Whatever it is that you have planned for Valentine’s Day, you will want to add the “Special Adults-Only Fundraiser & Valentine’s Party for the Danforth Gallery” (2/14/08) to the evening’s activities. Or make it your main event. The idea is to offer something different while raising money for the Park County Friends of the Arts (PCFA) which operates the Danforth.

I visited the studio of painter Edd Enders this afternoon for a sneak preview of one of the activities planned for the Party. In a bold move that recalls the Danforth’s early days as the daring and experimental venue for all things artistic, including the legendary “Main Street Show” with its variety of music, comedy and visiting Hollywood guests, the PCFA Board opted to create a fundraiser that would be unique.
[At left, artist Edd Enders gets ready to try some body painting. Click image for a larger view.]

The adults-only party will feature not only Valentine-themed art, including many nudes as well as works from the recent figure drawing workshop led by artist Brad Bunkers, but live figure drawing, and live painting by three artists on the bodies of three masked models. The models will be wearing more than the masks, but very little more. So you might call today’s dry-run of the event an undress rehearsal.

Artists Edd Enders, Sarah Homans, and Bruce Rinnert came to test the special body paints and the painters’ tools (airbrush, sponge, and paintbrush) on human volunteers. None of the artists had ever painted on people before, nor had they used the paints, so it was time to try things out before Thursday night’s event.

[Below right, artists Bruce Rinnert and Sarah Homans try out the airbrush. Click image for a larger view.]

I asked them why they wanted to be a part of the event.

“It’s a medium I’ve never used before,” said Rinnert. Homans piped up, “That’s what I was going to say!” Both artists do use a variety of other media, if not this one. Rinnert creates papier mache sculptures, drawings and paintings, and bicycle frames; Homans paints, makes collages, and creates jewelry from found objects.

“The other thing,” adds Rinnert, “is what a canvas!”

Edd Enders said, “It’s something I’ve never done. It’s about the only surface I’ve never painted on.”

All the same, all three artists took to the materials and the canvas with ease and apparent delight. Enders, whose Montana landscapes are legendary for their expressive and honest depiction of everything about this place, from highway signs to cottonwoods and roadscapes, worked on a bit of landscape on a volunteer’s back. It worked. He was able to capture the same colors and brush strokes of the large landscape painting used as a backdrop for his effort.

I asked Homans what she had in mind. “I’m going to do some sketches tonight. Maybe a reverse organ design (Homans’ paintings are recognizable for their abstracted organic forms), some arteries abstracted to foliage. I’ll doodle around tonight, but it might all change tomorrow.” A bit skeptical about the project a couple of weeks ago, Homans was enthusiastic this afternoon, recalling Yves Klein whose fame rests partly on his use of the whole body to apply his trademark blue to paper and canvas.

[At right, Sarah Homans talks about Yves Klein’s full-body paintings. Click image for a larger view.]

Rinnert was working on some harlequin motifs and believes that is what he will go with tomorrow night. In keeping with this theme, Traci Isaly has created gorgeous masks for the models, including a harelequin one for Rinnert’s model. Isaly has shown her remarkable Talisman Dolls (sculptural figures made from objects found in nature, natural fabrics, wire and paint) at the Danforth, the Livingston Center for Arts and Culture, and galleries in California, Wyoming, and Butte, but she has never made masks before this event. The results are stunning and will complement the painting motifs on each model.

[Above left, Danforth staffer Souss Dadelahi models a Traci Isaly mask. Click image for a larger view.]

As if all of this daring fun and art in the making were not enough to bring folks out on a winter night, the Valentine’s Party will also feature champagne, chocolates, and both savory and sweet delectables donated by Livingston caterers and restaurants, served up by roving volunteers bearing trays. You will be pampered. And perhaps amazed.

I asked PCFA Board President Joanne Gardner who is never one to be short on enthusiasm, boldness, and great ideas, if this adults-only theme was generating any reaction. She reported numerous phone calls: “Some people wanted to be painted, others wanted to help paint people. And some folks just wanted to know more about the event because it is different.”

Gardner, who has an extensive music video production resume (and some Country Music Awards to go with it), will also be providing a music mix. But don’t start dancing yet. This fundraiser will help the Danforth get some much needed new hardwood flooring to replace the carpeting that has been in the gallery for a very long time.

To enjoy an event that will probably be talked about as part of the ongoing Danforth legend, and to help raise money for Livingston’s first gallery and one of its most contemporary and fresh, just arrive at the Danforth between 6 to 8 PM, Thursday February 14. Tickets for members are $20 each or $40 for couples. For non-members, the admission is $30 per person and $50 per couple. (Tickets and membership forms available at the Party. And remember, this is an adults-only event. Not because this kind of art is not suitable, but out of respect for the variety of regional sensibilities.)

Says Gardner, “Art is not just what hangs on the wall. With chocolate, champagne, great food on a cold winter night, and a chance to see art being made, all among friends and neighbors . . . where’s the downside?”

And to add a green note: No persons will be harmed in the making of this event. The body paints are FDA-approved body makeup used in the film industry and “Burning Man.”

The art show itself opens with an artist reception on Friday, February 22 from 6 to 8 PM, and runs through March 6. The Danforth will be open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 10 AM to 5 PM during the run of the show.

Filed under: Articles/Interviews, Art Talk, Events/Shows