Returning readers of Humanitou will recognize some currents that run through the conversations. The line I use to describe the site’s purpose is: “Stories of Humanness + Creativity.” In the heart of that tagline is passion, the warm-blooded energy that compels any one of us — all of us — Read more
Spiraling down the iron stairs Kyle Frerichs installed in the center of his house, we enter a tightly organized workshop. It goes far beyond the common — peg boards holding the hand tools and a workbench with a vise mounted at the corner — to another height of possibilities. There Read more
Layla Redding starts water to boil on the stove while we sit in her living room, awash with natural light. Art from her friends hangs on each wall. A bookcase next to the door includes books of yoga and nutrition, and a Cyndi Lauper memoir. While we talk, we sip Read more
Dustin Booth leans back in a chair in the Manitou Art Center, something he rarely gets to do while juggling many hats as manager of the MAC. He uses the word “fortunate” often as he tells his story. He laughs and smiles. He’s easygoing. An artist with a varied background, Read more
Peggy Dlugos takes me to a back corner of her home, to a just-right cozy and tidy work space. A pair of full-sized windows on both walls let in light, awareness of nature, and views of Garden of the Gods. “This is where I am most of the time, during Read more
Rhonda Van Pelt has a one-of-a-kind role in Manitou Springs. As Managing Editor of the Pikes Peak Bulletin since April 2015, she’s immersed in all things news and conversation-worthy in this mountain town, population 5,000+. Having grown up in Pueblo, Rhonda moved to the Pikes Peak region in 1993. “I Read more
Melanie Audet turns off the rock polisher her young daughters, who now are at school, like to use. “My kids love to collect rocks. They take after their mother, I guess. I don’t know. I always collected a rock from wherever I went, too.” The noise settles to silence in Read more
I love my Humanitou work. Every conversation is an opportunity to connect with an individual creator/contributor and our community, and with something deeper. I learn. I ask questions that are of self-interest along the way, ones I think others will appreciate and apply in their lives. This is a creative, Read more
Deborah Thornton’s imagination runs wild. The possibilities. A creative leader in Manitou Springs for 35 years, she grew up in the South. Then, she headed West. There were times she felt the tug to return to the land she loved nearly a thousand miles east. But it couldn’t overpower the Read more
In a single-car garage on Manitou Avenue, Christine Costa carves out her career break. An architect by trade, she and her husband, Dominic Costa, a welder, moved to Manitou Springs from the Detroit area this past summer. Two motorcycles rest side by side in the garage. At the back wall Read more
When I asked Rockey, several months ago, about a sharing a series of his insights on life, art and Manitou Springs, he liked the idea. He is a man of messages, with love at the center, and giving. “I don’t mind sharing,” Rockey said. “In fact, that’s one of my Read more
Sophie Cowman sits quietly behind a table in her quiet shop along quiet Lovers Lane. On the days Sophie opens a window while she works, she can hear Fountain Creek in its perpetual run beneath her seat, beneath the shop’s bricks and floor boards. Sophie has been carving wood in Read more
Kat Tudor often is described as the visionary behind SunWellness (SunWater Spa, SunMountain Center, Smokebrush Foundation). But the vision runs so much longer and deeper than these relatively new SunWellness expressions of her vision in Manitou Springs. Having moved to the Colorado Springs area in 1973 to attend Colorado College, Read more
I’ve always said I can’t draw. I’m sure I’m not the only one who sets that limit on him/herself. And I’ve always wanted to draw. I’ve always wanted to be an artist, to feel confident identifying myself as an artist. But, like many, I’ve been fed definitions of what being Read more
Rockey sits at his weathered wood table in his print shop. Big storefront windows on Cañon Avenue in downtown Manitou Springs give him the light and views he enjoys. Rockey, 85, is an artist, a retired art teacher, and a man treasured by countless who live in or pass through Manitou Springs. Read more
Rockey is a retired art teacher, an artist, a man beloved in Manitou Springs. At 85, he often is found in his print shop and apartment — adjoined and both full of art — on Cañon Avenue downtown. He watches passersby and welcomes those with the curiosity to open his door. Read more
It’s Saturday. John Posusta sits on his porch with Cooper, a 6-ish-year-old Shih-Tzu/Bichon Frise. They watch the coming-and-going of Manitou in summer. Tourists march up Ruxton Avenue. With a raised seat on his front porch, John watches them stream. On road and sidewalk. Up and down. If the passersby look Read more
Update: Create Cafe closed in May 2018, nine months after this conversation. Yet the history, heart and craft of chef Lyn Harwell continues. So, this story lives on. An Ohio farm boy by way of New Orleans. A chef with hands in the soil that breathes life into the kitchen, Read more
Rockey is a retired art teacher. Thirty-five years. There is a lightness to the 85-year-old’s face and voice when he talks about teaching art to junior-high students. He taught in Colorado Springs. The second in this “Words with Rockey” series starts with asking Rockey about his teaching years. It moves Read more
Chickens wander in the garden behind Nikos Pulos and Melanie Audet’s art studio … once a horse barn. Once a mother-in-law cottage. Now a creative haven he and she share. Nikos shoos the chickens out of the garden. They move to wandering the yard and driveway between the studio and Read more