An Abundance of Art
The worst part of my month is eliminating artwork from the magazine. It hurts. There is just so much great artwork on the market—making cuts to any of it is painful. (That’s why I’ve been adding artwork to this page. One more opportunity to show some art!)
It’s especially hard making cuts in the June issue, which has had our Prix de West coverage in it since the magazine started. The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum sends some great early material, and then I reach out to a number of Prix artists to try to sneak peeks from their studio. Then the images start flooding in. And this year, with the museum marking 50 years of the exhibition, the artwork that the artists are finishing is truly on another level. As one artist plainly told me, “You don’t phone it in on the Prix de West’s 50th birthday.”
Besides our comprehensive coverage of the Prix de West, coverage you won’t see anywhere else, I also want draw your attention to two other parts of this issue. The first is our Women of the West special section. This year’s section is exceptional, and we kick it off with features on three top artists working today: Shawn Cameron, Donna Howell-sickles and Darcie Peet. Each of their work is unique, as are their personalities, philosophies and techniques. To have these three artists, and then so many others, in one issue is a real treat for me and our readers.
The second area I want to draw your attention to is our coverage of the exhibition Master
Leather Carving from North America and Japan at the Brinton Museum. There is a fascinating aspect here that is worthy of highlighting:
Western leatherworkers in the United States were introduced to Japanese leatherworkers, who now use a Western style within their own work coming out of Japan. Or, put more simply: the Western way of life has a broad appeal that goes well beyond the West, and well beyond even the United States. Whether we realize it or not, the
West is often bigger than we truly know.