Collaboration Leads to an Exhibition

Anne Albaugh and Jonna Ramey have created new paintings and sculptures reflecting not only their shared ideas and concerns, but their love for the Great Sale Lake region.

By Jonna Ramey

Robert Smithson constructed his land-art epic ‘Spiral Jetty’ in 1970 on the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake. For the next 30 years it could only be viewed by helicopter because the Lake had promptly risen and submerged the sculpture. As the intermountain west has grown, water has been siphoned off the rivers that feed the terminal Great Salt Lake, diverted for agriculture, manufacturing, extraction and development. Add in a warming planet and the problem has become dire. The first time I visited the Spiral Jetty in 2017, the shoreline had already dramatically receded. It was a half-mile walk from the Jetty to any briny water. Today, it’s even farther.

The eminent demise of the Great Salt Lake has been of concern to scientists and citizens alike for over a decade. Environmentalists, legislators, bird lovers, bureaucrats, farmers and mothers are all trying to save the Lake. Artists of all stripes have been raising awareness, grappling with loss, and galvanizing action. Terry Tempest Williams in her 2023 New York Times op-ed observed, “Great Salt Lake’s death and the death of the lives she sustains could become our death, too.”

Painter Anne Albaugh and I have been discussing and cussing the problems around the Great Salt Lake for years: attended rallies, written letters, made calls. We found that that stinky salty body, its denizens, and environs were in our hearts and our art. We decided to collaborate on an exhibition of our painting and sculpture called “What We Will Miss” to widen the conversation and draw more attention to the crisis of the dying Great Salt Lake.

I first saw Anne’s paintings when our work was being shown simultaneously in two different exhibits at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center. I sought her out and over the years we’ve become friends. We bonded over glasses of wine and discussions of events and issues that keep Utah weird and often the brunt of well-deserved late-night jokes. There are several non-profit venues in the Salt Lake Valley that accept proposals for exhibitions. Our proposal found a home in the Eccles Gallery at the South City Campus of Salt Lake Community College. Our exhibit “What We Will Miss” runs from November 21, 2024, through January 3, 2025.

Over these past many months, we’ve visited each other’s studios, looking at the other’s work, thinking of our own, talking talking, talking. We put together a collage of images of likely paintings and sculptures. We’ve visited the gallery together several times during other shows to get a better idea of how paintings and sculptures look in the space, what the limitations of the gallery might be, etc. We’ve brainstormed different ideas to draw in visitors to the show including hosting a poetry reading about the Great Salt Lake. And we’ve photographed some of our sculptures and paintings together to get an idea of how they could interact.

In addition to existing work, we both have created new paintings and sculptures reflecting not only our shared ideas and concerns, but what we love about this spectacular region and, if the Great Salt Lake dries up, what we’ll all miss.