Cover of the Moab Happenings current month
 Moab Information
 Print Edition
 Attractions & Activities
 Health & Wellness
 Moab Services
 Museums
 SE Utah Parks
 Clubs and Organizations
 Moab Radios
 Current Calendar (Home)
 
Yearlong Event Calendar
 
Article Archive
 
 
 Arts in Moab
 Moab Art Walk
 Moab Arts Council
 Moab Arts Festival
 MARC  (Moab Arts &   Recreation Center)
 Moab Artist Studio Tour
 Moab Folk Festival
 Moab Music Festival
 Red Rock Arts Festival
 
 About Us
 Contact Us
 Moab Happenings Staff
 Subscribe
 Home
GALLERY HAPPENINGS - March 2024
March at Gallery Moab
by Thea Nordling

Emergence from winter is a burst of energy, as nature begins a new cycle of renewal and Moab revs up into another busy spring season! Gallery Moab is a cooperative of local artists who express a deep connection to this special spot on earth through a wide variety of mediums and styles. We inspire, encourage and challenge each other to grow and stretch our creative muscles. To keep things new and fresh, each month we invite a different regional artist to be in the spotlight.

Our Guest Artist for March is ceramic artist Jiraporn Amornsupamit, aka Gee Wirt. She began her love affair with clay when she took a class from Joanne Savoie at Desert Sun Ceramics Studio, and since then has developed a highly imaginative and playful style all her own.
She recounts:
“My journey began in Thailand, but it was in the stunning town of Moab where I found my true calling 17 years ago. Though I never underwent formal training, I have always been a devotee of beauty and design. My eyes are attuned to the minutest intricacies that allow me to see the world differently than others. I have worked across various mediums, but when I first laid hands on clay in 2018, it was love at first touch. I knew in that moment that this was my calling.” 

“My wanderlust has led me to witness a kaleidoscope of cultures, architectures, and art, which all converge in my creations. As I mold the clay into shape, I lose myself in the visages and personas I conjure. The human body engrosses me, yet I do not strive to render it in a realistic fashion. When I observe individuals, I glimpse beyond the facade of appearances. I yearn for my audience to sense the emotions coursing through the characters I breathe life into and to relate them to their own experiences.”

Wirt works in her home studio while listening to music and enjoying the scenery of the La Sal Mountains and Moab Rim. Describing the ceramics she is displaying she says, “For this collection I used low fire sculpting stoneware clay. I currently use a hand rolled coil-building technique to bring rhythm, texture, and movement of form. I do not use an armature. I fire them at my house in an electric kiln at cone 04-06. My glazing style is simple.  I believe that metallic burnished steel with rustic accents reveals meaning to my sculptures.”

Join us during the first Art Walk of 2024, Friday March 1 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Gee Wirt will be on hand to talk about her work. As an added bonus our newest gallery member, printmaker/carpenter Jess Hough will demonstrate the ingenious process she has devised for creating delicately detailed intaglio prints using the homemade printing press she has built from recycled and repurposed materials.

Open Sunday & Monday 12 – 3:00 p.m.
Tuesday through Saturday 12 – 6:00 p.m.

Call 435-220-0891 and we will gladly open by appointment. One of the artists is always on hand to answer your questions or help you find that perfect gift or memento.


We look forward to your visit!


Gallery Moab LCA • 59 South Main Street #1, Moab, Utah 84532 • 435-355-0024
gallerymoab.com

Visit us on Facebook and Instagram



March ReUse Residents: Pete Apicella and Jess Hough

New in 2024, Moab Arts has accepted two local artists to participate in the ReUse Residency Program. The Moab Arts Reuse Residency partners with Canyonlands Solid Waste Authority and WabiSabi, to welcome artists that thoughtfully consider their studio practice through the lens of sustainability and reuse. The four-week-long program grants artists access to materials at local waste disposal and recycling sites, in addition to studio space and a stipend. In exchange, artists provide opportunities for learning, dialogue and enrichment within the community, including artist talks, free workshops, and more. This March we will welcome Pete Apicella, aka Pimo, and Jess Hough.

To learn more about the Residency Program, visit https://www.moabarts.org/residency

Pete Apicella, aka Pimo
Local Moab Artist, Designer, and Ecologist Pete “Pimo” Apicella has been making cool customized stuff for the world since childhood. Raised in New York City, but now a 30+ year explorer-resident of Canyon Country, his artistic worldview is informed by apocalyptic alienating urban grey grids, rustic street art aesthetics, psychedelic geology, color freedom, spoken word improv comedy, and spaceship funk.

More formally, Pete was the 2010 “Community Artist in The Parks” for Canyonlands and Arches Hovenweep and Natural Bridges, developing his “Prismatic FunScape” series of super chromatic graphic landscapes. Since 2016, PiMo has created over a dozen murals throughout our beautiful valley, many along the bridges of Mill Creek Parkway. As a founding member of “The Jenkstars,” a feral art collective of misfits and mutants, he helps host the Building Wo-Man Festival annually each spring in Green River, Utah.

In 2010, Pete survived a life threating brain aneurysm, patched back together by titanium, technology, and good luck. “I’d like to pull off a few more great art projects important to my heart and spirit, before it’s too late. Most people don’t realize I’m operating at like 1/2 capacity of what I once was and could just vanish at anytime just by falling asleep. I’m grateful I’m not totally debilitated, and that the Moab Community has been able to support me in any capacity it has. At this point, I feel like I’m living in the movie UP. I hope this Reuse Residency comes off swimmingly.” When not creating art and going on rad hikes, he works as a groundskeeper, waiter, guide, and cat lover.

Pete will be designing and creating “Roadside Fence Art” during his residency period; this is his way of sprucing up chain link fences through town. PiMo’s project asks you to challenge your view of the traditional chain link fence, an object many of us have become oblivious to. By adding organic shapes and natural textures, the artworks will soften and humanize industrial infrastructure. These visions will be constructed with scavenged materials such as leftover lumber and found sheet metal, and designs will feature geometric abstracts, creatures, and some silhouettes of Moab’s favorite recreation activities and landscapes.

Jess Hough

Jess is a part-time artist living full-time in Moab. For the past few years she’s been working on developing cheap, accessible methods for at-home intaglio printmaking with DIY art supplies and tools made from reclaimed/recycled materials. She brought her wonky printmaking setup outside last year as the 2023 community artist in the parks, making new projects inspired by the southeast Utah landscape and giving demos in our local national parks. This year she’s working on developing new recycled papermaking tools to combine with the handmade print process.

During her time at the Moab Arts Residency, Jess plans to design and build a portable, bike-powered variation of a Hollander beater to process plant matter and textile waste into paper for printmaking. Hollander beaters are a traditional piece of equipment used for making cotton rag paper that can be rare and expensive to acquire. Jess will bring the process to life through community workshops and a papermaking demo using the pulp produced from the beater. She also hopes that other people in the community will feel empowered to create their own machines when they see how she has repurposed and brought new life to the materials she has found.

Workshops
Community Fence Art, Make Cool Stuff with Pimo
Friday, March 22 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. (location TBD, check our website in March for additional information)

Papermaking and an Interactive Demo of the Bike-Powered Beater with Jess Hough Saturday,
March 23 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Moab Arts

Workshops are free and open to the public. Registration is encouraged but drop ins are welcome. Registration can be found at moabarts.org


email Moab Happenings
© 2002-2024 Copyright Moab Happenings.  All rights reserved.
Reproduction of information contained in this site is expressly prohibited without the written permission of the publisher.