ROCK SPRINGS, WYOMING (May 31, 2020) — Several art instructors from Sweetwater County School District #1 are currently exhibiting their artwork at the Community Fine Arts Center (CFAC) through July 29th.
The CFAC will again be open to the public this Monday, June 1. Hours at the gallery are Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday noon to 4 p.m. The CFAC will be following guidelines of the local health department and ask for the public to practice social distancing while visiting.
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Six art teachers are participating in this year’s final exhibit of the Youth Arts exhibits held each year. They are, Jacob Harkins, Jasmine Krueger, Shari Kumer, Amanda Margrave, Halli Riskus and Nathan Wonnacott. All are full-time teachers in SCSD #1.
Jacob Harkins teaches elementary art and just completed his second year in the district. His current art interests are mainly fantasy and whimsical with a touch of realism. The art he has on display is from his early years, focusing on realism in multiple mediums and disciplines.
“These drawings have come at many stages in my art career. I started with self-reflection and then added in my fascination with the Japanese culture, ending with my desire to step away from graphite and towards media that is less forgiving and unfamiliar,” said Harkins.
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Jasmine Krueger is a multimedia artist and teaches at Rock Springs High School. Her work focuses on printmaking, graphic design, photography and performance art. Krueger explains that her work “focuses on the underlying themes of identity, connection, vulnerability and nostalgia. My artmaking process is cathartic in nature, leaving me feeling a little more whole with each piece I create.”
“The focus of this series was to create self-portraits that reflected pieces of my identity without showing any real images of myself. I chose imagery such as my heart, skull and brain to represent different pieces of my life that I have been reflecting on.”
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Shari Kumer is local artist, born and raised in Rock Springs, WY. She has been teaching art in Sweetwater County for over twenty years and currently teaches at Black Butte High School.
“I have no interest in copying nature, but I cannot help but be inspired by her,” said Kumer in her artist statement. “I worked from photographs that my sister, Dawn Dale and I took in Southwest Wyoming while creating the Indian paintbrush, Desert Primrose, juniper and sagebrush” found in several of her pieces.
Amanda Margrave is completing her tenth year at Rock Springs High School with this being her fourth year teaching art. Previously she taught reading and English as a second language.
Margrave’s paintings and drawings focus on beauty in unusual places or finding beauty in the ordinary. Her ceramic artwork is an exploration of the media itself and the different methods of construction to continually improve as a ceramic artist and teacher.
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Halli Riskus has been teaching art in Rock Springs for 23 years and am currently teaching at Rock Springs Junior High.
Both in her artwork and her artist statement explains her call of the outdoors. “I have a love for all things nature with an emphasis in the quality of water. The abstract and symbolic nature of water has become my new muse and I have thoroughly enjoyed exploring the possibilities with acrylic paint. Most of my paintings come from times I have spent in the mountains of Wyoming enjoying the God given beauty we have here.”
Nathan Wonnacott teaches sculpture and graphic art at Rock Springs Junior High.
Over the past two years, he has been focusing on learning new media such as acrylic pouring and new digital artwork applications. The theme of his artwork over the past few years has been based on his time exploring nature and recording his personal experiences.
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