Walking along Denver’s 16th Street Mall on Saturday, it was hard not to feel a sense of awe and a glimmer of inspiration amid the pottery, paintings and photographs on display by Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe.
The free two-day Festival of the Arts featured more than 20 artists of all trades reaching out to the community while hoping to make a couple of bucks in the process.
“Art touches people on a number of levels,” said Cheryl Opperman, board member in charge of special events and exhibits for the Art District on Santa Fe.
“It took everybody to work together to put something like this in place,” she added, citing partnerships with the Denver Theatre District and Business Improvement District.
Opperman — an award-winning landscape photographer featured in National Geographic and at the Smithsonian Institution — said she was thrilled to have works on display in the heart of Denver for the first of potentially many more events like this.
Her hope was to bring more people into the galleries on Santa Fe Drive between 5th and 11th avenues in Denver.
The nearly 60 exhibits in the district, she said, pride themselves on a welcoming environment free of pretension and attitude that some affiliate with art walks. Additional information can be found online at .
The weekend’s festival was a first for photographer Sarah Barth, who balances dramatic scenes with portrait editing and wedding photography.
Her “Time Series” images featuring an abandoned house, weathered and long-ago forgotten, drew in passers-by throughout the day — something she said she thrived on.
“I just love to hear people’s feedback,” she said. “To have someone bring in their perspective — it’s just energizing.”
She said photography and, more important, telling a story keeps her going in a field that can be difficult to break through in.
“I don’t know what else I would do,” she said. “This is who I am.”
Just a few tents away, Lee Hovey King also put on her first festival display. A photographer for 25 years, she said the highlight of the event was “making people view photographs in a new way.” Her use of deep layers and striking contrast highlighted the most basic elements of any photo.
She said her secret is mastering her image in its most basic form, rather than letting editing software run away with the ideas.
“It helps to have a collaborative collection of different types of art so everyone can truly find what moves them,” she said of the event.
Saturday’s festivities included live music and artist demonstrations, including an exhibit by Tim Flynn, a wire sculptor. While molding copper-coated wires into a precise globe, he explained the complex formula behind his art, which will go on display at the Niza Knoll Gallery in November.
“I’ve been doing it so long, I ran out of simple ideas,” he said of the globe, which had already seen more than 30 hours of work and calculations.
“I think it’s great for the city of Denver, great for downtown and great for the artists,” said spectator Joe Wujek of Littleton. He said he has lived in the area for 29 years and only recently started hanging out downtown again, something he said was enhanced by events like these.
“It’s pretty amazing,” he said.
Jason Pohl: 303-954-1729, jpohl@denverpost.com or
