Somewhere in Betweenâ€”The Work of Ella Sala Myers exhibit opens 111215

Photos and Article by Mary Alice Murphy

[Editor's Note: This author recommends you visit the show alone or in a small group. It was difficult to take in with a crowd.]

An exhibit of work by Ella Sala Myers, who was taken from this world at age 16, in an airplane crash on May 23, 2014, opened on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015, in the McCray Gallery at Western New Mexico University.

The crash also took the lives of two other Aldo Leopold students, Ella Jaz Kirk, 14, and Michael Mahl, 16, as well as that of the pilot, Dr. Peter Hochla. The students were to fly over the area in the Gila National Forest that they had been monitoring. The aircraft was attempting to return to Whiskey Creek Airport when it went down.

Prior to the opening of the exhibit, Ella's parents gave moving tributes to their daughter. Jennifer Douglass, Ella's mother, was the first to speak.

"It is so nice to see all of you supporting us," Douglass said. "Losing a daughter is the most difficult thing for a parent. Monday was Ella's 18th birthday. I will be artist as storyteller. This is what I wrote a year ago on Ella's birthday."

[Editor's Note: The following quotes and comments are mere snippets from what was read. It was obvious to this author where Ella got her writing ability.]

The photo on the screen was of a tree silhouetted against the sunrise. Douglass explained that their girls, Raven and Ella, had named the tree Grandmother Juniper, because it was big, old and gnarled.

"I have talked to Grandmother Juniper a lot since Ella's death," Douglass said. "Grandmother Juniper was comfort to them. I could always find them there. Dawn was my and Ella's favorite time of day, especially on horse show day."

Douglass said one day when she was at her lowest point after Ella's death, "I clearly heard her say: 'Mama.'"

"Heaven or nirvana is right in front of you," Douglass said. "This is the only time we have the gift of physical life. We nurture the planet as it nurtures us. My gift on your birthday is for you to see dawn through my eyes. I sit quiet and see Earth as it is. I have joy in walking across the field." She said she wrote those words on Ella's 17th birthday.

"Ella was such a profound human being, as well as an artist," her mother continued. She said she and Brian Myers, Ella's father, had received their masters in fine arts at the University of Arizona. "We wanted to live in a small rural community and we chose Silver City. We created a life around ourselves. Our life became our art. We decided to have a farm. We started the farm with big German horses. The girls were saturated with nature and with the big beautiful animals. Raven and Ella had strong wills. We enabled the girls to love what was around them. Ella had a love for the horses and they loved her. Her favorite was Gracie." Several photos were shown of Ella and Gracie.

"Brian and I feel as artists that we are interpreters of our world," Douglass said. "Ella loved to explore. She was a fun-loving kid. Our life was very much about art. It was the way we communicated. From an early age, they mimicked us. Ella was becoming gifted in visual art."

She showed a drawing Ella had done of her sister Raven.

"Ella had the ability to capture the essence of a person," Douglass said. "We encouraged large and we pushed the development of the darks in every piece of art.

"Gracie was Ella's horse and her best friend," her mother continued. "The day Ella died, I was at the hospital and a friend came to our house to take care of the horses. Gracie was inconsolable. She reared, ran and was lathered. She knew something had happened to her girl."

Brian Myers, Ella's father, said the images in the show were a series of images taken by Ella with a small point-and-shoot camera about two to three years ago. "We encouraged the qualities of not-so-tight photos. She was shooting out of the car. She was interested in movement and atmospheric qualities, almost impressionistic. Ella did a group of cloud photos, from which we created large prints 40 by 60 inches. The size takes it out of the realm of a normal image. The pixels start to break down. It's more like a lithograph. Most of the sky images were out our back door. She was good at capturing light and dark. Ella's words were not only through photography and visual art. She was a writer of 200-300 page novels. They were in handwritten notebooks in pencil. The words shown in the show we plucked out of her notebooks and poetry. They are an important part of the showâ€”the huge images and the powerful words. We found a way to combine them."

Myers said Ella had put text on top of the photos, but "we decided to separate them and printed them large as their own art. The words need to hold the space of the photography."

Douglass said Ella was "very much into film. She got accepted to the Chicago Institute of Art for a film she created with the point-and-shoot. She received two scholarships to attend the institute. It was very exciting for her and for us. We had no idea she had applied. We have included four of her films in the show. The first two, she started when she was 13 or 14. She called the first, 'Moments. The second film, she requested and got permission from the band, Seneen to use their music for the soundtrack. After she died, Seneen used her last film on their website."

"Ella was also very much into classical music," Douglass said. "She liked Erik Satie, Phillip Glass and Max Richter. They were post-minimalists."

Douglass said the last two films are at the end of the show. "The way we constructed the show was as a journey through the show. Less than 24 hours before she died, she made two movies. We didn't know there were films or notebooks. We found them. She was always very private."

Myers said the family talked a lot about the eyes being the window to the soul.

Douglass said the last film is a self-portrait of sorts. "She had a real seriousness about her self and her work, but she also had silliness."

A photo of Ella looking very serious was flashed onto the screen, followed by one of Ella with a silly grin in the same place just after the first had been taken.

Myers said an unexamined life is not worth living. Douglass echoed that and said: "this is our way of giving back to all the support we've been given over the past year."

Those who attended the story at Parotti Hall then traveled to McCray Gallery, where the quietness and stillness of everyone there seemed to this author to be a testament to the awe they found in the photos and words, and their show of respect for the lost artist.

The exhibit will be at McCray Gallery into January and is open to the public during infrequent and limited hours, which vary by the day. Call the gallery at 575-538-6517 or the Expressive Arts Department at 575-538-6614 for the hours.