STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

If you’re headed to Friedman Memorial Airport this week, either to pick up incoming relatives or to fly out yourself, be sure to take a few minutes to do a walkabout of the airport to see the latest art exhibition.

Friedman Memorial Airport Art Committee threw a lovely opening reception last week featuring black cherry bruschetta, curried devil eggs, and buffalo wings prepared by Better Ask Brenda. And, as always, there’s was a feast of imaginative and talented artwork by Wood River Valley artists to feast one’s eyes upon.

The new exhibition features 60 works created by 42 artists. Some have had their works hung at the airport before; some are new to the biannual exhibition. Nearly all of them this time reflect either on the landscape of the Sun Valley area or the wildlife.

Eileen Shelly’s oil, “Heading In,” will speak to a lot of hearts beating in those who love Sun Valley, those who love yellow labs and those who love Norman Rockwell scenes.

“This is my first time I’ve been, and it’s impressive,” said Hailey resident Annie Tokareff.

Travis Amick, has contributed a winter night scene featuring Orions Rising, while Divit Cardoza has three nice winter aspen watercolors that will make you feel as if you’re walking amidst them. Kollabs offers a mixed media of a majestic elk that captures the God-given essence of that creature, while Lisa Holley showcases her latest in her You Are What You Eat series—this time featuring a Wood River otter.

Anne Jeffery’s “Winter Forest” photograph speaks to the season, while Lolo Larissa DeHaas’ acrylic of Mount Heryburn is a texture wonder.

Eileen Shelly has graced the exhibition with a darling oil painting that will tug at many heartstrings, given her portrait of two yellow labs in a vintage pickup truck as a farmer brings feed to the horses against the backdrop of Bald Mountain.

Dennis Mitchell’s “The Secret” featuring egg tempera and gold leaf is accompanied by a similar piece featuring a Snowy Owl flying out of the scene in “Night View.”

Cindy Shearstone happily pointed out her 15-year-old granddaughter’s second hanging at Friedman Memorial Airport. Brooke Vagias’ latest is a paper collage portrait of a skier called “Powder Day.”

“I went through a lot of different magazines to get the right colored skin tones to create the face,” said Vagias, a student at Sage School.

Brenda Spackman created a whimsical piece in acrylic that captures just about everything there is to do in Sun Valley from paragliding to bike riding, to tuba playing—made all the more fun by the offset eyes of a couple of the pooches.

“My mother--Phyllis Kelly-Bouza—is a well-known artist in the Boise area,” said the Ketchum hairdresser. “She’s bugged me my whole life to do art but I never knew I had any talent. She knew, though, and one day I said, ‘What the hell--I’ll try it for fun.’ Now, I’ve been doing art for eight years.”

Brenda Spackman’s “Sun Valley” would make a good Chamber poster.

Annette Wachter fell in love with Texas longhorn skull art by accident when she happened to lay some dried, crushed leaves and dried flowers on a skull at her home in Bellevue while she was making a dried floral arrangement. “I thought, ‘That looks cool,’ so I’ve been creating longhorn skull art ever since,” she said.

Plein air painter Penelope Street has a couple of forest pieces—one representing spring and the other, fall--in the fireplace room.

“I just drive out Trail Creek Road in late summer and fall until I find something that resonates with me,” she said. “I love being able to display them here at the airport because it gives both locals and tourists a chance to see them.”

MaryBeth Flower has taken a pause from her long line of landscape photographs to create a bright red orange, yellow and green abstract piece she calls “ON Havana Time.” While gorgeous, it’s a headscratcher as it’s difficult to tell it’s a photograph.

Brooke Vagias cut up dozens of magazines to create “Powder Day.”

“We visited Cuba and saw the people so happy, the kids playing out in front of their hovels. I feel this captures the spirit,” she said.

Perhaps most surprising of all were Hannah B. Spencer’s three 3D mixed media. They works showcasing a bear teaching Cubby to fish, swing through a tree and play banjo are impressive enough if you look at them via a photograph.

But photographs do not do them justice. These 3D works literally jump out at you, as you’ll see when you take the gallery tour at the airport.