It’s been more than 30 years since artist and former Park City Council member Peg Bodell rented the Miner’s Hospital for an artists’ show. This time, she’ll partner with her daughter Sundyn who does mixed-media pieces.
“We wanted a good variety of artists and hopefully, this little venture of ours, this show will be something that will go on and other individual artists can utilize the Miners Hospital, which is terribly underutilized in my opinion. And I think it's going to be a lot of fun for us in the community.”
Bodell will showcase the latest in her series, Blue Jays vs. Magpies.
“Something different for me, of course, I'm doing oils and acrylics now because I don't have studio space, which I would love to be able to go back and do my batik work,” she said. “But that's not going to happen until things get a lot less expensive here in town. So, I work off of my dining room table. And I've really fallen in love with the blue jays on my front porch in the morning feeding them peanuts and the magpies are obnoxious, so that’s what I’m focused on.”
Some of the other artists at the show include Marianne Cone who does acrylic paintings, photographer Mark Maziarz, Sandy Glynn a quilter, and Lone Vilnius who does fiber art.
Steve Johnson is a jeweler and what’s called a lapidarian, a stone cutter. He says he will display every type of stone he’s ever cut from turquois to lapis to dinosaur bone.
“It’s a very distinct look to at, Johnson explained. “And when you get a piece of the inside of it, you can see the outline of every cell of the bone. And the thing that got me was the variety of color, and the fact that it's at least 50 million years old. And it's hard. On a Mohs scale, [which measures mineral hardness], some dinosaur bone will be as hard as an eight and a diamond is a 10. So, it polishes up beautifully.”
The different colors, he says, are created by the minerals that were in the ground when the creature died.
Dinosaur bones can only be collected on private property, and he says he knows some owners who allow him to hunt for them.
The show is set for Friday from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free.
