The Santa Fe Art Walk: Art, Architecture and Ambiance

My visit to the Art District on Santa Fe Drive during their first Friday of the month ‘art walk’ took me to a whole other planet. I was shocked and put in a state of awe by not just the wildly unappreciated art that is collected here but by the nature of the people that are housed by these streets and the voyeurs in which visit.

During my visit to Denver’s art walk I became enriched with the history and life that these streets entail. I couldn’t help myself but had to look into the background that lies within these buildings. The Art District became what it is in 2003, by the conjoining of seventeen different types of art-related museums, theaters, and galleries. This group was organized as a non-profit group and thus their mission statement was born: "The Art District on Santa Fe is dedicated to promoting public awareness of Santa Fe Drive as a unique art and cultural district, and furthering the arts and art education in the metropolitan community."

What I found most interesting about the Art District was not only the opportunity to see different kinds of art not just through the photography medium, but through the theater where they host plays every month, and even the tattoo shop that is included on this strip. The Art District is not blind to only one source, medium, or influence of art. Even in Santa Fe’s little coffee shop, there is canvas art hung on the walls, although I did notice that many of these portraits did not receive much attention, yet still had prices noted—indicating that they are working artists.

The diverse multiculturalism that the Art Walk defines is a multitude of observers, painters, musicians, gallery owners, dancers, restaurateurs and Santa Fe Drive residence. When I was just beginning to warm up to the vibe that the Art District brings, I found myself walking up a flight of stairs with a sign and arrow indicating there were more galleries in the upper floors. I then realized I was walking into a person’s studio apartment. Doors wide open, candles lit, art displayed, and snacks provided. I felt instantly uncomfortable just bombarding someone’s home and voyeuristically peering into their lives. My friends however, had no issue and reached for the bowl of provided pretzels and offered me one. I whispered to them, “Let’s go! We can’t just go waltzing in stranger’s homes! You just don’t do that!” Just minutes after my uncomfortable escape we had reached another supposed ‘gallery,’ but to my dismay we were in yet again…another stranger’s home! It was confusing to decipher which art was created by the artist and what was bought at Pier One. But the fact that these artists merge their lives into their galleries and welcome viewers is showing how in sync they are with their art. What these artists have going on here is more than just a “home business,” it’s their livelihood.

The smell of wine and the sound of music down Santa Fe made for not just an eclectic appeal, but the way the community is fully enriched in their craft resonates in the atmosphere. By having the first Friday Art Walk, average Joe’s and art critics alike are given the opportunity to be exposed to art’s many different mediums and twists in genre. The lack of direction and signage within the Art Walk allows viewers to mosey through galleries and apparently homes without a biased influence so that they are able to decide for themselves, which is ‘art’ and what is simply graffiti or a print at a coffee shop.

Art is defined as the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way to affect the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations and modes of expression. The Art Walk has become the place to be on the first Friday of the month. Its popularity allows the Denver community to express their interest in the art that is show cased during the Art Walk and in a way has become a work of art itself. It reminds people that outside of their small personal bubble they live their daily life in, there is more. More people to encounter, more places to see and more moments to remind you new creations are ever evolving around us. To allow not only the viewers to be surrounded by the unknown but also the shop owners and artists who one night will have the pleasure of finding or reencountering the delicious food, exotic dance, uplifting music or work of art, that takes their breath away.

DenveRhetor: Artwork vs. Art Walk

On the first Friday of every month, the city of Denver puts on a free public event in the art district on Santa Fe Avenue. On these Friday nights from 6-9 pm, the general public can walk up and down the 5 blocks, visiting any of the numerous art galleries along the strip. Last Friday, I had the pleasure of experiencing this art walk for myself and I was amazed at what a great event the city of Denver puts on. However it wasn’t actually the art that stood out for me, it was the actual event, the art walk that I was impressed by. In fact, I found the artwork and the art walk to be two very different things.
While the art was truly amazing and the pieces themselves were clearly made by very talented artists, it was too hard for me to define a certain exigence or purpose for a lot of the pieces. One piece especially got me thinking about this idea. The work wasn’t any beautiful scenery or careful portrait. It was merely a compilation of splattered paint on a massive 12-foot canvas. Sure, one could argue that a piece like this was to go against the norm, or to show a shift from traditional paintings, but those ideas have been around for decades. It came to me while staring at this piece, that while this was an amazing piece of artwork, it really had no true purpose besides visual appeal. There was no certain exigence or specific reason it had been created, nor was there a defined call to change it was trying to send out. Keeping this in mind, I continued on to at least a dozen other galleries and while some had slight messages behind them, I failed to come up with solid reasoning as to what changes the artists wanted through their pieces. To me they just served as eye candy with price tags on them. The same process was difficult for me in defining an audience. With so many different interpretations surrounding these abstract pieces, its easy for audiences to be torn apart in analyzing a painting too much.
After reflecting on the event as a whole though, I realized how different the art walk was than the art itself. The city of Denver puts on this free event for more than just visual appeal. The monthly art walks are to bring a city of 600,000 people together into a tightly knit community who can come together for once and appreciate something simple in life. Throughout the course of my night, I saw people ranging from babies, to grandparents, and from the wealthiest of wealthy to homeless. (Of course the homeless were probably just there for the free food, but still there was quite the variety). I found that there was a defined exigence to change the scattered city of Denver and bring together a community who can recognize the value of art at its finest. Its audience is the city of Denver and specifically those lacking a central theme in their life. Art can be very powerful and by presenting a free public art walk, it not only gives the artists satisfaction, but it provides contentment for the people as well.
The term Maxwell’s Demon represents the idea of an ancient experiment preformed by James Clerk Maxwell to defy the 2nd law of thermodynamics and to show that while all things die, there will always be something to keep it alive. Historian Henry Brooks Adams attempted to apply this as a metaphor to history in general, making the claim that instead of moving towards equilibrium, countries are moving away from each other and becoming more and more separated, all while being in the same planet. What he meant was that the world wouldn’t “run properly” if every country was the same. We need some separation in order for the world to live up to what we expect in society. From this, we can pull out a specific thought of things being very different but at the same time, both being needed for correctness. While they may be very different, each of their presence is entirely necessary at the same time. I chose to apply this idea of separated things (or even opposite things) in one to the idea of “artwork vs. art walk”. While the artwork often has no one exigence or purpose, it is the central theme for an art walk. Even though the two are in essence opposites (art is visually appealing with no call to change and an art walk builds a community to appreciate a common premise) they support each other perfectly and combine for an event not to be missed. It may seem like a pretty farfetched idea but I think that by each of us being able to interpret each piece in our own way, we are in a sense taking part in a collective act. Thus, by the art works having no exigence, and the art walk having a definite one, the metaphor for Maxwell’s Demon is perfected. Because we are all being different in our interpretations of the art, the art walk is able to bring properly serve as a communal event.
To parallel this idea, I chose the theme of the yin yang. The yin yang symbolizes two opposite ideas (represented by black and white) and shows that while they are still completely different, they support each other nonetheless.
For a more artistic representation of this, I chose the idea of the art walk to be the background of the white portion in the yin yang and the idea of artwork to be the white circle in the black background (an abstract piece of art too). Instead of digitally editing this picture with a program, I chose a different representation and cut out the pieces myself for a more artsy effect, similar to that of the art I saw on Friday night. Even though the two are complete opposites when it comes to their exigence and their purpose, without the one, the other would be nothing. Just as the yin needs the yang, artwork needs an art walk to achieve its full effect.

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