{"id":2452427,"date":"2019-12-19T17:36:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T00:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/aspen-artist-patrick-semple-opens-polarity-at-straight-line-studio-in-snowmass-village\/"},"modified":"2019-12-19T17:36:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T00:36:00","slug":"aspen-artist-patrick-semple-opens-polarity-at-straight-line-studio-in-snowmass-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-artist-patrick-semple-opens-polarity-at-straight-line-studio-in-snowmass-village\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen artist Patrick Semple opens \u2018Polarity\u2019 at Straight Line Studio in Snowmass Village"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Aspen-based artist Patrick Semple will open the solo exhibiton \u201cPolarity\u201d on Saturday at Straight Line Studio in Snowmass Village.<\/strong>
Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Emerging Aspen artist Patrick Semple isn\u2019t just influenced by place; the place becomes his work. Literally.<\/p>\n

Semple, whose solo show \u201cPolarity\u201d is on view at the new Straight Line Studio gallery in Snowmass Village, makes his own milk-based paint. One of the six pieces in the show, titled \u201cAshcroft,\u201d incorporates local earth and sediment; the frame is built with reclaimed lumber. \u201cThe Crystal Ship\u201d includes a collage of old newspapers he found rotting in an Aspen alley.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old artist also likes to use crushed minerals he finds in the wild, like pyrite and turquoise, sprinkling them over his work for a unique textured finish. These searches can bring their own challenges \u2014 a hike this fall to find minerals in the upper reaches of the Hunter Creek Valley was interrupted by a family of moose.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s made with the dirt and blood and guts of Aspen,\u201d Semple said of his recent work. \u201cWherever I go, I always make it a point to immerse myself and absorb the sights and smells, and in some cases handfuls of the earth, to include in my work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aspen isn\u2019t the only influence in Semple\u2019s work, although it\u2019s the original one. Born in Seattle, Semple grew up in Aspen. He credits the art programs and his teachers at the Aspen public schools and Aspen Community School with nurturing his art, which, he said, \u201cis one of the only things I\u2019ve ever cared about consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Semple\u2019s abstract painting evolved out of his background in local landscape painting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt compelled to the scenery here,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s all encompassing; it\u2019s part of who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

But attending Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, a school that he describes as experimental and interdisciplinary, \u201chelped me loosen up from rigid forms of thinking. I learned how to have a discourse and expound on my own ideas while listening to and absorbing others\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wet, rainy Pacific Northwest climate influenced his artistic journey, too. Besides spending a lot of time indoors honing his craft, wandering its lush forests when he could taught Semple \u201cto work more intuitively and learn how to let chance and surprise to take place,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think our most informative and refreshing work happens when we surprise ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most recently, a winter and spring spent in Los Angeles opened Semple\u2019s eyes to an art scene driven by young, amateur artists \u2014 a scene he fell in love with.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey made it more accessible and affordable to participate in the art scene there,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s something Straight Line Studio is bringing to the table here. It\u2019s sort of a cutting-edge gallery model for Aspen in that it values inclusivity in emerging local talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like most of his peers, making art is not Semple\u2019s only job. He delivers pizza for New York Pizza, works for his dad\u2019s two businesses, renting ski clothes for Suit Yourself and mowing lawns in the summer \u2014 he is the son of Aspen Daily News columnist Lorenzo \u201cLo\u201d Semple, grandson of screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. and nephew of author Maria Semple \u2014 and maintains kids\u2019 ski trails for Aspen Skiing Company on Buttermilk.<\/p>\n

This immersion in Aspen\u2019s service industry is another major influence. It\u2019s made Semple realize the importance of having a creative outlet \u2014 of remaining true to goals and continuing to nurture one\u2019s talents, something that can easily get lost in the often exhausting, frenzied seasonal cycles of the resort industry.<\/p>\n

This concept also gave rise to the title and theme of Semple\u2019s show. His six works in the exhibition are about the things that go unexpressed beneath the public surface, he said. His black and white pieces show that most clearly \u2014 representing the \u201cjoys and woes we feel day to day, and that one can\u2019t exist without the other,\u201d he said. \u201cIn our lives we\u2019re trying to strike a balance between the two; I wanted to paint a picture of all those things existing together in harmony.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in \u201cThe Crystal Ship,\u201d one of his most colorful works, Semple was processing some angst, anger and confusion. You can\u2019t control those kind of emotions, he said, but just have to work through them \u2014 and sometimes what comes out on the other end is something beautiful and bright.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work is all about finding the key to that interior self and remembering who you are beneath all those layers of who people expect you to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aspen-based artist Patrick Semple will open the solo exhibiton \u201cPolarity\u201d on Saturday at Straight Line Studio in Snowmass Village.Courtesy photo Emerging Aspen artist Patrick Semple isn\u2019t just influenced by place; the place becomes his work. Literally. Semple, whose solo show \u201cPolarity\u201d is on view at the new Straight Line Studio gallery in Snowmass Village, makes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 01:29:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}