Comments on the Men Series

Dear Cory,
On a snowy Friday, the 21st of November, I viewed with fascination your exhibit at the Yellowstone Art Museum. As I gazed at the paintings, I recalled the struggles it took for you to be here, now, in this place of honor. I savored the meanings in your work and felt also a great contentment at seeing your name painted on the wall. Congratulations! It was heartening for me to see the growth that had occurred in you. Your portrayal of men, far from being a bashing, contained an empathy of transcendence. Even in the darkest ones, I saw the wisdom gained from the sorrow. I'm so very proud of you. Again, well done, Cory.
With deep regard,
R. Burns

The Billings Gazette, Billings Montana

Life takes form in art
by Jaci Webb
Of the Gazette Staff

(photo: James Woodcock. Cory Jaeger's display of "Men" is up at the Yellowstone Art Museum. )

Billings artist Cory Jaeger is painting the story of her life, one canvas at a time.

"Men", her 12-piece show at the Yellowstone Art Museum, captures moments and men in Jaeger's life from sixth-grade crushes to her "groupie" years to more adult relationships. Every canvas holds a message and a question.

One piece, "Dandelion Kings" shows two leering sixth-grade boys hanging onto a fence on the school playground. The piece appears pretty straight-forward--two young men competing for attention--but a closer look reveals the razor blades painted into the background.

Jaeger says she wanted to show the innocence of youth but not overlook its cruelties.

"The general idea was to look candidly at the men in my life," Jaeger said. "I just wanted to tell my story in paintings. I don't want to be a victim or a woman who blames men."

"I guess the overriding thing is that, at this point in my life, I have seen how much I let men define me. Why did I let these people shape who I was?"

On the eve of her show last week, Jaeger walked through the upstairs gallery at the YAM showing a visitor her surreal acrylic paintings. Jaeger has shown her work throughout the United States, including a recent show in Vermont and shows in California and Idaho, but seldom has she had the opportunity to see her show once it is hung.

Jaeger said it was a powerful moment for her, seeing her display of such personal images.

Jaeger, now 37, entered college as a single mom at the age of 24. She earned her bachelor's degree in psychology with a minor in art. Her intention was to use her art as therapy for her clients. Instead, Jaeger is creating art as therapy for herself.

"I didn't think at first that I wanted these out in the public arena," Jaeger said of the show.

She has worked as a professional artist for seven years, but only in the last year or so did she switch from creating pastel portraits of women to using acrylic paints to create the rich, surreal portraits of men.

"Some of the paintings took up to six months to make because I had to teach myself how to do it," Jaeger said. "I literally took these paintings to bed with me. I'd prop one up next to the bed, looking to see what needs more work."

Jaeger also represents other professional artists by composing descriptions of their work for galleries.

Her pastels sold at a rate of about one a month, but Jaeger knows her new series, which she calls bittersweet, may not sit as well with her established customers. She also wonders whether she can part with some of them.

Among her series of three Michaels in the YAM show, is a haunting portrait of her late husband, who died young of a brain aneurysm about the time their marriage was falling apart. The portrait of him was the way he looked at their final meeting, when he rested his hand on a wall and told her, "I want you to know that you were always a wonderful mother."

Jaeger says she looks back at that conversation and his words that day and believes that he knew the end was coming. She painted that portrait and most of the others strictly from memory.

One of the more humorous pieces is "Turtleneck Boys" in which a row of headless torsos in turtlenecks sits at tables with wine glasses before them while waiting for their dates.

"This is talking about certain types of men," Jaeger said. "He's always dressed in a black turtleneck. It's about a type of man rather than a specific person."

Perhaps the most jarring among the pieces is a pony-tailed artist whose painting of a woman has knife slashes in it. He is flanked by a guillotine and below him is a woman's body. The work, titled "The Marquis Always Used Blades to Paint Me," conveys the idea of women as victims.

Jaeger said she hopes the piece and the rest of her show can work as a springboard to help men and women understand how relationships shape who we are.

University of Vermont-The Women's Center

Dear Cory,
Thank you so much for the opportunity to show your work here at the University of Vermont Women's Center. This is the first art show the Women's Center has done in many years and we were thrilled to once again have fresh and provocative works in our space.

In addition to the regular traffic through our building, we also hosted two events in conjunction with your work. During our Welcome Home Picnic, students, staff and faculty took a break from the sun and food to come inside and view your work. We also hosted a new staff women reception later in the month held in our makeshift gallery and people were greatly impressed with your work at both events.

It is rare that one sees works, which are at once politically charged, deeply emotional, and aesthetically beautiful. Your works are all of these things and we were privileged to experience this combination firsthand.

Thank you once again and we wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors and I hope that you will stay in touch, especially if you choose to join us in the Northeast.

Timothy Shiner
Program Coordinator

Comments about the Nine Wishes Project

Cory--
You are a real inspiration! Your work is very real and touches the soul at great depths. Thanks for all you do.

Warm wishes for a beautiful spring!
Peace and light,
Emily
(University of Idaho)
P.S. It's an honor to donate to the Nine Wishes Project. I wish I had more to donate in this moment...but I know that even small donations help.)

Cory,
Thank you for painting my wish. It is a very special object, and yours is a very special act.
Love, light, luck,
Juli

The Billings Gazette, Billings Montana

Southeastern Montana exhibit opens

(photo: Works of art from the upcoming Custer County exhibit include Billings artist Cory Jaeger's "Emily Dickinson No. 2, Plain Poetry".

MILES CITY--Custer County Art Center begins its 2003 exhibit year on Sunday, Feb. 2, with the opening of the 24th Annual Southeastern Montana Juried Exhibit. The public is invited to a reception from 1 to 4 pm. A gallery talk and awards given by juror Walter Piehl, Jr., will be presented at 1:30 pm. Piehl is a Professor of Art at Minot State University, N.D., as well as a well-known contemporary artist. He was featured at the CCAC in the 2001 Western Art Roundup and Quick Draw.

Through the juried process, the exhibit consistently considers entries of the best works from both professional and amateur artists throughout Montana and the adjoining states. This all-media exhibit accepts slide entries of original artwork done in the past two years and represents a broad spectrum of styles being produced in the region. A variety of media including works in painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, and more were among the 154 entries submitted by 58 artists.

The juror selected the entries to be included in the exhibit, and will also select the awards that include cash prizes totaling $1,000. Art Center staff will select approximately 25 works for a traveling exhibition that will tour Ekalaka, Forsyth, Hardin, Colstrip, and Sidney.

The exhibition will continue through March 16, and is sponsored by Stockman Bank of Miles City and the William and Lorene Nefsy Foundation.

The Art Center is located west of downtown Miles City on Waterplant Rd., and is open to the public from 1 to 5pm., Tuesday through Sunday. Donations are welcomed. For more information, please contact the Center at (406) 232-0635.

Artists whose works have been accepted into the 24th Annual Southwestern Montana Juried Exhibit include artists from Billings, Havre, Hysham, Bozeman, Broadus, Livingston, Lewistown, Columbia Falls, Grass Range, Malta, Sidney, Miles City, Wolf Point, Glasgow, Terry and many others Montana towns, as well as various cities in North Dakota.

Billings Gazette, Chalk Art by Christene Meyers

On the sidewalk outside Parmly Billings Library, Billings artist Cory Jaeger, paints a chalk rendition of Georges Seurat's famed "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."


Legendary masterpieces reproduced in Billings to promote weekend events.

A 19th century canvas of a light-filled Paris park inspired a 21st century creation on a summery Billings Tuesday.

A week of chalk-art painting kicked off on the sidewalk by Parmly Billings Library, 510 N. Broadway, as artist Cory Jaeger re-created Georges Seurat's evocative work, "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."

The much-admired painting introduced Seurat's pointillist technique of painting tiny dots of basic color that fuse in the viewer's eye rather than on the artist's palette. It also inspired the Tony-winning Broadway play, "Sunday in the Park with George," nearly 20 years ago.

The shopgirls, soldiers, tourists, and servants of Seurat's canvas were reborn with intense chalks replacing the Frenchman's paint.

Jaeger said, "We thought it was a good choice for the library's 100th birthday, because it comes from the era. It's Depot Days' present to the library."

And, she said, "It's moody and tells a story, plus it lended itself to the bright pigments that chalk art offers."

Jaeger said that she went through about $20 on the Tuesday painting, which took a couple hours to complete with elbow grease and bright chalk after she roughed out the initial sketch.

She is one of several artists painting on sidewalks throughout the week, donating time and talent to promote Saturday's Chalk Art Festival during Depot Days on Montana Avenue.

The temporary nature of the chalk art is part of its charm.

One of this week's chalk artists, Carol Welch, said, "It's also a wonderful way of introducing classic paintings to the public, of drawing attention to the artwork."

Encoring the Seurat rendition will be sidewalk collaborations of Monet's "Water Lilies" and Picasso's "Bouquet with Hands", along with an original piece.

"We're just thrilled to have these artists painting on the sidewalks all week," said Vicki Van Buskirk, owner of Toucan Gallery. "There's a magic to chalk art because it's temporary and vibrant, and your canvas is a sidewalk."

Van Buskirk recalled that, one year after festival, a huge rainstorm made polka dots on the sidewalk art and blurred everything.

Montana Avenue merchants would like to leave the art around for a few weeks.

"The ghosts live on after the festival, and it's fun to see people walk by and study them," she said.

Chalk art has a history in the United States, and there are even chalk-art websites.

Robert Knight, executive director of the Yellowstone Art Museum, said chalk-art fests thrive all over the world. He has been involved in several in earlier museum jobs in the Southwest.

Knight said major chalk festivals in larger cities have drawn huge crowds and celebrated chalk artists.

"I'd love to work with the Depot folks in securing one of the well-known chalk artists for next year," he said. "The chalk festival goes right along with my notion to expand the arts beyond the walls of the museum facility."

Europeans have a long history of chalk art, and in the 1960s United States, hippies celebrated the times of chalk art as a way of passing on the masters' concepts and creating a fun social event.

Depot Days organizers hope to expand the Chalk Art Festival in 2002 to attract a nationally known chalk artist.

And, Van Buskirk said, "We'd like to get more of our own regional and local fine artists to participate, along with bringing in an expert."

Billings Gazette, Featured Toucan Artist Explores Repression in the lives of Women

Cory Jaeger's pastel and paper work is titled "The Making of Little Ladies".


"Pressed Beneath a Heavy Sky"--new pastel works by Billings artist Cory Jaeger--will be featured at the Toucan Gallery on Montana Avenue through June and July.

In these personal pieces, Jaeger explores repression in women's lives.

"Not long ago, when I visited my great-aunt in North Dakota to celebrate her 80th birthday, I came to realize that that vast, flat and open landscape had undoubtedly shaped my life--even though I was born and raised in Billings," said Jaeger. "I realized that the harsh practicality of that farming culture rubbed my spirit raw. But I realized, too, that same harshness had given me my sense of integrity and an iron-clad work ethic."

In addition, Jaeger noted, "that same environment had also convinced me that my creativity was somehow a disfiguring, shameful flaw. This show is for all those women, who are sorting through all the 'shoulds' and striving valiantly to reclaim who they truly were before they were made into nice little ladies."

Jaeger conducts a variety of workshops and classes in the region. In addition to the Toucan Gallery, Sutton West in Missoula, the Danforth Gallery in Livingston and iTheo.com of San Francisco represent her.

Her work has been selected for nationally juried competitions.

"Pressed Beneath a Heavy Sky" shows through June and July at the Toucan Gallery, 2505 Montana Avenue. The public is invited to meet the artist at the opening night reception at the Downtown Artwalk tonight from 5 to 9 pm. For more information, call the Toucan Gallery at 252-0122.