3 Questions about the Lifting the Veil Exhibition with Curators Daryl DePry and Anne M. Hoff
We asked Daryl DePry and Anne M. Hoff, artists and guest curators of the current Nevada Humanities Exhibition Series Lifting the Veil: Interpretations of Space in the Nevada Landscape, to answer three questions about their inspiration in creating this exhibition.
Is there a specific place or area in Nevada that has influenced your artwork, and what aspects keep drawing you back to exploring the landscape?
Anne: Upon moving to Las Vegas for my teaching position at the College of Southern Nevada, I was struck by the dynamic and intensely textured Mojave Desert, making it my constant creative muse. The outdoors also functions as my place of calm from the chaos of the city of Las Vegas. The energy of urban centers can be stimulating but mentally draining. The outdoor spaces allow me to have a sense of calm and inner reflection that I need. Sitting and taking time to observe and record my experiences and thoughts fuels the creative development of my artwork. It is the fuel for my soul.
Daryl: In Las Vegas, the places that I return to frequently are Red Rock Canyon and Calico Basin. They both offer a lot of different trails and points of view for subject matter. The other incidental logistic is that they are close and easily accessed. I try to go during the week to avoid people or make an effort to get off the trail and have my outdoor experience all to myself. The range of colors have attracted me to these locales and integrating my printwork examples that draw from the Las Vegas Strip, Japanese woodcuts of the floating world, and French Impressionism. Trying to assimilate those colors into the plein air work has been a challenge.
What can you share with Lifting the Veil viewers to encourage them to take a moment to think about their surroundings, take notice of the vistas from where they live, or consider how their experiences within the landscape may influence how they are connected to the community?
Anne: Being in nature, without the distractions of the modern world, is a way for one to pause and listen to their internal voice. We run with many distractions and demands in our lives, trying to keep up with complex schedules and routines and missing the effect of slowing down and noting where we physically are. What are the shapes of the branches of the trees? The birds that flirt in and out? The wind, the sense of the sun on your body? We are not taking the time to appreciate that we exist in a complex environment that is our actual home—planet earth. When you place yourself in the wilderness, you are no longer aware of your ego but humbled to realize that your place is so small in this world. I am humbled by the power of the open spaces, put on the edge of discomfort and respect as I go on my hike. My experience there is to realize my status in this world and appreciate my good fortune to be here in this space and time to be a witness to so much raw, open space. It allows me to ground myself, recalculate priorities, and be present. Nothing now is overwhelming me, pressuring me. I can be.
Daryl: An interesting question, especially living in the entertainment capital of the United States. The Las Vegas strip has its colors, lights, casinos, shows, and events to tantalize visitors. But it's artificial. I think a lot of people take for granted the grandeur of a rock outcrop with wispy clouds and a white pine tree silhouetting the skyline. To drive from the Las Vegas strip out to Red Rock has always intrigued me, and trying to define the visual divide between the two seems to be my focus. An interplay of landscape and urbanscape scenes, but trying to find the transitional place of interest.
The humanities are all the ways our experiences connect us to our culture, the place, and communities where we live, and to each other. What are some of your connections to the humanities that were part of curating the Lifting the Veil exhibition?
Anne: My entire life has been about the humanities, as an artist and a poet–in my journals and in my active teaching career. I bring history and image-making to my classes and engage my students in new experiences and challenges with their world beyond the screen. I also explore the various outdoor locales of Nevada in the pursuit of my image-making.
Daryl: Participating in shows throughout Nevada, meeting other artists, making connections, and drawing parallels to the attraction to the scapes in this state with other artists. An interesting thing I have discovered is the difference between artists living in more rural Nevada versus those living in major cities like Elko, Reno, and Las Vegas. The rural artists appear more relaxed and not necessarily attempting to create a 'product.' The marks are more loose and genuine.
Lifting the Veil: Interpretations of Space in the Nevada Landscape is open to the public for viewing by appointment only Tuesdays through Thursdays from 1 to 4 pm and until 9 pm the first Friday of the month for First Friday events at the Nevada Humanities Program Gallery, 1017 South 1st Street, #190 in Las Vegas. In-person viewing will close on March 29, 2023. Contact Bobbie Ann Howell at bahowell@nevadahumanities.org or 702-800-4670 to make a viewing appointment. This exhibition will remain viewable online.
Photo: Nevada Humanities/Ronda Churchill.
Anne M. Hoff is a professor of Printmaking and Drawing at the College of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada. Her work is in university, museum, and corporate collections across the United States. She exhibits her work widely in local and international portfolios, invitational, and educational conferences and workshops. Her stone lithography studio is part of the BEST Arts 4 U Studio in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“I make marks to survive myself.” —Daryl DePry
Daryl DePry grew up in San Diego, California, during the beach culture of the '70s and '80s. He came to Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1989 to make it his home. Since then, he has received an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), got married, and now has a family. He has taught college-level fine art for the last 24 years at UNLV and the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas. DePry is an avid hiker who roasts his own coffee and listens to hardcore punk rock. He continues to produce imagery through printmaking and painting mediums in the studio and plein air.