It’s quiet at the house Shanti Toll shares with his wife, Coreen. The array of a few dozen masks that came from around the world hang prominently within immediate view of the front and back doors. They are silent but full of stories. The landscape framed by large windows at Read more…
KJ Becker pours freshly made coffee and we sit down in her home art studio with a view of Manitou Springs. She begins to make art, painting whatever she feels in each moment on vintage Austrian and German vinyl records. “I use a lot of textures and I kind of 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…
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…
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…
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…
Since starting Humanitou, I’ve been collecting suggestions of who I should talk with in Manitou Springs, who I should profile for the blog. One name came up in at least three independent conversations within the first week or two: Rockey. In two of those conversations, C.H. Rockey was described as Read more…
Alain Navaratne leans back on the family couch. Relaxed. His paintings hang on the wall behind him, and throughout the room. Alain’s most recently completed work, a bit larger than those on the walls, rests on a sizeable easel. It reflects light from the large, sliding door that is open Read more…