Creede Arts Council

To help celebrate autumn in the mountains, the Creede Arts Council is sponsoring the 7^th Annual Silver Thread Studio Tour on Saturday, September 11^th from 10:00am to 4:00pm. This is a self-guided driving tour along the beautiful Silver Thread Scenic Byway in the San Juan Mountains of Southern Colorado. Visitors can drive from South Fork through historic Creede to Lake City or try the reverse from Lake City to South Fork, enjoying both the beginning of fall color and the incredible wealth of artistic talent in our area. Local artists will welcome you into their home studios or galleries. Artists will answer questions, share techniques, perform demonstrations and showcase a variety of works available for purchase.

The Silver Thread Studio Tour boasts 22 artists at 14 stops this year. The variety of mediums and techniques will make for a very informative day, ranging from the fiber arts to photography to various painting mediums to woodworking. The combined experience and acclaim of the artists is extremely impressive. Many of the artists have national and international recognition in their respective fields.

There will be brochure maps available at the Chamber of Commerce in Creede and South Fork and bright red and yellow signs will guide the way of participants. There is no charge for this event and the public is welcome during these hours without reservations. The Creede Arts Council is proud to sponsor this event. 

This week, beginning on Wednesday afternoon, Creede Arts Council will hold a silent auction of flower pots decorated by local artists. The flower pots are small, 4.5 inches tall with a 4 inch diameter at the opening and made of an unfinished ceramic. Each artist was permitted to use any materials available to them to decorate the pots, including paint, yarn, glass, paper, and wire, with any technique each preferred.

The opening bid of each one-of-a-kind work of art will be set at $20. All proceeds from the flower pot silent auction will benefit the Collins Memorial Art Park Revitalization Project, currently ongoing. The auction will close on Friday evening, August 20th, at the close of the CAC’s Third Friday Art Walk.

In conjunction with Creede’s Third Friday Art Walk, a gallery walk complete with trivia hunt and prizes, the Creede Arts Council is hosting an opening night reception for the Mountain Shoot Out Regional Photography Show. The reception will be held at the Creede Chamber of Commerce Building at 904 S. Main Street in Creede on August 20^th from 4:30 to 5:30 pm. The exhibit will be on display at the Chamber Building until September 6^th.

The Mountain Shoot Out is a juried show open to photographers in Colorado. This year, fifty-one photographs were submitted, representing seventeen artists. The judges this year were Michael Lewis and Jennifer Homsher. A photographer for nearly 30 years, Michael has photographed five books for National Geographic in the U.S., Canada and Africa. He has worked for a variety of publications and clients, traveling to all 50 states and more than 45 countries. He lives in Mexico and Creede, where he teaches a popular photo workshop every fall. His photos are available at Rare Things Gallery and The Mermaid Cafe. Jennifer Homsher’s interest in photography was sparked in high school while living in London, England but after graduation lay dormant for many years until her travel bug took her to South America about 7 years ago. She took up her camera again and let her love of travel and photography lead her back to school, attending Brooks Institute of Photography in Ventura, California. She now contributes to National Geographic Image Collection and does wedding and portrait photography.

Of this year’s show Michael and Jennifer stated, “While the show had a nice variety of wildlife photos and western scenes, we were most attracted to an image of an alligator lying in water surrounded by a pattern of raindrops. It is a peaceful photo, with an underlying mood of danger, since we don’t know what the gator is about to do. The interesting composition, subject and light make you want to look at the photo. The second and third place photos were both of people, and each had a unique viewpoint. One was a striking street scene of a young child with interesting light, an interesting expression, helped by the fact that the child did not engage the photographer, keeping it from being a cute, clichéd photo of a child. The third place image had a strong sense of composition and a very quiet, dreamy mood, drawing the viewer to look at the photo more closely. This is something every photographer should strive to achieve. We encourage photographers to consider the quality of light, the composition and the ‘moment’ in their photos. Paying close attention to all three aspects will lead to memorable instead of ordinary photos.”

First place in the show was given to Ron Dessain for his photo “Everglades Gator”. Graham Hunt won second place for “Niño Color De Me Tierra” and Chere Waters won third place for “The Bond”. Additionally, honorable mentions were awarded to Doug Davlin, Bob Fields, Ed Knight, and Bob Seago. Twenty other photographs were chosen for the show.

The city-wide Third Friday Art Walk will take place in downtown Creede from 4:30 to 7:30 pm, also on August 20th. Many of the galleries will be open late, providing refreshments, live music, prize drawings and the opportunity to meet with artists. Participating galleries can be identified by colorful yellow and red windsocks. This year, the Arts Council will be featuring a trivia hunt with questions submitted by each gallery and a grand prize of an artist’s print by Jan Thompson. Participants must go to each gallery on the Art Walk map to answer the trivia questions and get them all correct in order to be eligible for the prize. Look for maps with trivia questions at participating galleries in Creede. The Art Walk is a great way to enjoy the summer night air, support our artists and see what makes Creede so special! The Creede Arts Council is proud to support these events.  For more information on this or future events please contact the Creede Arts Council at 658-0312 or creedearts@gojade.org

“Everglades Gator” by Ron Dessain, 1st Place Winner of the 2010 Mountain Shoot Out Regional Photography Show

Today, we are digging the trenches for our water lines in the Art Park! We have to dig at least 6 feet below the ground level so we never have to worry about freezing pipes in the winter months, even if we drain the Park. Sometimes Creede can have a surprising cold snap in October or March, and we don’t want to take a chance!

Tomorrow, our electrician will be in the Park laying lines undergound. And on Wednesday, the landscaping company will begin their work, which, with this first stage, should take approximately a week. We are so excited about the progress we are making in the Park and cannot wait until it is usable for everyone!

Day 8 – Coming right along by digging our water line trenches down deep.

Don’t look now, but we have broken ground for our Art Park Revitalization Project! We can’t believe we have raised almost all the money we need in order to finish the Park; we are approximately $1800 away from paying for every plant, shrub, and flower, in addition to the digging, landscaping, electrics, water, sprinkler system, and stone raised beds for seating that we already have covered. Let us know if you can help out! Contact us at creedearts@gojade.org or give us a call at 719-658-0312. We’re so excited to provide a physical space for art and the Arts Council right in the middle of downtown. Thank you so much to all who have already contributed, making our Art Park dreams come true!

Ryan Prince, Avery Augur, and Ben Davis work to get the mural by Charles Ewing moved out of the Park unharmed.