Park Record | 2018-09-15 | Page 33

Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, September 15-18, 2018 The Park Record Aspen art installation for the birds Outdoor piece doubles as avian pit stop ANDREW TRAVERS The Aspen Times ASPEN, Colo. – It’s alive. Paula Hayes — the famed visual artist, sculptor and landscape designer — brought a living, site-specific installation to the commons outside the Aspen Art Museum this summer. Titled “Key Frame,” the piece brings a bit of wild mountain growth and bird life to a highly trafficked corner of downtown Aspen. “It’s very much about the feeling up here,” Hayes said this summer after the installation. “I really want it to attract the hummingbirds, which are so abundant.” All birds are welcome, though, Hayes added with a laugh: “I never kick anyone out of my little Airbnb.” The work includes a weeping pine, with shrubs and plants, in a deep oval-shaped planter plopped on the Aspen Art Museum’s commons at the corner of Spring Street and Hyman Ave. downtown. A sculpture sprouts n alongside the native pine. Made of UV-stable plastic, it mimics a hand making a pinching or “OK” sign. From it dangles a nesting house for birds. “Key Frame” is designed to attract hummingbirds and pols linators to roost in the house. (It d could work as a nest, and has in Hayes’ similar installations s elsewhere, but the high-traffic location likely won’t attract any nesting birds.) t Hayes worked with ornithologists to make it as welcoming and bird-friendly as can be. f n r She also collaborated with the local landscape architecture firm Bluegreen to make the piece happen, enlisting them for their expertise on local plant life and to care for it during its five months on the Aspen Art Museum commons (and to find a permanent home for the weeping pine later). The team planned meticulously for the June installation — digging into the idiosyncrasies of high alpine the horticulture and bird life while Hayes build 3-D models. Over the past three decades, Hayes’ expansive vision — including terrariums and landscaped environments — have made her a rare species of artist, finding a home in galleries, in outdoor installations and in landscaped environments. She’s had solo shows at the Museum of Modern Art and the Wexner Center for the Arts. Hayes was familiar with Aspen before making “Key Frame.” She’d done one previous show for the Aspen Art Museum, seven years ago in its old building. Hayes — who lives in New York City and the Hudson Valley — has also made work for private collections here, and has designed the landscape for a local home. The dramatic setting and the grand scale of the mountains have stuck with her through the years, and inspired “Key Frame.” “It’s so special here,” she said. “I’ve come here several times and it’s actually been in my dreams. It’s influenced me a lot, this place.” Her inspiration for this piece was to connect the urban setting of downtown to the wild surroundings that are so close at hand. Hayes joked that she is unable to make eye contact with people in Aspen, because she’s always looking up and around at the mountainscapes and the quality of the light. This tiny slice of mountain greenery on the sidewalk downtown, she said, is an invitation to keep people connected to the forest. This little planted environment also affects the way passersby interact with the built environment and the museum itself. “When we put the dirt here, the building felt so light,” she said. “It’s like it grounded this corner.” The work is constructed of plastic and industrial materials, but Hayes discusses it in terms of its authenticity, of optimizing its ability to interact with birds, bugs and animals as well as humans. Standing next to “Key Frame” and discussing it, she started clapping and exclaimed “They’re here!” when a bee arrived to check out her work. Viewing the installation while walking toward it from the north or south, at times “Key Frame” blends in with the green mountains behind it — Aspen Mountain to the south and Red Mountain to the north. “I love that you kind of can’t see it,” Hayes said. “That sounds strange for an artist to say. But I’m like, ‘Wow, you can’t see it!’” And she hopes that seeing it up against the background of the museum or surrounding buildings makes people reimagine the built environment of downtown Aspen. “That’s interesting, too, because that forces you to think about the interaction between the nature and the building — you’re looking through it,” she said. During installation, the museum’s curatorial staff handled the plants and sculpture with the clinical care they give to every artwork — approaching it delicately, wearing gloves. Hayes had to laugh and note that this was not a typical artwork and wouldn’t be troubled by some fingerprints. “I’m like, ‘You know, we’re going to plant these,’” she recalled. “’The birds are going to poop on it! The bears might be in there.’ There’s a lot of potential for good.” The morning before the opening party for “Key Hole,” Hayes and her husband visited the Maroon Bells. Its pristine preservation, she said, overwhelmed her. Spending so much of her career digging in the dirt and developing a relationship with the wild things of the Earth, Hayes is protective of it and committed to conserving its resources. The global desecration of the environment through pollution and industry is a weight on her, both personally and creatively. “I was crying,” she said of her Maroon Bells visit. “I felt this protective thing, like ‘If anything were ever to happen to this…’ Things have happened to these places and humans have done things to these systems. Working in an era of heartbreak is difficult for artist, but I feel committed to keep going and keep doing it.” C-5 PUZZLE ANSWERS FROM PAGE C-4 B U M B R A S N O W S * A D U L P O I S P E T E I A S S B L U N L O V E Y E S W P A Y O F F S B A R E F O O T H U N T E R G A T H E R O L E V E R E A R C T A U R L R U M E M S T O N I P O M A C E R A I R E A T A L E D D E R A O M R I O B A T T A N O R B R T E A V E T T E R E A N M C M P O E T S T E M P E R A O L O C A F C * L E I A A D O U L A T E I D I O T L I G H T S E R S T I L A C R E N A O T A L R N L I A O P T N G G * S O R S T A I F R B S I E S A N A T I O N L A N C O N D O S E S S R O L A N D S G O A E S F R I N D E L I N D Y A Y S A S S A Y P E E L E E C A L L R D E L S E G O A V O W W H I R S O N L Y R D T R A P S H I P S T E S S A O F E E T A * R I R A F S T O P F I S T S E D O C E N C Y T M O E E O N TWO for ONE DINING Continued from C-2 McMillen Fine Art y m 7815 Royal Street East Park City, Utah 84060 Reservations [phone] www.the-chateaux.com/dining Valid until 10/28/18. Open Wednesday through Sunday, dinner and dine-in only. Valid at Cena Ristorante. Buy one entrée, get the second of equal or lesser value for free. 20% gratuity will be added to original amount. Not valid in conjunction with any other offer or special event. Adding to the encaustic-mounted photographs’ mystique, the McMillens are only offering one-of-a-kind originals. “We decided if we were going to do all this work for just a single photo, we weren’t going to do prints,” Jared said. “That’s nice for our clients, because they know that no one else will have the same image.” Offering originals also means the sizes of the works are also unique to the image, Trish said. During the past few weeks, the photographers have photographed wild horses in the West Desert and bison in the Grand Tetons. “Getting the horses in the West Desert proved to be a bit tricky,” Jared said. “While there are three big herds out Want the results TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD Jared and Trish McMillen of McMillen Fine Art Photography continue to develop how their works are presented. Their latest projects involve presenting photographs with an encaustic glaze. there, getting close enough to take photos is hard. They tend to move away when you approach them.” The bison was the first photograph the McMillens took without an equine subject, Trish said. “We went to the northern part of the Grand Tetons, and the photo just lent itself to the encaustic finish and its soft-color palette,” she said. The encaustic photographs range from 24-inches by 24-inches to wall-sized blocks that measure more than nine feet wide. “The only thing we ask is that our clients not to hang them too close to their fireplaces,” Jared said. “If the piece heats up to 180 or 190 degrees, the finish will start to melt down.” For information, visit www. mcmillenfineart.com of a recent competition or updated standings? Don't worry, The Park Record always keeps score. Discover Park City at: www.ParkCityHomesAndLand.com See our Scoreboard on page B-5. Kathy Vallée, CLHMS, CRS, GRI Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage PARK CITY’s FRIENDLIEST REALTOR® REALTOR® Since 2001 1153 Center Dr. G #200 Park City, Utah 84098 Mobile: [phone] www.parkcityhomesandland.com [e-mail] ©2018 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. All Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker® is a registered trademark licensed to Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. An Equal Opportunity Company. Equal Housing Opportunity. 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