8 SEPTEMBER 5-11, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Paint the Town THE COLFAX CANVAS MURAL FESTIVAL IS BRINGING A RAINBOW OF COLOR TO AURORA. BY JOHN FL ATHMAN It’s a blazing August afternoon, and Aaron Vega is taking us on a tour of the bustling Au- rora Cultural Arts District, which stretches along several busy blocks of East Colfax Avenue. We never make it more than a couple feet before he has a tantalizing new eatery or eye-catching mural to point out. “There is a larger story to tell about East Colfax, and I think we often get pigeonholed into one,” says the producer and curator as we stroll. “The second you spend more than fi ve minutes in this area, you realize it is a vibrant community. There’s all the pieces and parts you want for healthy society. The question is: Can we bring them together, support the good and try to make things better for everybody?” For four years, Vega has been hard at work putting those pieces together as executive producer of the Colfax Canvas Mural Festival and block party, an event he founded with partners Kristin Sutter and Ryan Foo. An Auroran himself, his fest is responsible for the art that has abundantly blossomed throughout the neighborhood. Because of Colfax Canvas, there are now dozens of murals there, splashed across businesses, peeking out over rooftops and fi lling alleys with color. After Labor Day weekend, the painting period for the festival’s fi fth installment will begin, adding fi ve new pieces to that count. A neighborhood block party with musicians, DJs, food and vendors at Fletcher Plaza will celebrate their completion from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday, September 14. Drawn from more than 130 applications, this year’s artist teams include ILL.DES, Anna Charney and A.L. Grime (Mango House, 10180 East Colfax); George F. Baker III, Isaac Lucero and Sofi Rami (Scorpion Tax, 1408 Del Mar Parkway); Danielle See- Walker and Cante Eagle Horse (DIA Mar- ket, 1408 Del Mar Parkway); and BiRD and Dreamscape (Vintage Theatre, 1468 Dayton). A last-minute pop-up mural addition at Second Dawn Brewing Co. (2302 Dayton) will be painted by Skela as part of a partner- ship with the brewery to offer shuttle service on September 14 between the Fletcher Plaza block party and Stanley Marketplace. As in previous years, these artists represent the best mix of up-and-coming and veteran muralists in the metro area, with styles ranging from realistic to fantastic to cartoonish and every- thing in between. Walking tours during the block party and virtual tours provide a guide to the growing open-air gallery; as you explore the area, you can use each mural’s pasted QR code for navigation. Arranging its artists in teams sets Colfax Canvas a bit apart from other events of its kind, which tend to have a bill with headliners, à la music festivals. “Some artists, they’re lone wolves, they want to work alone,” notes Vega. “Totally respect it — that’s just not our vibe.” Making Colfax Canvas entirely collabora- tive was one of several key changes imple- mented after its 2020 debut; the most notable other tweak was establishing a neighborhood Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility committee for the selection process. In year one, Vega and his team partnered with popular local muralist Chad Bolsinger to source artists. “He did an amazing job,” recalls Vega, “but Kristin and Ryan and I sort of took a step back after it was done, and we went, ‘I know this is how it’s being done, where headliners get this much money and other people are painting for free. Like, I understand it intellectually, but it doesn’t feel like it represents this neighborhood. It doesn’t feel like it’s a good model for this.’” The city of Aurora, like the mural festi- val’s artist lineup, is distinctly diverse. It has a larger percentage of Latino citizens than Denver, and the city is home to a sizable refugee population, with large communities of Ethiopian, Eritrean and Nepalese descent, among others, settling there in the last decade. Area foodies have become highly attuned to its jaw-dropping variety of eateries, both in the Arts District and in growing Korea Town to the south. After the fi rst year of Colfax Can- vas, when Vega realized that they were on to something, building out the DEIA component seemed a no-brainer. “You can’t really talk about art in this neighborhood unless you’re talking about: Where do you come from? Who do you represent? Who do you feel like you speak for?” he says. “And those questions have been really exciting, because it means that the kind of artists we’re bringing into the festival now is much more representative [of the city].” A case in point is the return this year of one of the most notable Colfax Canvas alums: Lakota multi-disciplinary artist, muralist and activist Danielle SeeWalker. A citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, SeeWalker brings a healthy dose of perspec- tive and style from her heritage alongside her interest in mixed-media experimentation. Her work can already be found all over the Front Range, from Empower Field to CU Boulder, the Denver Indian Center, North High School and various neighborhood spots around town. This will be her second appearance at the festival after taking part in a collaborative mural with Amanda Vela-Charbonneau, Cal Duran and Patrick Maxcy in 2021; she’s also an organizer for Babe Walls, Denver’s female, non- binary mural festival. That’s where she met her painting partner for 2024, Cante Eagle Horse. This year, SeeWalker wanted to try something different from her typical use of strong colors, so they will be creating a grayscale mural with magpies and fl oral designs, which are signifi - cant in Lakota storytelling and visual aesthetics. “My mural work is a lot different from my studio and fi ne-art practice,” SeeWalker says. “I like to do a lot of bold, sort of fl at, 2-D, graphic- type murals, very colorful. It is kind of inspired by something called ledger art, which is a Plains Indian style of artwork that is tied back to my ancestors. Before we had a written language, we documented everything by drawing.” Usually created on animal hide, ledger art was primarily practiced by a tribal member known as a “winter count keeper,” who documented important happenings in the community through drawing. After the Lakota were forced onto reservations and forcibly removed from their hunting-based lifestyle, hide canvas was replaced by ledger paper, which began to be used for the same purpose. Today’s Native artists often seek out these historical documents as an infl uence for their own modern practice. “I do it in a mural form,” SeeWalker says, “so my style lacks a lot of detail, but it’s very bold, vibrant and graphic.” The artist often uses this ancient format to represent Native people as they are today, sometimes with a mix of traditional and modern styles. “It’s to really draw this concept of we still are here, but we keep our culture intact while also living in a contemporary society.” Navigating that duality can be tricky. In the case of Colfax Canvas, SeeWalker was concerned about aligning with the City of Aurora, which rejected a land acknowledge- ment proposal in 2022; the proposal was dismissed during a heated city council ses- sion in which conservative members claimed Aurora was “God’s CULTURE continued on page 10 KEEP UP ON DENVER ARTS AND CULTURE AT WESTWORD.COM/ARTS Artists take a moment to appreciate their work at Colfax Canvas. KEVIN VRAI
