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Essential West Magazine
Exploring Art, Literature, History, Museums, Lifestyle, and Cultures of the West
It amazes me that four letters - W-E-S-T - have the ability to evoke an instantaneous emotional image. Simply the act of reading these four letters has caused you to form a narrative of your west.
Can the West be distilled to its essence - a simple direction or region? I believe not; it is a deeper dive of consciousness. How America sees itself and the world defines us. Diverse cultures, strong individualism, open spaces, and raw natural beauty marinated in a roughshod history have formed this region’s unique milieu.
Our online magazine’s primary focus is to feature relevant topics in art, literature, history, museums, lifestyle, and culture; lofty goals for any publication. No single magazine can be the beckon of all things western; it is a diverse, evolving paradigm that cannot be pigeonholed. As the publisher, I hope to be the buffalo that grazes the wide expanse of western sensibility and relay to you a glimpse of how I perceive our Essential West.
- Mark Sublette
Featured Article
Sheila Nadimi Photographs of Student Murals Inside Intermountain Intertribal Indian School
When Sheila Nadimi moved to Logan, UT from Canada in 1991, the surroundings looked mostly familiar. Mountains, trees, churches, houses. One feature of the landscape, however, did not. “I saw those buildings, and they were not in my repertoire,” Nadimi remembers. “I'd never encountered architecture like that. They were also boarded up, so they were silent in a...
Oldest known pair of moccasins highlights collection at Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West
Quilled moccasins circa 1725 | Courtesy Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West Every museum holds surprises. How could anyone entering Western Spirit: Scottsdale‘s Museum of the West ever think they were about to see the oldest known pair of Native American moccasins in existence. Yet, there they are. Quilled Moccasins. Dakota (Eastern Sioux), Minnesota. 1725. Think about that. Fifty years prior to the Revolutionary War. Three-hundred years old. Don’t forget, this is organic material. The moccasins are made from tanned hide, porcupine quills, colored pigments, red dyed deer hair, string, thread. Stuff that disintegrates as it ages....
Maynard Dixon's "forgotten men" on view at BYU Museum of Art
Maynard Dixon, Forgotten Man (1934) | Courtesy BYU Museum of Art Hard times. Maynard Dixon knew them. During the Great Depression, he and his wife Dorothea Lange shared the experiences of millions of Americans. Hunger. On the verge of homeless. Out of this trauma came an exceptional and little-known body of work from the artist dedicated to what he called “the forgotten men,” casualties of the Depression like himself. Dixon’s “forgotten men” are among 70 artworks on view at the BYU Museum of Art for the exhibition “Maynard Dixon: Searching for a Home” through September 23, 2023. “When...
BYU Museum of Art opening historic exhibition of Maynard Dixon paintings
Maynard Dixon, A Lonesome Journey, 1946 | Photo Courtesy BYU Museum of Art Violence defined the West of Fredric Remington and Charlie Russell. Gunfights. Animal slaughters. Stolen land. Dash for the Timbers. Cowboys shooting Indians. Cowboys shooting each other. Cowboys killing wildlife. All of what they painted and sculpted happened, of course, but their artwork goes beyond simple observation. Their artwork mostly glorified this barbarism. Russell and Remington were Manifest Destiney artists, romanticizing white settler colonialism’s take-by-force and divine right approach to the West. Whoever was abused or robbed or died along the way, well… all in the...
Highlights from the Whitney Western Art Museum at Buffalo Bill Center of the West
Frederick Remington recreated studio installed at Whitney Western Art Museum | Photo Courtesy Chadd Scott With the world’s greatest natural wonders outside – the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park is an hour’s drive – the attractions inside the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, WY need to clear a high bar to make them worth your while. They do and they are. The Center’s manmade objects don’t compare to mountains, geysers and grizzly bears, but if the weather’s crummy or you find yourself with extra time, dropping into the Center of the West will provide...
Sun Valley, ID: Home away from home for Dale Chihuly and Leslie Jackson Chihuly
Guy Oliver, Final Star Trail. Courtesy of the artist and Visit Sun Valley Like millions of others, Leslie Jackson Chihuly fell in love with one of the West’s mountain resort towns. Sun Valley, Idaho. Occasional visits became more frequent. Winter ski vacations were added to summer business trips. Family holidays migrated there. Unlike millions of others, Leslie is married to one of America’s most famous artists, glass artist Dale Chihuly. Also unlike most, Leslie Jackson Chihuly has evolved her love for visiting Sun Valley into an active role there helping bring more art and culture to the rural...
A new exhibition for Ruby City, and new insights into founder Linda Pace
Nathan Carter 'Dear Linda Pace', 2007, Enamel paint on wood panel with Plexiglass face, 14 x 17 x 1 | Linda Pace Foundation Collection, Ruby City, San Antonio, Texas - Gift of Nathan Carter | © Nathan Carter When Ruby City opened in October of 2019, the museum presented an introduction to long time San Antonio artist, collector and benefactor Linda Pace through both the contemporary art she acquired and that which she created. Ruby City is Linda Pace. It always will be. It matters not that she only ever saw it in her mind. Pace succumbed to...
Sending a new message about Native American art and Native American people
Joseph Mozier, America (1850), marble, with John Nieto painting in the background at MFA St. Petersburg | Photo by Chadd Scott Jarring. No other word better describes my reaction upon seeing John Nieto’s (Mescalero Apache; 1936-2018) Not Necessarily the End of the Trail (After Fraser) (1991) at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg (Florida). I’d even seen an image of the giant painting hung among the museum’s American galleries on social media before visiting and finding it in person was still jarring. Any piece of contemporary Native American art displayed in a mainstream art museum is rare....
Visit sculptor LaQuincey Reed during his residency at Skirvin Hotel OKC
LaQuincey Reed with his sculptures | Photo by Ragan Butler Sculptor LaQuincey Reed gives art lovers a pair of treats this fall. One, the rare opportunity to see an artist at work in his studio. Two, a chance at getting in on the ground floor with an artist bound for greatness, to one day brag about “discovering” Reed on the upswing. Since February, Reed (b. 1983) has set up shop inside the Skirvin Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City as part of its annual artist-in-residency program, moving his sculpting studio to the street level of the historic property. Passersby...
Julia Arriola partners with Medicine Man Gallery to support MMIW
Julia Arriola - White Flame (Diptych) Indigenous women and girls in the United States are 10-times more likely to be murdered than those of all other ethnicities. Murder is the third leading cause of death for Indigenous women in the U.S. For white women, it’s not in the top 10. More than 80% of Indigenous women have experienced violence. The National Crime Information Center in 2016 logged 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls; the U.S. Department of Justice’s federal missing persons database, NamUs, reported only 116 cases. All the statistics in the...
Julian Brave NoiseCat honored for journalism and writing on Indigenous topics
Julian Brave NoiseCat | Photo Credit Emily Kassie Since he was 5-years-old, the work Julian Brave NoiseCat undertakes today seems what he’s always been destined for. Sharing the stories of Indigenous people across North America. Advocating for Native communities. Promoting “the belief that Indigenous peoples can contribute to understanding and addressing the world's most pressing challenges,” through journalism, activism and policy. At 28, he may be the foremost Indigenous voice in America speaking to the issues that matter across Indian Country. NoiseCat, a member of Canim Lake Band Tsq'escen and a descendant of the Lil'Wat Nation of Mount...