Artists praise arts council for show
By:
Esther Noe
By Esther Noe
It was a beautiful weekend for the Hill City Arts Council’s (HCAC) annual Fine Arts in the Hills (FAITH) Show and Sale June 14-16.
This year’s show featured 19 artists proficient in an extensive variety of mediums. Some artists were from Hermosa, Rapid City, Hill City and Custer. Others traveled from across South Dakota or even across the country coming from Montana, Minnesota, Wyoming and Arizona for the show.
Two-thirds of these artists were first time participants including many Hill City community members.
“I think they did an amazing job,” said James Ann Barlean of Gypsy Rose Studio in Hill City. “Even the way that the arts council is handling the art and the artists. I’ve worked art shows and conventions—literally, I’ve worked a convention that’s in the Guinness Book of World Records—and they take better care of you here. The HCAC, they’re really attentive and focused on the artists.”
Although she had often attended the show, this was Barlean’s first year participating as an artist with a display of paintings, photography and pen and ink artworks.
Barlean got her first camera when she was 12, started stippling in her late teens and began painting in her late 20s. Today she doesn’t go anywhere without a camera. Like many artists at the show, she gets her inspiration from the Black Hills, including the buffalo, wildlife and motorcycles.
Barlean said she would definitely be back and loved that the HCAC added artists down the middle of the tent this year. Several other artists commented on this as well. The new formation slowed traffic down so each artist had an opportunity to capture attendees with their artwork.
One of the artists stationed in the middle was Jillian Kosmala for her first show since college.
“The reason I got up the gumption to actually do it is because I’ve worked in Hill City my whole adult life, and most of the people I know from church and work and everything else don’t actually know I paint. I should at least let people know,” said Kosmala.
Although Kosmala has a bachelor’s degree in fine art, she said, “Being a good painter or a good artist is a very different skill set than being a good business person and marketer of oneself. It’s a very vulnerable thing.”
As a result, the FAITH show gave Kosmala a chance to share her work with the local community and beyond. Her booth featured colored pencil sketches and oil paintings in handmade curved frames which caused the images to pop off the canvas.
“I really like messing with perspective,” said Kosmala. “The fading to the edges mimics your peripheral vision.”
Another artist from the area was Hill City School District Art Teacher Jessica Kautz, under her artist name Jessica Chapman. Kautz’s display featured her printmaking which she fell in love with 10 years ago.
“It’s a really cool process,” said Kautz. She used to hand print everything until she made enough money to get a press and simplify the process. Since she previously worked as an optician, Kautz adds glasses to her animal artworks to bring out their unique personalities.
This was Kautz’s second year at FAITH, and she said it is her favorite show.
“I love that I don’t have to set up my tent here. I just move my stuff in and move my stuff out,” said Kautz. “You can leave it all hanging up overnight, and it’s no big deal. It’s so, so nice. And they always help you load and unload, and they totally don’t have to. They’re amazing.”
HCAC president Kristie Van Bogart said they try to take care of their artists and keep the tent as cool as possible.
“We try to make sure we have lots of water so everybody can stay hydrated, and then we’ve got snacks that we pass out,” said Van Bogart. “We just try to make sure everybody’s healthy and in good shape.”
Pastel artist Isa Kirk added her appreciation for the quality of artists FAITH caters to. She said the value of your neighbor’s booth often affects the way your booth is viewed, but that was not a concern at this show, which also happened to be her first show in 15 years.
Kirk is originally from Germany and now lives 10 miles south of Custer. Using pastel chalks and pencils from France or Germany, Kirk creates portraits of animals, people and wildflowers displayed in barn wood frames made by her husband.
She often works from multiple photographs to create one portrait and said, “In a photo, you capture the moment. In a portrait, you can capture the soul.”
“The arts council here is a neat group so I’d like to get much more involved,” said Kirk. “It’s a very nice group of people.”
Another highlight of the show was the four unique children’s activities held each day.
“Our mission is to really nurture arts so it’s fun to have the opportunity to show off arts to young people because sometimes they may not have that exposure. The hands-on is really fun,” said Van Bogart.
Elise Rowe had a leather stamping station, Kautz taught two types of printmaking, Tamara Spotted Tail shared jewelry making and Lori Long provided gourd painting.
All these events were provided for free, and the artists volunteered to share their craft.
“They do it out of the goodness of their hearts,” said Van Bogart.
“I thought it would be fun for kids to paint Christmas ornaments,” said Long about her gourd-painting children’s activity. “They’re having a ball.”
Long got into gourd art herself 25 years ago after buying one as an anniversary gift for her aunt and uncle. She thought gourd art was the weirdest thing she had ever seen, and after researching the process, she decided to try it.
Building trellises in her yard in Spencer, South Dakota, Long started growing her own gourds and ordering thicker-shelled ones from Arizona or California. After being harvested, the gourds dry in her garage for a year before the shell is hard enough to begin preparing and decorating.
Some of Long’s gourds were decorated with carving and wood-burning tools to look like leather, others were painted in intricate designs and a few had tiny holes drilled in them so Long could run thread and beads between sections. Each piece of gourd art takes 25 to 35 hours to create.
Long does not do a lot of art shows because gourds are lightweight and cannot be displayed outdoors. However, after her brother and sister-in-law came to FAITH last year, they said Long needed to do the show. She was grateful it was indoors so she could display her work and share it with others.
This year the HCAC once again partnered in marketing with Crazy Horse Memorial’s Gift From Mother Earth Art Show and Sale.
“It works great. We’re able to do more advertising, and we’re both nonprofits so we both benefit from that,” said Van Bogart. “They’re easy to work with. They’re great. We really enjoy that relationship.”
Volunteers at the FAITH show directed attendees to the show at Crazy Horse Memorial, and in turn, Crazy Horse Memorial had a table directing attendees to the FAITH show.
Over 2,200 people attended the FAITH Show and Sale this year. Each received an HCAC chip to vote for their favorite artist. After the votes were tallied, the People’s Choice Award went to Bailey Cummins for her photography.