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12D - FALL ARTS FESTIVAL, Jackson Hole News&Guide, Wednesday, September 4, 2013
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Christopher Owen Nelson says he has “a really deep relationship” with trees. “With the Wind Goes My Youth,” at Horizon Fine Art, is a reverse painting on Plexiglas, 60 by 48 inches.
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By Claire Withycombe
hristopher Owen Nelson has an arboreal obsession. “I have a really deep relationship with trees,” the native Coloradan said. “When I look at a tree I feel that it deserves the same attention as a person’s portrait.” Nelson, whose signature work finds form in reverse paintings on Plexiglas, is Horizon Fine Art’s featured artist for the 2013 Fall Arts Festival. He will exhibit large-scale works in a solo show that kicks off the gallery’s festivities, joining a smattering of other Horizon stalwarts who work in media as diverse as watercolor and kinetic sculpture. Nelson’s technical epiphany occurred when he was 20 and working at a Denver snowboard shop using acrylic clamps to work on boards. He got into the habit of doing etchings on small sheets of acrylic. “One day I thought, ‘Oh man, it would be super cool if you could carve into it and flip it around and it would be a relief image,’” Nelson said. “I immediately just kind of fell in love with the immediate texture and dimensional quality.” A painter by training, he took to painting the grooves and experimenting with blowtorches. These days he also is experimenting with new materials such as paper and textiles to create collages with sculptural effects. “One of my goals with my collage work is to incorporate a human element,” Nelson said, “so that the work embodies this relationship between man and nature and that connectivity I feel with the trees.” In 2008, Nelson was named a “21 Under 31” emerging artist by Southwest Art magazine. He has ascended in the arts community since his days in the snowboard shop, scoring commissions from
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companies and private collectors while maintaining strong ties to the subject matter he finds meaningful. Nelson’s show, “The Fortune Tellers,” runs from Sept. 5-8. He will be in residence during the Palates and Palettes gallery walk Sept. 6. Nelson will show videos of his process at the reception, but he prefers to keep most of the details under wraps. “I think there’s something to be said for keeping something to yourself,” he said. Many of the gallery’s artists will participate in demonstrations at the annual show “New Horizons IV.” A range of styles and tastes will be on display, with opportunities to meet and mingle with the artists. Their work — interspersed with a selection of Nelson’s — will be on display from Sept. 9 through Sept. 15. The group show will include Dean Bradshaw, Jill Hartley, Kay Stratman, Karen Sebesta, Pete Zaluzec, Mark Kelso, Amos Robinson, Sarah Rogers, Jack Koonce, Dan Stoklasa, Monica Jansen, Nicole Gaitan and Bregelle Whitworth Davis. Gallery owner Barbara Nowak has always assembled a large and diverse lineup for Fall Arts, said Mary Rossington, director of Horizon Fine Art. “There is just so much talent out there that we want all of them to be showcased in some way,” Rossington said. A reception during the Sept. 11 Art Walk will feature artist demonstrations and a trunk show for local jeweler Monica Jansen from 5 to 8 p.m. Jansen’s signature work takes the form of long chains of pearls, turquoise and amber that can be wrapped into pieces of varying lengths and effects. Artists Dean Bradshaw and Kay Stratman will participate in the Sept. 14 QuickDraw on Town Square. Bradshaw is a landscape painter in Utah, and Stratman, a Jackson Hole painter, works in watercolor. Horizon says sayonara to the festival with a “Farewell to Fall” champagne brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 15. At least six artists will be demonstrating at the event, and more will be present to chat about their work with gallery visitors.