Under a Clear Blue Sky is a collection of collages and prints answering the question “What could Suncor be?”. The Suncor oil refinery in Commerce City has been a known source of pollution and severe adverse health effects for decades. These works explore how the site could be transformed into something new that serves the interests of the surrounding neighborhoods while contributing to Colorado’s ambitious goal to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The theme is inspired by activists like printmaker Favianna Rodriguez and marine biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson who both use their platforms to creatively envision a healthier and more sustainable future. 

What lies ahead? Reimagining the world. Only that. 

 – Arundhati Roy

Lucy's studio practice begins with sensory observation of her surroundings in metro Denver. The colors and textures that make up where she lives and recreate slowly accrue in my mind, creating a cache of ideas to draw from in her studio. She transcribes her observations by printing vibrant monotypes on her 60 year old letterpress and, more recently, manipulating clay and wood into abstract shapes. She then cuts, layers, arranges, and rearranges these materials into vibrant compositions. The process often involves a treasure hunt for the perfect snippet to complete a collage, and sometimes she deconstruct older works and incorporates the components into new pieces. 

The process is not unlike that of a city adapting as its population grows. Just like her collages, the composition of the built environment and the people living in it are also in constant flux. Fortunately here in Denver there is a fascinating history of flexibility in city planning and growth. Two industrial sites; the Rocky Mountain Arsenal and Stapleton Airport, were carefully repurposed around the turn of the last century. The Arsenal was a chemical weapons manufacturing facility where horrific toxins like napalm and sarin gas were created. After operations ceased in 1982 the extreme levels of pollution earned it designation as a superfund site, meaning it is known to the EPA to pose a major risk to human health. After a decade of clean up the 27 square miles were turned into a wildlife refuge where wild bison roam just a few miles from downtown Denver. 

Stapleton Airport is another example of creatively reimagining infrastructure in Denver. Stapleton was crucial to putting Denver on the map as a hub of commerce in the west in the 50’s and 60’s, but city planners could see far in advance that the airport would eventually be outgrown. In 1989, Stapleton was operating at full capacity and DIA was six years away from completion. But that didn’t deter city planners from creating an ambitious plan for redeveloping the site into neighborhoods after it was no longer in use. Denver broke ground on Central Park in 2001 and it’s now one of the largest and most successful urban redevelopment projects in the United States.

These two examples show how infrastructure in our city that has outlived its usefulness can be creatively repurposed. A third site is prime for this same approach: the Suncor refinery. Though the refinery is integrated into our current infrastructure and economy, it’s time to start planning for what comes next. Our state aims for 100% net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and relocating, downsizing, or eliminating the refinery altogether will be essential to meeting these goals and to improving air quality and health for all Denver residents. 

ArtLab Interns proposed a variety of solutions for the site including an animal sanctuary, an arts complex, and a sunflower themed amusement park, among others. Luy chose to focus on affordable housing because she was fortunate to purchase an income-restricted townhouse in the summer of 2024. The two maps on the wall show a real street pattern in a Central Park neighborhood, and then an imaginary street pattern in a future housing development on the Suncor site. The converging housing, affordability, and climate crises facing our state deserve the type of drastic action that would be needed to make a change to Suncor. Lucy hopes this exhibition can serve as a catalyst for that type of planning and action.

www.lucyholtsnider.com

@lucy.holtsnider

Eileen Roscina is an artist, experimental filmmaker and naturalist from Denver, Colorado. She holds an MFA in Art Practices from the University of Colorado, Boulder and a BFA from Emerson College in Boston, MA, and also trained at the School of Botanical Art and Illustration in Denver. Through biomimicry and the study of biophilia, her work examines human’s spiritual and social (dis)connection with nature, and seeks to raise questions about realizing a radically different metaphoric mapping of time, space and our place in the world. Roscina works in 16mm film and animation, sculpture/installation with natural materials and alternative photographic processes. She has exhibited film internationally, and visual art at Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Denver Art Museum, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (Boulder), Museo de Las Americas (Denver), Vicki Myhren Gallery at University of Denver (Denver), Center for Visual Art (Denver), Arvada Center (Arvada), Dairy Art Center (Boulder), University of Colorado (Boulder), Salina Art Center (Kansas) and was the 2019 Resident Artist for the National Western Stock Show, a 2018-2020 resident at RedLine Contemporary Art Center, Denver. She is represented by Walker Fine Art Gallery in Denver, CO.

combat apathy look inward environment recommit shift lifestyle willing sacrifice climate powerless reexamine luxury energy river colorado diet big corporation now self future melancholia solutions changes problem not someone else's fire land time out of rain cooperation stress resilience loss news alfalfa beef lever live without nests everything bottom converse legumes anxiety cultural spreading knowledge zero waste cooking garden information spread repurpose together choice plastic assess recycle compost uplift native lawns impact consume less true cost dinner methane greenhouse grassroots decentering humans indirect enjoy wonder potential driver reflect fly less what's at stake implicate table meal inhibit motivate bandaid compromise irrigation destruction make changes comforts decenter responsibility courage despair vote spend ozone deep time generations from now bring it to the table

www.eileenroscina.com

Instagram: @eileenroscina

Lexy Ho-Tai is an artist, educator and goopey human. Her practice is expansive and ever-changing, but often rooted in exploring human connection, otherness, our inner-child and world-building through craft, play, DIY, monsters and collaboration. Recent projects include: creating a collaborative giant textile cuddle monster with 500+ elementary students, building and burning a wearable heartbreak monster, and making her first stop motion animation featuring tiny puppets of her family. She’s currently dreaming of a surrealist All-Ages Kids TV show with puppetry, masking and more (stay tuned!). She’s bad at small talk, convinced that everything is made up, and uses art to explore alternative ways of being in this world. 

Lexy’s a core member of eco-theater groups Superhero Clubhouse and Agile Rascal Bicycle Touring Theatre. She’s had solo shows at the Museum of Arts and Design and Flux Factory, and has also shown work at the Abrons Art Center, The Highline, and the Museum of Modern Art. Past residencies include Watermill Center, Flux Factory, ARoS Museum, Everglades National Park, Art Farm, Elsewhere Museum, Wassaic Project, Vermont Studio Center and the Museum of Arts and Design, where she was a Van Lier Fellow. Recently, she was a part of the American Craft Council’s Emerging Artist Cohort.

Her exhibition with PlatteForum, “How Strange it is to be Anything at All” is lovingly crafted, and features slightly existential soft sculptures, puppets, wearables, and drawings which come to life in a new stop-motion animation and installation. Throughout Lexy’s residency, she has worked with our ArtLab interns to create mixed media wearable monster costumes and explored the following questions: 

What does it mean to be human? How can we free our minds? How can our bodies be home? 

Lexy invites viewers into a space where you can rest, create, and be amongst the many beings there, which are extensions and mirrors of ourselves. After all, everything is made up and we can be anything at all. So, loosen up your human suits – all parts of you are welcome here. This is a soft place to land.

www.lexymakesthings.com

Blog: https://lexymakesthings.substack.com 

Instagram: @lexymakesthings

Heather Schulte is an interdisciplinary artist in Boulder, CO. Her work combines hand-made textile materials and techniques with digital fabrication and design processes, analyzing the intersection of personal and public forms of language and communication. In 2020 she founded ‘Stitching the Situation,’ a collaborative tapestry documenting the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. She has exhibited throughout Colorado at numerous galleries and contemporary art spaces, including RedLine Contemporary and the Denver Art Museum, as well as various galleries and museums nationally and internationally. Her work has been featured in publications such as, "Fiber Art Now," the "Surface Design Journal," The Denver Post, W.I.R.E.D., and numerous podcasts and independent magazines. She received her BFA from the University of NE-Lincoln in 2003.

Her exhibition explores the notion of “home” as a site for dialogue about socio-political issues. Through an immersive and interactive installation, guests will be invited to settle in and engage with domestic objects, materials, and settings as an intersection of private and public space. We will consider questions of shelter, health, and safety and how they are inextricable from each other and economic and political contexts. In the midst of growing housing crises, refugees seeking asylum, genocidal conflict, and the ongoing effects of a global pandemic, how can we expand our ideas and beliefs about “home” to radically welcome not only other people, but also fully embrace our own selves? Can we reanimate our most intimate spaces and admit these places of dialogue and conflict, illness and healing, cohabitation of private and public selves?

www.heatherdschulte.com IG: @heatherdschulte

Tricia Waddell is the textile artist behind Studio Blkbird, based in Denver, Colorado at Tank Studios. Inspired by her degree in fashion design from the Fashion Institute of Technology and a variety of surface design workshops, her work combines painting and screen-printing with reactive dyes and resists to create visual textures inspired by abstract art, ceramics, and graphic design. Often incorporating mixed media and fiber elements, her current work focuses on soft sculptures that are interior self-portraits exploring mental health issues from processing raw internalized emotions to depression and negative self-talk. Inspired by the beliefs in many cultures that objects and dolls can hold protective, healing, and magical powers as talismans, she strives to create intimate works that embody quiet emotional power and empathy. Her goal is to create space for people to feel seen and heard, while also removing the stigma of discussing mental health, particularly in marginalized communities. Exhibitions include “A Spiral is Linear” at Friend of a Friend Gallery (2023), “Pink Progressions: Collaborations” at the Arvada Center Gallery (2020), and various art pop-ups in the Denver area. She’s a board member at Tilt West and an artist member of the Colorado Art Therapy Association. When she’s not in the studio, she works as an editor, writer, and storyteller creating content for artists and non-profits. www.studioblkbird.com @studioblkbird

Paulus van Horne, a multimedia artist and technology researcher from Lafayette, Colorado, specializes in AI, machine learning, game design, and large-scale audiovisual installations, often incorporating supposedly autonomous digital technology.

Their next exhibition, The Oracle of AI, explores the spiritual intimacy between humans and technology, Paulus prompts viewers to contemplate the implications of AI's role in replacing human emotional care.

Hailing from Albion, MI, Michael Dixon is an oil painter and full professor of art at Albion College. Dixon was born in 1976 to a white mother and black father in San Diego, CA. After participating in genetic testing Dixon found a sister, and subsequently learned he was one of eleven children. This discovery also provided his biological father’s name and identity. Having never met his biological father, Once Lost Now Found: One-Drop of Blood Between Us is a new body of work about his missing biological father and his new-found family members. After 47-years of wondering, Dixon is at the beginning of a new chapter of discovery both personally and artistically.

To learn more about Michael: michaeldixonart.com/home.html To learn more about PlatteForum: platteforum.org/

In this episode, Kenzie Sitterud shares their process and approach for generating new work in an upcoming exhibition, To Dusk. To Dusk replicates the landscape of the Utah desert through material metaphor and is inspired by Sitterud’s Mormon cultural heritage and place of origin. Kenzie shares detail about growing up with quilting and how the desert landscape has inspired sound art and a gradient of colors that can be experienced in To Dusk.

To learn more about Kenzie: www.kenziemckenzie.com/about

Jahna Rae Church shares her inspiration for creating art and the meaning behind her striking portrait paintings. She discusses her journey of facing and overcoming mental health challenges and how it has made her a stronger person. Jahna also talks about the new Community Mentee Residency Program at PlatteForum and invites listeners to attend her debut solo exhibition on January 13th at PlatteForum's Annex Gallery. Tune in for an inspiring and thought-provoking conversation with Jahna Rae about her journey toward strength and resilience.

Jahna Rae Church is a Multidisciplinary Artist and emerging Muralist in Denver, Colorado. She received her degree in Illustration at The Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA in 2017. Jahna Rae specializes in portrait painting and abstraction. She is exploring topics of spirituality, diversity, symbolism, and self-discovery.

To learn more about Jahna visit: jahnarae.com/

Jennifer Maravillas-Bell is a multimedia artist focusing on cartography and land. She utilizes collage, acrylic paint, and found objects to create portraits of cities and places that tell stories of our collective pasts. In her upcoming exhibition, the Artlab interns and Maravillas-Bell will create a series of maps that give voice to their lived experiences and identities as together they explore their immediate surroundings in Denver. She hopes to inspire empowerment for the youth and the viewers involved in this examination and creation while also inspiring connection and investment in the places we exist. In this episode, you will hear intern voices woven together with a series of field recordings inspired by the concept of audio maps as interns speak of places that have impacted them.

To learn more about Jennifer Maravillas-Bell visit: jenmaravillas.com/