Between Earth & Sky
By Rossitza Todorova
Between Earth & Sky: Exploring the Great Basin Through the Eyes of Northern Nevada Artists is a vibrant group exhibition celebrating the unique high desert of Nevada’s Great Basin. Thirteen artists, including Galen Brown, Grace Davis, Gerald Lee Franzen, Ahren Hertel, Scott Hinton, Asa Kennedy, Kirsten Mashinter, Melissa Melero-Moose, Elaine Parks, Austin Pratt, Gail Rappa, Rachel Stiff, and Sidne Teske, employ diverse mediums such as painting, photography, sculpture, and mixed media to capture the landscape's expanse, fragmentation, and distinct vantage points.
Photo by Scott Hinton, Nevada, Mill Creek Road, Digital Photography.
As the exhibition curator, I envisioned this show as a tribute to Nevada, inspired by the high desert's natural beauty. Conceived in 2018 upon my return to Reno from Phoenix, the show emphasizes five elements influencing artists: materiality, documentation, abstraction, metaphor, and depiction. Through these lenses, the exhibition aims to showcase Nevada's rich artistic heritage and foster a deeper appreciation of its landscape.
Materiality
Galen Brown, Melissa Melero-Moose, and Elaine Parks explore materiality by utilizing natural elements to express complex ideas. Brown's intricate drawings depict the waves of Lake Tahoe, while Melero-Moose's mixed media paintings reflect Native American culture in the Great Basin. Parks pays homage to the starry skies, inviting viewers to contemplate their place in the natural world. Together, their works emphasize the power of art to connect us with nature, inspiring reflection on our relationship with the environment.
Photo by Kirsten Mashinter, In the Toiyabe Range 1, Digital Photography.
Documentation
Photography becomes a tool to reveal the unseen and document transformations over time. Gerald Lee Franzen, Scott Hinton, and Kirsten Mashinter showcase the power of documentation in capturing Nevada's unique landscape. Franzen's eloquent depictions play with light and shadow, Hinton's work reflects human impact on the environment, and Mashinter's close-ups reveal resilient xerophytic plants, urging viewers to see the world with fresh eyes.
Abstraction
Austin Pratt and Rachel Stiff use abstraction to delve into the essence and atmosphere of the desert. Pratt's paintings break down images to reveal the feeling of space, capturing micro and granular patterns. Stiff's mixed media works employ abstraction to convey the essence of memory, creating textured pieces exploring the ever-changing nature of perceptions. Both artists prompt viewers to contemplate the complexities of the natural world, creating works full of depth, mystery, and intrigue.
Artwork by Gail Rappa. Reflections of Home #3. Copper, Brass, Bronze, Enamel, Wood and Pigments.
Metaphor
Asa Kennedy and Gail Rappa employ metaphor to explore the delicate balance between humans and the environment. Through surrealistic landscapes and evocative sculptures, Kennedy and Rappa invite contemplation of our emotional connections to the places we call home, emphasizing the intersection of art, culture, and the natural world.
Depiction
Grace Davis, Ahren Hertel, and Sidne Teske use color to capture the temperature and essence of the desert, bringing to life the subtle and striking beauty of the natural world. Through abstraction, delicate hues, and bold color choices, they evoke the feeling of being present in the environment, encouraging viewers to slow down and appreciate the nuances of the landscape.
I wanted to connect the work of the visual artist in the exhibition with the literary arts of Northern Nevada. This exhibition also features The Vessel of Us, a poem by Dustin Howard, the 2021-23 City of Reno Poet Laureate. Each stanza corresponds to the artwork of one of the featured artists.
The diverse works of these talented artists inspire fresh perspectives on the natural world. Their explorations encourage contemplation of the complexities and beauty surrounding us, serving as a powerful reminder to preserve and protect our environment. As we reflect on their art and the messages conveyed, let us be inspired to take meaningful action, acknowledging the profound impact of the humanities in shaping our understanding of the world and our place within it.
*****
The Vessel of Us
By Dustin Howard, 2023
Included in Between Earth & Sky exhibition
The Vessel of Us is this Great Basin
cradle of a nascent railroad town
predated by its native peoples
the silver-slaked savior of a nation
with stories past and stories yet untold:
From waves of Tahoe flow contemplation
the undulation of current waters
sediment layers tell stories of time
before the intervention of mankind
From the Black Rock Desert where people play
to the abandoned mines of the old west
ghost towns tell of what is past or to come
impermanent people carved in the land
encroaching footprints of development
teasing outward in hurried expansion,
hold sacred that azure orange horizon
in perfect form and not in abstraction.
The high desert’s shape is rugged edges
and with rugged nature coalesces
its imperfect geometries belie
truer aspects of the land’s perfection
between light and shadow, sunset and dawn
desert majesty rewards the patient
revealing to those who wait its vibrant
hues of beauty and untouched perfection
Sunbaked basin hills, snow capped mountainscapes
the subtle shades of browns and grays
their muted grandeur understated
an expanse of rock and ocean of soil.
The contours of the canyon hills reveal
a softness to the harsh desert landscape–
the sea of sagebrush teems with fertile life,
community of possibilities,
inhospitable, wind-whipped and arid,
life here adopts a gentler kind of being–
delicate beauty, stubborn persistence
defying the improbabilities
desert bouquets so vibrant and small
under the majesty of basin skies
pops of color, radiant survival
a welcome visage to all who behold
fuel of fire, cycle of renewal
destruction, rebirth - engine of progress
wild untamed nature reclaims itself
from the ash sprout seedlings of the future.
Ancient pines keep memory alive
so do the Paiute, Washoe, Shoshone
first stewards of land, now of history
record the glory of this native land
beneath the eye of the night’s darkened sky
the cosmos flicker for us dim and bright
their luster beckons us to consider
the passing of a million years of light,
rare desert rain carries the smell of sage
held first by westward homesteaders, now shared
as if by an unending thread through time,
joy in that sweet house which the soul calls home.
Between earth sky, our past and future
the Great Basin rich in its potential
shares its worldly wealth with each living being
a single humanity with purpose
a gift given to us and those who come next.
To read more of Dustin Howard’s work, visit dthbooks.com.
Between Earth & Sky is now on display until January 24, 2024, at the Nevada Humanities Program Gallery in Las Vegas. Learn more about this exhibition here. A Curator’s Talk, featuring Between Earth & Sky guest curator Rossitza Todorova, will be held online via Zoom on Thursday, January 11, 2024, at 6 pm PT. Register here for this Zoom event.
Rossitza Todorova is a professional artist, a Professor of Art at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nevada, and was the 2022-23 Reno City Artist. As a child, Todorova emigrated from Sofia, Bulgaria, to the western United States, where her passion for the desert was ignited. A multidisciplinary visual artist, she works with a range of mediums, including painting, drawing, printmaking, book forms, video, and installations. To learn more visit Rossitza.art.
Double Down blogger photo courtesy of Rossitza Todorova.