Lee O’Neal Retrospective Exhibit at the Tracks and Trails Museum in Oak Creek, CO
Memorial Day, 2024 the Tracks and Trails Museum in Oak Creek, CO will reopen its doors to the public with a fresh look, new roof and an incredible display of memorabilia honoring Oak Creek. The centerpiece of the opening is the retrospective exhibit of the works of Lee O’Neal. Lee was known for her award-winning black and white pencil drawings, love of community, St. Patrick’s Day and art.
Lee graduated from CSU in drawing and print with a major in art history. Her primary focus was pencil drawings with few colors included. From miners to musicians, she captured the soul of Oak Creek. Her works were sold at Emily Ingram Galleries in Steamboat Springs. In 1983, she was chosen for the Steamboat Arts Council’s People’s Choice Awards for the Winter Arts Show and Sale for the piece “Butts at the Bar,” which is on display at the Tracks and Trails Museum. That same year, Lee received the prestigious William E. Snyder Award for Western Art at the 27th Central City Arts Annual sponsored by the Gilpin County Arts Association, for her piece “P-Burg Buckboard.”
Lee moved into the cabin she built and designed in Oak Creek in 1974, living there until her death. Like many great artists, she chose not to marry or have children but instead she created. She shared the beauty she carried inside with others.
She was an avid outdoors woman where she would camp, fish, hike and hunt eventually shifting from hunting deer to hunting morel mushrooms. Her connection to her roots in Ireland spurred two trips to the homeland and the learning of a little Gaelic. She created t-shirts in celebration of St. Patty’s Day, her favorite holiday of the year. She first started making and selling t-shirts in 1973 at the annual Oak Creek Labor Day celebration. The t-shirts where whimsical and sometimes political, with each step of the silk- screening process done by hand. A number of her t-shirts are also on display.
She was a lifetime member of the Ladies Auxiliary to Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3311 and gave much of her time to self-supporting military personnel, veterans and the community. Lee was honored on Loyalty Day for her patriotic volunteer work by the Veterans of Foreign Wars and its Auxiliary for “her selfless appreciation for those patriotic principles that set America and Americans apart from, though not above, our sister countries throughout the world.” Lee also played on the Colorado Bar Bouncers softball team for years.
Lee often worked behind the scenes, cherishing her solitude and her privacy, but sharing her talent endlessly. Don’t miss this exhibit on display for the next three months.
About
The West is big skies, cowboys, poetry, exploration. But the West is also Western hospitality and taking care of one another. The West is tipping your hat, waiting with- out honking at the stoplight. The West, our West, is a place where your word means something, where deals are still made on a handshake, where trade is a form of currency. Our West is eye contact and a smile on a trail or on the street. Our West is taking the time to listen when someone needs to talk, no matter how long they need to talk. Our West is respect, courtesy and kindness. Welcome to the Winter issue of AwA. Welcome to our West.
Magazines can be found at galleries, coffee shops, Alpine Bank, dentist and doctor’s offices and hotel lobbies.
Steamboat Arts
Eye Candy – Photography by Jace Romick
JACE ROMICK is as Western as it gets. Raised on a ranch in Steam- boat Springs, Jace began his career as a professional downhill skier and rodeo competitor where he was exposed to the world of sports photography. He swapped skis and spurs for a camera and set about photographing imagery that spoke to his cowboy heart. Never one to settle for the ordinary, Jace taught himself the art of furniture-making which led to hand crafting frames and the abil- ity to combine two artistic passions. Soulful depictions of rodeo, wildlife and landscapes that tell stories of the West are placed in his hand built custom frames and sold through his gallery in down- town Steamboat.
Eye Candy – Photography by Jace Romick
JACE ROMICK is as Western as it gets. Raised on a ranch in Steam- boat Springs, Jace began his career as a professional downhill skier and rodeo competitor where he was exposed to the world of sports photography. He swapped skis and spurs for a camera and set about photographing imagery that spoke to his cowboy heart. Never one to settle for the ordinary, Jace taught himself the art of furniture-making which led to hand crafting frames and the abil- ity to combine two artistic passions. Soulful depictions of rodeo, wildlife and landscapes that tell stories of the West are placed in his hand built custom frames and sold through his gallery in down- town Steamboat.
Writers’ Corner
A HARSHER GLORY
By Polly Holyoke
This land
Where time-blasted rocks
Thrust up from the cracked yellow dirt
Into a parched blue sky,
This land of trees twisted by dry winds
Bark scored with centuries of lines,
Flowing into the nowhere of a sundrenched desert,
It calls me.
Standing by a red cliff,
I look to distant blue mesas,
To the road before me rippling with heat
Until through the hot waves
And time
I see Coronado still traveling the long plain
Searching for the lost cities of Quivera
Greed and god-driven alike behind him.
The sun burns white
On their helmets and their spurs
And dances on the dark sweat
Of the stumbling horses.
Silently they pass into the desert,
Leaving a slow cloud of yellow dust
To sift through mesquite leaves
And settle on sharp yucca stems.
I know in my dreams
I will stand here by the cliff
When the sun turns the mesas
Blood red with its setting
Just as Coronado still journeys
This sun-seared land,
One Family: Three Legacies
There are a few names that stand out when thinking about the development of Steamboat Springs: James Crawford, first permanent white settler; Buddy Werner, Olympic athlete; Jim Temple, who helped develop what is today called Mt. Werner. Yet there is one family who shaped three of the major industries that define Northwest Colorado, who don’t often get the credit they de- serve: the Perry family.
