Local artists to display their work in Snowmass’ inaugural ‘Winter Windows’
Artists collaborate with businesses in the Snowmass Mall to display their work publicly
Agustina Mistretta/Courtesy Photo
Public art is coming to the Snowmass community this winter with the Dec. 12 unveiling of ‘Winter Windows,” an inaugural display in the Snowmass Mall.
Ten local artists will incorporate their artwork into the storefront windows of 10 Snowmass Mall businesses. The project will blend art, business, and infrastructure, bringing what is normally found in galleries or museums to the everyday lives of Snowmass residents.
“We know public art drives vibrancy and community engagement, and that is the intention of this project,” Executive Director of Buckhorn Public Arts Tim Sack said.
Buckhorn Public Arts, an Aspen nonprofit that facilitates the creation of public art displays, worked with the town of Snowmass Village to organize the project.
The storefronts will display a variety of art mediums, including ceramics, three dimensional art, hanging displays, multimedia presentations, photography, and more, according to Sack.
“It’s a reason for people to come together,” he said. “All the work that we do is generally focused around — what is something the community can come and rally around?”
Following the Dec. 12 public unveiling, judges and residents will vote on the displays at the Dec. 14 Winter Intentions Lantern Display, where the community will declare their intentions for the season with the least sunlight. They will host an award ceremony for the artists at the Snowmass Retro Party on Dec. 15.
The following artists will put their work on display in the Snowmass Mall:
- Artist Augustina Mistretta, at Incline Ski Shop
- Nori Pao, at Daly Bottle
- Liz Busc, at Guapo Dog
- Samantha Alter, at 81615 T-Shirts
- Kelly Peters, at Incline Ski Tune Shop
- Olivia Daane, at Snowmass T-Shirt Co
- Jim Harris, at Strafe Outerwear
- Savanna LaBauve, at Christy Sports
- Kaylee Bowlby, at Viewline Resort Ski Lockers
- Matty Davis, at Snowmass Sports.
Bowlby said public art is important as it prompts people to consider alternate perspectives.
“It gives people a glimpse into other perspectives of how other people view life,” she said. “It’s a window into how they (the artist) are seeing the world.”
She will display a three-dimensional mountainscape, using thick paints, painted acrylic panels, and LED lights in the storefront window of Viewline Resort Ski Lockers.
As a lifelong Roaring Fork Valley resident, she said she was inspired for this project by the natural landscape of her surroundings.
“The mountains are always gorgeous to me. I just don’t take them for granted,” she said. “It makes me feel very grateful for where I get to live.”
In the storefront of Daily Bottle, Pao will display her three-part animation series, which she created by stringing together thousands of photos of a changing scene.
“It’s a very intensive process to film,” she said, adding, “People always want to stop and watch animation because it’s an interesting compression of time.”
She filmed two of her animations outside of Desert Hot Springs, California, while visiting her dad in the spring of 2018. Snapshot by snapshot, she covers a trail cairn and boulder with clay, depicting human involvement and alteration of nature without ever photographing herself.
“The rock is being covered by a skin of clay, but you don’t see the human there,” Pao said.
She filmed her third animation in the spring of 2020, a few months after moving to Aspen. While cramped in her apartment during the pandemic shutdown, she took over 6,000 snapshots in a week-long process of the interior of her apartment window, covering the window with clay, obscuring the wintery exterior environment, before uncovering it once again as spring emerges outside.
“This video is kind of dark, and obviously has a darker tone with the nature of it, because of the pandemic,” Pao said.
Mistretta will display an enlarged analogue photo of a mountain with a light flair, captured by air exposure to her open camera.
“One of the things that I usually like to capture is the essence of a place,” she said. “I sometimes do that by physically opening the camera, capturing a little bit of the air of the place, and that leaves a mark on the film.”
She said Snowmass holds a special place in her heart because she worked at the mountain for years as a ski instructor.
Public art, she said, has a unique way of confronting a community.
“People don’t choose to see public art,” she said. “It just confronts them in a particular way, and I think that that is very positive and can really have a lasting impact on people.”
Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.
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