Colorado and We used to go to Taos just like 4 or 5 times a year. I love that town. And, uh, I was thinking of Western as the more typical Western, and I was thinking, there's no way I'll even be— I didn't think I would be picked at all because of the classical Western type of theme that there is.

So I'm thrilled. Well, I am I'm excited that you got juried in as well, and it just goes to show that the work resonates whether or not it fits a certain category, you know. So congrats. And thank you. And that's something I try to do with Western Gallery too, is to, you know, I think that my love of West, you know, quote-unquote Western art goes back to like Remington and Russell and Lee and like these old cowboy painters. And then also like the Taos Modernists, the Taos Society of Artists, and Maynard Dixon and Edgar Payne. And like, you know, starts to get like California artists and then the Group of Seven up in like those modernists in Canada. Yes. And their color usage and everything is great. And but like, so it goes, it starts there for me. But then I feel like you have to like think about what has happened in the past century, you know, since then, and bring all that in. This is a contemporary time. We need to show work that is of the moment. And so I really want to present work from the West and of the West, about the West. Those are the three kind of like directions, I guess. Regardless of like what the style is, as long as it resonates and is good. And I think that, that your like abstract compositions are, you know, fit the bill. So I'm so glad that you are in the show, Terry. Thank you. It's been a pleasure to meet you over, over Instagram. Nice to meet you too.

And thank— just thank you so much. And thank you to the jurors too.

Absolutely. I would like to echo that too. Thank you. I don't think either of them could tune in tonight, but thank you, Ashley. Thank you, Christina, for helping with this. I specifically asked Christina to help because my photography background is, is a little bit, uh, is not as— how about— is not as good as my other knowledge, I guess. Hey, we all have things we're good at. Is that a good way to say it? Yeah. And then, and she just was so, you know, did such beautiful work on Yellowstone in 1883 that I thought she could lend a good, a good eye. And I think she did a great job of helping us with that. So thank you all. And thank you. Thank you, Terry. I'll go ahead and remove you so you don't have to like— okay, I'll be on camera anymore. Thank you. Bye-bye. Um, and with that, I think I'm going to go ahead and wrap it up. Thank you guys so much for all the artwork. Thank you everybody who is coming to look at the show. And for those of you who are finding pieces that you love and bringing them to your home, you, you really are kind of like the patrons of the day that keep this going. So please find— keep finding the pieces that you love and putting them on your walls and getting that inspiration from them that attracted you to them in the first place. Very grateful for you. Also all the artists, man. I mean, everybody has, you know, put their heart into two dimensions and entered it, and what we have come up with is a beautiful show. So thank you all so much and I'm gonna stop talking and bid you all good night, and, um, that's it. Peace.