Imagine the greatest album covers of all time. Which ones do you picture? Each autumn, the Telluride Fine Arts Gallery offers an exhibit of locals’ work. The shows are usually curated, but this year’s is open to everybody. The subject matter is wide open, too: the Gallery is looking for altered album art. Album décor is becoming a lost art form, given the downloading and digitizing of today’s music, and TFA’s Carissa Franck hopes that in some small way, in one small town at least, this exhibit might help change some of that. Specifically, the gallery seeks to display original album covers, 12” x 12,” that have been reworked in any way: through photographs, collage, painting, what-have-you. “It may be representative, or not representative, of your signature style,” Franck says. TFA will display the works on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 5-8 p.m. in its Locals Show. Every piece that is entered will go up; all works will sell for $50, with $25 of that going to the artist. A “commitment to submit” is required via email by November 10 (the gallery will be closed Oct. 27-Nov. 14, but will continue checking email), and completed works should be dropped off by Nov. 16. Telluride album-alterers will be in good company: it turns out a lot of the best album art, at least according to the readers of Rolling Stone, who voted on their favorite Top 10 Album Covers of All Time, have been altered in some way. Two of the best are the covers of Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, both from the Beatles. Sgt. Pepper posed photos of the band around cardboard-cutouts of their heroes (including W.C. Fields, Mae West and Charlie Chaplin). According to RS, the band had originally intended to include Gandhi, Jesus Christ and Hitler in the photo: “Common sense kicked Hitler off the cover (though they did create an image of him), the still-lingering bitterness of Lennon’s ‘bigger than Jesus’ comment kicked Jesus off the cover, and Gandhi got the boot over concerns that India wouldn’t print the album.”
The German-born artist and musician Klaus Voorman, a longtime friend of the Beatles’, was inspired by the avant-garde direction the Fab Four’s tunes had taken for his cover of Revolver. “I thought the cover has to do the same thing. How far can I go? How surreal and strange can it be?” he said. Voorman pasted old photos of each band member onto his drawings. When he had trouble with George Harrison’s face, he punted, and pasted newspaper photos of eyes and lips onto it: plenty of album-art-altering inspiration right there. To see more readers’ picks, visit rollingstone.com. For a complete list of the Gallery’s requirements, contact the gallery by phone (970/728-3300) or email at info@telluridegallery.com.
Speaking of locals’ art, it will soon be time for the annual exhibit of same at Ridgway Public Library. The show begins November 10, and this year features works in oils, pastels, watercolor, sculpture and woodwork, but acrylics, photography, and “rosemaling,” a Norwegian decorative painting based on flowing lines and vibrant colors. It’s a fitting mountain-painting technique: one of rosemaling’s three main styles is Telemark, named after the region in which it originated. The artists, says the show’s organizer Dottie Miller, are a tight-knit bunch who are serious about their work. “I go out and plein air paint every week I can with them in spring, summer and fall when the weather is good,” she said. Group field trips have been plentiful over the years; the ladies (the cadre is mostly female) have erected their easels near the Cimarrons, Andrews and Little Molas lakes, Red Mountain Pass, and the list goes on. Miller Mesa is a particular fall favorite, “way in, with Mt. Sneffels peeking up over the wild, yellow-and-orange aspens,” Miller says. An opening reception is Nov. 10, from 4-7 p.m., and the show runs through January 11. “We had 250 people attend last year,” Miller said. What began as an informal get-together “has evolved and gone way beyond what we’ve done in the past.”
Back in Telluride, in honor of spooks, goblins and things-that-go-bump in the New York City night, there’s Ghostbusters. The 1984 comedy classic stars Dan Ackroyd and Bill Murray as paranormal investigators forced to step in and help save Manhattan from an army of unfriendly spirits channeled through gorgeous cellist Sigourney Weaver. John Belushi was originally pegged to star; his death in 1982 got Murray hired (and necessitated an extensive script rewrite). The role won him a Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Comedy. It also received a Golden Globe for Best Picture, and took two Oscars, for Best Visual Effects and Best Song. The Palm will screen the new version of the film, reformatted for Blu-ray; according to film historian and preservationist Robert Harris, this is a good one. “Those who remember the film from its theatrical release will be thrilled with the new Blu-ray,” Harris has said. “Those who have only seen it on inferior home video formats will find themselves in for a treat. And those few who are new to Ghostbusters are in for a fun ride into the ancient past of filmmaking, when special effects were special effects without the aid of computing.” Erika Gordon, the Telluride Film Festival’s education programmer, calls Ghost “one of my favorite films of my entire life. A lot of parents love it, and a lot of young people probably haven’t seen it,” she adds. “And it will look great on the big screen.” The film is rated PG. Showtime is 4 p.m. this Sunday at the Palm, and admission is free. The program includes the winners of Telluride TV’s First Annual Video Awards Competition.
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