The art scene in FoCo is a fun one, but has taken some odd and tragic hits over the past little while. Today, though, a bright glimpse of light popped it’s head up over the horizon.

Our friend Bryan Collins seems to have had this stewing in him for some time, and today he announced it officially. Rendition Gallery will be opening on September 2 .

From the official Rendition site:

Rendition is the only Fort Collins art gallery to showcase an internationally recognized collection of artists from the neobrow and pop-surreal movement, and the only gallery to offer custom art-toys, limited edition vinyl figures, and DIY (do-it-yourself) art toys.

Our main floor exhibit area will be featuring artists such as Aaron Jasinski, Owen Dewitt(GrimSheep), Graham Franciose, Mary Spring, Rachel Ann, Matthew Hamblen, Bryan A. Collins, and many more to be announced. The downstairs and mezzanine areas feature top-notch talent from local artists who use the two rooms as studio space. The back of the main floor will host local and touring musicians as we are building a stage, installing stage lights, and setting up a sound system to rock the house 2nd and 4th Fridays.

We will be announcing studio artists, exhibiting artists, and performing musicians as they are confirmed. Special events, art classes, sketch nights, open mic nights, and all of the other things going on at Rendition will be posted here, as well as on Facebook and follow on Twitter @rendition251 for instant updates.

We recommend keeping a pulse on Rendition via those ways of social media mentioned in that last line there. We’re excited to have Rendition in Ft. Collins. It seems long overdue and feels like a breath of freshness. Like it’s fresh. Like 80s hiphop.

All those links for you. Check yo’ self fo’ you wreck yo’ self:

Official Page

Twitter

Facebook

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Our dear friends at Ruminate Magazine will be kindly invading 144 S. Mason tomorrow (November 20) and setting up the 4th annual Ruminate Art Fair.

The fair has two sessions: 10 am -5 pm and 6 pm – 8 pm. Of course, you could have distilled that information by reading the lovely flier below that the Ruminators (clever!) sent over.

I’m not really into blog posting at this moment, so I’ll let said flier do the rest of the talking. Bye Bye.

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Really, it’s a month to encourage and get in the practice of the act of listening. When we listen, we might be led places or we might lead places. Or to things or from things.

And here is what’s interesting:

On November 1st, Derek Webb (we think his music is nice) released Feedback. It is an entirely instrumental/electronic album with each track based on a section of the Lord’s prayer. An interesting concept regardless of what you believe, as it is an interpretation. From Webb’s official site:

Worship is a complicated idea.  Arguably, it’s what we all do, 24 hours a day (regardless of what we’re worshipping).  And I’m aware of a lot of “worship product” in the marketplace I sometimes occupy.  So I was cautious when I first started receiving the coordinates that would lead me to make ‘Feedback’.  It was immediately conceptual and ambitious, so much so that I genuinely wasn’t sure I could do it.  But this seemed to be the perfect posture in which to create something worthy of being called a “worshipful” piece of art.  So I studied, meditated, struggled and prayed my way through this creative process, and it’s easily the most challenging thing I’ve done in my career. But I believe it’s been worth it, even just for the ways it’s stretched both my creative process and my faith as a follower of the Way.

Interesting…this talk of receiving coordinates.

It looks like a film based on the album based on the Lord’s prayer is also coming down the pipes. There are also companion paintings. You can see the preview for the film below, and the paintings at the album purchase page. We’ll be playing the album in the shop this month…if you want to hear it just let us know.

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Lead ruminator and mag founder Brianna Van Dyke was recently called up by the folks at Sojourners to talk about Ruminate for an piece on their site / in their mag concerning the problems portraying reality in Christian publishing:

Brianna Van Dyke started the literary magazine Ruminate in 2006 in part because she couldn’t find the kind of magazine she wanted to read — what she describes as “a magazine that was inviting and playful, full of good literature and art that often intersected faith, and one that provided a quiet and contemplative space to pause and think about something again.”

Published quarterly, each issue has a theme (“Borrowing,” for example). “We’ve found that having a theme gives readers a door into the magazine, which is important because a lot of people hear art and literary magazine and think, ‘Yikes, that sounds difficult or out of my league.’” Van Dyke says readers and writers forRuminate range from a pheasant farmer in Montana to a grandmother in Florida. The magazine has also published two Pulitzer nominees; established writers including Frederick Buechner, David James Duncan, Bret Lott, Luci Shaw, and Tyrus Clutter have contributed pieces or judged contests.

Ruminate is supported half by sales and half by donations. It also receives both financial and volunteer support from Van Dyke’s church in Fort Collins, Colorado, Grace Church Presbyterian. “I do see the work of Ruminate as ministering to its community — its readers, contributors, staff, and the online and local communities — because art has the capacity to move, heal, and grow hearts in a way that nothing else can,” says Van Dyke.

The Sojourner’s article is really quite good and worth the read. Nice points are made that can stretch beyond art and writing. It may expand your definition of the talkaboutable (that is not our term, but David Dark’s…another writer you should allow your eyes to read). Read the entire piece here.

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Adam is quite the crafter of words. He loves them. “We’re prisoners of the language,” he told me the other day.

Not sure we’ve ever posted poetry here on Appendix E-J, but this seems to be the time to start. I hope you get to meet Adam one day, as he will inspire you…heart & wardrobe. Adam wrote this while the train passed 144 S. Mason:

Time Passes On Rails
words by Adam Mackie

Time passes on rails the train blows its horn
Speech pauses feet stop
Engine goes moves light years on from caboose
The distance between often feels forlorn
The journey invents the destination
A beach stretching alongside an ocean
Humble grains of sand swept and forgotten
Self-aggrandize in epic delusion
Genius lives neither in tide nor the beach!
Ever elusive Spirit inside souls
Resides in the past, present, and future
Teachers teach to learn learners learn to teach
Dig deep and wide inside deep and wide holes
Truth finds wound resists stitching suture

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Back in November, we became quite excited about the Handmade Militia…a group of local artisans celebrating all things handmade and even hosting seasonal markets to sell the product of their handiwork.

Well, I’m excited to let you know that the Handmade Militia Spring Show will be taking place on May 2 at Everyday Joe’s. We’re normally closed Saturday during the day, but we love & appreciate these folks so much that we jumped at the chance to help them out.

Here’s the details from Susan & Whitney, the minds behind the militia:

How To Enter

1. www.HandmadeMilitia.com to download application.
2. Fill out application
3. Add a few photos of your work
4. Send back to me [susan@susanhazelrich.com] before the 15th of April
5. We will reply to you on or before April 20th

Gritty details: Booth spaces will be roughly 8′ by 10′ and are $95 a piece. Location you ask? Everyday Joe’s located on Mason Ave. in Old Town.

First time show jitters? Don’t be nervous we at Handmade Militia are just about as friendly as a couple of koala bears. Okay, so I couldn’t really think of a good example. Anyhow, email us and let us know if you have any questions.

Extra credit?? Forward this info onto all your creative friends. We are super excited about the response we have had thus far but are certain there are gems just like yourselves out there who’ve yet to apply.

Questions? Concerns? Don’t hesitate to email me (Susan).

Sounds like a pleasant time, huh? They still have 22 spaces available, so if you have something you have made and want to distribute to the masses, do yourself a favor and enter. If not, come down on May 2 and support local people making things.

Further:

• Handmade Militia Official Site

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Rico is our Monday barista from 11 am – 2 pm. He has a respectable beard, a lovely wife, a nice son named fynn, and a band called The Lighthouse Band. Yesterday, he emerged from Finn’s room with the following creation for Everyday Joe’s. It is beautiful and our heart is splattered all over it in a non-grotesque way. Enjoy.

Further:

• The Lighthouse Band Official Site

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The other day I was perusing the community events board and noticed this little diddy:

Oh, the holiday craft fair. Hand-knit tea cozies, clothes-pin Rudolph tree ornaments, pine cones with glitter glued on here and there. More often than not, if I see a sign for a holiday craft fair I make ever y effort to immediately head in the opposite direction. Especially before the better half sees the advert.

BUT WAIT! You, Handmade Militia, have charmed me. Charmed me with your wonderful poster and cursive writing. It’s good to see things like this popping up in Fort Collins, and I give my whole-hearted ringing endorsement of this craft fair, though that endorsement most likely holds little clout with anyone. Either way, go to the craft fair and support local folks by purchasing their handmade goods. Plus, Cafe Ardour will be serving beverages and we love them as well.

It’ll be crafty like ice is cold. Details:

Handmade Militia Holiday Craft Fair

December 13, 11 am – 7 pm

Gallery Underground, 109 Linden in Oldtown Square

Further:

• Handmade Militia official site

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The exciting thing is that Sleeping At Last is taking the stage at Everyday Joe’s on Thursday night (10/23). In order to make sure that you don’t miss the best concert you’ve ever seen, some listening is in order. Two samples are available for your earholes:

First, something on the mellowish side of things that could make you cry or at least want to take a walk. Please enjoy “Needle & Thread.”

Just in time for seconds, something to make you play air guitar in your kitchen. “Envelopes.”

That should do the trick. Now, tickets are still available and are $10 in advance or $12 at the door. The show starts at 7 pm. Eva Holbrook will begin the evening, followed by The Dowry and then Sleeping At Last. PLUS…there will be live painting during Sleeping At Last’s set by our good friend Bryan Collins. Fantastic!

Buy your tickets by clicking here or at Everyday Joe’s. There should be plenty left at the door.

Further:

• Buy Tickets
• Sleeping At Last Myspace
• Sleeping At Last Official Site
• Bryan Collins Official Site

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A post popped up on FudgeGraphics this morning titled “Artists’ Tea & Coffee Appreciation Group.”

Sweet Moses this is fantastic. An excerpt from the post:

“I’m a self-diagnosed tea and coffee addict and I am not ashamed about it. I know that many artists, be they designers, musicians, photographers or other got the same problem. Without our daily dose of cafeine [sic] we just don’t function. In order not to be alone with that burden I decided to open a flickr group where I invite you all to post your “I-drink-tea/coffee-self-portraits“. I believe this is a nice way to get to know each other a bit better. After all we’re a big and happy family.”

Let’s look at that last line again:

“After all we’re a big and happy family.”

One more time:

“After all we’re a big and happy family.”

Oh, family. A theme coursing deep through my veins during 2008. Throw coffee and art into the mix, and I melt like butter in the palm of your hot, sweaty hand.

This Flickr group seems to have been tailored for a very large segment of the Everyday Joe’s family. Now Franz is a part of the family. I just birthed him into it…whether he knows it or not.

Click here to view the group and upload your photo.

Further:

• FudgeGraphics blog (really, it’s a great resource)
• Artist’s Tea & Coffee Appreciation Flickr Group

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