A&e Briefs

MUSEUM RAFFLE

Tickets for the Churchill County Museum Association’s 20th Annual Raffle are currently available for purchase for the following donated prizes:

Two Bassham Furniture gift certificates; Four infield reserved tickets to a Reno Aces ballgame; Two Churchill Arts Council season tickets; An 18-hole round of golf at the Fallon Golf Course for four people including cart as well as a golf accessories gift basket; A lap quit, Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, 24 inch X 34 inch; Two tickets to see Love Labour’s Lost at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival; Two $50 gift cards to the Café at Adele’s in Carson City, four opening night tickets to Western Nevada Musical Theater Company’s production of Beauty and the Beast in November, and a $40 Maverick gas card to travel to Carson City and return; Fallon Theatre Movie Party for up to 30 friends; Four days at a Graeagle vacation home; A large Nevada gift basket filled with an array of Nevada items including Susie’s BBQ gift certificate as well as a bottle of wine and a bottle of brandy from Churchill Vineyard/Frey Distillery; $50 gift certificates for lunch or dinner at each of the following — Burger King, La Fiesta, McDonald’s, and The Wok; Four floral classes at Doreen’s Desert Rose; a reproduction copy of Eliza Leslie’s 1835 cookbook, and a vintage tea cart and silver plate tea set.

Tickets, priced at $2 each or 12 for $20, may be obtained at the Churchill County Museum, 1050 S. Maine St.. The drawings for the 12 individual items will be held at the association’s annual meeting on June 10 at 6 p.m., at the museum. Winners need not be present to claim their prizes.

Many thanks to all within northern Nevada who generously donated merchandise for the raffle! For more information about the raffle, the Churchill County Museum Association, etc. call the museum at 775-423-3677.

california trail center

American Indians made simple wood bows powerful enough to kill a deer, bighorn sheep, or even a bison.

Kent McAdoo will present a program on primitive bows at the California Trail Interpretive Center on May 20 at 2 p.m. The program is free and open to everyone.

McAdoo has been making and shooting primitive bows for 20 years, and he will demonstrate how to make these sturdy and effective weapons. He will review the diversity of species used for bow construction, as well as some fundamental construction principles.

Indigenous cultures throughout the world have created simple wood bows and arrows for thousands of years. They were used for both hunting and warfare.

“Historic literature is replete with descriptions of the amazing power of these weapons, including tales of animals the size of bison being shot completely through by arrows flung from wooden bows,” McAdoo said. “For information about the California Trail Interpretive Center call (775) 738-1849.

Visit the Trail Center online at www.californiatrailcenter.org or on Facebook.

HOLLY STARR PERFORMS

Holly Starr will be performing a concert at Oasis Community Church, 1520 S. Maine S., on May 27 at 6p.m. This is a free concert, and a love offering will be taken.

To hear some of Holly’ music, visit her website www.hollystarrmusic.com. Holly is a contemporary Christian artist, who has had several songs in the Top 25 Christian hit list.

For information, call Oasis Community Church at 775-423-2300.

KELSO’S NEW RELEASE

A new release, “Andy and Spirit Go on a Day Count,” is written by Fernley author Mary Jean Kelso. It is the sixth in a series for children that features a wheelchair-dependent boy and an albino therapy horse. The illustrations were painted by award-winning artist KC Snider.

A longtime resident of Nevada, Kelso has written about 30 books. She has won several awards for her writing.

Kelso is a member of Made in Nevada, the Fort Churchill Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, The Catherine Cynthia Overton (Kelso’s second great grandmother) Chapter of The Daughters of the Republic of Texas, The Alamo Defenders Descendants Association and The Alamo Society.

Kelso’s books, including “Andy and Spirit Go on a Day Count,” are available through the regular online outlets, at www.guardianangelpublishing.com, and her website, www.maryjeankelsoauthor.wix.com/mjkel. Contact Kelso at mjkel@aol.com or look for her at author signings locally.

She will be signing at The Lights of Christmas’ “Christmas in July Craft Show” at the Fallon Convention Center on July 22. Proceeds from booth rentals are donated to Toys for Tots and seniors in need.

LECTURE ON GOLD HILL NEWS

Legends on the Comstock Lode have a way of coming back to life and that’s exactly what happened in the mid-1970s when the Gold Hill News was resurrected after a 92-year slumber.

In 1974, Virginia City newsman David Toll, whose family history in Gold Hill dates back to 1867, put together a talented and energetic staff and began publishing the Gold Hill News, which quickly established itself as the paper of record in Storey County.

The original Gold Hill Daily News had published from 1863 to 1882, with Nevada Newspaper Hall of Fame journalists Alf Doten and Wells Drury reporting on daily life on the Comstock. But like many a newspaper in the boom-and-bust cycle of mining camps, the News faded with the silver boom.

Like its historic predecessor, Toll’s Gold Hill News was a bright flash in the journalistic pan of Nevada history. It’s a story he will share as part of the Frances Humphrey Lecture Series on May 25 at the Nevada State Museum.

Doors open at 6 p.m. and the program starts at 6:30.

Toll’s Gold Hill News operated from June 1974 until October 1978 and the staff took great pride in the slogans “Mark Twain Never Worked for This Newspaper!” (Twain worked at the nearby Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City) and “None Just As Good!” Printed weekly, the News was an award-winner and boasted an impressive circulation.

However, like the original Gold Hill News, financial woes set in. The News published a farewell edition on Nevada Day in 1978 with the words, “Hooray for our friends, to hell with our enemies, and we’ll see you in 92 years.”

Toll and his wife, Robin, operate nevadatravel.net, an online resource for visitors and travelers in the state.

The cost of the lecture is $8 for adults; free for museum members and children 17 and younger.

V&T RAILROAD

Get your tickets for V&T Train Rides now. This year features the return of an all-new Dinner & Melodrama Train Ride, plus a new Dinner & Murder Mystery Train Ride and the ever-popular Toast of the Canyon Wine Tasting Train!

But of course, you can still take the fully-narrated excursion into historic Virginia City to explore one of the country’s largest National Historic Districts, too. For information call 877-724-5007.

NORTHERN NEVADA RAILROAD

As the Nevada Northern Railway Museum rumbles back to life for its 30th anniversary excursion season, the working historic railroad brings back visitor favorites and adds new events guests will love.

The Nevada Northern is unique among railroad museums, not only offering visitors the chance to see history, but to experience it as it was a century ago with rides and other events on this living, working railroad.

A 30th anniversary celebration is planned for Memorial Day Weekend.

New for 2017 is the Pony Express Limited in June, with special, celebratory postage, Pony Express horseback riders and photo opportunities.

Also new this year is a train ride taking advantage of one of the wonders of the solar system – a solar eclipse excursion on Aug. 21 called the Eclipse Express. Departing at 9:15 a.m., special eclipse viewing glasses will be on.

For more information and a complete schedule, go to www.nnry.com.

LARRY KOTIK ‘UNFRAMED’

Tucked away in his studio in the hills of historic Silver City, Larry Kotik works day and night on as many as 25 paintings at a time.

Now, his first one-person show, “Larry Kotik Unframed,” is going up in Silver City.

Educated at the University of Colorado, Denver, Kotik began a career in music production but later switched out his discipline for painting.

A turning point for his art career in Nevada was a commission to create a historical community mural for Dayton Elementary School in 1993. With the assistance of his wife, Diane, a teacher at DES, and students, he worked day and night for six months to design the project. The 12-by-84-foot mural was completed in 90 days, and it can still be seen in the school’s gym. He received a Sierra Foundation Grant for the project the following year.

In his Silver City exhibition, Kotik’s urban landscapes tell a story of the human condition, incorporating images of family, friends, and community members.

While the artist believes, as Vincent van Gogh did, “painting is for the painter,” beauty isn’t forsaken in his Great Basin scenes that invite the viewer to contemplate the larger picture of life.

His style has been described as reminiscent of Van Gogh’s, as swirls and dips of paint are meticulously applied to the canvas.

Kotik moved to Nevada in 1990 and Silver City in 1998, where he’s dedicated to daily painting and five-mile hikes with his black lab, Noodle.

Silver City Arts is hosting a reception with light refreshments from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the exhibit inside the Silver City School House, 385 High St.

Since 2014, Silver City Arts has hosted music, visual arts, and poetry events and programs. The group draws on the community’s own resource of artists, artisans and musicians, and also connects with regional and statewide groups to bring programming by national and international artists and musicians. Ran by volunteers, its mission is to “encourage the arts, build community, and share our unique town through free, public events.”

For information about the show, contact Carol Godwin of Silver City Arts at godwinsilvercity@aol.com.

fallon artist’s EXHIBIT

An artist who makes his own paint from natural earth pigments found in the West is showing work at Capital City Arts Initiative’s Courthouse gallery.

“From the Ground Up” by Gil Martin runs through May 24.

Martin also teaches at Western Nevada College in Fallon and said when he was first studying painting, an artist friend gave him a box of art materials and assorted tools she no longer needed. In that box was a book on how to make paint from earth pigments. It sat around his studio for years until one day he picked it up and started reading.

His interest piqued, he started driving around looking for colored dirt from road cuts.

Now he uses a starch paste made from cornmeal as a binder before adding water to create a viscous paint.

Chérie Louise Turner, a Bay-Area-based writer, art critic and copy editor, wrote the essay, “Plain Ole Dirt?” for the exhibition.

The Courthouse gallery is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays at 885 E. Musser St. Admission to the gallery and reception are free.

Additionally, CCAI has a companion exhibition of Martin’s smaller works in the Sierra Room of the Carson City Community Center, 851 E. William St.

For information, go to CCAI’s website at www.arts-initiative.org. To see examples of Martin’s art, go to gilmartinpaintings.com.