Linda Laughlin, executive director of the Steamboat Center for Visual Arts, remembers buying her first piece of fine art.
It was in 1972, while she was a freshman art history student in college, when she purchased the Japanese woodcut that cost her almost half of her book allowance for the semester.
“When someone buys their first piece of art, they are going to remember it for the rest of their life,” Laughlin said.
That piece remains in her home today, one of many within her collection from across the world. Each has a story, and collectively, they provide a timeline of her life.
“For me, having art in the house is the same as having food in the refrigerator,” Laughlin said. “Art defines my living space and creates an environment that is a reflection of who someone is.”
The hobby of collecting art is a passion some embrace, while others balk at the idea of spending upwards of $100,000 on a single piece.
There has been a multitude of artists, galleries and art events — such as the All Arts Festival and artwork shown here in Steamboat Springs — held locally in recent years, and not only is that apparent in the pieces found across town, it is also displayed in the private collections of those who call Steamboat home.
“I think the arts community has grown in Steamboat more in the last five to 10 years than it has in the previous 50 years,” said Jim Cook, longtime Realtor who was the founder and owner of Colorado Group Realty and now works at Ski Town Commercial. Cook also is a founding board member of Main Street Steamboat and an active member in the local arts community, having served as a former board member of the Steamboat Arts Council and Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp.
But beyond the prestige of owning a work from the likes of Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein, Mark Rothko or Jackson Pollock, what compels one to cross that threshold to buy a piece of artwork? Why are some motivated to possess a piece, while others are comfortable with merely viewing it in a gallery?
“Art collecting is just a very personal thing,” Laughlin said. “The key, above everything else, for what motivates people to like a piece of art is if it speaks to them in some way. Some art won’t hold your attention for very long, because it’s already said what it’s going to say.”
Gary and Jane Wilner
Why they collect: A love for the arts and a source of inspiration
“We have always enjoyed the arts,” Gary Wilner said. “Collecting opened a world of friendships with artists, gallerists and other collectors, together with the opportunity to share our love with others.”
This Midwestern couple has a collection representative of their eclectic taste, with contemporary pieces that are globally influenced, culturally diverse and challenge traditional boundaries. A few of the pieces are from some of the most popular contemporary artists in the industry today.
Yvves Klein’s work can be found in the Wilner’s collection in the form of an Artware edition. Klein is a French artist known for his contemporary experimentalism with “living brushes,” or using a series of varied surfaces from different rollers or sponges. The plexiglass table the Wilners display was designed by Klein with the International Klein Blue pigment and is a controlled edition, with only a few produced by Klein’s estate each year.
One of Jane Wilner’s favorite pieces, she said, is a large-scale portrait of American composer Philip Glass by Chuck Close. Wilner said Close created the work in a calculated, systematic manner using a photograph overlaid with a penciled grid that was then separated and transported to the handmade paper.
Another popular artist represented in the Wilners' collection is Jeff Koons, an American artist known for his pop culture-inspired work and recognized by his sculptures, which include balloon dogs made with stainless steel and a mirror-finish surface. His work is highly sought after and has been sold at auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s.
Though Jane Wilner has always been one to follow creative endeavors, the Wilners didn’t start collecting until 1984. Through a serendipitous event, the two were diverted to New York on a trip to the Virgin Islands after a hurricane closed the airport.
It was there, in New York City, they walked into a gallery opening featuring contemporary artist Oscar Lakeman and bought one of his originals — the first piece in their collection. Gary Wilner said the show was Lakeman’s first, and the gallery sold every piece of his work that night.
“Most of the time, we buy a piece without knowing what we are going to do with it,” Gary Wilner said. “But we know most of the artists and have become friends with them.”
“It just speaks to me; I am very opinionated,” Jane Wilner added. “I either love it or generally hate it. But I like to know the history and the sequence of the artist’s work. Artists change a lot, so I like to see what they have done before and how they got to where they are now.”
The Wilners said they frequent the First Friday Artwalk event to discover new artists. They also have discovered a number of artists at galleries and museums across the nation, especially in Chicago, and at fundraisers and auctions.
“It helps with creativity, seeing the artwork on the walls every day,” Gary Wilner said. “There are stories with every piece.”
Other artists in the collection include Sandy Skoglud, an American photographer and installation artist known for creating surrealist images by building elaborate installations; Chuck Walker, a Chicago artist who created a piece in the Wilners' collection titled, “Angola/Angola;” and British painter Jason Martin, known for his gestural, monochromatic paintings on aluminum backgrounds that lend a three-dimensional look.
“We do this because we love it and choose whatever speaks to us,” Jane Wilner said. “To me, it’s not only what the image actually is but the simple lines and the abstraction of it, even though it may be a picture of a place.”
Eric Meyer
Why he collects: as a reflection of where life takes him
“To me, art brings alive experiences, thoughts and feelings,” Eric Meyer said. “It reminds us of some things and inspires us toward further experiences.”
After moving into a contemporary home in Steamboat Springs, Meyer’s architect, Katie Kiefer, with West Elevation Architects, provided an introduction to other local collectors. Inspired by their acquisition of works — as well as reading material on 20th century and modern artists work and methodology — Meyer’s own collection took off.
“Part of the design process when starting a collection is to have conversations with people about what aspects of a piece do they like,” Keifer said. “It could be the lines, colors, the subject matter, a memory of a place they used to live that comes back or an abstract piece that is different every time you look at it and could be representational and transport you to another time or place.”
Keifer knows where to look and has an extensive list of artists and their works to show for it. Traveling nationally and internationally, she views more than 50,000 pieces each year. She said Meyer’s collection has grown from smaller, more representational work to larger, more abstract pieces.
From Ikat woven textiles from Bali and India to carpets from Southwest Asia hung on the walls, Meyer is drawn to work with images of picturesque peaks that bring back the culture and memories of trips he has taken.
Local artists in his collection include Susan Oehme, Diane Cionni and Brian Leach, who spent three months creating an inlaid piece that was hand etched then burned into the cherry wood door separating the master bedroom and bathroom.
“Drive,” by Dietmar Lutz, measuring 4-feet-by-10-feet, is among Meyer’s favorite pieces. For Meyer, the European perspective piece evokes a feeling of movement in a vehicle as America’s landscape rolls by a barren desert.
Another of Meyer’s favorites is a piece by Jeffrey Keith, a well-known Denver artist and art professor at Denver University, whose strength, Meyer said, is found in Keith's use of color and unique color transitions.
Other artists in his collection include Laura Wait, Sandra Dawson, Diane Cionni, Ken Buhler and David Haradin, a sculptor known for his kinetic fish series.
“Finding art for clients really has to do with what they like,” Keifer said. “Everyone is so different, but my job is to get inside their head to find out what it is that brings them joy, so that what they have on their walls will be a source of that.”
Dr. David and Karen Street
Why they collect: Nogalstia
Dr. David and Karen Street take comfort in the images that bring back memories of meandering hikes and adventures from growing up in Bozeman, Montana.
More than 50 years ago, they found their first piece in Sedona, Arizona — “The Water Pocket” by artist Michael McCarthy.
“We bought it because we loved the piece,” Karen Street said. “It wasn’t because we were thinking about creating a collection. But we loved the art itself. For a lot of the pieces we’ve bought through the years, the image brings back memories of certain places we’ve lived in Montana or in the Southwest or struck a chord within us.”
A few years ago, the Streets became concerned about the eventual fate of their collection and had hopes of keeping it all together. Near the completion of Casey’s Pond Senior Living in 2013, they made the decision to donate the collection — with 125 pieces, including three-dimensional art — to decorate the walls of the buildings.
“It was a dream come true through a serendipitous happenstance to keep the collection intact and be able to view the work while we are living here,” David Street said.
Artists in the collection include Robert Abbett, one of America's contemporary art masters in the genre of outdoor art; Tom DeDecker, known for painting western landscapes and scenes of Native American life and customs; Russ Vickers; Ted Feeley and Jim Dolan, a renowned metal wildlife sculpture artist who created a life-sized flight of geese sculpture that is displayed at the Cherry Creek Mall in Denver.
“Drifting By,” by Lanny Grant, is a piece that captures the grandeur of the mountain David Street said was their playground growing up in Montana. In 2002, Grant was commissioned to create a painting of Mount of the Holy Cross to commemorate the 1993 visit to Colorado by Pope John Paul II. That painting is now part of the permanent art collection at the Vatican in Rome.
Lee Stroncek, a well-known landscape artist who is in the permanent collection of the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming, is an artist the Streets are fond of. Most of the pieces in their collection were created by Stroncek, including a commissioned piece, inspired by Fish Creek Falls, that hangs in the entry of Casey’s Pond.
Another notable artist of the West featured in their collection is Curt Walters and his piece “Aspen Road.” Walters is known as a plein-air impressionist recognized worldwide as the greatest living Grand Canyon artist.
The most valued piece in the Street’s collection is, "Cowboy Heaven" by Martin Grelle.
Grelle is known as the “Cowboy artist of America.” He paints western-inspired scenes, from dramatic Native American settings to cowboys in dusty cattle-working pens. In 1935, he was elected to the Cowboy Artists of America and has won a number of prestigious awards.
“Every time we look at a painting, it brings back memories,” said David Street. “Each one has a story of its own.”
Jim Cook
Why he collects: Something in the piece continues to drawn him in
Art, to local real estate agent Jim Cook, takes on many forms. Cook is known as an active member in Steamboat’s arts scene. He became interested in collecting while he was living in Indiana after a business partner brought in a pencil drawing by a Swedish artist, Paul Claes.
“I asked, ‘What do you have there?’ and he told me about how he just bought this artist’s pencil drawings for a deal of $450,” Cook said. “That was 35 years ago, and I thought he was nuts for spending that much on art. Now, it’s easily worth more than $200,000. But why I wanted to collect wasn’t for the value.”
Instead, Cook said, everything he and his late wife collected are pieces that resonated with them in some way.
“I collect my art because something in the piece has drawn me to it,” he said. “Even with the art that is done by friends, there was something in each piece that made me or my family connect with it.”
In his office, Cook pointed out a piece titled, “The Writer,” created by friend Doug Kinsey, who was dean of the University of Notre Dame Arts School.
“What struck me with this painting was the brightness of the colors and the intensity of the gentleman looking down at what he was writing,” Cook said. “I used to have it in my office in Indiana early on in the real estate business. Before there were computers, contracts were written on carbon paper, and at the bottom of the page, it said, 'Bear down hard, you are writing on two or three pages.' Which is what I renamed the painting.”
Through the years, Cook said his tastes in art have evolved from traditional to more abstract.
One of his most memorable pieces is a Rembrandt etching given to his wife by their neighbor, who was married to one of the last living members of the Studebaker family of the Studebaker Corporation automobile company. The Studebakers went on a honeymoon in Brussels after their marriage in 1915, and while they were there, bought a complete portfolio of about 100 Rembrandt etchings.
Prior to moving to Colorado, Cook’s late wife went to tea with the neighbor, and Mrs. Studebaker told her to take one of the etchings with her.
“They were never framed and still in the original binder,” Cook said. “She chose a Rembrandt self-portrait, and when you turned it on its side, it was a portrait of an old lady in a shawl. It was one of the most valuable pieces we ever had.”
Another memorable piece — an unusual composition for Cook’s taste — was found at a garage sale.
“It was not my kind of art at all,” he said. “It’s estimated to have been done in the late 1800s, and it’s an oil painting of two horses with their heads coming out a stable door with a dove that is off to the side. There was just something that struck me about it, because the two horses seemed like they were in love.”
During his time on the board of Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp, Cook remembers the image of the painting coming to life after he saw two dapple horses in the stables with their heads positioned similarly to the horses in the painting. He gave the painting to Perry-Mansfield, and it now hangs in the main office.
He has also collected work from local artists, including Jean Perry, whose work has evolved from abstract to more traditional impressionism. Perry is known as a signature member of the Plein-Air Painters of America and is a signature member of the Oil Painters of America. She has acquired numerous awards for her work.
“I think that there are a lot of people out there who collect art because of its value or because it works with their house and furnishings,” Cook said. “But I think art takes on all different forms, the quality of our buildings and how we develop our parks. Everything is art.”