Tag Archives: Denver

Art-ifacts

Another place I tend to spend hours poring over American Indian artwork is the fabulous Denver Art Museum. In addition to things like beadwork, the museum devotes two entire floors to an astonishing range of Indigenous art, from Pre-Columbian pottery to Plains paintings to Salish heritage poles, and everything in between. The collection includes at least one example from nearly every American and Canadian culture—I had no hope of sketching them all, but I was determined to make a respectable start, in any case.

Rainbow colonnade

Remember when I said I’d always wanted to draw Denver’s city hall when it was all lit up for the holidays?

Well, last holiday season I finally got my chance. And the place was even better than I remembered it as a kid—the very definition of merry and bright.

Front Range from the front seat

There are some roads I have traveled so often that I have permanently etched into my memory every landmark, every sign, every single geographical feature along the way. The seventy miles between Colorado Springs and Denver is one of those stretches. When I was a kid, I knew exactly how far we were from our destination by which butte we passed; the profiles of every mountain in every season; and which hill was next to appear on the horizon. Every time I go back, no matter how much farmland has been converted into brand new suburbs, the mountains never change—and my mental map gets retraced with the same lines. On this day, I sketched while the Tailor drove, but I just as easily could have done this from memory—laying out every hill and peak along the route on one long, continuous sheet of paper.

Mile High City Hall

This has always been my favorite building in Denver. When I lived in Colorado as a kid, and my family would visit the city, I always wanted Dad to drive the loop around the Civic Center. Then, as we passed on Bannock Street, I’d look out the window and crane my neck to watch the curved colonnade sweep by.

I still do that, come to think of it. The Tailor and I still have family in Denver, and whenever we’re in town visiting, there I am gazing upward on Bannock Street.

The building becomes a riot of color during the holiday season, when they light up the façade at night. I still haven’t managed to sketch that yet—maybe I’ll bump it to the top of the to-do list.

ETA: Update! I finally got to sketch the City & County Building in its holiday colors—you can find my sketches here.

Head table

Well, I wouldn’t recommend this place to a vegan, but if you like Wild West kitsch (or you use antlers in all of your decorating), this is the place for you.

The Buckhorn Exchange is the oldest restaurant in Denver: it holds liquor license number one! It has served dinner to both Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt, Buffalo Bill Cody, Will Rogers, and numerous other historic guests. The menu of various game dishes is pricey but excellent—I recommend anything with the prickly pear glaze on it. And of course I ordered a Sioux City Sarsaparilla with my meal—all the while wishing I could do a decent impression of Sam Elliott in The Big Lebowski.

Oh, and ladies: if you go, be sure to check out the upstairs washroom. Not only are there two antlered buck heads in there, but the heads are jousting each other. I really should have sketched that, shouldn’t I?

Ah, well. A reason to return.