Kos Katalogue: Call for artists, crafters, authors

The holidays are coming! Here's a great way to find -- and buy from -- like-minded artists. Find out how to submit your handmade/homemade work to Kos Katalogue

From Salon: Occupy Wall Street: Poster smackdown

Newark Star-Ledger art critic Dan Bischoff rates some of the best-known of the Occupy Wall Street posters on Salon. Bischoff is the former national political editor for the Village Voice and a blogger for The Nation. See a slide show with commentary at Occupy Wall Street: Poster smackdown. The one pictured above is his favorite for these reasons:

Bischoff says that this poster -- his favorite -- is successful in conveying the fact that "this is a uniquely male crisis, with a female response." The influence and involvement of female protesters in the OWS movement, he says, is "inconceivable in Vietnam or any other protest period"; "it's not that there are more women, but that they're equals of the men," he adds. "[And that] complicates the control problem for the police."

Occupy Cheyenne Mike vs. Tea Party Slim

Tea Party Slim, or someone
who looks a lot like him

I walked over to Tea Party Slim's house and invited him to Occupy Cheyenne.

I might have had a better reaction had I slapped his face with a cutthroat trout.

"Occupy Cheyenne?" he harrumphed.

"One and the same," I said.

He rose to his full height and demanded: "You have been making fun of my Tea Party sympathies since April 2009, is that correct?"

I had to admit that he was correct.

"You have been making fun of the woefully misspelled signs of my brethren and sistren."

"Check," I said. " 'Get a clue, morans' was one of my favorites."

"You have been running photos of those signs, and ones that have equated Obama with Hitler, for at least two years."

He had me. "Yes," I said.

"You have called us Know Nothings."

"Check," I said.

"You have called us rednecks."

"I did that once. I lost my head."

"You have said that we were the unwitting dupes of the Koch Brothers and other right-wing billionaires."

"True," I said.

Slim started at me. I stared back. It was one of those classic Cheyenne stand-offs. Finally, Slim asked: "Would I be welcomed at your rally?"

"It's not a rally so much as an occupation," I said.

Slim stared at me with uncomprehending eyes.

"Let's just call it a rally."

"Will you Liberal elitists make fun of my age and my demeanor?"

I looked at Slim. "Possibly your demeanor but not your age." I added: "My wife and I were some of the oldest folks at Occupy Denver last Saturday. Not a single person mocked us. We got the stink-eye a couple times, but it might have been due to seasonal allergies."

Slim nodded. "That's an old problem with stink-eye."

"Will you join us?" I asked. "You are the 99 percent."

"I suppose I am," Slim said, "although not in a Liberal Democrat Pinko Commie sort of way."

A stillness descended on the scene.

"If we worked together, do you think we could spark some real change?" This was Slim's question.

I wasn't so sure. But I sought an answer. "Couldn't hurt," I said.

We reached a compromise. I would hold (briefly) Slim's "Ron Paul 2012" sign. He would hold (briefly) my hand-lettered sign that read: "We are WY public workers. We are the 99%."

It was a start...

P.S.: Occupy Cheyenne takes place from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15, on the north side of the Depot Plaza in downtown Cheyenne. Starting at 10 a.m. that day, the UU Church is holding a sign-making workshop. I gleefully look forward to the workshop as my protest signs are woefully inadequate. See you there.

Cool vid from Occupy Denver's Oct. 8 rally

There are at least two people I know in this time-lapse vid

Call for submissions: Art Works poster contest

Sample poster from the Obama campaign

From a press release:

The Obama campaign is seeking poster submissions from artists and designers across the country to convey why we support President Obama's plan to create jobs now, and why we'll re-elect him to continue fighting for jobs for the next four years. You can make your poster about that broad theme, or focus on a specific aspect: why we've got to rebuild and modernize our roads and bridges, help veterans find work once they've returned home from service, support the small businesses that are the engine of our economy, make sure teachers can stay in their classrooms, and so on. The posters should include the words from one of the suggested slogans below or visually interpret the concepts they represent. 

The campaign will choose 12 finalists once the submission period closes on November 4, 2011, and then put the finalists to a vote. 

Finalists will be chosen based on the following criteria: 

· Adherence to stated theme: Why you support President Obama's plan to create jobs now and his re-election campaign to continue fighting for jobs for the next four years.
· Appropriateness of tone: Conveying determination and strength
· Creativity and aesthetics
· Quality of workmanship 

Three winners will get a framed print of their poster signed by President Obama and a limited edition of their poster will be sold in the campaign store with proceeds benefiting the campaign. 

· Deadline: November 4, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Submissions after November 4, 2011 will not be eligible.
· Poster designs should be 16” x 20”.
· Posters may be graphic, typographic, illustrated, collaged, or include photography taken by the designer.
· Posters must include the following URL: www.barackobama.com/jobsplan
· Posters can be produced by litho, digital, or silk-screen print.
· Posters must be viable for reproduction by digital printing.
· You hereby represent and warrant that all equipment, materials, and facilities used to produce your poster are owned by you and were not provided by a corporation, labor union, foreign national, or federal contractor. Any disposable materials purchased specifically to produce the poster will be treated as in-kind contributions to Obama for America.
· Each person may submit no more than five submissions.
· All submissions will become property of Obama for America.
· When you've finished your design, please upload a PDF or JPEG of finished poster for the site on barackobama.com/artworks. (At least 380px x 480px, please.) Upload size cannot exceed 10 MB. Please also include the title of your poster, your name as you'd like it to appear, and a short paragraph about your poster. 

Suggested slogans: 

• Fighting for jobs 

• Get America back to work

• Rebuilding America

• Made in the USA

• More jobs for veterans

• Hire America's veterans

• Support small businesses

• Every child deserves a great school

• More jobs for teachers

• Put teachers back in the classroom where they belong

• Tax cuts for the middle class

• Support the middle class

• Ask millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share

• We believe in the American dream

• Out-build, out-educate, out-innovate

SUBMIT A POSTER HERE

Hundreds and hundreds of "Battered Brides" in Laramie County

"Battered Bride" (close-up) by Forrest King, oil painting, 36x48 inches

According to Safehouse: In Laramie County, one in every four women report that they are or have been the target of domestic violence. That's a shocking 21st-century statistic for the largest county in The Equality State, one that houses the State Capitol in Cheyenne where our legislators convene annually to discuss issues important to its citizens. If this isn't a pressing issue, I don't know what is.

Sometimes it helps to see a visual. Local artist Forrest King has done that for us. He's been working for months on his "Battered Bride" painting. As it nears completion (see above), he will exhibit it Thursday (today), Oct. 6, 4-7 p.m., at Safehouse's "Would You Walk in Her Shoes?" fund-raiser and consciousness-raiser for Safehouse at the Historic Depot in Cheyenne. You can see a series of photos documenting Forrest's "Battered Bride" project on Facebook. 

Come down to the Depot this afternoon. Walk around in "her" shoes for a few minutes. And then contribute to Safehouse, write a letter to the ed (and your state legislator), practice nonviolence in your own life.

On Oct. 8, we Occupy Denver, site of the Democratic Party's 2008 convention -- was that only three years ago?

The arts, especiaslly the graphic arts, are laying a huge part in the Occupy Wall Street movement.  This event's right down the  road in my hometown of Denver. www.occupywallstreet.com

Follow "Rebuild the Dream" on Free Speech TV

Watch live streaming video from freespeechtv at livestream.com

Katie Goodman conducts improv comedy/life coach workshop within shouting distance of WY

Katie Goodman, improv comedian, author, and rabble-rousing singer/songwriter ("I Didn't F*ck It Up"), will be conducting a workshop at Chico Hot Springs, MT, Oct. 8-9. This is as close as she will ever get to Wyoming, unless she tap-dances over the border into Yellowstone while she's at Chico.

Here are the details:

Katie will present her workshop teaching how to use the tools of improv comedy in every day life. This workshop will be presented at the gorgeous Chico Hot Springs, one hour from Bozeman, near Yellowstone National Park in Montana.

Click here for reviews and testimonials. For additional information about the workshop, click here.

The cost is $255 which includes a beautiful Chico lunch both days and Katie's book to take home. Rooms run from $45 - $200, so to book your room, call Chico directly and pick what you like: 406-333-4933. Most participants stay over Saturday night, but you are certainly welcome to make a longer retreat of it and stay Friday and Sunday or longer. The workshop hours are 9am - 4:30 both Saturday and Sunday.

Lunches are provided for workshop participants both Saturday and Sunday. Exceptional cuisine from one of the region’s finest restaurant is available in the Chico Lodge restaurant for breakfast and dinner, as well as other budget options nearby. Other activities available include massage, hiking, horse-back-riding and more. And of course, the wonderful hot springs of Chico are included with your stay at the Lodge.

To register or for more information, email us or call 406-522-7623. 

CSU's 100 Views of Climate Change looks at the subject from all angles

Until John Calderazzo showed me his web site, I didn't know that there were 100 views of climate change.

That's the name of his site, 100 Views of Climate Change. It's an official Colorado State University site, one among hundreds at this place that started its life as Colorado A&M -- the big white Aggie "A" still lurks on the mountain above town.

John teaches in the CSU creative writing program which is part of the English Department. He is a writer of creative nonfiction which, put simply, means that he uses fiction writing techniques in his published books and articles and essays about volcanoes, rain forests, watersheds, etc. He takes his facts as seriously as he takes his technique. His book on volcanoes is fascinating. He once taught in China and had written extensively about Asia. Recently, he climbed his first big mountain, a 19,000-footer in Mexico. Pretty good for a guy who won't see 60 again.

I had a chance to visit with John when he was in Cheyenne for the Literary Connection put on by LCCC. He served as my first adviser when I went to CSU in 1988 as a thirty-something corporate dropout. We had a lot in common, including Florida roots, and he was only a few years older than me. We worked on several free-lance writing projects together. It's always good to see an old friend.

As is true with many Boomers in their sixties, John is not sitting in his office counting paper clips and marking off the days until retirement on a wall calendar. Well, he may be doing that but he's also bringing the climate change debate to CSU, Fort Collins, Colorado's Front Range and the Rocky Mountain West. He and his wife, Sue Ellen Campbell, are doing this together. Sue Ellen is also a published writer, professor and environmentalist. The duo has seen first-hand the depredations of climate change. They have written extensively on the subject.

When it was time to do something about it, they thought that they might as well start close to home. So many scientists at this university. Climatologists, soil biologists, ecologists, bioethicists, agronomists, water hydrologists and so on. And sometimes, to translate the work of these scientists, in come the artists, writers and performers.

No reputable scientist disputes the fact that global climate change is a real thing. However, the topic of "global climate change" sparks as many storms as a spring Rocky Mountain low pressure system. Policies that address climate change would affect almost all the ways that we've done business in the West for 100 years. They would affect coal mining, oil and gas drilling, coal-fired plants, transportation, infrastructure, home construction, and almost any other topic you could think of. Just the term "climate change" sends Wyoming Republicans into a tizzy. It's likely they work in the energy industry. It's certain that much of their election war chests come from EnCana and Peabody, etc. Many of their constituents work in the energy industry and make better money doing that than they would in almost any other endeavor. Local business groups and chambers of commerce welcome energy companies and energy jobs. The mayor of Gillette was just in Washington, D.C., telling a congressional committee to send more energy jobs his way.

So, it's not surprising that any hint of doing something about climate change causes berserkity to break out all over.

Chris Drury: "Carbon Sink: What Goes
Around Comes Around"

Here's a recent case in point from Wyoming's lone four-year university. A very talented artist, Chris Drury from the U.K., designed and installed a public art work on the UW campus. It's entitled 'Carbon Sink: What Goes Around Comes Around." It's made of real Wyoming coal and real beetle-killed trees from Wyoming forests. The burning of one of these things -- coal -- undoubtedly caused the warming planet which led to the pine bark beetle surviving winters which led to the killing of the trees. All of the parts will eventually return to the earth from whence they came, which is one of the messages of the piece. A giant circle of coal and wood spinning across a university lawn on its way back to the source. This also is our fate. The fate of humankind, of course, will be determined by the way we treat the planet.

Here's how the project was described on the UW Art Museum blog:

Chris Drury's Carbon Sink: What Goes Around Comes Around places beetle-kill pine and coal -- both natural resources in Wyoming -- in a formal structure derived from a mushroom spore, twisting into a vortex to suggest the natural process of decay, decomposition, and transformation.  Typical of the artist's work, who routinely connects natural phenomena from the macrocosmic to the microcosmic, the whirling deep, dark, and beautiful reflective properties of the coal play off the raw wood that has been charred so the materials merge at the center.

Some Wyomingites were not amused (snippets from stories about the installation from both the New York Times and The Guardian via Inhabitat): 

The coal industry immediately took offense: “They get millions of dollars in royalties from oil, gas and coal to run the university, and then they put up a monument attacking me, demonizing the industry,” stated Marion Loomis, the director of the Wyoming Mining Association.  

Two legislators also jumped into the fray -- Republican Representative Tom Lubnau and Gregg Blikre from Cambell County, site of the massive Powder River Basin coal mine. 

“While I would never tinker with the University of Wyoming budget – I’m a great supporter of the University of Wyoming – every now and then you have to use these opportunities to educate some of the folks at the University of Wyoming about where their paychecks come from,” stated Lubnau.

Read more here: Chris Drury’s “Carbon Sink” Art Installation Strikes Nerve of Wyoming Coal Industry Carbon Sink by Chris Drury – Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World 

As it turns out, it was a tempest in a teapot. No coal-crazed Republican legislators attacked the UW Art Museum budget. But we'll have many more of these. Some will be a lot more serious.

Chris Drury is obviously a thoughtful man in search of meaningful discussion of a big subject.

Maybe UW needs a dose of 100 Views of Climate Change. CSU is right down the road...

Creative placemaking video of 13-year-old artist in Sheridan, Wyoming

Sheridan Artist Lauren Sarantopulos from Indie Media: The New Journalism on Vimeo.

The Wyoming Arts Council features 13-year old Lauren Sarantopolus as she discusses her work at the Sagebrush Community Art Center in Sheridan. Video by Alan O’Hashi.

Adbusters' Occupy Wall Street poster asks: What is our one demand?

I love this Occupy Wall Street poster from Adbusters. Curious about the origins and goals of the protest? The Nation  explains it all for you at http://www.thenation.com/article/163719/occupy-wall-street-faq

Convergence WY asks: "Wyoming culture is unique but are we leveraging this culture to help build prosperous communities?"

Jackson Farmers' Market - Creative Bakeries from Indie Media: The New Journalism on Vimeo.

This vid comes from a series filmed by Cheyenne videographer Alan O'Hashi as he tours the state (with Wyoming Arts Council staffer Randy Oestman) in search of details about Wyoming's Creative Vitality Index (CVI). Teton County's CVI is off the charts, making it one of the best arts towns in the West. And that's not all high rollers buying big bronzes and Teton landscapes. It's also young artists finding ways to transfer their skills to the kitchen, and then selling those handcrafted pies at the farmers' market, with money going into their pockets and the community. The Circle of Life!

I'll share more of these CVI vids as they become available... They'll cover other areas of the state, including Sheridan and Rock Springs and Cheyenne and others. This creativity is no surprise to Wyomingites who know that there is an incredible amount of arts and crafts happening quietly in farms and ranches and small towns and in cities (we have a few) and even resort towns all around the state. The video series is an attempt to put a face on that activity.

So interesting that this surge of creativity happens in such a conservative state. After all, Wyoming has the most Republican legislature in the U.S. -- and the least diverse. The new Tea Party Repubs fell all over themselves during the 2011 session trying to propose the most absurdly regressive laws. Anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-woman, anti-worker, anti-wolf, anti-environmental protections. You name it, they were agin' it. Except for guns -- very pro-gun. Fetuses now have their own concealed carry laws.

Our gun culture is part of the creative economy. There are many artisans making and decorating their own firearms. Cody is home to the Buffalo Hill Historical Center and its fantastic firearms museum. In Cody, don't miss the eclectic Dug Up Gun Museum. Cody artist Paul Clymer turns old shotguns into colorful works of art. Pinedale artist JB Bond is in the process of transforming a junked vehicle into a nine-foot-long machine gun that will be part of the town's public art initiative.

But let's face it -- Wyoming's population is aging rapidly. Its infrastructure is crumbling. The education system is not getting the results warranted by the investment of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, or so say the Repubs..

Most importantly, its young people aren't hanging around to watch it crumble. Sure, some of these youngsters are featured in these videos. But unless we can boost the entire state's CVI, those youngsters won't stick around.

I ask my fellow parents this question: how many of your children departed Wyoming to go to college or the military and never moved back? Go ahead, tell me your stories.

The Rocky Mountain West is filled with livable towns and cities that also are artsy outdoor sports meccas. Need I name them? Fort Collins, Boulder, Durango, Denver, Steamboat Springs, Park City, Salt Lake City, Moab, Aspen, Sun Valley, Bend, Missoula, Bozeman, Livingston, Moscow, Pullman, Boise, Taos, Tucson, Flagstaff and so on.

These are the cities that Cheyenne, Casper, Rock Springs, Gillete and Riverton are competing against. Here is the question posed by Convergence Wyoming: "Wyoming culture is unique but are we leveraging this culture to help build prosperous communities?"

Well, are we?

A closer look at Forrest King's "Remember, Heal & Hope" sculpture

HM earlier featured some photos of Forrest King's sculpture for the International Day of Peace ceremony Sept. 21. We thought a close-up and a description was also in order. This artwork could be variously described as a sculpture, an assemblage, or an installation. After making its debut at Peace Day in the Herschler Building, it will tour local churches and any other locale that would like to view the piece and hear the story behind it.

The materials in the sculpture came from representatives of local churches. They donated the items at the Sept. 11 commemoration held 9/11/11 in front of the Wyoming State Capitol.

Forrest organized his piece around the symbols of three religious traditions: the Christian cross, a Jewish tallit or shawl and a set of Muslim prayer beads. A firefighter's helmet tops the sculpture and it's propped up with an EMT's ready box. To illustrate the international storm caused by 9/11, the shawl and prayer beads have a wind-whipped look and are forever frozen in place that way. Not sure of Forrest's techniques, but the sculpture has the look of a traditional bronze monument.

Arrayed below that are three panels that say "Remember," "Heal" and "Hope." A prayer candle sits above an old hymnal opened to "My Country 'Tis of Thee" and "America the Beautiful."

It takes time and contemplation and talent to come up with a work of art in 11 days. We would all do well to take some time to contemplate what the artist has wrought. If you're interested in bringing it and the artist to a church or synagogue or mosque or school near you, go to Forrest King's Facebook page.

Creative industries in the West: Rural rail autos, energy-based tourism and small-town creatives

We couldn't have said it any better. The renovation of the WYO Theater sparked Sheridan's downtown  revival. That will be one of the topics at Convergence Wyoming.

In advance of Convergence Wyoming Oct. 6-8 in Cody, I've been reading voraciously on the following subjects: the creative class, creatives, creative placemaking, creative economy, historic placemaking, and creative industries. It's exhausting.

On the positive side, there is an incredible amount of creative energy going into solutions for global warming, infrastructure decay and economic malaise. On the negative side we have our paralyzed American political structure. But the revolution in creativity may have some of its genesis in the terrible fact that government structures are inept or at least painfully slow in catching on to the new reality. And the fact that Congressional Republicans want to push the country back, way back, instead of forward into the future.

My first searches were for speeches and position papers by Convergence Wyoming presenters such as Steven Tepper and Anthony Radich. I've discovered some great stuff. More importantly, I've uncovered plenty of blog fodder. When it comes right down to it, isn't that what life is all about?

I've known Anthony Radich for almost 20 years. He's a move and shaker in the arts administration world. He directed the Missouri Arts Council for eight years, created its cultural trust fund, and took over the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) in Denver in 1996. Much to this dismay of the arts-funding world, he revamped WESTAF, making it a leaner organization, but also one that embraced technology and new ways of doing arts business.

One of the first things he did was move this regional arts organization from the stuffy confines of Santa Fe to Denver. I love Santa Fe for all the reasons people love Santa Fe: great food, fine art ogling, the Indian Market, cool old buildings, high and dry mountain air, etc.

But Denver? My hometown is a city known more for its sports teams and big-time hustlers (Bat Masterson, Soapy Smith, Denver Post founders Bonfils & Tammen, Neil Bush) that it is for its arts. When I covered the arts and entertainment scene in the early 1980s, you could count the good contemporary galleries on one hand, public art barely existed, the symphony was dying, tumbleweeds blew through an almost-deserted Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and the indie music scene centered around the Mercury Cafe and a couple of funky bars on Broadway.

It's a different city now. Apparently Denver was waiting for me and my family to leave before it blossomed into an arts destination, one that boasts more money generated by arts and culture than by its professional sports teams. Yes, the Broncos suck but the south stands are still filled during every home game.

So maybe that's what Anthony Radich foresaw when he moved WESTAF to a renovated warehouse in downtown Denver. He did see that Denver was a transportation center with a new airport courtesy of another big-time hustler, Philip Anschutz, and light rail was coming and Coors Field was the newest venue in MLB and tourism was huge and there was good coffee and fine microbrews within walking distance.

Some of the craft brews were at Wynkoop Brewery, John Hickenlooper, prop. As you know, he went on to become Denver's very popular mayor and now is the state's governor who is popular in places other than right-wing Colorado Springs.

There are more people in Denver proper than in the state of Wyoming. There are five times as many people in the Denver metro area than in Wyoming.

Backstage Theatre --
Breckenridge ain't just
for skiing anymore.

Wyomingites hate Denver traffic. But we sure love attending Rockies games and hanging out in LoDo. Ditto Broncos, Av, Nuggets, Six Flags Elitch Gardens, Colorado Opera, traveling shows of Les Mis, DIA, Denver Zoo, and so on.

Denver rakes in the Wyo dough. It's an arts and culture and sports destination for us. The airport is our international way station.

No Wyoming community will be another Denver. So what can we do to form our own home-grown creative economies?

For one thing, our city planners can stop spending money on zero-sum investments such as call centers. We all know this game. A big company wants to build a windowless building wherein low-paid locals can call you during dinner to harangue you about late credit card payments and the superiority of aluminum siding. The call-center company gets tax breaks on the land and possibly the building. The call center brings no economic development to a community save for the few shekels that its employees bring home. They do nothing to enliven a community. They do nothing for tourism, Wyoming's number two industry. They do nothing and they are nothing.

Here's what Anthony Radich said about the subject during a visit to Savor Albuquerque last summer:

Instead of being one of 50 contenders for a call center, think about the assets and infrastructure you have to do something unusual.

That could be any number of things beside call centers and distribution centers or any number of traditional econ dev targets: 

“You here in Albuquerque and New Mexico are competing with people across the country for the creative economy, and you have phenomenal resources to do that,” Radich said. Building the creative economy is often a matter of creating an economic cluster around existing assets, he said. It provides legitimacy to the sector, especially among elected officials.

Albuquerque is not as big as Denver but is doing some similar things.

BTW, I was conceived in Albuquerque, a byproduct of what happens when two young marrieds in love imbibe the brewer's arts, consume the culinary arts and dance to the artistic sounds of local musicians, all on an Old Town Friday night, February 1950. The arts and creativity are nothing new to Albuquerque.

Radich is not only talking about the West's big cities.

Take Moscow, Idaho, for instance.

Jazz great Lionel Hampton, namesake
of IU's music department and
annual festival. 

This town of 23,000 -- with student enrollment of 12,000 -- is now home to the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival each February. The city is 92 percent white and adjacent to Idaho's crazy zone in the Panhandle where the white supremacists hang out. It is finding ways to make Moscow the coolest arts town in the Northwest. The Portlandia of the Palouse.

The Lionel Hampton Orchestra was one of the hottest big bands in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. His name had almost disappeared from the scene when University of Idaho invited him to headline its jazz festival in 1984. In 1987, UI named its music school after Hampton, the first university music school in the country to be named for a jazz musician. Now every winter, the jazz world comes to Moscow.

Most towns and cities that desire "creative economy" status have a university.

But not all.

Sometimes they have breathtaking landscapes and ski areas. Jackson, WY, for instance. And Park City, UT; Aspen, CO; Sun Valley, ID.

According to the Creative Vitality Index compiled by WESTAF, Jackson may be the best arts town in the U.S. See the facts at www.westaf.org

Teton ArtLab, Jackson

The birth of cultural heritage tourism has already led to German tourists paying big money to work on a ranch for a week. College students are now taking a year off to tend veggies on organic farms. We have an organic farms in Wyoming, notably Meadow Maid in Yoder, which provides me with veggies and chickens and grass-fed beef.

What about tours of mining operations, such as open pit coal mines in Campbell County and trona mines in Sweetwater County? Tours of railroad yards in Cheyenne and Laramie? When I was in Casper this weekend, Casper College just dedicated a training tower for students in the wind energy program. Seems to me that both locals and tourists would love to get up and close and personal with a wind turbine. On a nice day, you can view dozens of propellers spinning on turbines arrayed north of town. Soon there will be hundreds. And we've all read articles about how energy companies seek out technical rock climbers as technicians. Hey -- it's a long way up and a long way down. Climbers know that territory.

Just a few examples of cool stuff happening in the world of creative industries.

Convergence Wyoming features a “Bright Spots” session from 10-11:45 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 7, at the Cody Holiday Inn.

It will feature these community efforts:

·         Saturday University and Teton County Poetry Box in Jackson

·         Gillette’s AVA Center

·         Washakie Museum and Cultural Center in Worland

·         the Historic Preservation Commission in Douglas

·         the Roundhouse restoration in Evanston

·         downtown rehabilitation projects in Cheyenne

·         art galleries in downtown Lander

·         Main Street projects in Dubois and Rawlins

·         Sheridan’s growing recognition as an “exciting and livable community” through its cultural initiatives

And there's more, much more...

While reading the Albuquerque paper, I came across this recent story about the big IDEA conference coming to the city in 2012. Creatives and creative thinkers from across the globe will be coming to town at the behest of the International Society for Electronic Arts. Get more info at http://isea2012.org. One of the cool arts tech projects set for the convention is shown below.

Where art and technology meet -- As part of the Latin American forum of ISEA2012 in Albuquerque next summer, artists Ivan Puelig and Andrés Padilla Domené will bring their custom-made car that can ride on rails to Albuquerque, and their video stories and photos of residents  from northern Mexico towns isolated when rail service ceased and no roads were built  to replace it. Photo from UTEP.  

Cheyenne artist takes many pieces and creates a work of peace

Cheyenne artist Forrest King took these items from Sept. 11 ceremony...

...and constructed this work of art seen in background at International
Day of Peace ceremony in Herschler Building.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead penned a proclamation marking Sept. 21 at the International Day of Peace. At today's lunchtime ceremony at the Herschler Building honoring this day of peace, the Rev. Rodger McDaniel read the proclamation because the Gov was busy with the "lying in state" events for the late U.S. Sen Malcolm Wallop.

Gov. Mead's proclamation mentioned the United Nations many times. The International Day of Peace originated in the U.N. in 1981 and was first celebrated on Sept. 21 in 2002. I couldn't help but wonder how nuts the proclamation would make Gov. Mead's U.N.-hating Tea Party followers. They'll never read it, of course. But if they did, heads would be exploding all over Wyoming.

Sen. Wallop was no fan of the U.N. or of peacenik ways. He was a Cold Warrior, one of Ronald Reagan's staunchest supporters.  I doubt if the International Day of Peace ever deserved a ceremony, much less a mention, at Sen. Wallop's digs in Sheridan County.

My thoughts were not in keeping with the peace and justice ways of today's ceremony. But that's how it goes when you've spent two decades as an outlier in the reddest of red states.

Cheyenne's International Day of Peace featured fine words by Christian, Jewish, Muslim and UU leaders. Music too. And a work of art by local artist Forrest King.

At the Sept. 11 commemoration at the State Capitol, Forrest collected mementos from different faith communities. These items represented the brokenness of 9/11. Forrest was charged with bringing a sense of hope to these materials via his art.

And he did. Forrest is sending more photos. For now, the above images show the items from the Sept. 11 ceremony and the sculpture fashioned by Forrest. I'll do a more complete description of the work in future posts.

I leave you with the words that Rev. McDaniel left us with: "All in Peace. Go in Peace. Create in Peace. Live in Peace."

Shalom

Cheyenne graphic novelist and librarian gets "Artist of the Month" honors

The growth of graphic novels in the past few years has been amazing. Some of my writer friends thinks that this is one of the signs of the decline of western civilization, or of civilization's general decline. But it's just the opening of a door to other ways of expression. 

Laurel Shelley-Reuss is a comic author and illustrator living in Cheyenne. As is the case with many creatives, she has a full-time job -- hers is at the Laramie County Public Library. Her mother was a librarian in Cheyenne and has since moved on to greener fields in Colorado. In her teen years, Laurel was babysitter to my daughter on a several occasions. Laurel loved to draw and was an anime and manga fan back before most of adults knew what those were. She and my son are about the same age and they could talk anime until the illustrated cows came home. 

Laurel went to school at the well-respected Savannah College of Art and Design. She returned to Cheyenne to mind our library's books and to get to work on her own. Her first graphic novel, “Olive Peril,” was released by Arcana Comics in November of 2010, following the “Olive Peril” webcomic, which went live in late 2008. She’s been featured in the Sugar Ninjas Sugar and Spice anthologies in 2009 and 2010, a series of comics created by women artists working in the comic book industry and will be in the upcoming 2011 editions. She currently works on both the “Olive Peril” webcomic as well as a second webcomic, “Chorus of the Neverborn.” Her freelance work has included book covers, websites and logo design for private and non-profit organizations.

Laurel was featured in Sunday's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle as the Arts Alliance of Cheyenne's "Artist of the Month" (see image at the top of this post). Much deserved honor for a talented young person who is really going places.

Tribes of creatives gather for WY Convergence conference

There are two terms that I’ve been hearing a lot lately: “creatives” and “tribe/tribal.” I guess that’s actually three words, although “tribe” and “tribal” are often intermingled when the subject is brought up.

“Creatives” are people in the creative industries of visual arts, writing, performing, humanities, historic preservation, filmmaking, culinary arts, etc. Only recently have they all been lumped under the heading of “creative industries.” The State of Colorado now has a Creative Industries Department. These entities are engaged in “creative placemaking” on a local level and statewide. Together they power the “creative economy” that includes “cultural heritage tourism.”

You may now curse me for writing (in parentheses) every single buzz phrase swirling around in the 2011 arts world. That’s a lot of creative juju.

Meanwhile, we’re all in these tribes grouped according to our passions. Wine-makers, computer gamers, poets, Americana musicians, progressive political bloggers, Tea Party activists, traditional knitters, cyclists, etc. There are innumerable subsets to these groups.

Tribes are nothing new. Most of our relatives lived in tribal cultures. We banded together for mutual interests, mainly food and shelter. That’s real basic tribal stuff. I heard "tribal" a lot over the weekend at the Scottish Irish Highland Festival. The leader of the Aussie Celtic band Brother announced several times that the band was about to go "tribal." That mainly consisted of beating on drums. Arbannach is a tribal Celtic band from Scotland that gets tribal on every one of its songs. Scottish clans are tribes. In olden times, they banded together for safety against other Scottish clans whose main purpose, it seems, was hacking each other with huge swords. You can still buy the swords and wear them proudly, although hacking of neighbors is usually frowned upon.

These days, clans have gear. My wife Chris's Cumming clan has a brand in its ancient crest, its own tartan and several varieties of scotch. It offered for sale a book about its 13th century clash with ancient enemies in the Bruce clan. You can get bumper stickers and other cool stuff at its web site. And you can join if you have roots as a Comins, Cumming, Cummings, or about 50 other versions of the name. This is important, I think, this sense of belonging to a group, a tradition, a family. That's what we seem to need.

There were many tribes at the Celtic fest. Pipe band tribes, herding dog handler tribes, music tribes, Guinness-drinking tribes (Slainte!), the U.S. Marine Corps, Society for Creative Anachronism, full-armor jousters, and many others.

Entrepreneur Michael Hyatt does a pretty good job of putting this all together on his web site. Here’s part of a post entitled “Marketing is Dead:”

Most creatives I know hate marketing. They want to write, speak, or entertain. But they hate the thought of promoting themselves or selling their art. If this describes you, I have good news. Marketing is dead. Okay, maybe I am overstating my case.

Marketing may not be dead, but, in the world of social media, it has morphed. Dramatically.

Tribe-building is the new marketing.

Marketing is no longer about shouting in a crowded marketplace. It is about participating in a dialogue with fellow travelers.  

Marketing is no longer about generating transactions. It is about building relationships. 

Marketing is no longer about exploiting a market for your own benefit. It is about serving those who share your passion—for your mutual benefit.

In his groundbreaking book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, Seth Godin defines a tribe as “a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea.”  

I reviewed this book right after it came out in 2008. It is just as relevant today as it was then. It is the first book I give to new authors. It is must reading if you are serious about building an enduring career as a creative. 

Seth says that a tribe only has two requirements:
1. A shared interest
2. A way to communicate.

I bring this up because arts and humanities groups around Wyoming are addressing these issues Oct. 6-8 at its Convergence Conference in Cody. Keynoter is well-known "creative economy" guru Steven Tepper from the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and public Policy at Vanderbilt University.

One of my tribes, the Wyoming Arts Council, is offering travel stipends for individual artists and staffers, board members of volunteers of arts organizations. To get a stipend form, call the WAC at 307-777-7742. Get the complete schedule at www.convergencewyoming.com.

I’ll see my fellow tribal creatives Oct. 6 in Cody.

Bring your drum.

Cheyenne artist Forrest King takes a little of this and a little of that for artwork celebrating peace and healing

Forrest King and daughter at table filled with donated items for International Day of Peace artwork

Local artist and community activist Forrest King has his work cut out for him.

During the next ten days, Forrest will craft a work of art from a firefiighter's gear, an empty wine bottle, a string of Islamic prayer beads, shards of a shattered stained glass window and a broken bone.

The items were donated to the cause at today's 9/11 commemoration at the Wyoming State Capitol. It was the first in a series of 11 days of peace that will culminate in the International Day of Peace ceremony Sept. 21 at the Capitol Rotunda.

The ceremony started with a performance by Hands in Harmony and a community chorale made up of the LCCC chorus and members of local church choirs. Speakers came from local Christian churches, Mt. Sinai Synagogue, the Southeast Wyoming Islamic Center and the UU Church. The most touching aspect of the day featured mosque members translating the original Hebrew text and Synagogue members translating work recited in the original language by mosque members. It was all scripted but really illustrated the "healing" theme of the event.

People representing at least a dozen local congregations donated items for Forrest's commemorative work of art.

From the V.A. Medical Center -- a broken bone representing wounded warriors of our many wars.
From Mt. Sinai Synagogue -- Jason Bloomberg, who spent 20 years as an emergency responder, brought an EMT's jump kit found at Ground Zero and a firefighter's helmet.
Community of Christ -- a peace candle
St. Paul's Lutheran -- pieces of a stained glass window.
SE Wyoming Islamic Center -- a broken string of prayer beads

Community choir assembled on the WY State Capitol for 9/11 commemoration

We were piped out of the ceremony by a lone piper performing "Amazing Grace."

We eagerly await Forrest's finished artwork. Its theme is the journey from brokenness to hope.

Shalom

For everything (even 9/11) there is a season

As always, the arts were front and center during this morning’s televised tenth anniversary of trying to make sense of 9/11.

Performances by choirs and singer/songwriters and classical musicians punctuated the reading of the names at the Twin Towers memorial. Each of the politicians who spoke referenced a poem or a Biblical verse, which is another type of poetry. You might even say that the reading of the names is a very long epic poem. The readers themselves ended their recitations by remembering their loved one who died on 9/11. A short personal haiku amidst the epic poem.

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani read the verse from Ecclesiastes that was put to song (“Turn, Turn, Turn”) by anti-war and environmental activist Pete Seeger in 1959 and made famous among non-Bible readers in 1965 by rock-era legends The Byrds.

Ecclesiates 3 1-8

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

This only seems to emphasize the fact that, while poems and music and Biblical verses bring some comfort and understanding to tragedy, they don't seem to make grief any easier to bear. Sometimes they bring up issues that still desperately need to be faced.

After Giuliani’s speech, Paul Simon sang "The Sound of Silence" accompanied only by his guitar. Simon began composing the song after the Kennedy assassination. It became one of the standards of Simon & Garfunkel performances and nearly every young person alive in the sixties knew the words. This morning, Simon’s words and guitar chords echoed eerily off of the big buildings still under construction. His words argue that “silence like a cancer grows” and many prophetic warnings are gobbled up by the sounds of silence. Sounds a little bit like what we’ve seen the past 10 years in the U.S. The silence, however, is really the sounds of millions of screaming voices blaring out of the Tower of Babel worlds of the Internet and Cable TV.

The famous hymn “Amazing Grace” was performed by flautist Emi Ferguson. “Amazing Grace” was co-written by repentant slave ship sailor John Newton and renowned British poet William Cowper. It’s now performed often on bagpipes, notably at the funerals of fire fighters and soldiers. I heard many pipe band renditions of this standard over the weekend at the Scottish Irish Highland Festival in Estes Park.

It’s no namby-pamby verse. The author is crying out in anguish, thanking God’s “amazing grace” for saving “a wretch like me.” This takes humility. This takes courage. Something that we saw plenty of in those who gave their lives for others on 9/11/01.