Bronze casts of athletes frozen mid-play, riverside reflections of life in the Yampa Valley and emotionally-charged expressions of cowboy life will be features of June’s First Friday Artwalk.

Galleries across downtown Steamboat Springs open their doors from 5-8 p.m. Friday and welcome the community to engage with different forms of visual art and the artists behind the works. This month’s FFAW spotlights individual interpretations, and a collective locally-grounded spirit, among new exhibitions at the Jace Romick Gallery, Depot Art Center, Schoonover Gallery and Pine Moon Fine Art.

Sports movement frozen in time at Jace Romick Gallery

Following a solo show at the Steamboat Art Museum, Colorado-based sculptor Gail Folwell will be featured during FFAW at the Jace Romick Gallery, 837 Lincoln Ave.

Her ability to capture motion in bronze allows the viewer to explore athletic emotion through freeze-frame depictions of sports movement and moments. From the lunges of pickleball players to basketball players who are suspended mid-air, the bronze figures reflect what Folwell is best known for.

“Her extraordinary ability to create and cast a solid form depicts such an innate sense of movement,” said Romick. “The bronze pieces on display evoke a sense of passion and grit.”

Folwell’s pieces join the gallery’s roster of artists including Brian Bonebrake, Gregory Block, Sandy Graves and Andrew Bolam. The evening’s reception will also feature live music by The Neighbors.

For more information, visit JaceRomickGallery.com.

Riverwalk Collective flows with ‘Water’ exhibit

The Riverwalk Collective at Steamboat Create’s Depot Art Center, 1001 13th St., will present “Water,” a group show inspired by the life and energy of Yampa Valley waterways. The exhibition highlights painting, woodworking, photography and more from the collective’s member artists.

Photographer Paula Jo Jaconetta, whose work will be featured in the exhibit, finds inspiration in the landscape around her home in the southern reaches of the Yampa Valley.

“The slow pace and wide open land definitely has a big impact on my creative process,” she said. “I become very inspired by nature.”

Trained in photography, Jaconetta’s inspirations from Georgia O’Keeffe and Frida Kahlo are prevalent in her artwork.

“I’m also constantly inspired by the work of local artists,” she said. “Our art community is so alive. I love to see what everyone is doing.”

Her collage piece, “Watershed Moment,” reflects her dedication to celebrating and connecting art and environment.

“My goal is to create pieces that involve my own journey while bridging art and ecology,” said Jaconetta. “I want my work to offer an emotional connection, to allow the viewer to slow down, lean in and really see.”

The Bliss Hall at the Depot will also host work by Riverwalk artists including David Winters, Pete Wood, Leslie Bell, Andrea Abrahamson, Emma Friedland and others.

New works by the Young Bloods Collective, as well as portraits by artist in residence Gabriella Delbello, will also be on display in the adjacent NozCaboose gallery.

The opening reception will include light refreshments and live acoustic music from Steamboat Folk.

Visit SteamboatCreates.Org/Depot-Art-Center for additional information on Steamboat Create’s galleries and programming.

Cowboy spirit, emotional connections at Schoonover Gallery

The Schoonover Gallery, 929 Lincoln Ave., will feature Deirdre Imus’ exploration of the world of cowboys, horses and the deeply seated emotional bonds between them all. Formerly from the East Coast, Imus now paints at her Texas ranch in Brenham.

“The death of her husband, Don Imus, who was a famous radio personality, brought her back to her childhood painting, dreaming and creating a life on the canvas,” said Schoonover.

Imus’ technique, which she calls stranding, or “strand of emotion painting,” focuses not on the figure or subject but instead on capturing the feelings within.

“The feeling is painted, not the horse, not the cowboy, but the sustaining provocative emotional substance between them all,” Schoonover explained.

As the mother of a rodeo cowboy, Imus brings a deeply personal and intimate knowledge to her art, which expresses sorrow and suffering in addition to the love and relationships that “make and break us.”

For more information on Imus and other contributing artists, visit SchoonoverGallery.com.

Pine Moon Fine Art plays game of ‘Telephone’

Pine Moon Fine Art, at 117 Ninth St., invites residents and visitors alike to experience an exhibition inspired by the game of “Telephone,” where messages that are whispered from person to person has evolved into the gallery’s artists creating pieces based only on a work shown to them by a fellow artist

“Making sure the game continued to flow was a bit tricky as each artist got between one to two months to finish their respective piece and then show it to the next person,” explained Pine Moon’s Paulina M. Johnson. “Because it was going on for so long, some people’s time overlapped with holidays or other life events. But we managed to close the loop.”

This process involved artists interpreting visual and emotional cues from another artist’s piece without ever seeing the full sequence of artistic interpretations that was developing. The final reveal of all works, in the order that they were created during the art-based game of “Telephone,” will debut during Friday’s Artwalk.

The trust and connection among Pine Moon’s artist members, as well as the emphasis on collective process before individual product, will be on full display during this playful, original exhibition.

“We hoped to nudge ourselves out of our own creative comfort zone with a ‘let’s see what happens’ kind of experiment. I think it provided interesting and sometimes unexpected prompts for some artists,” said Johnson. “We did not share each other’s title, only the visual, which left more wiggle room for interpretation.”

The gallery is also celebrating the revival of the artist talk series from 5-6 p.m. June 12, where the collective’s artists will be available to discuss the “Telephone” show during the summer’s first discussion.

For more information on the collective’s space and artists, visit PineMoonFineArt.com.

More than a showcase of individual talent, FFAW continues to serve as a monthly reminder that art flourishes through communities and the connections they hold with the surrounding cultures and landscapes.

More information on Steamboat FFAW can be found at SteamboatCreates.Org/Events/steamboat-Creates-Events/First-Friday-Artwalk.