Public art fascinates me — perhaps more than the average person — because I’ve had the pleasure of creating eight commissioned public art pieces over the years, six of which were collaborations with Alaskan artist Clarissa Rizal while we were married. Clarissa passed away in 2016.
Typically, the folks commissioning our artwork had some kind of ‘theme’ in mind, some kind of story they hoped the art would tell. Clarissa and I were both storytellers, so you might say, that type of project fit our personalities.
Last summer, Pagosa resident Evelyn Tennyson announced that she’d purchased the large vacant lot on Lewis Street — formerly the site of the Adobe Building — and is planning to create a ‘sculpture garden/art park’ as a tribute to her late husband, Mike. She told Pagosa Springs SUN reporter John Finefrock that she is beginning to purchase and commission sculptures for the planned park.
Here’s how the vacant lot appeared on October 27, 2020.
From Mr. Finefrock’s September 1 article:
“We’ll have to add vegetation with some local variety plants, walking paths, and then into individual sculptures,” said Tennyson. “We also want to set aside the front part, going towards where the parking areas are, put a grassy area so we can host events there. Maybe small musical events or art shows.”
Tennyson suggested this is one piece of the puzzle in bringing more art to Pagosa Springs.
“The town honestly needs more public art and we don’t have much,” she said. “I hope it’s going to be the start of really being able to move forward. Pagosa needs to be a destination and you’ve got towns like Boulder and Montrose, they’re implementing public art and there are a lot of people that follow public art and I think if we have it, hopefully it’ll bring more people into town just to see the sculptures. It will be something else that’s downtown for people to enjoy.”
Tennyson said the park will also feature wood carvings from local sculptor Chad Haspels.
I mentioned a slightly less ambitious public art proposal yesterday in Part Two. Elementary school art teacher Kelly Lewis had requested permission to paint a “Wolf” mural in a public location, but the Town Council — with a 3-to-3 tie vote — failed to approve the request, due to its apparent connection to a current ballot measure to reintroduce wolves to Colorado.
As far as I know, none of the elected Town Council members have ever created a piece of public art, although they have all had a chance to view public art, during visits to various communities. They’ve no doubt viewed the public art available here in Pagosa Springs, such as this wind harp by artist Ross Barrable, mounted on one of our pedestrian bridges, near Town Park.
The Council has no doubt noticed the mountain lion carved by sculptor Chad Haspels, located near the sidewalk between Kipp’s Grill and the Nightingale Motel.
Mr. Haspels has sculpted several similar designs on Town property, where dangerous trees had been topped, leaving a trunk suitable for carving. His public sculptures have consistently featured Colorado animals: bears, eagles, owls, mountain lions, raccoons.
Although Mr. Haspels has displayed, in his private studio, large and small carvings of human figures — typically, women — none his public art has included people, as far as I know.
We now have a massive, 150-foot-long mural going up on the east side of the Goodman’s department store, painted by local artist Markus Hughes.
I will point out that this art piece highlights the stunning natural beauty of Pagosa Springs — but includes no people.
We also enjoyed the “Running Horse” mural on Main Street, until it was replaced in 2017. Another fine public art piece…
…without a single human being in the frame.
Last week, we heard about a “Wolf” mural proposed by art teacher Kelly Lewis, which the Council appreciated but declined to allow for political reasons.
Once again, we find no people in the picture.
As far as I can tell, from my limited experience, human beings engage in an amazing range of relationships with one another. Some relationships are intimate. Some are familial. Some are political. Some are competitive. Some involve the pursuit of knowledge, or wealth, or spiritual enlightenment. Some relationships are connected with food production, or with industry, or with recreation.
Some relationships involved combat, killing, war. That type of relationship is portrayed in the small rusted-metal sculpture recently donated to Veterans Memorial Park by Buddy and Aly Shanks, of Clyde, Texas. The sculpture is a version of the famous ‘Iwo Jima’ photograph taken February 23, 1945, by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal.
One thing for certain. It’s difficult to celebrate war without including people in the picture.
As far as I can tell, from my limited experience, human beings are highly dependent upon other human beings, and we actually enjoy many of the relationships we build. Most of the stories we tell — through books, magazines, films, theatre, songs, dance performance, the internet — are stories about ‘people’. Our desires. Our fears. Our accomplishments. Our failures.
But much of the fine, imaginative artwork available in Pagosa Springs — in galleries, and in public locations — avoids any attempt to share stories about our human lives and relationships.
Instead, we are shown imaginary places without people.
Seems to me, our current pandemic experience has shown us just how depressing and meaningless life can be, when we are prohibited from socializing — or when we are afraid to socialize.
Perhaps some future public art, here in Pagosa Springs, can remind us how much we need one another.