Safe passages on the road and canvas

Aspen Chapel Gallery opens new show today

For anyone who has hit an elk, deer or any other large animal on a highway, the collision can be devastating on many levels.

There is the damaged vehicle but also the guilt of striking an animal and the knowledge that its death or severe injury and potential suffering might have been prevented.

For Aspen artist and filmmaker Greg Poschman, the trauma of these vehicular experiences helped inspire the theme of “Safe Passages,” a mixed-media exhibition opening Wednesday at the Aspen Chapel Gallery.

“Our community certainly needs to elevate the conversation about vehicle collisions with wildlife to the level of gravity it merits,” Poschman said in a release. “Anyone who has collided with an elk, deer or moose has a certain level of PTSD, a totaled vehicle and a horrific and unnecessary death to think about.”

Poschman saw the idea of “safe passage” as a concept that could be explored artistically and he invited valley artists to incorporate the concept into their work.

“The idea of highway collisions, or the alternative — safe passages — as a theme for this show can go in so many directions,” Poschman said in a release. “I asked the artists to think about abstract concepts of safe passages, and to make art around that idea.”

The resulting exhibition features work by Poschman along with Cam Burns, Katalin Domoszlay, Dave Durrance, Erin Ely, Julie Grimm, Cary Guy, Nancy Kullgren, Willow Poschman, Tamara Susa, Pam Weber and Ellen Woods.

An opening reception will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday. “Safe Passages” is the gallery’s 269th consecutive exhibition since it opened 41 years ago.

In each of its art shows, Aspen Chapel partners with a local nonprofit and gives a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the art to them. Poschman chose the group Roaring Fork Safe Passages as the partner for this exhibition.

The organization is a citizen-led nonprofit coalition working to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions through a comprehensive valley-wide approach.

“I wanted to include Roaring Fork Safe Passages in this Aspen Chapel Gallery show because they are doing important work in the community and I wanted to introduce them to as many friends and supporters as possible,” he said.

Nancy Kulgren is one of 12 local artists whose work is being featured in a new show at Aspen Chapel Gallery called “Safe Passages.”Courtesy of Nancy Kulgren

Cecily DeAngelo, executive director of Roaring Fork Safe Passages, said the connection between the organization’s mission and the exhibition extends beyond wildlife crossings.

“Our work is rooted in helping people and wildlife move safely through this valley we all call home,” DeAngelo said in a release. “We’re honored to be part of a show that speaks to the universal experience of safe passage and how art, like our own work, helps us navigate change and find our way forward.”

Roaring Fork Safe Passages works to coordinate stakeholders, advocate for wildlife and turn scientific research into projects intended to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions throughout the valley.

The participating artists interpret the idea of “safe passage” in markedly different ways.

Cary Guy, who recently returned to Colorado after living abroad for more than 30 years, incorporated materials that are associated with the very issue the exhibition addresses. His acrylic works on paper include rubber and metal along with pieces of felt — materials that evoke both vehicles and the animals with which they collide.

For Katalin Domoszlay, a 36-year valley resident whose work moves among abstraction, landscape, architecture and storytelling, the exhibition prompted a broader consideration of migration and vulnerability.

“The patterns of wildlife migration in search of survival echo the migrations of people throughout history,” Domoszlay said. “Both animals and humans can be blindsided by danger while crossing — wildlife by roads, humans by borders. Both are created by human development. How can we make these crossings safer?”

Willow Poschman approached the theme from an intensely personal direction. A Roaring Fork Valley native who primarily works as a performer, he originally conceived his contribution as a performance score before he gradually transformed it into a visual two-dimensional work.

The piece addresses grief, memory and the barriers between bodies, drawing from his experience following the death of a close friend. “I hope others can experience some of the solace it gave me to create it,” he said.

Cam Burns found inspiration from the natural world. His recent artwork was inspired by a 2000 sailing trip through the Bahamas where he witnessed threats to marine life from both other animals and human activity.

“We need to be better stewards of the earth,” Burns said.

Julie Grimm, who settled in the valley three years ago, works abstractly through intuitive marks, spontaneous gestures and layers of paint. Some elements disappear beneath subsequent layers while others remain visible, creating what she describes as a history within the canvas.

“I hope that when people view my art, they see a brighter world filled with hope, inspiration and renewal,” Grimm said.

Pam Weber similarly uses abstraction and layering, combining paint, collage, drawing and color to explore memory and experience. Her palette is heavily influenced by the Roaring Fork Valley — its blue skies, greens and orange sunsets — though those colors appear in abstract rather than representational form.

For Greg Poschman, abstraction represents something of a departure from the career for which he was initially known.

Born in Aspen to what he described as a family of skiers, outdoor people and artists, he spent roughly 30 years working in photography and filmmaking before moving increasingly toward painting.

“Photography and filmmaking were my career for 30 years, until I decided that I was not interested in taking photos in focus,” Poschman said.

He still works in street photography and makes biographical films, but said his current interest is finding ways to provoke emotional responses through paint.

That objective also informs his hopes for “Safe Passages.” “The title may begin with the literal problem of hitting an elk, deer or other animal across a highway, but Poschman ultimately sees the exhibition as addressing a larger question of empathy.

“I hope this show gets us closer to a compassionate solution to the carnage on our highways, and the drought of compassion and empathy that seems to be shading the entire planet, as well,” he said.