Path I take to get to Anderson Ranch Arts Center

Snowmass and Aspen are ridiculously beautiful towns nestled among the pine trees and wild flowers in the summer and surrounded by mountains in the Roaring Fork Valley.  Many of the homes in the area are to die for and belong on the covers of Architectural Digest or a similar magazine.  There is a price to pay for all of this beauty, however, judging by the high price tags of real estate if you want to own a piece of paradise.

Studios and small condos start at $1,000,000+ in Aspen and if you dare to covet a single family home, a single family home starts at $1.65 million in Aspen for nothing special.  Snowmass, which is 10 miles away is slightly less expensive, but not by much.  I wonder who lives here, and if real estate is so expensive, where do the working class people live.  Surely, there has to be a working class – who cleans, cooks, delivers mail, drives buses, mans the ski lifts in winter, etc.?  I found out that many people commute 50+ miles to go to work and live in places like Glenwood Springs, Leadville and other less expensive towns in the environs.  I’m not sure I could do that – and if I have to ask how much something costs, than I really can’t afford it, can I?

Brush Creek along the Mayfly trail in Snowmass

Snowmass is blessed with a network of abundant of hiking and biking trails.  Our condo is about a half mile from Anderson Ranch and I’ve been walking to “work” everyday along the Mayfly trail which follows Brush Creek.  It’s a great way to start the day, and lucky me, it’s downhill on the way to work.

Mayfly sculpture along the trail

In addition to the beautiful wildflowers sprinkling the edges of the trail, roadsides, and valleys, Snowmass (and Aspen) really support the arts.  Art is everywhere, including art tucked into less trafficked places like the Mayfly trail.  When I first happened upon it, I thought it was a dragonfly – but no, the name of the trail is Mayfly.  A mayfly is related to the dragonfly and frequents aquatic areas like Brush Creek.

Imagine my surprise happening upon this guy!

A couple of days ago, I was merrily huffing and puffing my way back up hill along the Mayfly trail after teaching my class and I almost stepped on this snake.  I’m such a city slicker and screamed out loud then jumped over him – heart racing.  I was going to keep going, when I decided to return and take his photo.  I knew it wasn’t a rattle snake and I think there is only one other venomous type of snake in CO, so I carefully returned and snapped his photo.  Someone told me it was most likely a garter snake, but to me, a snake is a snake – unless it’s a rattler, which I’ve been fortunate to have never seen live outside of a zoo.

Now, I keep my eyes open on my walk to and from the Ranch.  Every single day, I manage to see one since they sun themselves on the rocks and live near the creek.  The only other wildlife to watch for are black bears and mountain lions.  Since this is near a fairly well traveled road, I’m fairly confident I won’t run into one of those.  Fingers crossed!

Metal Sculpture at the entrance of the Ranch

Tonight, we’re going to venture to the base of the village in Snowmass and go to see Bonerama, a New Orleans based Brass Funk Rock Band.  I don’t know anything about the band, but it sure sounds interesting and it’s free to boot.  While it costs money to do a lot of things in the area, both Snowmass and Aspen host a variety of free events encompassing all of the arts.  That’s part of the bonus of having wealthy patrons and supporters of the arts in a community.

Speaking of patrons and supporters, I forced myself attend the faculty and staff dinner hosted by one of Anderson Ranch’s board members, Sara Ransford who also happens to be a ceramic artist and supporter of many art’s organizations in Aspen.  I was very nervous about going, but knew it would be a good exercise for me.  I do have the gift of being able to gab to just about anyone about anything from my years working as a flight attendant for UAL (I do think that everything experience is valuable and you just never know when a certain skill will come in handy), but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t give me the jitters nonetheless.  Mostly, I was afraid of making an ass of myself.

Many of the visiting and permanent faculty, staff and instructors met at the home of Andrea (looking for last name – she’s not listed on Anderson Ranch’s website yet), the new program director of photography and digital media at Anderson Ranch for a little get together before carpooling to Sara’s home in Aspen for dinner.  Apparently this happens every other week, so I’m lucky that the get together dinner happened to fall during the week that I’m here.

I met many of the permanent staff of Anderson Ranch and also some of the visiting instructors including book maker Dan Essig, majolica potter Posey Bacapoulos, wood turner Merryll Saylan, photographer and head of the photography department of Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design Gary Emrich, art historian David Brauer, RISD drawing instructor Jay Coogan, Director of Printmaking at Anderson Ranch Matt Christie, fellow children’s workshop instructor Kathleen Blake and photographer and DU instructor Roddy McInnes.  Almost all of the permanent faculty and many of the visiting instructors were present , though I didn’t get to meet everyone.  And then there was little ole me.  Yeah, I sort of have a complex….

I introduced myself to Posey and told her how much I enjoyed her slide show and lecture I attended on Sunday evening.  She doesn’t have a formal art education, but that hasn’t stopped her from becoming a world class clay artist.  While I do have an undergraduate degree in art, I started later in life and there’s definitely hope for me yet – I think you just have to have passion and the energy to make the work for the long term. 

What’s interesting is that for many of the people I have met, it was same ole, same ole.  They’re on the teaching circuit or have been doing this so long that it’s no big deal.  For me, it’s so exciting to meet them and to experience teaching at Anderson Ranch.

Sara Ransford was a gracious host with a beautiful home and dinner was fabulous – a catered spicy Indian meal.  Posey, Merryll, Kathleen and I enjoyed touring the public rooms of her home and we admired her art collection.  Many well known artists were represented in her collection which also included an abundance of recognizable ceramic work. All I can say is PINCH ME!  Am I really experiencing this?  Sorry no photos of the  evening – that would have been a little crass.  Though, I’m sure I’m barely above that right now by blogging about it and dropping names.

I returned home around 8:30 and collapsed in exhaustion since I imbibed at least 3 glasses of wine to help my nervous jitters.

Today, I’m hoping to wander into some of the adult workshop studios to see what the classes are creating after my kid’s class ends at 3:30.  I would love to take an extended workshop in the near future myself.

Feeling jazzed and inspired,

~Cynthia