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September 2009

[click "Play" to hear Shawna talking with Nicole Finger]


By Shawna Hartley

Little India SM Telluride painter Nicole Finger shows her newest work at Honga’s Lotus Petal restaurant, Main Street, Telluride, starting September 3. The artist's reception is 3 - 5p.m.

Finger's portraits include local children as well as young innocents from around the globe: India, Africa and Nepal. These faces express the total lack of guile and inhibition and the complete confidence we tend to lose all to soon with the passing of years, once we learn our place in society.

03 September, 2009 /

As previously noted, the Nugget Theatre is closed Wednesday and Thursday, September 2-3 to set up for Telluride Film Festival. The Nugget is one of the venues for Film Fest from Friday, September 4 through Monday, September 7. The theatre will be closed Tuesday...

03 September, 2009 /

Telluride's summer cultural season is winding to a close as the 36th annual Telluride Film Festival officially opens for business Labor Day weekend, Friday, September 4 and runs through Monday, September 7.

Thanks to Ralph and Ricky Lauren, however, the Telluride Film Festival  kicks off unofficially for passholders and nonpassholders alike today, Wednesday, September 2, and Thursday, September 3, with two free al fresco screenings at the Abel Gance Open Air Cinema in Elks Park, beginning at sunset, around 8:30 p.m.

MV5BMTM3NzgyMzIzMF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTYyMTYyMQ@@._V1._CR0,0,216,216_SS80_ Wednesday's film is "Hidalgo," a 2004 film made by director Joe Johnston, based on a story from 1890 about an American cowboy, Frank T. Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen), the first outsider or infidel to be invited by a wealthy Sheik (Omar Sharif) to race in the greatest long-distance horse race ever run, the "Ocean of Fire," a grueling 3,000-mile survival horse race across the Arabian Desert with the winner receiving $100,000 as prize money and the honor of being the best in the world. When the sheik's emissary approaches him, Hopkins, once a dispatch rider in the U.S. Cavalry, is working Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The race itself, held every year for the last thousand years, has only been open to the purest line of Arabian horses ever bred. Hopkins' horse, Hidalgo, a small mixed-breed mustang, was regarded as impure, and therefore not fit to run wth purebred Arabian stallions.

02 September, 2009 /

Kris Holstrom The Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) recently named Kris Holstrom, director of The New Community Coalition, the newest member of the Colorado Carbon Fund Advisory Committee. The committee, comprised of six Colorado stakeholders appointed by Tom Plant, GEO Director, oversees operations of the Colorado Carbon Fund (CCF). CCFAC makes important financial decisions, including approval of spending on carbon offset projects and community “re-investment” activities.

“I'm particularly pleased that 20% of funds raised goes directly to the region of origin for local projects,” says Holstrom. "Once again," she adds, "Colorado stands out as a leader in the 'New Energy Economy,' a phrase Governor Ritter coined.    Launched a year ago,  the Colorado Carbon Fund is the first state-run voluntary carbon offset program in the country. The fund provides high quality carbon offsets to individuals and organizations as a way to support new clean energy and greenhouse gas reduction projects in Colorado. As of June 2009, the program has over 400 donors and has raised enough money to support a first project, to be announced soon.

02 September, 2009 /

Painting_within Did you know you had an artist living next door? Robert Weatherford is a Telluride local, an Ah Haa board member, and a painter with an international reputation. The course he teaches, "Painting from Within" is all about helping students bring their inner Picasso or Matisse to the surface. The class echos one of the founding premises of the school itself: Everyone is an artist.

Focusing on expressing what's hidden or unspoken, rather than technique,  Robert believes what makes a painting speak to the painter –  and the viewer –  is honesty. The work should come from the soul, not the intellect. The end result are interior landscapes expressing the movement of the spirit that are still aesthetically appealing and accessible.

02 September, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Eileen's interview with Roman Yavich]

(editor's note: Take note Telluride and all other readers: This article was to have appeared on Sunday, August 31. The Challenge officially ends today, September 1. Even though the contest is over, the real challenge is to develop habits that enhance sustainability.)

6a00e553ed7fe18833011571047a02970c-120wi The Colorado Association of Ski Towns (CAST) Reusable Bag Challenge is in it's final days of the six month  competition. In the top ten towns who have eliminated the most single-use plastic bags is the Colorado Ski Town of Eagle, currently in 7th place out of more than 30 participating communities who have joined the CAST Challenge since March 1st. Roman Yavich is Sustainability Coordinator for the Town of Eagle and is the administrator of Eagle's "bring your own bag" campaign. With 14 businesses participating, Eagle has been busy promoting the CAST Challenge through their town website www.townofeagle.org, press releases in local papers, ads on County TV and posters around town. The town also bought 2000 bags and distributed them at their Earth Day Party for the Planet and at their popular Flight Days parade. Several charity races also received reusable bags.

01 September, 2009 /
[click "Play" for John Fago on his photography and Telluride]

Jf_TFF31_08_14 The Telluride Film Festival opens this weekend, September 4 – September 7. The perfect warm-up is a trip to the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art to view the work of long-time Festival photographer John Fago.

Fago claims to have been born at a very young age of artist parents: dad, an animator and mom, a painter/journalist. Growing up just outside New York surrounded by creative types, Fago never once considered a real job. At college, he studied painting but switched to photography in the mid-1970s.  His robust career has included extended photographic journeys to Asia and North Africa. He is currently pursuing a multi-year project in Brazil.

01 September, 2009 /