Wyoming Arts Council

Honorable mentions went to ceramicist Bart Fetz, Green River, and oil painter Jill Hartley, Rock Springs.

McEwin’s winning entry was a series entitled “The Adventures of Red Riding Hood.” Seven of the works were intaglio solar etchings with chine colle and collage. Three of the works were paintings (subtitled “Dancing Partners”) using oils and wax on canvas. McEwin is professor of art and gallery director at Western Wyoming College in Rock Springs. She received an honorable mention in the 2008 visual arts fellowship competition. She also received WAC Individual Artist Professional Development grants in 2005 and 2008. She spends her summers near Meeteetse.

Hardy makes ceramic pieces which include materials such as mica, silver leaf, wood, glass, and bells. She is an associate professor in the art department at the University of Wyoming. She received a WAC visual arts fellowship in 2001 and honorable mentions in 1998, 1999 and 2006. She currently is on a research trip to India.

Henderson submitted a series of oil and enamel paintings on panels that are part of his “American Dream” series. Henderson says he’s “inspired by the nostalgic and iconic imagery of Norman Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post covers depicting American life. He spent last summer “painting interpretations of the American Dreams of my coworkers, friends, relatives and their children.” This was his first submission to the WAC fellowships. He grew up in Worland and received his B.F.A. in sculpture from the Maine College of Art in 2005.

Fetz grew up in Afton in the Star Valley and graduated from Western Wyoming College and received a B.F.A. in Art from UW in 1991 and an M.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts from the University of North Texas in 1996. He’s a lecturer in ceramics and sculpture at WWC and teaches kiln-building and pottery workshops for high school and college students.

Hartley grew up in Colorado and moved to Wyoming in 1976. She uses only a painting knife to apply oil paints to her western landscapes. “Viewers tell me that they see an abstract painting when they are close to the work and a representational painting when they step back from the work,” she says. She paints in her studio at Stone Canyon Ranch south of Rock Springs.

The 2009 fellowship judges were Lawrence Argent, sculptor and painter from Denver; Gina Ruggeri, painter from Brooklyn, N.Y.; and artist and arts activist Greg Esser, Phoenix. The WAC received 53 applications for this year’s fellowship competition. The judging session was held as part of the Public Art & Community Symposium co-sponsored by the WAC and the UW Art Museum.

Applications for the next round of WAC visual arts fellowships will be available in January 2010.

During April, the WAC’s Wyomingarts blog will feature samples of the work submitted by fellowship recipients and honorable mentions.

FMI: Michael Shay, individual artists’ program specialist, 307-777-5234 or mshay@state.wy.us.