Postcards from Trinidad

Not THAT Trinidad. The one in southern Colorado. (Southern as in a scant 10 miles or so from the New Mexico border.)

We're just back home from another amazing, inspiring, intriguing, paradigm-challenging Colorado Art Ranch Artposium. As always, we enjoyed intriguing speakers and workshops, this time in an examination of how sexuality and gender influence art, society, and behavior. Among the presenters: a performance artist who sews beads on sports trading cards and knits his own superhero costumes, the foremost gender reassignment surgeon in the country, and authors who write sensitively and humorously about biology, relationships, and sexuality. Links to the various speakers can be found on the Colorado Art Ranch website, so I won't repeat them all here, but do check them out. On the evening social schedule? A reception featuring "torch songs" by Gavin Maurer and my own Darling Man, David.

No, Gavin and David did not empty all those wine bottles themselves. Really. Can you see the Colorado Art Ranch label? They're premiums for contributors. Really. I'm not kidding.

During the breakout sessions I participated in a workshop with artist Katy Haas, who provided materials and inspiration for creating small figurative wire sculptures. It was so fun to "draw" with wire in three dimensions... oh dear... do I feel another supply store run coming on?

We took the long way home along the Highway of Legends scenic byway and through the Wet Mountain Valley. (long contented sigh) It's the sort of country that makes me happy to live where I do, and doubly happy to explore it with someone for whom it's all brand new.

Tomorrow it's back to what passes for normal routine around here, but WHEW! It sure was great to get a little perspective change: geographically, intellectually, socially....

The next Colorado Art Ranch Artposium happens this fall near Paonia, Colorado. The next topic? FOOD! You don't really want to miss THAT one, do you?