Second Friday ArtStroll: strolling through the eye of the needle

THERMOPOLIS — The Second Friday ArtStroll/Still Strolling Saturday in downtown Thermopolis this Friday and Saturday, features a variety of textile artists. Stroll hours on Friday evening are from 5 to 8 p.m. The ArtStroll continues Saturday during regular business hours.

The Smoking Waters Art Guild has been busy assembling a great roster of artists plus there will be musicians in three Stroll locations this month, according to organizer Toddi Darlington.

Start your Stroll at The WOW Store, where you can pick up the Map and Guide and admire Donald Vincent’s hats, Andrea Linn and Friends’ knitting and crocheting, and Susan Lankford explaining essential oils, especially mosquito spray. Gavin Turner, “Jack of All Arts,” is Flying Eagle Gallery’s featured artist this month. Continuing east on Broadway Street brings you to Deb Eiswald, with beaded leather purses and Kristen Stone, with festival costumes, both at Owl Creek Graphics and both new to the ArtStroll. Eiswald moved to Thermopolis recently and was happy to discover the lively arts community here. Stone makes period costumes and festival wear. She is originally from St. Louis, Missouri, moved to Wyoming, and fell in love with the country. She learned to sew from her mother from an early age and it’s been her passion ever since.

Gooseberry Garden Quilt Shop welcomes Emily Gorham Keith’s fiber art and wall hanging on display. Keith’s natural fiber originals celebrate the Big Horn Basin’s varied landscape and its inhabitants. Her highly textured, stylized work is created with traditional rug hooks on linen finished with horsehair and linen backing to insure wearability. In Keith’s words, her “work is an effort to pay homage to the dignity and beauty of Wyoming.”

The gallery at Discover Thermopolis/Thermopolis Print Zone welcomes James Yule and Hayden Johnson. Yule is from Worland and his photography features the natural beauty of the Big Horn Basin. Johnson, Duct Tape Business, will participate in the ArtStroll for the first time with his duct tape wallets, purses, and other items for sale. Johnson is in the fourth grade and has caught the entrepreneurial spirit of the Big Horn Basin artists. Harold Hutson and friends will be singing and playing here on Friday evening.

Artist Sallie Wesaw, owner of Blue Bison Fine Arts Gallery at 515 Arapahoe, will demonstrate how she uses fabric to weave baskets and you can also see what she creates with her spinning wheel. Sallie taught for many years in Riverton and her work covers a broad array of art styles and subjects. The SONGBIRDS will be singing here on Friday night.

Back on Broadway Street, Rhonda Schmeltzer will have quilts on display at Storyteller. Rhonda owns The Gallery at Neiber in Worland. In her words, “Fiber art and photography are two of my favorite art forms, both expressive of image, pattern, and contrast – both telling a story. The fiber art I create is a reflection of this, integrating these two media, blending fabrics and photos, using traditional patterns in a non-traditional way, and always allowing each new work of art to tell its story. Nature’s Corner will feature Lisa Kunkel’s photography in the Crow Bar Gallery. Lisa and her husband DJ are from Greybull, where they have a gallery. Born in Montana, Lisa Kunkel is a professionally trained and experienced photojournalist. Her journalism style of documentary photography carries over into her portraiture and her desire to document life the way she sees it. DJ Kunkel will be at The Crow Bar playing guitar.

StillStrollingSaturday is a good time to check out the new exhibit at the Hot Springs County Museum and Cultural Center. See the western art of Nick Eggenhofer, an illustrator for PULP MAGAZINE from the 1920s through the 1940s. The skill and talent of Tom Butler, owner of Flying Eagle Gallery and glass artist, is part of the exhibit as Tom repaired one of the glass panels in the new gallery. Summer hours for the museum are from 9am to 5pm Monday through Saturday.

Stollers are encouraged to pick up a map at any stroll business to find the location of artists and activities. Return the map to the host business, The W.O.W. Store, at 541 Broadway Street, at the end of Friday evening’s stroll to be entered to win a piece of art work donated by the artists.

The Second Friday ArtStroll and Still Strolling Saturday is organized by Hot Springs Greater Learning Foundation and Smoking Waters Art Guild with additional help from Main Street Thermopolis, Hot Springs Travel & Tourism and local businesses and individuals.