Lecture at KU
Jess Wickstrom

Lecture at KU

Lawrence, KS—Last Thursday, we had the honor of speaking to about 200 design students at the University of Kansas. DesignEgg was one of seven projects/artists invited each semester to share their work as part of the Hallmark Symposium Series.

About the Series
The Hallmark Symposium Series was established in 1984 through the generosity of the Hallmark Corporate Foundation with the goal and intention of enriching the education of students at the University of Kansas and in support of those in particular in the Department of Design through exposure to designers, artists and educators from the United States and abroad. During these nearly 30 years of collaboration, approximately 10,000 students have been exposed to these rich and various array of practitioners.

We drove about 11 hours from Kentucky (with a brief stop in Columbia, MO) before arriving in Lawrence, Kansas, a great college town and a liberal stronghold in a largely conservative state. On the afternoon we arrived, we checked into the hotel and spent most of the day going over our notes and refining our presentation, which would last about 45 minutes. It included 14 pages of text and 100 slides! I guess we had a lot to say about DesignEgg:)

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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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The Egg Goes Solar
Andy Wickstrom

The Egg Goes Solar

Salt Lake City, UT—After staying a night in McInnis Canyon National Conservation Area and the lovely (and completely desolate) camping it offers, we packed up the Egg and hit I70 west, then headed north through Price Canyon and the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest as we rolled along smoothly toward GoalZero’s headquarters just outside Salt Lake City.

In case you’re not familiar with GoalZero, they are an industry-leading consumer solar products manufacturer who have (in a very short time) revolutionized the solar landscape for consumers in the US and brought light to villages in Ghana and Indonesia (and others), as well as to victims of Hurricane Sandy. They’ve done the best job of any company I can think of to make solar power—in all it’s complexity—easy to understand as a regular, non-science-y consumer. They have done an excellent job distilling down the components required to get a solar system running for your energy needs by releasing products that are plug-and-play.

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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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