Your future, our focus
POWELL, Wyoming — A 2016 calendar of full-color images featuring “Wyoming Wildlife and Landscapes” will be sold this season to celebrate the life of longtime Powell painting teacher Donna Mann and to continue her desire to help others learn an art form.
Students in the Northwest College Photo Seminar class who created the calendar will donate half the net proceeds to the Donna Mann Memorial Scholarship for Sophomore Photography and Art at Northwest College.
The students spent their fall semester capturing calendar images to inspire the artist in anyone in memory of the woman who inspired so many local residents to create their own art.
In addition to 12 large prints (some of which include Heart Mountain, flaming fall foliage, riversides and even a tender moment between a mother moose and her young), each month also features a small inset image.
More than 50 student photos were submitted for consideration in the calendar. They were juried by Rowene Weems, director/curator at the Homesteader Museum, and Daniel Baney, NWC public relations photography specialist.
Vicki Olson, Mann’s daughter, is one of the student photographers whose work graces several pages of the calendar. She said her mother started teaching painting in Powell in the 1980s through community education classes and later opened her own studio. Her hallmark was exploration, a practice she was faithful to until her death in December 2014.
“My mother saw inspiration in everything. It kept her young. Even at age 83, she enjoyed teaching a zentangle class for Powell Valley Community Education where she introduced a new drawing method to a dozen students; many were half her age.
“I believe a lot of us who live in Wyoming might not realize it, but on some level, we find our own personal sense of art in the beautiful landscapes we gaze on every day. I think my mom would be delighted to know she was connected with something like this calendar that helps others see the natural art around them and recognize it in a new way.”
The “Wyoming Landscapes and Wildlife” calendar is the work of Olson and her fellow Wyoming students Erin Buhler of Powell, Eric Theriault of Cody, and Lori Riesland of Cheyenne; plus Kara Mullins of Bridger, Montana, and Hananiah Aldrich of Overland Park, Kansas.
Visiting Instructor of Photography Kathleen Lichtendahl served as their adviser.
A sample calendar is on display in Room 111 of the Orendorff Building at Northwest College in Powell and at the NWC Cody Center.
It can also be viewed online at http://tinyurl.com/p8p2gh8.
Calendars cost $10 each. They can be purchased before Friday, Dec. 11, by calling Lichtendahl, 307-754-6184, or after Dec. 11 by emailing her at Kathleen.Lichtendahl@nwc.edu.
Olson is also selling them at her Buffalo Billie’s store in downtown Powell and via telephone. She can be reached at 307-754-5870 or 307-254-1254.
