July 13, “Garage Days”

After putting the kids to bed, I find a moment of quiet solitude in my detached two-car garage in Jackson Hole, WY. Over time I’ve converted it into a primitive workshop and semi-functioning art studio. The air is finally cool and it’s a welcome feeling. The dog days of summer have slowly overcome winter, reducing it into a haze of evaporating memories.

I scan the area from my antique couch. I’ll often lay down on this small Victorian loveseat to try and relieve the pain in my back after a long session. The floor is filthy. It was once traditional light gray concrete, open and empty. Over years of use and abuse it has collected dirt, sawdust, grease and grime, sticky cottonwood seeds blown in by violent spring thunderstorms, road scum, mouse shit, spiderwebs, and the bodies and blood of a million squashed insects. This debris is barely visible under a vivid color spectrum of paint. It’s 750 square feet of blurry blobs, splashed specks, pools and puddles. Waffle-sole prints walk over each other in various sizes, a trail of expanding circles in the areas where the light is clean and concentrated.

A story unfolds. The path becomes clear in the billion dots of overspray that lay before me, a colorful spectrum as complex as the universe. This past winter was flowing with energy, physical and creative. “Human Nature 3” brought us together. It was Schoph’s vision, with support and hard work from Ashley, Josie and Scott of Asymbol Gallery, which connected us this past February in the wake of a historically destructive winter storm. A major weather event blew down 17 power lines in Teton Village the week prior, forcing government officials to declare a state of emergency. Roofs collapsed and a power outage shut down operations at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort for five days despite 30-plus inches of new snow…

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