Making LA
Jess Wickstrom

Making LA

Los Angleles, CA—How we ended up in a room filled with some of the brightest minds in Los Angeles—from the Deputy Mayor to Moby—was the result of a chance meeting under a boulder in Utah.

While we were climbing in Joe’s Valley, we ran into Orange County native Alvin Kim (check out his blog—you’ll be inspired). Alvin’s sister Christine was one of the organizers of a new event bringing together “creative leaders from across Los Angeles to share best practices and investigate new ways to make their burgeoning civic, architectural or design projects a reality.” Christine reached out to us after hearing the DesignEgg story from her brother and we soon had an invitation to the Making LA Conference, the culmination of a year-long programming series organized by de LaB, an LA-based nonprofit with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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50 Rocky Mountain Artists
Jess Wickstrom

50 Rocky Mountain Artists

Cedar City, UT—On our way out of Joe’s Valley we decided to stop for a week to work in Cedar City, a college town that sits near the northern border of Zion National Park. Like other small towns we’ve had the pleasure to stumble upon, Cedar City has plenty of facilities to support us, including a great public library, a friendly Walmart where we can park our trailer, a local coffee shop, and the entire Southern Utah University campus, complete with a rec center, Shakepearian-style theater (SUU is home to a renown Shakespeare festival), and a lovely art gallery.

Last night, the gallery—and more specifically, an incredible image of a Julia Galloway pitcher—caught our eye as we wandered around campus. When we stepped into the Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery we were greeted by a plethora of familiar names and some of the best ceramic sculpture that we’d seen in a very long time. As Gallery Director at Lillstreet Art Center, I had the pleasure of working with many of the artists included in this show, 50 from 6: Contemporary Ceramics from Six Rocky Mountain States, and the exhibit brought back warm memories of my time at Lill.

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Bounty in Ephraim, Utah
Jess Wickstrom

Bounty in Ephraim, Utah

Ephraim, UT—We’ve been camping and climbing for the last two weeks in stunning central Utah, two hours south of Salt Lake City in a place called Maple Canyon. The nearest town for supplies is Ephriam, an old fort city with a population of about 6,000. The town is home to Snow College which has a quaint campus full of wonderful resources for both students and the community (not to mention visitors, like us). We’ve enjoyed showers at the rec center and spent many days and nights working at the school’s library, nestled up near the fireplace with lightening-fast WiFi.

During a work break last Friday evening, we decided to check out The Granery Art Center, an intriguing contemporary art space housed in a converted 1870s wheat storage building on the main street. After browsing the current exhibition—which was quite interesting—we stumbled out a side door and found ourselves in the middle of the town’s 2nd Annual Harvest Festival. What luck! Residents who had worked in an adjacent community garden all summer were reaping the benefits of the harvest and sharing the bounty with their friends and neighbors. Each family had brought a dish made from ingredients grown exclusively in the garden and they were asking just $5 a plate to share in the meal. After loading up a colorful spread we sat down to eat with some ultra-friendly locals who explained that the festival and the garden were new initiatives in the city, along with a seasonal farmers market. What a great addition to this small-town landscape.

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A Visit to Anderson Ranch
Jess Wickstrom

A Visit to Anderson Ranch

Snowmass Village, CO—Last week DesignEgg had the pleasure of visiting one of the most inspiring artist retreats in the nation. Anderson Ranch Arts Center is situated on 4.5 acres of gorgeous property in Snowmass Village, Colorado, just ten miles from Aspen. Surrounded by mountains, the campus is a cozy collective of restored log cabins, barns, and new structures including eight artist studio buildings, a lecture hall, cafe, offices, two galleries, and housing for students and artistic staff.

Anderson Ranch has been long on our list of places to see. While working as Gallery Director at Lillstreet Art Center, I heard many testimonials from people that had the pleasure to spend time at the Ranch as teachers facilitating workshops or students attending classes. The structure of the Anderson Ranch workshop programs are inclusive (with meals and housing provided) and the offerings are diverse. They provide instruction in: ceramics, digital media and photography, furniture design and woodworking, painting and drawing, printmaking, sculpture and critical studies.

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