AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

(click on the links to view accompanying photos)

Living in Colorado (my state of birth) is an incredible experience. I drive 30 minutes to and from work every day along the front range of the Rockie Mountains between Boulder and Longmont. Boulder is roughly 40 miles north of Denver, Longmont is another 20 miles north east. It is one of the most beautiful drives in the country I think. Even after dark (I work the graveyard shift) when I drive into Boulder, if there is any snow on the ground, particularly with a full moon, the view is absolutely breathtaking and yet somehow slightly erie. In the early 1980's I lived in Breckenridge up in the mountains, on full moons it was like total daylight there. As a poet and photographer, I find all of this very inspiring.

I digress.

The point is ... I carry one of my 35mm cameras in my car at all times, hoping to catch images of my surroundings whenever possible. I frequently stop on highway 119 (a local death-trap to say the least) to take pictures, as well as, in Boulder and Longmont themselves.

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Over the last year or so, I have been keeping an eye on Graffiti activity in Longmont. I like to take pictures of the Graffiti and manipulate them (usually with interesting results). One of the best locations, on the corner of Lashley and 3rd Street, there is an abandoned strip mall that is frequently repainted. The last time I took pictures at this strip mall, there was a series of paintings of 'late' musicians done only in black and white. Very cool! I took a number of shots of these (some of which I colorized). My wife and I have started making T-shirts with my photos, so our sons received some of these particular T-shirts for Christmas. They were a huge hit at school with the other kids.

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About 2 weeks ago, my wife came home and told me that there were some new paintings being done, so we jumped in the car and went to look. We arrived at the spot to find that the artist was there doing his thing. Ah, just my thing, I had to talk to the guy. You know, I wanted him to know that his work was appreciated. We all need encouragement!

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The artist's name is Ceres. It turns out that his uncle owns the abandoned strip mall, so he has free reign to paint as he likes. I wanted to know about the black and white paintings, "It as harder than doing color" he told me, I immediately understood this having worked with black and white photography for years myself. The variations in shades, the gray scale (as it were) is why ... much more subtle than color. I also wanted to know roughly how long it took him to do a face, he told me about 2 hours with breaks and people stopping to visit. He was very friendly with us, music was playing from his car and scattered around were cans of spray paint. "A dollar a can", he said, showing me the can in his hand.

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We told him about my pictures of his work and the T-shirts, which delighted him. I took a few pictures of him and his new paintings, which are of the presidential candidates. On that particular day, he was preparing to paint John Edwards. Already done, were Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, John McCain and Huckaby. He paints from a photograph that he holds in his hand.

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When we left to go home, Rene suggested that we give him one of the T-shirts that we had made of his work. I agreed, so we went home (just a few minutes away), picked up a shirt and brought it back to him. When we pulled out into the street, in my rearview mirror I saw him putting on the shirt. I didn't think about it at the time, but I should have turned around and taken another picture of him with the shirt on. I didn't.

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Oh, and his next project after the elections ... a war scene. "I want bombs blowing up and bullet whizzing by". he said.

Jeff