Consider two solo photography shows at Rule Gallery the concluding chapter of a summer devoted to landscape exhibitions.

The dual-venue "Landscapes of Colorado" at Robischon Gallery and the Center for Visual Art has inspired a mini-groundswell of interest in a subject that surrounds us all.

And just as "Landscapes" stepped forward by hanging photographs and paintings side by side, Robin Rule has turned over her space to photographers who find inspiration in different aspects of the land.

The inclusion of photography in "Landscapes" and at Rule demonstrates how reality and mythology can change definitions when approached by different mediums. Paintings can eschew imagination in order to investigate, a role we usually ascribe to photography. But photography also can be about an uncritical search for beauty, the province of more traditional painting.

In past exhibitions, Michael Eastman has focused on decaying homes in Cuba, once-elegant rooms that deteriorate as we watch. In the 2005 work in "The American Landscape," though, Eastman is all over the West, with stunning, highly toned views of natural features and manmade interventions. These range from shots of the Badlands to a road in Taos, all set apart by the sweep of clouds, the inclusion of light as a defining character, and the acknowledgement of vastness and desolation.

Virginia Lee Hunter's "Carny: Americana on the Midway" uses the seedy but tempting world of carnivals for her own landscape, her own view of the American West. From a tattooed worker - Ferris wheel inked smack in the middle of his back - to views of those lured in by the magic, Hunter has moved into an arena defined by grit and determination. It's take-it-or-leave-it time in "Carny," brass, not gold.

I called "American Landscape" and "Carny" the concluding chapter, but just for a moment. Since "landscape" can be interpreted in so many ways, it's possible to include a show opening Sept. 14 at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art dealing with ecological issues. The concept stretches as far as you want it to. But it also begins at home. During a panel discussion last Saturday in conjunction with "Landscapes of Colorado," artist Don Stinson referred to Colorado as a "celebrity landscape." How right he is: People from all over the world pay good money to come here to play, think and revel. Or, to extract oil and minerals and build garish developments. It's an equal-opportunity playground.

The exhibition, of which Stinson is part, notes that in so many ways - from no-nonsense admiration to concern over our treatment of the land. So do the exhibitions at Rule.

And that makes it all the more important as an invitation to talk about how we live with the land without loving it to death.

American Print

• What: More than 60 pieces by 55 artists working in a variety of printmaking techniques

• Where and when: Foothills Art Center, 809 15th St., Golden; through Sept. 2

• Of note: "Printmaking Defined," with Open Press owner and artist Mark Lunning, 10 a.m. to noon Saturday (fee charged); gallery talk with several artists in the show, 11 a.m. Aug. 24 (free)

• The show: Juror Bill Goldston, director of Universal Limited Art Editions, crafted the show from submissions by more than 151 artists from 33 states.

Goldston included a wide variety of techniques (from intaglio to serigraphy to linocuts) and seemed to have had a penchant for the bold image, the bravura stroke, and the sense of experimentation.

Colorado artists are well represented here, including Tony Ortega, Sue Crosby Doyle, Melinda Laz, Mark Griffin and Sharon Strasburg.

• In the news: Foothills executive director Jenny Ito, formerly Jenny Cook, has resigned after four years. She'll stay until the end of the year, as the center's board searches for a new chief, and she searches for new challenges.

• Information: 303-279-3922; foothillsartcenter.org

If you go

The American Landscape; Carny: Americana on the Midway

• What: Photographs by Michael Eastman and Virginia Lee Hunter

• Where and when: Rule Gallery, 227 Broadway; through Sept. 1

• Information: 303-777-9473; rulegallery.com

Mary Voelz Chandler is the art and architecture critic. Chandlerm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2677.

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