‘A simple painting will lift you’: Avon Arts Celebration’s 100 artists shared art and stories
Over 100 fine artists alighted upon Avon to share their work, and their wisdom, with visitors this past weekend
Zoe Goldstein/Vail Daily
The first sense activated as you approach Harry A. Nottingham Park to attend the Avon Arts Celebration is, unexpectedly, your hearing; an artist himself, the event’s curator, Darren Skanson, plays the guitar, and has a friend on the keyboard. Skanson, whose summer art festival series is called Colorado Art Weekend, traffics in stories—he has formed personal connections with each of his artists, and cares deeply about giving them the ability to share their experiences.
The Avon Arts Celebration, which is in its fourth year, has weathered its fair share of complications. The show began in the pandemic summer of 2020, with around 45 artists, and then endured the Avon mudslide of 2021 that forced many artists to move their booths. The conditions were more amenable this weekend; patrons strolled around with free mimosas in the Sunday morning sunshine.
To Skanson, the quality level, and the number of artists, sets his event apart from other art shows in the area, as well as the culture. “I’m pretty laid-back, Colorado,” he said. As he walked through the more than 100 booths he has brought to Avon, he has a word for or about each of his artists, their work, and their stories.
“I originally painted on a dare in the 1980s,” said watercolorist Peter Freischlag. Newly married and living in Chicago, he told his wife that he could recreate a $300 painting they both loved. He has been showing his work ever since, creating art full-time since 2017 in Golden and in Gilbert, Ariz.
“A simple painting will lift you, when there are days when you are down, lift you up and move you forward.” —Ray Goodluck, Diné painter
Freischlag described his style as painting feeling and color. “I am a contemporary impressionist,” he said. His large-scale, one-of-a-kind watercolor paintings are treated with a beeswax resin, making them UV protected and waterproof. They are mostly brightly colored and incorporate elements of nature, and, recently Western cowboy culture. Freischlag is constantly looking to expand and improve his gallery. “Inspiration can come from photographs, it can come from nature. It can come from a butterfly encounter—when I was cycling, at the top of Deer Creek Canyon, where I ran into the monarchs. They all landed on me, I had to stop, and so I started painting butterflies. I had never painted butterflies before,” Freischlag said.
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“The people are very qualified that are coming here. Some of the most wonderful, richest people in the world come (to the Avon Arts Celebration),” said sculptor Charles Sherman, whose latest project has been tall, unique, steel structures that he calls miracle towers. The towers consist of triangles that form pyramids, all balanced on a one-inch wide base. Many of the miracle towers are also decorated with mirrors, glass, and fossils, among other materials.
“They have pyramid energy,” Sherman said. “Pyramid energy is strength and balance. It’s also wisdom,” Sherman said. The energy of the miracle towers, some of which measured 10 feet tall, drew a constant stream of visitors in Avon, who also may have appreciated the designs Sherman painted on his face to accompany his zinc sunscreen.
Ray Goodluck, a Diné (Navajo) Native American who works with acrylic paint, paints in the face of fear. Confronting familial history, to him, is one of the most powerful ways to do this. Goodluck tries to bridge two generations in his painting—grandparents and grandkids. He believes there is a fundamental miscommunication between the two, because they were raised in such different environments. The majority of Goodluck’s paintings are portraits of Native American people, or images of animals that are important in Diné culture. “It’s combining two generations: The elderly’s teachings, which is the subject matter, and the bright colored designs (represent) the young generations,” he said.
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Goodluck came to painting by way of setback: After a 2019 work injury put him temporarily in a wheelchair, he began painting as a way to communicate his interpretation of life. Goodluck works to inspire those who view his paintings to defy fear, and learn to lean on themselves. “You could go anywhere in the world, and they’ll teach you how to think. But there’s nowhere—no school—that will teach you how to pay attention to your feelings, your instincts, your gut. Why? Because that’s more pure, more honest, more direct,” he said.
At art shows, Goodluck looks for people who connect with his paintings. Rather than trying to sell his paintings to visitors, he shares the stories behind them with those who ask. It’s the connection with the paintings that will hold meaning for those who keep them in their homes. “A simple painting will lift you, when there are days when you are down, lift you up and move you forward,” Goodluck said.
Lee Hendrickson, a former research scientist, photographs crystals through a microscope. Before getting into art full-time, he worked in university labs, and then in biotech, and has a degree in biomedical photography. The images of his crystals mimic scenes seen in nature, without any manipulation. Many of the crystals left behind by the evaporated liquid form of chemicals such as acetaminophen, citric acid, and caffeine, resemble forests and sunsets. “People are drawn to the organic fractal quality of the image and the colors. You don’t have to know what it is to still enjoy the composition, and the patterns that are created by nature. The story adds an extra layer that is fun to tell people,” Hendrickson said.
It was impossible to leave this year’s Avon Arts Celebration without feeling uplifted, buoyed by the knowledge the artists all seemed to hold that their work could be a gift to those who took the time to get to know their stories.
