HEART / LAND
By Sidne Teske
Artwork by Sidne Teske. Tailings of the Navajo, Commonwealth and Queen, Pastel on Paper.
Tuscarora, the town I call home, is plonked into the middle of Bureau of Land Management open range. Local ranchers have allotments where their cattle graze, and our town is located inside an allotment. At different times of year cattle wander through town at will: we people are the interlopers. This is their domain.
Mining activity is obvious: the town itself was a gold and silver mining camp that was established about 1867. Tailings in town and for many miles around are abundant, both old and recent.
Tuscarora is mentioned in many books about ghost towns but has never actually been totally deserted. Our population these days fluctuates between 3 and 20 depending on the season (hunting, fishing, or school). We are considered the ‘townies’ by the local ranching population. We have a post office, a vital part of our lives. The post office is sort of ‘information central’, keeping people in the valley connected even though we don’t see each other often. The local library is also housed in the post office. We get our groceries and gas from Elko. There is a small school that serves the Valley children from kindergarten through eighth grade. High school kids go to school in Elko.
Artwork by Sidne Teske. JOURNEY, Pastel on Paper.
Independence Valley, where Tuscarora is located, is about 55 miles northwest of Elko. Interestingly, even though it is considered part of the Great Basin, all our waters flow north into the Columbia River. Until dams were built on the Snake River, salmon came into our valley to spawn and were a valuable fishery to the locals.
I spend my time exploring and recording this place where I live with pastels (pigments that are a result of mining activity) on sanded paper. At times I take my materials into the studio to work on questions about how we humans inhabit this land, and how it affects us. Always looking, trying to see truth.
Heart/Land 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 September 27, 2023. A Plein Air Pastel Painting and Drawing Workshop with Artist Sidne Teske will be held on September 24, 2023, from 9 am - 4 pm PDT at the Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Las Vegas on September 25, 2023, from 5 - 8 pm PDT. Learn more here. Contact Bobbie Ann Howell at bahowell@nevadahumanities.org or 702-800-4670 to make a viewing appointment. This exhibition will remain viewable online.
Sidne Teske, resident of an unofficial ghost town, paints what she sees and what she imagines. Walking in the high mountain desert she calls home, Teske enjoys finding relics of times gone by, observing wildlife and wildflowers, and breathing in the perfume of sage.
Double Down Blogger photo courtesy of Sidne Teske.
Artwork images courtesy of Sidne Teske.