The life path of Mike Nile—musician, producer, songwriter turned director and filmmaker—has over the past 60 years been filled with inspiration, tragedy, and joy. He says he’s been blessed to have worked with many great musicians and bands, including Spirit, Fleetwood Mac, Bonnie Raitt, Firefall, Little Feat, Dolly Parton—and even Orson Welles. He’s experienced great
The technical aspects of art aren’t what most of us are considering when we attend an art show. Fundamental aspects aren’t as glamorous as the aesthetically effective renderings that may be created by using them. We’re just there for the art. But without the underlying science of pigment, there would be no “magic.” Art on
When artist Chad Harr joined the Wheat Ridge Art League in March and registered for the Carnation Festival Art Show, he had no thought of winning an award. But that’s just what happened. Much to his surprise, his oil painting “Grandpa’s Train” won Best of Show. “I whipped it out so quickly, I really wasn’t
This year, the Wheat Ridge Art League (WRAL) celebrates its 50th anniversary. According to the league’s former librarian Shirley Nakamoto, a member since the late 1970’s, the art show was created decades ago as an attraction for the Carnation Festival. The City of Wheat Ridge has sponsored the art show since that time. The league
When Intermountain Health Lutheran Hospital opens August 3 at 12911 W. 40th Ave., visitors will see a 110-piece hanging sculpture in the lobby. This dazzling work of art is one of more than 600 interior and exterior works created by about 50 local and Colorado artists for the hospital that replaces the Lutheran Medical Center
“I’m here to help businesses succeed,” says Steve Art, economic development manager for the city of Wheat Ridge. “I help the city council fulfill their goal of making Wheat Ridge an economically viable community. “A lot of what I do is marketing, [promoting] the city with the benefits we have to open a business here,
“Acting is about trying on a different hat. Life is like that, too,” says Selena Naumoff, a founding member of the Wheat Ridge Theatre Company. “The idea is to challenge yourself to do something you’ve never done.” With degrees in theatre and religion, Naumoff brings an unique set of skills to the theatre, where in
“My paintings are about Colorado,” says Theresa Joyce, Denver-area artist. “Nearly every one of them is a painting of where I’ve been, where I hang out, or where I ski. The first thing Joyce does before starting a painting is to ask herself why she wants to paint that particular scene. “I try to remember
“The very first song I ever performed was Gene Autry’s version of ‘Buttons and Bows,’ in third or fourth grade,” says Edgewater’s Western award-winning singer and songwriter Patty Clayton. “I wrote my first song in 1976 – can’t remember the name of the song, but it was about riding a horse on a beach, trying
“I’ve been drawing ever since I can remember, since about four or five,” says 92-years-young Wheat Ridge artist Cam Williams. “I recall I sat on my grandpa’s lap and asked him how to draw a woman’s shoe – why I asked that, I don’t know.” She recalled how, in first and second grade, kids would
“Our goal is to bring in more volunteers to serve more members,” said Jake Dresden, Metro Denver director of A Little Help, a nonprofit organization that “helps older adults thrive.” With a strong presence in metro Denver, northern Colorado, and on the Western Slope, A Little Help’s approximately 2,300 volunteers provide services to older adults
“As soon as you turn east onto 38th Avenue from the business and craziness of Wadsworth, you enter this small town feel of a city doing things that brings a community together,” said Russell Wilbar, owner of Artcentric, a new art gallery and picture fame shop. “To have a community-centered art business here seemed like
“Pet therapy is a way for dogs to interact with patients and help them to relieve tensions and forget their pains,” says Roxann Ritchie, a volunteer with Lutheran Medical Center’s pet therapy program. “There might be a person who’s never smiled and hadn’t been talking, but then the dog comes in, and the patient starts
“As a little girl, I was always drawing. I had a love for crayons,” says Mona Taherynia, an artist who was born and raised in Iran and moved to the United States when she was in her 30s. Taherynia’s Iranian culture informs her paintings, “in terms of form and color,” yet her paintings also bear
A winding road took colored pencil artist Diana Williams through the banking world to doing something “military-based,” then to being a teacher of art history, before eventually discovering her own talent for art. Williams says that through the years she has dabbled in painting with acrylics, but that her current and steady interest in art
“I’m a materialist,” says Wheat Ridge furniture maker Dustin Brucher. “When I’m creating, I give an eye to what might be commercially viable and what might be specified by a commissioned client. But if I’m making something just for me, I’m going to make it the way I think looks fantastic, that captures the right
“I don’t teach fake anything,” says Bill Gold, social studies teacher at Everitt Middle School. While at Everitt, he’s taught all eighth-graders U. S. history almost every year. This year, Gold is teaching three eighth-grade classes with 30 students each and, due to declining enrollment in the Everitt school neighborhood, two sixth-grade classes. Books stuffed
“I wake up every morning an hour before sunrise, to be outside 15 minutes before sunrise with the Sony,” says photographer Jon Levy. The “Sony” he’s referring to is the Alpha 1, Sony’s flagship camera. “I mainly go to the local parks – Belmar, the Wheat Ridge Greenbelt, Main Reservoir in Lakewood. I find each
“All painting is an abstraction,” says Wheat Ridge artist Lori Ann Levy-Holm, who teaches for the School of Botanical Art and Illustration at the Denver Botanic Gardens. “My interest is not necessarily driven by subject matter but driven by the abstraction of light, color, shape, form and storytelling. I love animals, I love people, I
“Colfax Avenue has always been critical to our mission,” says Liz Black, executive director of 40 West Arts District. The move from their old location at 1560 Teller St. to the new building at 6501 West Colfax “is going to be really critical to the next five-to-ten years for the district, and even beyond that.”
Every artist can tell you what inspired them to begin drawing or painting, and Wheat Ridge Art League (WRAL) member Shirley Nakamoto is no exception. “When I was little, I liked to draw from Walt Disney comic books,” she says. “I remember drawing Bambi and Dumbo, the Seven Dwarfs, and Lady from ‘Lady and the
“Whenever I walk into my studio, wherever it might be, I bring all of my past into it,” said Wheat Ridge Art League member Judy Miranda. With photographs and paintings beautifying most of her wall space, that statement comes to life when touring her home. During a recent visit to Miranda’s home studio, this writer
“I think trying to be perfect often stops people from learning what they could do,” says Wheat Ridge pencil artist Sandra Davis. “I think everybody can learn to draw, but if people don’t think they can draw, they won’t put in the effort to learn how. When you start drawing, it’s important to love the
“My specialty is creating,” says Wheat Ridge artist Gregory Block. “I paint everything – figures, landscapes, portraits, still life – because inspiration comes in so many different forms.” Block’s most recent inspiration takes form in the collection of his paintings of doughnuts, now showing through Aug. 21 at Gallery 1261 in Denver’s Golden Triangle neighborhood.
