Artist Statement:

Day dreamers represent the small day dreams that we experience throughout everyday life. The little things we see. And the inspiration that comes with them. Our mind shapes our passions our dreams and our influences. To create daily masterpieces. And if you can allow your mind to wander. You’ll be surprised by the visions that come with it.

Artist Bio:
James Jerel INK Anderson is a traveling tattoo and music artist that expresses through many forms of art. As a painter and digital artist, he creates a lot of abstract and abnormal pieces that come straight from an overactive imagination. Jerel was born in Germany. Both parents were military. His mother left the army to be a flight attendant which allowed Jerel to travel the world at a very young age. Jerel has had the ability to experience different cultures as well as immerse himself into many different environments. In Jerel’s younger years we was homeless, which helped shape his knowledge of survival as well as his level of understanding with society. Jerel sees life through psychology, and uses that perspective to guide him through existence which helped him develop BLACKLAW FAMILY: a community-focused Art & Event coordinating platform.

In recognition of Foster Care Awareness Month in May, Kids Crossing, a child placement agency that is focused on providing a safe and caring home to every child entrusted to them, is hosting “Through Our Eyes,” art from the frontlines of the foster care system. Work from Kids Crossing foster youth, foster families, foster parents, caseworkers, therapists, and home coordinators will be on exhibit.

Art is a safe environment to express traumatic issues that otherwise may be difficult to address, especially for children in the foster care system, who may not have the ability to talk about what they’re going through. Art can also help build self-esteem and problem-solving skills, strengthen relationships, and improve social skills at the same time.

Landscape has been an important inspiration for artists across generations, and it played an important role in the foundation of this very institution. The soaring peaks of the Southern Rocky Mountains were a popular motif for many students and teachers of the Broadmoor Art Academy, founded in Colorado Springs in 1919, which evolved into the Fine Arts Center. Attracting renowned artists from across the country, mostly of European descent, the academy fostered a reverence for the natural landscape. But many depicted Colorado’s striking scenery as empty of human presence, ready to be explored for the benefit of the artist and viewer alike.

Landscape remains important for contemporary artists, yet many have a dramatically different relationship to the genre. The five artists featured in Contested Terrains acknowledge how human intervention has shaped landscapes across the Americas. Joiri Minaya, for example, makes a connection between the Caribbean tourist economy and the arrival of the first European colonizers in Haiti. Nina Leo and Moez Surani present a view of the Great Lakes from Canada looking toward the US, offering a mournful homage to the unfifilled potential of a global superpower. Carolina Aranibar-Fernández looks at sites of extraction across the Americas. And Rosa Barba documents how transportation and development have altered a landscape in São Paulo, Brazil with shocking repercussions for the local community. Together, these artists extend the potential of landscape as a genre, and allow it to function as an entryway to overlooked histories, acknowledging how politics, power, and extraction have shaped the Americas as we know them today.

Contested Terrains is organized by Katja Rivera, Curator of Contemporary Art. Support of the exhibition is generously provided by the Holaday Fund.

Visit us and experience Colorado history in style here at Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site.

• Learn about Native American trade at the American Indian Area.
• Make a cornhusk doll at the Homestead Cabin.
• Discover the hard-working and ingenuous spirit of early pioneer homesteaders and farmers in our 1880s Garden.
• Perfect your skills at Victorian games and tour the 1870s Rock Ledge House.
• Listen to the rhythmic ‘clink, clink’ of the blacksmith’s hammer hitting the anvil as you immerse yourself in the life of an 1890s blacksmith.
• Explore the 1907 Orchard House while you learn about life for Edwardian servants and upper-class citizens of Colorado Springs.

Bella Art and Frame is so excited to feature acclaimed oil painter Steve Weed for a special 2 month exhibit!

This event will have one of the largest collections of Steve's paintings on display.

Did I mention Steve was also named "Artist to Watch" in the prestigious Southwest Art Magazine?

Growing up in post-World War II Japan, Otake studied dance and performance in Europe before moving to New York in 1976. For more than four decades, she was part of Eiko & Koma, a collaborative that created performance, choreography, visual design, sound, videos, and texts.

Since 2014, Otake has worked as a soloist and has directed her own projects in collaboration with other artists. Otake’s first museum solo-exhibition, I Invited Myself, Vol. II, foregrounds the artist’s video and media, which have developed alongside her dance, choreography, and performance installations. Spanning from 1980 to the present, the works on view feature a body as it moves in and through various spaces, including the urban infrastructure of Tokyo and New York and the vast landscapes of Wyoming and California.

“As scientists and artists, we are all observers of the world. We are all interpreters and storytellers,” said Dr. Gosnell. “We hope people leave this experience feeling a closer connection to the universe and with an understanding that the story of science belongs to all of us. We can build a more welcoming world from the stories we tell.”

The Gift is an immersive installation that animates contemporary astrophysics research to open up metaphorical space for grief, care, and renewal.

In this experience, participants enter a music-filled reading room, where they encounter an all-ages illustrated book—based on the astrophysics research of Dr. Natalie Gosnell, Assistant Professor of Physics at Colorado College—that invites responses both tactile and emotional. This book tells the story of two stars that are so close to one another yet so far from us that they appear as a single point of light in the sky. Their fates are intertwined; one star, at the end of its life, transfers its material to the companion, allowing the companion to burn brighter and to appear—for a moment—younger, brighter, bluer. This tender story and playful experience heeds the call of anthropologist Emily Martin, to “wake the sleeping metaphors of science.”

The Gift is a collaborative project between Janani Balasubramanian, Dr. Natalie Gosnell, and Dr. Andrew Kircher. The book features artwork by Amy Myers and design by Katie Hodge. The original score is by Tina-Hanaé Miller with arrangement by Solomon Hoffman.

At this time we are looking for artists that are interested in working collaboratively in creating, building and installing art for Parallel Universe. We are also creating the workshop calendar and looking for facilitators. There are options to be part of the team and receive payment, and there are other options for exhibiting and volunteer work. The event inaugurates on June 21st and workshops run from July through September.

What is Parallel Universe: It is a 3 month installation project with an inaugural event and calendar of regenerative workshops open to the public. Regenerative workshops offer healing through the arts to revitalize and restore our human system.

Why Parallel Universe: It’s a concept that questions phenomenon, which translates to a project that will ignite the creativity of artists, tourists, onlookers of all ages and our local community. We want to leverage the power of the arts to motivate and inspire. We want to help bolster an authentic creative community and provide increased access to art experiences for local veterans, active duty service members and military dependents.

Join us for a three-hour culinary adventure featuring tastings at four to five locally-owned destinations in Downtown Colorado Springs! Each tour features a carefully planned itinerary that will make you feel (and eat!) like a local. From hand-tossed pizza, to 100% Colorado beef sliders, to creamy mountain-churned ice cream, everyone in your group will discover something they love!

Along the way, your expert Tour Leader will entertain you with historical storytelling and insider tips to find the best local food and drink. Upgrade your ticket to include three drink pairings for only $15 (ages 21+ only).

Tours only accommodate 12 guests, so sign up today before it sells out! This is the perfect (and most delicious!) way to explore Colorado Springs.

Robert is known to layer his art openings in such away that that every sense is stimulated and every interaction is part of the experience.

Music performances by Brittany McClintic, Curtis Boucher, Jeremiah Walter, and The Old 45's with DJ Gravity, and Magician Extraordinaire Jayne Perry!

Come Help Celebrate Robert's 45th Birthday with him!

Join us at Hillside Gardens for our Summer Concert Series, a fantastic weekly event in the heart of nature. With three incredible live bands, five bars, and mouthwatering food trucks, there's something for everyone to enjoy. Held every Wednesday from 5:30 to 8:30 throughout the summer, this event welcomes guests aged 16 and up. Be captivated by breathtaking mountain views and immerse yourself in the beauty of our lush gardens filled with vibrant flowers and plants. Come and experience a fun-filled evening of music, nature, and good times. Just remember, no pets or outside food and drink allowed.

Join us at the Fine Arts Center for a lecture series offering an educational twist to the traditional happy hour. Each lecture explores an aspect of the amazing art and featured artists from various Fine Arts Center exhibitions served up with a themed drink to help you dive deep into the topic.

Coinciding with The Gift, an exhibition currently on view at the FAC, come for our first Libation Lecture of 2023. The night sky is full of stories – stories of change, of life and death, and of possibility – carried out over millions or billions of years. How can we possibly understand these stories when our lives are but a fleeting blip in comparison?

We will look at how stellar astrophysicists act as detectives, using the light from stars as clues to uncover the stories of the universe, and what is possible when we expand our ways of telling these stories through art-science collaborations.

Themed drink: Starry Night
Lecturer: Dr. Natalie Gosnell, Assistant Professor of Physics at Colorado College

Mike Hickman is a noted musician, comedian, and actor and has been entertaining audiences all over the nation for decades.

In addition to appearing in movies, television and commercials, Mike performs a variety of music styles live, including instrumental jazz, blues and latin as well as popular classic and modern vocal selections. It is truly a variety show with something for everyone to enjoy.

Follow Mike on Instagram @mikehickmanofficial & @voicemusicduo.

Join us this Summer for "Concerts in the Park"! A 10-week concert series at Limbach Park, located in Downtown Monument. Bring your chairs and get ready for some fun! Bring your appetite, because we have food trucks too!

The full summer schedule is listed below.

Our Manitou Springs neighbors, A Carpenter’s Daughter will be here with some live Mountain Folk / Americana tunes.

Come enjoy the good vibes!

Trivia is back! Join us every Wednesday night in the taproom from 7-9 p.m. for beer, trivia, and prizes!

NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED, JUST SHOW UP.

Modeled after pub quizzes in Ireland and the U.K., Geeks Who Drink is an authentic homegrown trivia quiz. It’s a great way to drink with friends, without burning brain cells. And it’s where useless knowledge means everything.

Our quizzes cover everything from Hungary to The Hunger Games, from science to sports, from the Billboard Hot 100 to Better Call Saul.

Each quiz consists of seven rounds of eight questions each, in a variety of formats, including audio and visual rounds.

Teams can be up to six players, so bring your smartest friends (or some likable dummies)—or come solo. We can always help you join a team! No reservations needed, just show up!

Winning teams get bar cash and other prizes, depending on the venue. Bonus questions sprinkled throughout the quiz will net you additional goodies. But mostly it’s about establishing your dominance—or at least pleasantly surprising yourself. You’re into that, right?

Deadline is June 1, 2023.

After over 30 years, the Mountain Arts Festival is moving to a new location in Woodland Park. The new location is just a couple of blocks from the old one in Memorial Park, Woodland Park. This new location will have more space for additional artists and food vendors. The date has also been changed to the second weekend in August (Aug. 12 and 13) when fewer competing activities are occurring.

The Mountain Artists look to 2023 to be bigger and better than ever. The annual Mountain Arts Festival is calling for artists for this year’s show and the deadline is May 1. Applications for this juried show can also be obtained from the website at www.themountainartists.org

In addition to the Mountain Artists annual summer show, they also have their members-only show in November, the student art show in the spring, and their scholarship program.

Artists interested in joining the organization can pick up an application at the Woodland Park Chamber of Commerce, or can find the application at the website mentioned above.