An art show opening at the Ann Korologos Gallery in Basalt on Wednesday re-examines women’s roles in the American West.
A schoolteacher. A subservient wife. A fearful recent transplant to the frontier.
Artist Donna Howell-Sickles sees those as the roles women played in old spaghetti Westerns. She doesn’t recognize those characters from her upbringing on a ranch in Texas in the 1950s.
"The women of the west that I grew up around didn’t fall into any of those roles," said Howell-Sickles.
In her work, she aims to capture the strength and humor of ranch women. She wants to tell a more complete story of a group that is still seen as playing a support role.
"All of the stereotypes that you see in old movies tend to be stereotypes that are out there today," she said.
The show “Women of the West” also includes work from female artists from Colorado, New Mexico and Canada.
