Manitou - Mr Rockey

After playing at the arcade, we wandered around in tourist mode, checking out the variety of shops and chatting with the locals. Some places offer your run-of-the-mill tourist type products, while others have interesting and unique items - mostly pieces of art.

Speaking of art, I was so thrilled to find that Charles Rockey was in his studio today. This building used to house his massive art collection* and I believe is his home. I can't even begin to tell you all the forms of artwork that he's created during his 80 years, but my favorite thing about Mr. Rockey is that he was my art teacher in junior high. You could not ask for a better art teacher. He was always about creating with whatever was available (long before people were talking about recycling, reusing, and repurposing).

He's drawing on the cover of his church's weekly bulletin. There's a sketch of the church on the cover and he adds to it on a new bulletin every week. He has about 200 of these now.

The door to his studio was open, so we poked our heads in and received a warm welcome. While he's been known for his paintings for some years now, when I was in his class, we created beautiful frames that were made from cardboard, tape, goop, and paint. Goop was this clay substance that he created. On our frames, it was used to look like an ornately carved frame. Once painted, you had no idea that it was clay. We also made little people that were only 2-3" tall out of wire, masking tape, goop, and paint. He has this huge, amazing tree which featured homes, porches, bridges, and a multitude of those little people. It was such an honor that he taught us how to make them. His entire tree was on display at our local Fine Art Center for a time.

It's always fun to go out to Manitou, wander around, and enjoy the day together as a family. And this time was even sweeter, getting to visit with Mr. Rockey. Ironically, he said three other people had stopped in to say that they were in his art class in junior high, too. Of course, he taught for 30+ years, so I imagine there are quite a few of us still around.

Ever the artist, there's no surface on which he won't draw.

* - because of the burn scar left after the Waldo Canyon Fire, there are flooding dangers in many areas in and around the western side of Colorado Springs, including Manitou. Mr. Rockey said he moved much of his collection elsewhere due to the flood warnings that will continue for another ten years.

The other two parts to our day in Manitou are here:

Marilyn's Pizza

The Penny Arcade

Wordless Wednesday - Snow Cherub

Okay, I know that wordless pretty much means without words. But I just have to say that I SUPER LOVE this photo. And not because I took it. Well, I love that I took it. But I also just LOVE it. Not sure that I can even explain why. But I do. So Happy Wordless Wednesday everyone. I hope you shot something you love!

Check out Live From Waterloo and the Wordless Wednesday hub for some more wordless goodness.

Wordless Wednesday - Escape

More wordlessness? Check out Live From Waterloo and the Wordless Wednesday hub.

Wordless Wednesday - Metal Sculpture

For more wordlessness, check out Gabriel's blog and the WW hub.

Wordless Wednesday - Vulture

For more wordlessness, check out the WW hub and Gabriel's blog.

Wordless Wednesday - Caption This

For more wordlessness, go here and here (both include linky).

Wordless Wednesday - Sharp Horse

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Tulips, Squirrel, and a Craft Fair

I seem to be quite overdue for a post of randomeandering. First of all, is this not the cutest little squirrel drawing you've ever seen? My five year old niece drew it. It is just so adorable! I think she did a terrific job.




My friend has a very fun and interesting yard and I just love walking around with my camera. You can look forward to a plethora of shots from her place this summer. To start, I spotted a couple tulips hiding behind an outbuilding.

Our church is hosting a craft fair in few weeks and since I'm on a sewing kick, I thought it would be fun to participate. So I'm making a bunch of cute little accessory/organizer type bags - the kind you can have in your purse or tote or whatever for chapstick, lotion, ibuprofen, iPod, etc.


What does it say about me when I cut out my fabric and feel compelled to lay the pieces in a nice little pattern because I know that it will make an interesting and colorful photo? Ha! Ha! Okay, maybe not THAT interesting, but it was still fun. Before being a shutterbug, I'd just have piled them up in a boring stack.

A portion of the proceeds will be donated to women's ministry for missions. I'm also recruiting Clay Guy to make his cute little sock monkeys - out of clay, of course - to sell there with me.

I have a couple of other things I thought about selling there, but probably don't have the time to do all three. Just have to see how that plays out. I also have NO idea how big the craft fair is, how many people attend, or anything at all. I just know that there's no fee to have a table and a portion of the proceeds will go to a good cause. This is only the second fair, and I wasn't at the first one. So we'll see how that plays out as well.

And hopefully sometime soon, I can finish the blog design, because I really like the completed look just a bit more than this version. In my spare time. Ha! Ha!

Wordless Wednesday - Big Clips

For more wordlessness, go to the WW hub, Gabriel's, or 5 Minutes for Mom (assuming everyone is up and running this Thanksgiving week).

Wordless Wednesday - Groovy Man

Go here and here for more wordlessness.

Wordless Wednesday - Gummy Art

Gummy, "Fat-Free Food" Art

You can see more WW here and here.

Wind Sculptures

Pendulum Clock by Starr Kempf

I'm getting in a little scrapbooking today and my next batch of pictures were taken of the Starr Kempf wind sculptures in Cheyenne Canyon. These are some of THE most amazing works of art I have ever seen. Since I don't have a digital version, you can click on the above link and see each of them. They're really beyond words. Here is another link with many more (and very cool) pictures as well as some descriptions. Being at the base of Cheyenne Canyon, there's a gentle breeze that flows down across Starr's property. This is what gives these kinetic sculptures their mobility. It's remarkable to watch these enormous (30-60') pieces of steel sway as gently as a reed in a breeze.

Sadly, a tremendous amount of turmoil and controversy occurred in recent years over these sculptures. The short version is that Starr's daughter (he passed away in 1995) began running commercial tours (complete with big buses) into this quiet little neighborhood. Needless to say, the neighbors were less than thrilled. The streets were never designed for such traffic.

The sculptures actually violate city code as far as their distance from the street and their height. The piece titled "Bird in Flight" is 60 feet tall. However, no one seemed to complain - until the tours got to be too much. After much legal wrangling, a judge ordered four (I think) of the ten sculptures to be removed.

The only sculpture I have posted here is one that's located in downtown Colorado Springs. The other pictures I have are of his works on his property (see above links), but are not digital.

I'm not even sure I can scrapbook these. I just don't really know how I would do them justice. So here I sit, in awe, remembering the warm sun, the light breeze, the gently moving sculptures, as I look at my photos.

BTW - that's my oldest son at the bottom of that sculpture, which is 47' tall. Gives you some perspective, that's for sure. He was 11 at the time.