Art and dance

Aspenites love their art and dance. The Dance Connection recently held a program at the Wheeler Opera House, and local artists held an exhibit at the Red Brick Arts Center. Fran Page, director of The Dance Connection (and a longtime dancer herself) lined up professional dancers from near and far for the eclectic performance. And several local artists joined artists who have studios in the Red Brick to hold a show of recent work.Jazz pianist Judy Carmichael, who has given concerts in the Wheeler Opera House in the past, was in town last weekend, taping a radio show about animals in Aspen. Judy has a satellite radio show in New York about jazz, and the station asked her to do a show about Aspen dogs. Stories she worked on while here were about Jill Sheeley’s yellow lab that stars in her books about “Fraser, the Yellow Dog,” about the Mountain Rescue dogs, and the dogs at Krabloonik that take tourists on dog-sled tours in the mountains.Aspen’s Baldwin Gallery made the national news in February. The February issue of Art in America includes a “Report from Colorado,” and in the headline, Aspen is described as “A mountain town as rich in beauty as it is in per capita net worth. Aspen has a small but important art scene … its main venues for contemporary art are the Aspen Art Museum and the Baldwin Gallery.” In the body of the article the Baldwin Gallery is described as “the serious commercial gallery in town.”

Also noted nationally are two of the recent publications that accompanied recent exhibitions at the Baldwin gallery, “Alleverythingthatisyou” and “Mask.” The books both made the Photo-eye best books of 2006. The staff at Photo-eye gathers together at the end of each year to discuss what constitutes good photography, worthy photography projects, and what goes into making a stellar photo book. “Alleverythingthatisyou” is a book about Doug and Mike Starn and their photographs of snowflakes. “Mask” is a catalog about artist Adam Fuss, who has a talent for producing images of iconic items such as skulls, swans and concentric circles.The parties on the mountains continue into the springtime.On Thursday, March 8, was the Snowmass Picnic at the Spider Sabich Center on Snowmass Mountain with hosts Dick Stephenson, Jerry Elder, Henry Fella, Jerry Goldman, Cal Gray, John Guiltinan, Fran Hoffman, Don Keltner, Rodney Knutson, Jerry McCallion, Dick Osur, Bill Pizzuti, Philip Salet, Ronald Soderling and Stan Starn.Then on Saturday, March 10, The Wine Party was held at Blondie’s Cabin on the Silver Bell ski trail on Aspen Mountain. Hosts for this party in the snow were Peter Belsky, Bill Bindley, Don Crawford, Jack Crawford, Walter Glass, Reuben Hedlund, Sid Hendricks, Ron Krajian, Jack Cronin, Steve Nardi, Ed Peterson, W.T. Ray and Jim Riley.Undercurrent … Because I walk everywhere, I have to watch for those speeding cars. With the melting snow, they hit the puddles and splash me every time!