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Upcoming Events in Magic Town
October - December
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| Visit Zombie Alley - if you dare. |
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ghouls check in but they don't check out.
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Enjoy a bit of magic this holiday season.
Discover what Santa and his elves have been up to.
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Art for the People
3rd Colorado Annual
Denver, 1974
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I completed my first full-scale CityScape in 1974 - Darby Street - and I decided to enter it in my very first (and last) competitive art show: The 3rd Colorado Annual at the Denver Art Museum. This was a big deal! The Denver Art Museum represented the best of Western American art.
The afternoon before the show, as I was putting the finishing touches on Darby Street, I was as nervous as could be. I poured myself a couple of drinks - just to calm my mind. Dusty late afternoon sunlight poured through the skylights of my studio as I popped the caps off a few cans of spray-on affixia and started adding a bit of grime, a touch more texture.
I grabbed one can, then another. "Oh man!" I told myself. "It's absolutely beautiful!" The setting sun cast wonderful long shadows across the room with this amazing orange aura. Slowly, I began to realize, "Wow, that is orange. I mean, that is really orange!"
Then I looked down at the spray can in my hand - a can of orange spray paint.
My heart all but jumped out of my chest. I flipped on every light in the loft. There in front of me - my beautiful Darby Street, the first CityScape I had ever made, the piece that was supposed to open an art show at the Denver Art Museum the next day - was covered in orange spray paint!
Well, out came the lacquer, a solvent at the time, and I went to work. By midnight I'd stripped it bare. Then I set to repainting the entire CityScape from top to bottom, adding every bit of texture it had taken me months to perfect. Finally, as early morning sunlight crept through the windows, I stepped back and realized that, for better or for worse, there was nothing more I could do.
Once again, I had one of those life lessons: when the panic sets in, you go to work. Nine times out of ten, the thing you create in that moment is the best you've even done. Just give it everything you've got. Then put the paint down and walk away.
So that's what I did. A few hours later, we set up Darby Street inside the Denver Art Museum, and I knew, in that moment, that it was the most terrific thing I had ever made.
Truth be told, I never expected the Denver Art Museum to accept my work. I was just a poor nobody from Texas.
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Not only did they accept my little CityScape, Darby Street won the whole show!
The first time I walked into the Museum and saw Darby Street on display, my heart just soared. People were crowded around it, peeking in the windows and pointing. They even posted a security guard whose job it was to say, "Hey, don't touch that." It was remarkable.
A few days later, I got a call from a doctor from New Jersey. He told me how much he loved Darby Street and that he'd like to buy it and have it shipped to his home as soon as the exhibition concluded.
"No need to wait," I said. "Why don't you come on down to my studio here in Manitou Springs? I've got four more you can pick from." There was silence on the other end of the line. Then he said, "I'm on my way."
A couple of hours later, the doctor showed up and I gave him the full ten-cent tour of my studio. I was so proud of myself and feeling like a real damned artist. I showed him the other Darby Street scenes. "Pick one," I said, "and I can ship it to you next week."
That doctor folded his arms, shook his head and said, "I'll need to take my check back. I would be ashamed to have this in my house, knowing there was more than one of them."
I absolutely did not understand him. What had changed? Had the story changed? The detail? The hand-craftsmanship? No. What changed his mind was when he realized that he would not be the exclusive owner of the piece.
That's when it hit me. People buy art like they buy stocks - as an investment. They don't buy what they love, what speaks to their heart. They buy low for the chance to sell high. Is that really what we want art to be? When did art become no different than a vacant lot or mutual fund? How ridiculous!
Well, the doctor tore up his check. Then the Denver Art Museum disqualified me, and I had to give up my first place prize. I never again had my art exhibited in a museum, and quite a few "real" art institutes tsk their tongues at the mention of my name because I've chosen to be a reproduction artist.
But I wouldn't change a thing. That experience cemented my determination to make my art the way I want, to make it affordable and accessible - art for the people.
To learn more, please read "The Art of Reproduction" by Michael Garman.
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