Methodical. Intentional. Thoughtful. It’s both how Chris Mora speaks and how he welds. He’d much sooner lapse into minutes-long silence than say something he doesn’t mean. And he’ll sure as hell never commit a weld that is messy, rushed or anything short of beautiful. Mora is a metalworker and artist. He makes robots, primarily, along
“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
“Don’t back away from the wall We together break the wall… Your legs hesitated but again Start, don’t stop Don’t be afraid Don’t lose your faith, run no more.” –Lyrics from the song “Break the Wall,” by Korean band Dreamcatcher Digital artist Chase Seyfer was inspired by this song to write a multilayered story that
“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
“My passion for painting stems from the immense benefits it brings to my mental well-being,” says Wheat Ridge painter Liz Burns. “It lets me remain fully present in the moment and immerse myself in a state of pure joy.” A Wheat Ridge resident since 2011, Burns lives with her husband Nathan, son Miller, 11, and
“Painting from landscape is another way to express the experience of humanity the only way I can: as a six-foot male walking on land. That is my perspective,” says Wheat Ridge painter Jason McCullough. He captures the people and spaces that inhabit his experience. Working in oil paints and various drawing mediums, the self-represented fine
“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 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
“Making art is something intrinsic in human nature,” says pastelist Ken Lutes. “Cave drawings tell us that people have always made art. It’s essential to our spiritual makeup to have a way to express how we feel about life.” Lutes says his style is “Impressionistic, leaning toward realism. I look at concrete events affecting my
“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.”
“What draws me is super bright colors – what the eye does not actually see,” says artist Mickey La Fave. “Color is my whole thing. I couldn’t use a brown to save my life.” La Fave’s paintings employ vivid colors to accentuate her subjects. She uses hydrus watercolors that come in a glass bottle because
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
The gnomes and creatures that inhabit Tim Tindle’s ceramic sculptures are sparked by his two young daughters’ imaginations. Tindle calls his style “narrative sculpture.” “The pieces are like found objects that make you wonder, ‘What’s behind that door?’ You look at it and your brain starts making up stories. “Like a knot at the bottom
“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’m flexible when I paint because I don’t know what will emerge,” says abstract painter Paula Weisz. “If you always plan, if you don’t go beyond the borders, how do you know what would come out?” Weisz says she’s drawn to the abstract, whether it be interpreted realism or full-blown non-representational. She says her paintings
“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
“I go into my zone when I’m painting,” says artist Julie Midyett. “I call it my happy place.” Midyett has had a talent for art since she was a child, but she stopped painting seriously as a young adult when “life happened.” Marriage, children and a career in accounting and tax preparation kept her busy
Pardon the pun, but when it comes to making guitars and other string instruments, Francois Vadeboncoeur plays it by ear. The Wheat Ridge man is a luthier, the term for someone who builds or repairs string instruments by hand. While some might not have heard the term, Vadeboncoeur said there is “quite a number” of
Don’t ask Tanner Steed if he’s recently — or ever — finished a painting. The Wheat Ridge artist does not consider any of the many oil paintings he’s crafted in his young life as done. Steed, 25 and a native Coloradoan, grew up in Highlands Ranch and graduated from Thunder Ridge High School, where he
Adversity can often result in something positive, and it can come out of nowhere. That’s what happened to Robin Cole, an Arvada artist. When the coronavirus pandemic happened in 2020, it adversely affected Cole’s work, but maybe not as much as other artists or professions. Cole was inspired to create what turned out to be
“Creating a piece of artwork is a matter of starting with disorder and organizing it as you go,” says Wheat Ridge artist Doug Dawson of a concept presented to him years ago by an art history professor. “I’ve held on to that idea ever since.” “The disorder may be a blank canvas or piece of
