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ARTFULL Homegoing by Casey Weldon NEIGHBOR TO THE NORTH Longtime Casey Weldon collaborator Edith Lebeau returns with ���Neighborhood.��� As a Canadian, what is your connection to Vegas? Short answer: Casey Weldon. I showed with him for the first time in 2010 at Distinction Gallery and Artist Studios in Escondido, California. He offered to do a collaborative piece, which ended up being pretty great. I started the piece and he finished it, adding his sense of humor and melancholy to the story I started. After that, we ended up showing a lot together. pop goes the culture CASEY WELDON MAKES A TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO LAS VEGAS WITH A DARKLY HUMOROUS YET NOSTALGIC SHOWING AT TRIFECTA GALLERY. BY MATT STEWART B lending postmodern macabre with a love of nature, painter Casey Weldon���s work is grounded in an offbeat drollery that originated at home. ���I���ve always been attracted to deadpan delivery and the treatment of the absurd with a straight face,��� he says. ���My dad���s side of the family all have a real dry sense of humor.��� As homage, Weldon���s painting Homegoing is a focal point in his exhibition ���Lose and Find,��� showing in the main gallery at Trifecta in March. Homegoing is among the largest of his nontraditional oversize pieces; he creates them to complement his customary smaller paintings, which he tends to do in groups of up to five. Weldon, who works in acrylics on wood, has been delving a bit deeper into the background of his unconventional portraits. ���I am trying to become a bit more painterly,��� he says. ���I want to loosen things up while experimenting a bit more with composition.��� 66 While he was living here, from 2004 to 2007, Weldon met Trifecta owner Marty Walsh and became one of the gallery���s first artists. ���I was showing a lot in other spaces in the Arts Factory,��� recalls Weldon, who now lives in Seattle. ���Eventually we became friends, and I���ve been showing at Trifecta ever since.��� He moved to Vegas for its affordable rent and growing art scene, and left with many layers of new inspiration. ���I received a lot of support in the three years I lived here, and without that I���m not quite sure I would exert the same effort into the fine-art aspect of my career,��� Weldon says. ���Aesthetically, there is isolation to Las Vegas in its geography and natural environment that still resides in a lot of my work. I may not be painting a desert, but I still feel this balance of beauty and melancholy.��� ���Lose and Find��� runs March 1���29 at Trifecta Gallery. 107 E. Charleston Blvd., 702366-7001; trifectagallery.com V What artists are currently influencing you? Something that really inspired me for this show is a painting from Andrew Wyeth called Christina���s World. That particular piece has been haunting me since the first time I saw it. It���s intense and beautiful, like a movie still. Tell me about your show at Trifecta. This series is mostly made of made-up memories. As we grow up, we move, living in different houses, neighborhoods, cities, countries. But the memories of the home we grew up in and the friends we made along the way stay with us. Avant la Temp��te by Edith Lebeau VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 066_V_SC_Artfull_Spring13.indd 66 2/11/13 6:55 PM