“Wild!” is the title of a beautiful new exhibit at Curtis Center for the Arts in Greenwood Village.

Studio Art Quilt Associates of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah put out a call to its members for entries in a traveling exhibit that opened last June in Brigham City, Utah and is at Curtis until Feb. 25, when it will continue its journey to Gunnison, Grand Junction and Golden (October 2024). 

Artists were given the topic and encouraged to explore the limits of the theme, according to the catalog. Wildlands, wild spirit, wildlife, free, uninhibited ... all these ideas and more are exhibited

Jurors Alana Blumenthal, Petra Fallaux and Dolores Miller reviewed more than 100 entries to choose the 30 works included here.

“From the entries, we could have selected a menagerie of wild animals; we could have set fire to the exhibit by picking images of wildfires only and dousing none; we could have had an homage to wildflowers; we could have had a landscape show losing ourselves in wilderness; or we could have gone for a walk among all the trees entering wild woods. It turned out the `Wild!’ theme was especially resonant because of its multitudes of associations in the natural world, wrote juror Petra Fallaux.

She and Miller sought a balanced selection, with Fallaux especially drawn to abstracted wildness. Miller write in the catalog that the Merriam Webster Dictionary offers seven main definitions of the word “wild” as an adjective, with many subcategories ...

Miller said three themes surfaced: Wildfires repeatedly showed up, with a strong effect on area artists. Interpretations range from highly abstract to realistic. Wild animals appeared frequently, as did “untamed, uncultivated nature.” 

Wild and garden plants are treated to varied interpretations.

We find a ram with fierce horns by Deb F. Shultz-Grimes of Pinedale, Wyoming and a cuddly blue koala bear by Idaho Falls’ Leah Virginia Street; an intense wolf — “The Eyes Have It,” by Rhonda S. Denney of Emporia, Kansas and a highly decorative grasshopper in Durango quilter Amanda Preston Araujo’s back yard.