Artists offer glimpse into ‘Vintage Boulder City’

From its heritage as the town the built Hoover Dam to the bighorns that roam the nearby mountains, Boulder City is known for its uniqueness. Those things that give the city its character are part of a new art exhibit created by the Boulder City Art Guild to grace the walls at City Hall through the end of the year.

The paintings are a plethora of styles from watercolors and pastels to ink and woodwork, all picturing an aspect of Boulder City.

Yolanda Grouell, director of exhibits for the guild, said Vintage Boulder City was a perfect theme for City Hall. “We have always had an exhibit at City Hall, but we wanted to give the art we put up more direction,” Grouell said. “Art that features the town at different points in its history was the perfect theme for City Hall.”

Grouell also said that City Hall is the perfect spot to show off guild members’ work because it is the only polling place in town for the November election.

“We thought it would be fantastic if people going to the polls could look at some wonderful art depicting Boulder City’s history while they waited to vote,” Grouell said.

The exhibit features more than 20 pieces. Lee Lainer, a Boulder City artist and the director of the Dam Short Film Festival, has two pieces of artwork on display at City Hall. Both pieces are woodwork; one features bighorns climbing down a mountain and the other is of Hoover Dam.

“I thought those two pieces portrayed Boulder City really well,” Lainer said. “The dam and the bighorn sheep are two things that people really identify with this town.”

Lainer said he had made the piecesout of wood from old cabinets and furniture and was happy to put his art on display.

When Marion Hoekenga heard the theme of the exhibit, she had no shortage of work to display. Hoekenga has been an artist in Boulder City since 1987 and picked two pieces to showcase. One piece is a watercolor of Boulder Dam Hotel from the perspective of the Boulder Dam Brewing Co. while the other picture is a black ink postcard of the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in 1991.

Hoekenga said the piece depicting the cemetery was a perfect picture portraying the past.

“In the early 1990s the cemetery was still really new and when it was created it was a really big deal for this town,” she said. “In the painting you can even see the trees I drew are tiny compared to the forest that is at the cemetery now.”

Grouell said a theme like Vintage Boulder City is a theme that residents can get behind and support.

“People in this town take pride in their history,” Grouell said. “We just wanted to create a platform where artists could show the history of this town and other residents can admire their work.” The exhibit can be seen any time City Hall is open and the majority of the artwork is for sale.

To inquire about purchasing a piece of art, go to the Boulder City Art Guild’s website at http://bit.ly/2bqQIa5

Contact reporter Max Lancaster at mlancaster @bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9401. Follow him on Twitter @MLancasterBCR.