I had a wonderful evening in downtown Denver Thursday night. It was cool out but not cold, and the streets and bars and restaurants were full of animated people. I got off the B at Wynkoop and 15th and sped over to Translations Gallery between 17th and 18th on Wazee. I had been there the day before to see their photography exhibit, but the artist statements weren’t up yet, so I went back Thursday. Mark remembered me and came over to tell me that I had refocused his attention on the artist statements, especially on the kind of equipment they used (which was my primary interest).
One of the photographers used large-format film cameras (Bryan David Griffith); 2 others digital, a fourth used multiple exposures, and the last made prints from film, including a homemade film using arsenic.
My favorite Griffith image was of a pine tree against the sun shining through fog; the rest of the print was dark. It seemed to open up the more I looked at it.
Jillian introduced me to Diane Huntress, who photographs buildings in the Denver area and then cuts and pastes them together so that, at first glance, it appears she looked up through the camera and took a shot. Thus details of buildings combine to form an abstract composition. Other artists were Cecelia Feld, Alex Benison (the photographs on the website as of Thursday night were not the large prints shown at the opening), and Izah Gallagher (the artist who made some of her own film).
After talking to Diane for a while about how she had taken pictures of the Rio Grande building on Blake and the Union Station sign and juxtaposed them, I ran back to 16th Street and down to the Tattered Cover LoDo. There Jeremy N. Smith was talking about his book Growing a Garden City, which describes 15 people involved in the local food movement. Smith complimented Denver on its innovative approach to urban gardening. I’ll be writing more about that on my other blog, Restoration Nation, in the next few days. So keep checking the link in the sidebar to your right!
Turns out he is from Missoula, which is perfect, because the first stop on the year-long trip Todd and I are taking is to Missoula.
Beth, this sounds like a perfect night in the city! Wish I had been along. What you were saying about artist’s statements is very important, I think. I tell every artist I interview how important it is to develop insight into their work with a statement–collectors really want to feel they “know” an artist and this is one way to help them with that.
Yeah, the only complaint I have about some artists’ statements is that they’re short on the how-to specifics. That’s always interesting to me.