“I tried to reaffirm in my gut,” said Collin Parson, juror for Curtis Center for the Arts’ 2019 All Colorado Art Show in a gallery talk on July 20, as he spoke to artists and other interested …
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Curtis Center for the Arts is located in a 1920s schoolhouse at 2349 E. Orchard Road, Greenwood Village. (Just west of University Boulevard.) It’s open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. 303-797-1779.
“I tried to reaffirm in my gut,” said Collin Parson, juror for Curtis Center for the Arts’ 2019 All Colorado Art Show in a gallery talk on July 20, as he spoke to artists and other interested people. “I worked to balance representation … think of challenges — the person behind it … I tried to get landscapes, portraits, abstracts …”
“Do you judge as a one-off?” asked an artist. “I try to work in a vacuum,” Parson replied.
He succeeded in choosing a pleasing variety of about 50 works — varied in size, materials, styles, techniques. A juror makes those choices on a computer screen, one piece at a time, then arrives when the choices are on the wall (or floor) to make more choices — for awards. They really look different when on a wall or pedestal, in association with — almost communicating with — the other works selected for this or any exhibit.
Meghan Wilbur’s collage, “The Long Road 8,” received first place. It’s meticulously created with paint and paper. “I felt like I was there, part of the piece, had been there. …” Wilbur’s mixed media work shows strong perspective, carries one’s eyes towards the distance … where?
The second-place winner is a remarkable ceramic installation by Tina Suszynski. Hundreds of egg-shaped, various-sized and earthy-colored forms are stacked in a corner of the Curtis’ small stage, looking as though they might easily roll away to somewhere else.
Ron Zito’s precise and spooky painting of a deserted interior industrial sort of space, “He’s Not Here,” brought forth the bemused comment, “What is that? Where is it? ... It left uneasiness … haunting, cold.” It was awarded third place.
Paintings large and small, precise and flowing, plus a quirky three-dimensional work called “What I Want to Be” by Brenda Jones, filled the small galleries. She formed multiple pairs of ceramic, but real-looking, multi-colored, women’s shoes, displayed on shelves. The lining of each refers to a different sort of career or situation. Again, stories form in a viewer’s mind.
Also noted: rita derjue’s “Blue River Valley,” Leo Franco’s “Somewhere on a Plane” created from clear plastic layers and pieces of exotic hardwoods; Mary Williams’ “Aspen Totem.”
At the rear of the gallery is a collection of colorful floral paintings by Jayme H. Mansfield, who is the author of “Rush,” the 2019 selection for The Village Read, a collaboration between Greenwood Village and Arapahoe Libraries, where people read the same book and meet to talk about it.
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