Culture

[click "Play" to listen to Susan's conversation with Jeanne Mackenzie]

 

Jeanne Mackenzie Artistic immersions continue at Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts with guest instructor Jeanne Mackenzie. Her class, Plein Air Landscape Painting, takes place Monday – Thursday, June 20 – June 23, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Jeanne Mackenzie lives in a rural setting near Fort Collins, Colorado, where she is a founding members of the Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters group. Jeanne holds a BA in art and teaching credential from San Diego State University. Her work has been featured in Southwest Art Magazine’s Best of the West, American Artist Workshop magazine and International Artist Magazine-Master Artists. Jeanne is on the staff of the Denver Art Museum, where she teaches color theory, composition and painting.

By Art Goodtimes Art Goodtimes  



 

 

After


Sometimes
the raw data of doing
just doesn’t jell

until way late
in the canning or
cleaning

or whatever
comes
after

cling peaches
blushing apricots
whipped cream

 

POEM OF MINE … I’m going to start each month with a poem of my own. I think  this one was in response to a poem of Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer <www.wordwoman.com> – whose May Day and Mother's Day poems appeared here at Telluride Inside... and Out at the start of this month. She maintains a poem-a-day practice, and has done that for several years now …

by Jim Bedford

Arthur_smallfinal

The Nugget Theatre in beautiful downtown Telluride shows movies all year long and features another great film this week.

Playing Friday, May 6 through Thursday, May 12, 2011, is ARTHUR (PG13), with the unique Russell Brand reprising the role that Dudley Moore made famous. With Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner and Nick Nolte.

See the Nugget website for trailers and reviews, and below for movietimes.

by J James McTigue

Temple Grandin’s accomplishments are well known. Despite being diagnosed with autism at three, she earned a Ph.D. in animal science, holds a professorship at Colorado State University, authored multiple books and speaks about autism around the world. She is the subject of an Emmy Award-winning movie based on her life, aptly titled Temple Grandin, and she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2010.

IMG_0897 Yet, as I learned Monday night after hearing her speak in front of a packed house at the Palm Theater, if that is all you know about her, you’ve missed the best. You’ve missed her straightforwardness, her practical advice, her jokes, her determined energy and her no nonsense approach to working with autistic children. Essentially, you’ve missed her.

 

[click "Play", Steve Gumble talks about "Blues on the Rails"]

 

Durango-Silverton train kicker: "Blues on the Rails" launches June 4


The name "Steve Gumble" rhymes with innovation.

Gumble's first party trick was to parlay the ownership of a liquor store into a world class festival: now in its 18th year, Telluride Blues & Brews is more robust than ever. Acts this year range from Willie Nelson (yes, the iconic country star also has a blues history), to The Flaming Lips, Big Head Todd and the Monster, Dweezil Zappa, Mavis Staples, Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band, and more.

Can you top that? Yes, Gumble has managed to pull another rabbit out of his hat – a big steel rabbit: The Telluride Blues & Brews Festival and The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad have joined forces to present the brand new Durango Blues Train. The inaugural ride for "Blues on the Rails" takes place June 4, 2011.

[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Jan Sitts]

 

Jan-portrait-300pix This summer, Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts offers a series of immersions featuring talented artists from all over the country. The first of these in-depth workshops takes place June 9 – June 11, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. at Ah Haa's Stone Building, 117 North Willow.

In "Texture, Color, Feeling," students get to explore a variety of materials, textures and surfaces to create a finished image on canvas. The emphasis is on process, rather than the finished product, an abstract image, meant to be a surprise. Using white papers and textured materials to layer and imbed, plus paints and inks, the end result should have a dynamic sculptural effect.

Your instructor is Jan Sitts, a Sedona-based art instructor and professional painter for 35+ years.

by Jon Lovekin

(Editor's note: One of the pleasures in publishing Telluride Inside... and Out is getting to know new  [to us] writers. Susan and I independently ran across Jon Lovekin on Twitter. She took the next step, checked out his writing, liked what she saw and asked if he would be interested in contributing to TIO. Herewith, another article from Jon.)

Ranchland Clouds built over the plains as they always do each day this time of year.  The wind blew soft and hot keeping the gnats at bay.  Mud was deep around the building we were working on after the record setting 6 inch rain over the weekend.  The sun burned deep into the skin and I thought of that boy working on that ranch 29 years ago and only 30 miles away. I had thought of the Rancher now that I worked in La Junta again and looked up his name in the phone book.

I didn’t recognize him at first when I pulled up to the address in Fowler where the phone book said he lived.  There was an old man in a jump suit sitting in a porch swing connected to an oxygen tank who was staring at me as I looked again at the house number.  I got out, strode around the truck and said, “Hello, does Ken live here?”

“He used to” replied the man who I knew instantly was him.

by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

(ed. note: After a devastating April around the country and the world, May is a welcome change. Rosemerry has sent three poems to welcome Spring in Telluride and Western Colorado. May 1 is also Kjerstin Klein's birthday. Happy Birthday, kid.)

Preparing the Garden for Spring


Spring Garden We pull up the old iron slabs I had used
as stepping stones for my garden. By we,
I mean I pull them up. My son takes
to raking the shriveled brown cords of melons,
pumpkins and squash. His interest wanes
soon enough and he leaves me with my hands
in familiar gray dirt. In my lungs, dust rises
like long-forgotten prayers. And I am alone,

though not alone. There are several of me here.
One woman who dreams of kissing in rain. One woman
who plots where new seeds will go. One woman
plants herself in this bed. One woman kneels
in the morning’s gold shrine. And one woman lifts
old iron slabs. She blossoms one now at a time.