Information about their work and upcoming events is available at partsandlaborunion.com. Some of Ravi’s artwork is also on display at Watercourse Foods, 837 E. 17th Ave, Denver, CO 80218.

This is the trailer for “Things To Do In Denver Before You Die,” a Colorado rollerblading video filmed and edited by Greg Freeman. The film is scheduled for release in February. Visit the film’s page on myspace for more information.

Don Ziska's War Protest at 1999 Broadway

Those who know Don call him a saint, but he just shrugs off such idle talk. For the year that ended this Veterans Day, Don could be found each Saturday morning at the foot of the memorial to a fallen soldier, next to Holy Ghost Church, in the shadow of 1999 Broadway. He took this protest action on because, in his words, which I can only faintly reconstruct, it felt like it had to be done. Most Saturdays during the year, only Don and his pet sheltie Juliet could be seen between 8 and 9 in the morning. Some mornings, a few of Don’s friends or his nephew would stand by him. Sometimes the dogs outnumbered the people.

If you know the memorial, it is one of those sad scenes depicting the reality of war, a soldier draped with a blanket lying prone atop a ten-foot pedestal. Those who stood with Don on many of those Saturdays also recognize this spot as one of the coldest in Denver. At first, he might’ve raised a few eyebrows from the security personnel at the shiny high-rise beast that envelops the church and memorial, but they soon ignored Don and his motley attendants, who could be seen shivering out in the cold. Instead, the homeless who would visit Holy Ghost Church for a cup of coffee paid attention to Don; he could always be hit up for a bit of change or a dollar.

Through the summer, Don and his cohorts imagined if the Democratic National Convention would pay attention to this protest, but it seems that the feds were much more interested in masked activists. Not a fellow who makes his voice heard in more private ways. Not a middle-aged slightly built man bundled up sitting on a campstool reading Thomas Merton. Not someone who will always give money to a person asking for a handout. Certainly not a person who had gathered at this same memorial some twenty years earlier in support of Vietnam veterans gathered for peace; he sometimes arranged food for their meetings, even though he had not served in that war. The DNC paid Don no attention. So, there never was publicity. Only the regular weekend drivers and riders of light rail might have noticed Don. But that was fine with Don – it still felt like it had to be done.

M. Thornton

Every time I pass by what used to be Zeckendorf Plaza, I am heartbroken all over again.

Spanning the block between Court and Tremont on 15th Street, the plaza was once a remarkable example of modernist architecture. Designed by I.M. Pei and completed in 1960, Zeckendorf Plaza was a four-piece composition consisting of an ice rink, a low-rise department store, a high-rise hotel, and retail showroom with a “hyperbolic paraboloid” rooftop.

My parents took me to Zeckendorf one Christmas sometime in the early ’70s. Though I was completely unaware of it at the time, the design of the complex left a lasting impression on me. There was both a coziness and an immensity about the place – shoppers streamed in and out of the May D&F department store, skaters laughed as they circled around the ice rink, the low profile and unusual shape of the showroom drew one’s eye toward the downtown skyline, and the hotel towered above and pulled it all together.

Unfortunately, a developer puchased the property sometime in the mid-’90s and dismantled Zeckendorf Plaza. Though the hotel was left largely untouched, the department store was reclad in some faceless way, and the skating rink and hyperbolic paraboloid were demolished altogether. An utterly forgettable building called “The Elegant Box” now stands where Pei’s two beautiful structures once stood.

Too many of Denver’s important modernist buildings have been irrevocably altered or destroyed (Pei’s Mile High Center and James Sudler’s Daly Insurance Building and Columbine Building come immediately to mind). But thanks to the people like those who created and contribute to buckfifty, I think our community is warming up to its remaining post-WWII treasures. That another of the area’s historic hyperbolic structures, Hangar 61 at Stapleton, is undergoing restoration is promising news.

Come see some intriguing, accessible, beautiful art. The Denver Public Library opened a new show, honoring the founders of the Denver Artist’s Guild; it runs through August 29. See it early. There’s so much there and it highlights so many levels of interest, you’ll want to revisit it. Remember to pick up the impressive, fact filled, handout and marvel at the labor of love by volunteer curators, Deborah Wadsworth and Cynthia Jennings, You may even find yourself captivated by the art history of Colorado.

Eula Ray (1903 - 1987). Landscape nd, oil

This show is:
Easy to view, engaging – it’s downright viewer-friendly. The library setting, with art hung on the ends of bookcases and in nooks throughout the room, gives the display a make-yourself-to-home informality. Some art shows try to awe the viewer with a mighty, expressive gestalt. This one invites an unhurried look with discoveries of surprise, insight, and thoughtfulness.

This show is:
Appealing to many different interests. There sure is uplifting beauty and style diversity here, but this comfortable gallery is the Western History Department, after all; the display has Colorado’s story laced through. Colorado’s story, era, context – that’s the stuff of this show mixed with the question: “Who were we?” This show is the truth about Colorado art eighty years ago, with real paintings, sculptures, prints, contemporary magazines, and ephemera. Both the show and the truth are long overdue. Let’s have lots more like this.

“Who were we?” has been the stock in trade of Western History since somebody first asked. Patrons come with a desire to read a story from a newspaper published a while ago, consult a city guide from the 1920s, find out when their parents first came to town and where they lived. Nowadays, examples of the question are everywhere and in new forms. The computer-accessed Facebook-driven “Buckfifty” examines the past 150 years of Denver from any contributor and in any form. Many have status “pioneer” license plates on their cars. The TV advertises genealogy resources for the ordinary viewer. PBS offers The American Experience, Baseball, the Second World War, and many other programs that mix revisionism with nostalgia, tall yarn with true account.

Although contemporary art lives in an eternal present, “Who were we” has a premier place. That’s what museums are all about. Although regional art has had a tough time gaining respect in the national arena, scholars come to examine the resources and tell the story. After all, there are only so many books that can be written about Jackson Pollack.

Don’t look now, but the internet has changed the entire outlook of history, art, region and popularity. It all began with ebay. Ordinary art lovers of all stripes, of all levels of education and understanding, see thousands of pictures every day. The patron numbers are growing exponentially, and so are the offering numbers. Newbies may not ponder what art is or even reflect on what they want, but they gain a better idea looking at picture after picture, click after click.

Ebay changed art and enjoys a vast following: Everyone wants to get in on the act. Every gallery and many artists have their own webpages. Art data sites like askart.com and artnet.com offer biographic material, price information, bibliography, and the opportunity to plug in, to those who are professionally part of the market as well as to others who share the passion.

Regional art scholarship continues to grow, giving collectors and armchair historians all sorts of new resources. In 1976 the Samuels’s book, Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West, pioneered new art history ground with a Western artist biographic work. Since then the newly published work about regional – and ever popular – art provides more no-nonsense information. Now desktop publishing enables more scholars to publish text, and the availability of cheaper printing methods make those texts attractive, illustrated with color pictures. Institutions have started showing the treasures of Colorado’s past. Every year, displays of art from public and private collections find enlarging audiences, and show catalogues and information sheets are added to lists of new-artist biographies to research.

Denver Artist’s Guild Founders at the Denver Public Library is an invitation to join in the contagious passion for art. We are who we were.

You may ask. “Which is your favorite?” I’m guilty of asking that same question of many attendees at the opening party. Here are five artworks not to be missed with some reason and insight why.

Gladys Caldwell (Fisher), 1906 – 1952. MOUFFLON, granite sculpture and MOUNTAIN SHEEP, Plaster sculpture.
Here’s a side-by-side-on-the-same-table study of maturity and mischievousness youth. The Denver Public Library is lucky to have the plaster studies for the celebrated post office big horns – a trademark symbol of Colorado. The works demonstrate all the natural, as well as 1930’s heroic, unities; solidity, staid strength, design, singularity. Here’s comedy and delight. In the 1920’s a very youthful Gladys made a similar work , the Moufflon, probably while studying with Aristide Maillol. The twenty-somethingth artist gave the sheep lots of personality and vitality, especially considering the unforgiving space of the smallish granite block. She made a fanciful pattern of the horns and set a broad grin on the sheep’s face. By 1936 Gladys was internationally known, in the 1920’s she showed a sense of devilish humor and playfulness.

Robert Alexander Graham, 1873- 1946. ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK. oil on canvas

Robert Alexander Graham (1873 - 1946), Rocky Mountain National Park c1925, oil on canvas

Anne VanBriggle Ritter, 1868 – 1929. LANDSCAPE OF TREE. oil on canvas
Here’s one enchanting, “arty”. work; it’s a painting about painting. Anne Ritter gave everything to it: sunlight, contrast, color theory, design … and real power. That power is the absence of specific mountain subject. One might ask about a Colorado landscape show, “Where would the artists be without Long’s Peak or Pike’s Peak?” This work is Anne Ritter’s answer. She made mystery, magic and pleasure from the ordinary.

Here’s a story of loss for you. In addition to marrying Artus VanBriggle and having distinction as a ceramic artist, Anne Ritter enjoyed a renowned painting career. She showed in many national shows, headed – and helped found – the Broadmoor Academy / Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, and taught. Sadly she had no children or local heirs. When she died, her estate was shipped to a niece in New York City. There, all her paintings were combed into the 1930s secondhand market, far from where they were created. This remaining known work may be the best to be seen.

H. David Spivak, 1893 – 1932. DENVER ROOFTOPS. oil on panel

H. David Spivak (1893 - 1932), Denver Rooftops nd, oil on board

Let me throw a big, M-80-sized firecracker at the thought that history represents a sense of placidity and happy stillness. The contest between humanism and elitism ran bitterly and deep in little “D” even in 1928. Newspaper articles about the Denver Art Guild’s opening exhibit quoted David Spivak speaking about the inclusive force and redemptive power of art, and how he believed that art and beauty helped shape better citizens and better human beings. These opinions were quickly and publicly reviled by upper echelon Denver Art Museum personnel, who insisted that only the educated portion of the populace could appreciate art.

John Edward Thompson. 1882 – 1945. DECORATING THE DENVER NATIONAL BANK BUILDING. Oil on canvas.
Subject! That’s why I choose this painting for mention. Here are grown men with every type of tobacco product and with a yeomen artistic worker-bee look. They’re a’working on a massive art project. Not only does the painting debunk the ever popular and unstoppable “starving artist” mentality; it also shows that sense of urban optimism that Denver has spoken to the world. “Denver – The City Beautiful,” “Imagine a Great City,” and the next civic slogan are more than feel-good politics. The spirit of optimism and beauty must be in the water. Denver radiates it; always did.

B50 Note: Since 1972, Stephen Savageau has run the Savageau Gallery in Denver. Denver Artists Guild Founders: Fifty Two Originals is on display at the Denver Public Library, Level Five, Gates Reading Room Gallery, through August 29th, 2009. The Denver Artists Guild was founded in 1928. Renamed the Colorado Artists Guild in 1990, it is the oldest continuously active fine arts organization in the Denver area.