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BACK 40: ‘The Last Glacier’
Published
9 years agoon
An artistic collaboration
By Nancy Mahoney Explore Big Sky Contributor
“The Last Glacier” project is a collaboration of three artists seeking to capture the fading majesty of the remaining glaciers in Glacier National Park. At the time of its founding in 1910, the park contained 150 glaciers; today only 25 remain, and the U.S. Geological Society predicts that these will be gone by 2045.
Before the park’s name becomes a tragic irony, Todd Anderson, Bruce Crownover and Ian van Coller decided to spend three summers hiking into 15 of the park’s glaciers to create artworks that challenge conventional representations of glaciers as sublime and stoic landscapes. The three artists have produced reductive woodblock prints and large-format photographs that convey complex stratigraphy within the ice masses, as well as a sense of perpetual motion.
Though the works are aesthetically beautiful, “The Last Glacier” series invokes a contemplation of wonder and loss in the face of seemingly powerful and pristine landscapes, ones that have revealed themselves as inherently fragile and more subject to human impact than we had imagined.
Ian van Coller, the photographer in this collaboration, has contemplated why glaciers are so notoriously difficult to photograph.
With the help of his collaborators, van Coller carries 50 pounds of gear 20-plus miles into the backcountry to get close to the retreating masses of ice, ultimately creating panoramic photographic prints that capture more detail than the human eye can absorb. Unlike landscape portraits by Ansel Adams and Galen Rowell, which are meant purely as poetic contemplations of nature and the sublime, van Coller’s work physically connects the viewer with the terrain. His work is minimalist, often eliminating the horizon and sky so that we have to engage with the piece to decipher the depth and scale of the landscape.
Printmakers Todd Anderson and Bruce Crownover use woodblock techniques to make original lithographs inspired by the glaciers in the park. They created layered landscapes that go beyond realistic presentations. Their prints portray a larger truth about the glacial texture, mass, and subtle colorations, as well as their antiquity, than can be captured in scientific prose.
Anderson and Crownover reconstruct what they witness first hand from memory and imagination.
“Woodblock prints are like jigsaw puzzles,” says Anderson, whose prints typically require two days of carving, then up to two weeks of inking and printing the various layers of colors in multiple runs.
The glaciers themselves are evoked in the reductive nature of the medium, as well as the slow and repetitive woodcut process itself, which –like retreating glaciers – are carved and recarved, resulting in a block that cannot be printed again. The final prints portray subtle shifts in line and color that convey texture and accentuate light, allowing us to contemplate details we might otherwise miss.
This collection of work will come together in a large-scale, limited edition artist book. With the help of master book binder Rory Sparks, the three artists will make 15 editions that are 24 inches by 37 inches when open,
The work in “The Last Glacier” project challenges our perceptions that glaciers are remote and irrelevant, or merely obscure curiosities as the last remnants of a distant ice age. But rather than creating art that serves as scientific documentation or political bludgeon, Anderson, Crownover and van Coller effectively translate our understandings of the impacts of global climate change into a comprehensible, human scale.
Many of us in Montana have made the magnificent hike to Grinnell Glacier and felt awed by its beauty, but most of us will not make the trek to the more distant glaciers. With this work, we can contemplate their waning grandeur, and why it is that we should care about them.
Nancy M. Mahoney is an adjunct professor of anthropology at Montana State University and a doctoral student in American studies. She is a contributing writer and researcher for the “Last Glacier Project,” as well as other collaborative projects involving climate change and geographical remoteness.
Megan Paulson is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Outlaw Partners.
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april, 2024
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Event Details
We all are familiar with using a limited palette, but do you use one? Do you know how to use a
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Event Details
We all are familiar with using a limited palette, but do you use one? Do you know how to use a limited palette to create different color combinations? Are you tired of carrying around 15-20 different tubes when you paint plein air? Have you ever wanted to create a certain “mood” in a painting but failed? Do you create a lot of mud? Do you struggle to achieve color harmony? All these problems are addressed in John’s workbook in clear and concise language!
Based on the bestselling “Limited Palatte, Unlimited Color” workbook written by John Pototschnik, the workshop is run by Maggie Shane and Annie McCoy, accomplished landscape (acrylic) and plein air (oil) artists,exhibitors at the Big Sky Artists’ Studio & Gallery and members of the Big Sky Artists Collective.
Each student will receive a copy of “Limited Palette, Unlimited Color” to keep and take home to continue your limited palette journey. We will show you how to use the color wheel and mix your own clean mixtures to successfully create a mood for your paintings.
Each day, we will create a different limited palette color chart and paint a version of a simple landscape using John’s directives. You will then be able to go home and paint more schemes using the book for guidance.
Workshop is open to painters (oil or acrylic) of any level although students must have some basic knowledge of the medium he or she uses. Students will be provided the book ($92 value), color wheel, value scale and canvas papers to complete the daily exercises.
Sundays, April 14, 21 and 28, 2024
Noon until 6PM.
$170.
Time
14 (Sunday) 12:00 pm - 28 (Sunday) 6:00 pm