Everyone Needs Darkness Art Exhibit

There's a super cool art exhibit at the Lehman Caves Visitor Center in Great Basin National Park called "Everyone Needs Darkness." School kids from across the Great Basin were invited to do art for this theme, and the results were quite impressive. I took some time one day to enjoy the exhibit.

Next to the artwork are displays with the artists' names, title, and description. Here we have "Children Need Darkness" by Elle from Layton, Utah and "A Mirror in the Darkness" by Burklie, Sam, and Rylee from EskDale, Utah.

Some exhibits were three-dimensional, like the bottom one in the photo below titled, "Draw Back the City, Let in the Night."

I didn't know what this was at first, but then read the title, "Embraced by the Night." The description is precious: "We wanted to show how important the night is to the world. We made the earth being hugged by the night sky..."

In this textile piece, each student decorated a piece of fabric and they stitched them all together.

There are too many pieces of art to show them all in this post, but here you can see the theater wall covered.

More artwork is shown out in the lobby.

Finally, three more pieces, with descriptions at the bottom. Check out this 3D owl from Eureka, Nevada student Scarlett.

This Great Horned Owl by Henderson, NV student Athena.

And this "Moonlight Dance" by Henderson, NV student Adina.

The show runs through September 8, which happens to be the Astronomy Festival at Great Basin National Park. It's worth a visit!

First Mural in Eureka, Nevada

 Just before Christmas we made the journey to Eureka, Nevada, to visit the Eureka Restoration Enterprise's (ERE) newly restored building. They are making it into an art gallery and were selling local arts and crafts for the holidays. They had asked me to include some of my works, so I thought it was only fair if I helped for a day.

From the shop we could see the newly completed mural. ERE made money for it during an Art and Wine Walk earlier in the year.

It was done by Erik Burke and Nick D'Auria. They managed to get it done despite the cold weather.

It starts on the left with a lone pinyon pine tree.


Next is the pinyon pine cut up in pieces and being burned...


...in the charcoal oven.


Then there's the silver ore (Eureka, as you might have guessed, is a mining town).


It's made into a silver bar.


And then the train transports it. This is specifically the E&P engine that hauled it from Eureka to Palisade.

The bricks on the building were really rough, so it was quite impressive how they made everything look so clear.

ERE also had one other mural done in town, a profile of a cowboy, but I didn't get a photo of it. However, you can check it out, plus there other efforts, on their Facebook page. I have a feeling Eureka is going to become a much more interesting and beautiful town in the upcoming years!

New Road Art

Note: I've been working on this post for about a week (yes, sometimes it takes me a while!). Today I got a phone call that NDOT had taken a loader and dump truck and removed the road art from along the road. An email thread on our local listserve indicated that according to Randy Hesterlee, Assistant District Engineer for NDOT, someone had called the NDOT office complaining about the road art being a safety issue. NDOT stated they have a right-of-way 100 feet from the center line in each direction and removed road art within that distance, except for things hanging on the fence, which they didn't think caused any danger. If any one wants to claim the road art as theirs, they can call John Ogden at 775-289-1700 to arrange a pickup.

Some new road art has been appearing on the road to Great Basin National Park. I was talking with another local about it, and he said he stopped when he saw one of these new pieces being installed. A sixth grader, who's being homeschooled in North Snake Valley, made these creations. They represent images in our dark night skies. The one above is the Dolphin, leaping from the waves.

She did a great job welding lots of details onto the dolphin. The wind blew it over, so we tried to stick it back upright so more people can enjoy it.

This one was put up earlier in the summer and is the winged pegasus. I heard that it was put up in celebration of the Dark Sky Certification of Great Basin National Park.

Again, the details are marvelous. Here are the feet.

And a close up of the head.

Desert Girl really wanted to go for a ride!

The Big Dipper (I think--could also be the Little Dipper) is new near the Baker Ranching Exhibit (which has some marvelous metalwork done by Bill and Kathy Rountree).

Each of the stars has a spigot.


Nearby is this constellation. Do you know it?

If you need a clue, the name is written on it.

The queen not only has her crown, but also her "W" shape. And the mirror lets anyone who wishes to be queen see herself. It's a great design!

We stopped and took a closer look at "Hang Out," which has been up for awhile, but we hadn't made the time to really look at it.

Again, the detail was fabulous. So much thought went into each part!

There are decorations hanging out too.

Last year this concrete buck appeared under the juniper tree. It looked really cool, and I wondered how long it would take some idiot to think it really was a deer and shoot it. Well, it took a few months, but eventually someone did blast it. (Doesn't give you much hope if someone can't tell a concrete buck from a real one; plus shooting from the road is illegal.)

We found the face on the ground, and Desert Girl held it up for a photo.

This is another constellation, but you might have to go by the British name to identify it. They call the Big Dipper the Plow.

Here's the Flower Bed. Or maybe the Bed of Roses? Part of the fun of Road Art is trying to figure out what they are. Most have puns as part of their art.

This is a true masterpiece: "Wheeler Peak." The "peak" is make of bicycle wheels. But there's more.

The faces that adorn the sides are made from old bike seats with interesting adornments. They kind of look like aliens. Which is fitting, since the Internet says that a UFO crashed on a nearby dry lakebed, and that the ETs took refuge in the area. (Seriously, this does exist on the Internet. See more here.)

Then check out this huge dreamcatcher, called "Baker Mix." it is made with all sorts of baking utensils, like whisks and slatted spoons and measuring cups and cookie cutters. It is amazing.

A few paintings also dot the fenceline, some calling attention to the beautiful night skies over Snake Valley.

I would usually say go take a look at this marvelous art, but most of it is now gone. You can see some more road art in these posts: 2015, Our Little Solar System, Solar System Restored, 2012, Rollin Springs, 2009, Introduction to Road Art.

Meeting Artist-in-Residence Virginia Catherall

 Textile artist Virginia Catherall was selected as the artist-in-residence at Great Basin National Park in 2016. She specializes in knitting wearable artwork that is inspired by the terrain around her. It sounded like such a neat concept, and I wanted to learn more. Fortunately, we were able to attend one of her workshops, where she gave a program about her art and taught newbies how to knit. The kids and I all gave the knitting a try, but none of us made it too far. Virginia made it look so easy, but it's definitely something that takes a little practice.

Desert Girl went on to make some string art. She had first learned this when Virginia went to the schools and did special programs for them.

 As part of the program, Virginia showed some of the artwork she had made during her three-week residency in the park. She had been in the park for a bit over two weeks, but had already made so much! She had visited the Strawberry Fire, and the blackened tree trunks made an impression on her. She made a cowl to represent them.

She had an interaction with red-winged blackbirds that inspired this shawl.

The blooming rabbitbrush inspired these rabbitbrush mitts.

She also showed quite a bit more. You can see some of Virginia's creations on Ravelry, where you can purchase her patterns. Virginia also has a blog, where she explains some of her inspiration and creations, and an e-book of a compilation of her patterns from when she was artist-in-residence on the Black Rock Desert in 2015.

Meanwhile, Desert Boy picked out a different color yarn and knitting needles and started again. And he kept going and going. And he was smiling. He had learned how to knit!

It was so nice to see the tears turn to a smile and some perseverance where I had given up. Maybe I'll give knitting another try too--or at least encourage Desert Boy to continue!