STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK
PHOTOS BY ANNE JEFFERY AND KAREN BOSSICK
Christina Healy has never participated in an open studio tour before—she was too busy creating fine art jewelry for the Sun Valley Lodge Gift Shop.
But Healy retired from creating jewelry for the gift shop a year ago after 40 years of doing so. And, so, she will open her studio in The Heatherlands to the public for the first time during the Wood River Artists Open Studio Tour Saturday and Sunday.
“I had been creating jewelry for the Lodge for nearly 40 years and I wanted to slow down a little. So, I said: What’s my next adventure going to be?” Healy said. “Of course, all I did during the pandemic was make, make, make. It was an incredibly freeing creative period using all of the materials I’ve collected and experimenting with all kinds of new looks. And I wanted to share it.”
The Wood River Artists Open Studio Tour that Healy is taking part in will be held from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 28-29. It will feature 21 local artists who live throughout the valley from Bellevue to Ketchum.
“The annual Wood River Valley Studio Tour was canceled for the second year in a row because of the pandemic. But so many of us have so much art that we’ve been creating since the pandemic that we decided to create a new Wood River Artists Open Studios event,” said artist Mary Rolland. “It will give our incredibly talented artists a chance to share their unique artistic works with the public.”
Anne Jeffery will demonstrate layering and other photoshop techniques in the space she will share with ceramic artist EJ Harpham at 109 Lewalt, off Glendale Road south of Bellevue.
Lisa Holley, Jan Lassetter and Jill Lear will congregate at 270 Northwood Way in Ketchum’s industrial district. And some of the valley’s plein air painters are gathering together at Judy Whitmyre’s home at 410 East Canyon Run near the Hemingway house in Ketchum’s Warm Springs area.
Healy said she has long been known for the gold she uses in her jewelry, which is influenced by organic objects such as stones, arrowheads and sea shells she has collected around the world. But she’s been having fun over the past months using silver, pewter, antique bronze and less expensive metals, including aluminum.
“I posted about my show a couple days and already I’ve sold five pieces to people who won’t be here,” she said. “I decided to combine the tour with a 48-year anniversary sale full of ‘Thank you’ specials for all the community support I’ve received over the years.”
BELLEVUE ARTISTS:
Elizabeth Bayer, 608 Lewis Lane, contemporary landscape oils and watercolors
Mark Sheehan 509 S. 4th St., metal sculpture
Anne Jeffery, 109 Lewalt Drive off of Glendale Road, hypercollages
EJ Harpham, 109 Lewalt Drive off Glendale, pottery and ceramic murals
HAILEY ARTISTS:
Christina Healy, 202 Mariposa Road in the Heatherlands, “Unconflicted Stones” of natural handmade adornment jewelry
Sally Metcalf, 310 Robinhood Drive near Heagle Park, hand woven basketry ranging from traditional to sculptural
KETCHUM ARTISTS:
Susan Perin, 102 Silverweed Way (off Bitterroot and Sun Valley Road), paintings
MaryBeth Flower, 200 S. Bigwood Drive, fine art photographs
Lisa Holley, 270 Northwood Way, No. 205, in Ketchum’s industrial district, botanical works illustrated in her what-animals-eat series
Jan Lassetter, 270 Northwood Way, No. 202 and 203, realism and romanticism in oil paintings
Jill Lear, 270 Northwood Way, conference room, a mapping of the experience of being in and thinking about nature
Mary Rolland, 221-231 Northwood Way, 300B, ethereal Idaho and desert landscapes
Karen Jacobsen, 410 East Canyon Run, plein air paintings
Jineen Griffith, 410 East Canyon Run, plein air paintings
Pamela Street, 410 East Canyon Run, plein air paintings
Judy Whitmyre, 410 East Canyon Run, contemporary Idaho landscape paintings and assemblage sculpture
Barbara Kline, 410 East Canyon Run, overlapping photographs hand colored with photographic oil paint
Liz Meyer, 1570 Warm Springs Road, vintage pieces transformed into contemporary jewelry
Diane Hall, 1570 Warm Springs Road, Zen paintings
Kathy Riedinger, 120 Leadville Ave., S., plein air paintings
Susan Hall, 571 Third Ave. N. off Sixth Street, lush abstract paintings and mixed collages