Between 2004 and 2005, artist employment increased by 36,000 to a total of 2.1 million workers. Over the same period, the artist unemployment rate declined from 5.1 percent in 2004 to 4.4 percent in 2005. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the artist labor force is made up of architects; art directors, fine artists and animators; designers; actors, producers and directors; dancers and choreographers; musicians and singers; announcers; writers and authors; photographers and other entertainers and performers (a broad category that includes jugglers, magicians, comedians, cowboys and fortune tellers).

Unemployment rates may have shrunk for all artists, but conditions were mixed for individual artist occupations. Employment improved for architects, musicians and singers and announcers. However, unemployment rates increased for photographers, other entertainers and performers, and the category for art directors, fine artists and animators. Architects have the lowest unemployment rate in all artist occupations. The field gained 28,000 new workers and the unemployment rate dropped 0.3 points to 1.7 percent—a rate even lower than the 2.4 percent reported for all professionals, the broader category under which artists fall.

The unemployment rates fell for designers, writers and authors, but these reductions stem from workers leaving those occupations, rather than from employment gains. Between 2004 and 2005, a full 20,000 writers left the field.

The unemployment rate for actors in 2005 fell to 25.5 percent, down 9.3 percentage points from 2004. Actors have the highest percentage of unemployment followed by dancers and choreographers for whom unemployment rose to 10.4 percent.

Multiple jobs

The numbers above reflect those artists who work at their art full-time. Anyone who is working as an artist knows that secondary employment is high for artists. In 2005, the rate for artists holding multiple jobs was 12.8 percent, which is more than twice the 5.4 percent reported for all civilian workers. More than 300,000 workers hold secondary jobs as artists. Of this group, the 96,000 musicians and singers have the highest multiple jobholding rate at 32.1 percent. Other popular secondary artistic careers include radio and TV announcers and photographers.

Earnings

But how much money do artists make compared to the rest of the professional category under which they fall? According to the Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey, professionals drew median annual earning of $40,607 in 2004. Art directors collect the highest median earnings within the artist occupations at $63,840, followed by architects at $60,300, fashion designers at $55,840 and landscape architects at $53,120.

Comparable to the median earnings of all professionals are writers and authors who earn $44,350, interior designers who earn $40,670 and fine artist who earn $38,060. The worst earnings recorded are for dancers who earned a median of only $17,763. Other low-earnings include radio and TV announcers at $22,130 and photographers at $26,080.

Job growth

Become a landscape architect if you are looking for an artistic career with faster-than-average employment growth (defined as growth between 18 and 26 percent), at least that is what the BLS projects. The BLS believes that increased construction and real estate development and compliance with environmental regulations will contribute to expanding employment opportunities for landscape architects.

Don’t become an announcer, a field that is in decline and projected to continue waning. And in spite of the popularity of Project Runway, or perhaps because of its popularity, slower-than-average growth is predicted for fashion designers due to strong job competition and only a few opportunities or openings.

Multi-media artists and animators will likely face stiff job competition as well, but the BLS projects average employment growth (9 to 17 percent) for these and other artist categories, particularly due to increased demand for video games, special effects in the movie industry and computer graphics.

In the dance industry, the BLS projects that any growth in employment will come from large dance companies and troupes affiliated with universities and the movie, music video and fitness industries, but not with small and mid-sized companies who are impacted by rising production costs.

As for musicians, the BLS suggests that most new wage and salary jobs for musicians will be found in religious organizations.

Self-Employment

There is a high rate of self-employment with many artist jobs. The highest rate of self-employment in 2004 was with authors and writers. Sixty-eight percent of us are self-employed. Other high rates of self-employment include fine artists (62 percent), multimedia artists and animators (61 percent) and photographers (59 percent). Performing artists have the lowest self-employment rates with actors at 17 percent and dancers at 20 percent.

Education

For the 19 artist occupations listed, 11 require an advanced degree and some long-term on-the-job-training. The remaining eight occupations require long-term on-the-job-training and work experience.

The bottom line? You can be an artist and earn a living above the poverty level. The numbers just don’t tell you how hard you have to work or define how long it takes to earn that long-term on the job training.

This story was compiled with information from an artist employment report by Bonnie Nichols provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

My friend Shanan Campbell Wells owns Sorrel Sky Gallery in Durango. We talked recently about the gallery business and her new venture SCW Art Consulting.

“The art business is a really tricky, tricky business because you do what you love and what your passionate about and what you believe in and what your behind and you have to have a good pulse on the market and a pulse on what your clientele wants and you act as a mediator to those two worlds and you try to be true to yourself. I can’t just put up everything I love because not everyone has my duplicate taste,” Wells said, then paused. “But I certainly can’t represent stuff I don’t love.”

It’s a delicate balance that many business owners understand. A business can’t be everything to every person that walks through the door; they must be focused. A business can’t sell only what the owner likes; they must understand and provide what the marketplace, the community and their client’s desire.

“It’s a lot about relationship, the people, the experience,” Wells said. “When I first opened [four years ago] I definitely looked at the artwork on its own and now, before I even consider the artwork, I want to know the person—the artist—because I want to deal with really, really great people.”

Wells confessed that she’s had some heartbreaks over the past four years as her business has grown and changed. She represented an artist that she personally loves, but couldn’t maintain the sales levels necessary to keep his work in her gallery. He couldn’t tie up inventory in a gallery in Durango, Colo. that wasn’t selling enough of his work. She also candidly said that she had represented some really great artists who were difficult to work with, so difficult, that she now chooses not to deal with them.

What makes the art business different from any other business is the reason the buyer makes a purchase. Buying art is different from buying anything else.

“It’s not about price, it’s about what makes you feel right,” Wells said. “It’s always about that experience. It’s about something different, something bigger, something else. A lot of it is about deserving. There is so much energy associated with a work of art.”

We buy art because of the energy, because of the heartfelt passion that goes into the work and resonates from the canvas or the clay or the bronze or the silver. I purchased a piece of art this weekend at the Durango Arts Festival—a ceramic vessel fired in a wood fuelled Anagama kiln. It was different from anything else at the festival. The hands of a young woman from Oregon, Terry Inokuma, shaped each piece. Terry and I spoke about art and her desire to capture something as impermanent as fire onto something as permanent as stone; about the ancient art form she is using and the incredible effects fire has on the glaze. Inokuma’s work has an organic feel; her vessels are shaped like pods and seeds, fired under ground for up to 100 hours, they are imbued with the spirit of the earth.

As Wells said: “You don’t become an artist to get rich. You become an artist because you can’t stand to do anything else. You can’t do anything but what you are doing. And then you work your tail off and put your heart and sweat and blood and tears into it and maybe you become successful and maybe you don’t. An artist isn’t doing it because there’s a bunch of money to be made; they are doing it because it is heartfelt.”

It is that passion and energy that we bring into our home when we hang a work of art or install a sculpture. It is that energy that fills the new Mercy Regional Medical Center.

“Art is like having a baby,” Wells added. “If you don’t have one you never will miss it. But once you have a child you can’t imagine your life without them.”

Brad Cochonnet, COO of Mercy Regional Medical Center told Wells recently that he never dreamed what an impact the art would have on the hospital and the community. It’s what everyone is talking about. They aren’t talking about the 2.5 million dollar CT scan machine they are talking about the art.

“Art is typically the last thing on your budget and it’s the first thing that people will remember,” Wells the art consultant said. “You have no idea how impactful it will be to your business unless you have it. But if you’ve never had art you don’t know what you’re missing.”

Yet art is almost always controversial. There are other gallery owners upset because Wells got the job and they didn’t. There are artists upset because their work wasn’t chosen for the hospital. All of which is amazing to me.

Why do artists feel they are entitled to have their work displayed just because they are local? Why does the community feel it can co-opt artists and galleries and art centers? Why do we think art has to be chosen by committee? The fact is—art chosen by committee is usually ineffective. It is the least common denominator and something everyone could agree on. It’s typically so politically correct that the work chosen has no resonating energy.

Interior designers, who either are part of the firm selected to design or build the structure, often choose the art placed in hospitals and office buildings. In the case of Mercy Regional Medical Center, Wells spent five months sending proposals, following up with phone calls and letters and working diligently to get the job. She did this three years ago long before many in the community were aware that a new hospital was being built.

Hospital executives didn’t hire a local construction company to build the hospital; they hired a company experienced in building hospitals. It was the same with the art. Bids and proposals were submitted and a professional was selected to work with the hospital to understand what they wanted and needed and what type of art was appropriate for the many different uses of the building. Wells’ team of experts determined how each work was matted, framed and hung on the wall.

Perhaps if the local artists who were not selected for this project and the other gallery owners who don’t seem to understand the professional process would stop whining and start acting like qualified experts, they might get their work selected for the next project that SCW Art Consulting manages. And with more than a dozen proposals out, SCW Art Consulting is poised to become a major force in the art consulting arena.

“I look at art in a more professional sense as a business that has heart,” Wells said.

I agree. Let’s all be professional and treat art as the serious business that it is.

Review

“On the River,” Sharon Abshagen’s oil of a rowboat. “Ready Made #4,” a sculpture by Bryan Saren. “Beauty and the Beast,” a steel sculpture by Bryan Saren in the foreground, eagle photograph by Claude Steelman, canyon photograph by Marv Poulson and an oil painting by Sharon Abshagen are part of the “Image, Technique, Form” show at the Durango Arts Center.

Certain media do not mix well. A gallery-owner friend of mine follows the aesthetic rule of some museums not to mix photography and painting in the same space. I have to agree.

“Image, Technique, Form” with the work of Brian Saren, Mary Poulson, Claude Steelman and Sharon Abshagen will be on show at the Durango Arts Center 802 East Second Ave. through Aug. 26.

“Image, Technique, Form” at the Barbara Conrad Gallery in the Durango Arts Center would have worked better for me if it were just photography and sculpture. The addition of landscape painting gives the space a disjointed feeling.

I took Bryan Saren’s artist statement seriously. He wrote: “Please enjoy your interaction with the work I have made.” I had some fun spinning the half-moon door to the universe steel sculpture he calls “Rain Caller” ($3,200). I was impressed with the fluidity of motion in the bearings, and I loved the patina on the flat rectangular door shape. The shiny metal orb placed just at center looks too much like a doorknob for me, but the design is balanced.

Saren’s best piece in the show is “Ready Made #4″ ($2,520), an elliptical piece of wood, mirrored by a steel outline of the same elliptical shape, while four perpendicular copper pipes reach from the wood into the steel frame. The smooth copper pipe contrasts with the texture of the worn wood. The solid shape is balanced by its sister hollow form – the lines and circles expressing a point, counterpoint, a yin and yang.

Earlier this summer, Saren won a sculpture competition to commemorate Durango’s 125th anniversary. His winning work will be shown in front of City Hall by the end of the year.

Saren’s work is complimented by the photography of Marv Poulson. Poulson captures images of pattern, light and shadow. In “Direction III” ($385) an archival color photo of canyon walls, the image is abstracted and almost seems like a close-up of wood shavings. And in “Blend Column I” ($385) the detailed lines in the canyon walls look like brush strokes of paint. In “Wet Slot Wall I” ($385), Poulson has managed to capture a figure in the reflections of light in the chocolate-colored water of a canyon. An illusion in nature.

I would like to see Saren and Poulson show their images, technique and forms together again.

As for the other photography in the show, let’s just say I am envious of Claude Steelman’s equipment, the camera and lens that captured the tiny little feathers on the head of an eagle in “Eagle Portrait” ($225). I commend the tenacity of wildlife photographers like Steelman who spend hours, days, even weeks waiting for the opportunity to capture the moment an eagle pulls a fish out of the water in “Eagle Catching Fish” ($375). And if it was a lucky shot, I don’t want to know.

Sharon Abshagen has the most work in this show, a total of 22 paintings. Steelman has nine photographs and Poulson 11. Saren has ten sculptures in the exhibit.

I did like “On the River” ($375) a small painting of a rowboat moored to the water’s edge. I particularly liked Abshagen’s brush technique, the cubes of paint in the water balanced by the smooth strokes of the land and sky above and below. The light captured in this image is serene and I particularly liked the bit of red paint at the knot tying the rope to the boat. In this painting Abshagen captures a moment, but also a narrative. There is a story to this boat tied up to the rocks on the river.

The other work of Abshagen’s that evoked emotion for me were her two paintings of dogs: “My Path” ($575) and “Sporty’s Last Stand” (NFS). There is life in these two paintings that is somewhat lacking in Abshagen’s other work. I couldn’t help but think after reading her artist statement that Abshagen is trying too hard to capture the stillness she hopes to reflect in her work.

The show is clean and well lit. All work is hung on center and the open floor space allows for breathing room. Each artist framed her or his work consistently, Poulson used cherry wood, Steelman walnut and Abshagen must have spent a small fortune on her thick, elegant gold frames. The visitors who came through the gallery the day I visited seemed to enjoy the show overall.

But I continue to long for a group show at DAC that feels cohesive. I want to see not only image and technique. I want to see form, the verb: The bringing together of parts to create something more.

artsjournalist@centurytel.net Leanne Goebel is a freelance arts journalist based in Pagosa Springs

Tell your story. Make it a good one with a beginning that draws the reader or listener in, weave in some characters overcoming challenges and give us a splashy or simple ending. Now put it all down on paper and call it a press release.

Getting your story in the paper is easy. Make it compelling. Make it newsworthy. Tell the editor why your business is unique and send out press releases. I’m amazed at how many businesses do not take the time to create a press release. To inform the media of what is happening at their company. We spend so much time creating our business and keeping the doors open that we forget what a valuable friend the media can be to our success.

Here are some simple tips for public relations success. First and foremost, it is called public relations. Build a relationship with the editor of your newspaper, a magazine, the radio announcer or programmer. Find out what they consider newsworthy and what sort of needs they have. Small newspapers are always looking for material to fill their daily or weekly pages.

Tell the who, what, where, when and how of an event. Use a catchy headline. Put all the contact information at the top including phone numbers, email, websites, etc. Most word-processing software offer a template to help you create a press release. The first paragraph includes the location and date of an event and one or two sentences about it. Paragraph two is more information. Include some quotes from clients. Paragraph three includes the contact information. Actually write the press release like a newspaper article in third person as if you are the reporter asking questions. Put those comments in quotations. Many newspapers want material they can cut and paste into their empty spaces. Make their job easier and you are likely to get your story in the paper—especially if you include one or two high quality images to go along with the story.

Creative tip: Sometimes, an image says more than a press release. If you had an event at your business—say the local boy scouts washed cars in your parking lot. Take some photos, pick out the best one and send them to the newspaper with just a short sentence telling what happened.

Include your business name. Just be sure your digital images are high quality. Most newspapers require a minimum of 300 dpi (dots per inch) and an image size of 5”x7”. This means, they have to be able to print a 5”x7” photograph with at least 300 dots of ink per inch.

Also, before you send off a digital image to the newspaper, let them know it is coming. Photos are often very large file attachments and will get sent to span folders in many email programs. Return to the first tip I mentioned above. Build a relationship with the newspaper. Make sure they have your email address on record before you send off a press release and images.

Now, you have a press release. You have your photos. What do you do with them? If you followed my first and foremost tip, you have been in contact with newspapers around the region or magazine editors. You have started to build a database of contacts. You know whether they want to receive your press release digitally via email with or without an attachment. You know that their deadline is Monday at noon. You’ve talked to the business editor and the calendar editor. You have created a separate fact file for the calendar editor and can send the information off to her about your upcoming event. You know that it is the managing editor and not editor-in-chief at the magazine who peruses press releases. You’ve done your homework and you send out the material and you start over trying to find something newsworthy to submit to the media next week.

When do I send a press release? You are asking. I’m not having an event. Well, there are plenty of opportunities to send out press releases. Events are often key because they are unique to the day-to-day operations of your business. Other times it is appropriate to send out press releases include: new hires, a lot of business publications have a special section devoted to people and their new jobs, and often they will include a photo of the new employee; any remodeling, expansion, additions to the menu, changes that happen at your business; any special training or education programs completed by employees; anything unique and compelling about the people who work for you and with you—did you recently learn that the senior citizen you hired to work one day a week was a nuclear physicist at Los Alamos and is now selling cookies at your bakery? Human-interest stories are the most intriguing for readers and magazines and newspapers love them. Consider the unique stories of your employees as an emerald mine of opportunity for your business.

Press releases and public relations are key ways to get your business mentioned in the media. Build relationships with the people who can help you and don’t forget to send your press releases to key clients and customers. Keep them apprised of what your business is all about and your name foremost in their mind.

Leanne Goebel was the marketing and public relations director for a mid-size publishing firm in Denver for seven years. She has been a published writer for twenty-four years.

Photos: These ceramic vessels were fired in an Anagama kiln by artist Terry Inokuma from Philomath, Ore. Wearable sculpture by Mary Darwall from Ivins, Utah. Susan Del Szajer from Silver City, N.M. creates fabric collage.

One hundred and four artists. Eight local galleries. I spent Saturday afternoon at the Main Avenue Arts Festival. My goal: to find artists who stood out because of their aesthetic, their presentation, the conceptual message of their work or their purpose.

Terry Inokuma from Philomath, Ore., was the first artist whose work captured my attention. Her wood-fired ceramic vessels are imbued with the spirit of the earth.

Fired for up to 100 hours in an Anagama kiln, Inokuma’s vessels have organic shapes similar to gourds, seedpods and rocks. The work is sculptural, but also functional. The firing technique provides glaze shades that are born of fire and earth, that capture something as impermanent as fire onto something as permanent as stone. Inokuma uses an ancient and unpredictable technique to create contemporary forms.

Another artist working in a traditional method who caused me to pause and peruse was fine-art photographer Bryan David Griffith from Flagstaff, Ariz.

Griffith writes in his artist statement: “I rely on creative vision, mastery of traditional technique, patience and luck; not special filters, digital effects or process gimmicks.” To that I say, bravo.

Griffith is a “real” photographer working with the traditional method of film and large format 4-inch by 5-inch and 6-inch by 7-inch cameras, creating silver gelatin color prints using museum-quality matting for his presentations. Perhaps this is why he stands out at an art fair where one typically sees digital prints and manipulated photographs whose origins are unknown and uncertain.

Griffith’s work has that special something.

It isn’t just an image of the Sneffels Range: His photography captures the emotion you feel when the light hits the peak and the clouds are pink and you suddenly see this one patch of flame-tipped yellow leaves on an Aspen tree in the foreground. That moment when the light and the view takes your breath away and you feel suddenly very alive and very small. Griffith’s work is all about slowing down and appreci ating the world around us. Some of his landscapes are highly abstracted and evoke the emotion of a Rothko painting. And his Compositions series includes close-up detail shots of peeling paint and rust that are brilliantly textured using line and color the way a painter would develop a canvas.

Charles Timken from Lincoln, Neb., on the other hand, creates landscape-inspired abstract paintings with soft pastel pigments. Not a use of pastel we see very often in the Southwest.

Timken’s compositions are masterful, reflecting his 25 years as a graphic and commercial artist. The color pallet with its soft orange, yellow and greens is vibrant and highlighted with reds and white. The work is all matted and framed with a simple maple frame. Timken also creates work that is a realistic representation of clouds or trees or rocks, but his abstracted landscapes created with soft pastel pigments on sanded paper evoked the most zeal for me through blocks of geometry and color.

I also was drawn to the design elements in the work of Susan Dell Szajer a fiber artist from Silver City, N.M. It was clear that Szajer had mastered art and design and her chosen medium.

A quilter for 30 years, Szajer creates paintings with hand-dyed fabrics and quilting techniques. Using the needle on her sewing machine, Szajer “draws” leaves, grasses and other details with rayon, silk or metallic thread. I found the technique similar to creating collage with paper, but Szajer uses fabric and a sewing machine. The patterns are geometric with organic elements interspersed. The color was intense. The lines were strong.

Jewelry artist Mary Darwall creates works of intense color and beauty as well. Darwall, a former teacher from Ivins, Utah, is a self-taught bead artist. Her jewelry is sculptural, created from cabochons and tiny seed beads woven with a needle that intertwines color, movement and texture. Each creation is wholly unique and involves 60 to 70 hours of detailed, meditative work. Truly this woman creates living works of art from semi-precious stones, glass, crystals and pearls: sculptures to wear inspired by the desert and the sea.

Festival jurors Peter Karnen, Heather Laurie and Phyllis Stapler selected Durango ceramist Lisa Pedolsky as Best of Show in Fine Arts and Seattle-based Hans Christensen as Best of Show in Fine Craft. Pedolsky creates simple slab-constructed platters and vessels with pure geometric designs, circles and orbs cut out with layers of textured clay showing through. Christensen creates fine, hand-painted silk and velvet garments and scarves in intense hues and beautiful lines.

I commend the artists who focus on art, on mastery of medium, on the elements of design and are able to express their own unique vision. And it was great to see the local galleries participating in the event and selling artwork from their tents.

artsjournalist@centurytel.net Leanne Goebel is a freelance arts journalist based in Pagosa Springs.

Contents copyright ©, the Durango Herald. All rights reserved.

Pagosa Springs, Colo.—Every 18.6 years the moon stands still at Chimney Rock. On July 22, in the wee hours of the morning, the crescent moon will rise between the spires of companion rock and chimney rock, loiter for a five to fifteen minutes, then disappear behind Chimney Rock, leaving a lingering moon glow.

The cycle is complex. For the first half of this year, the moon rose during the day, in phases from near full down to thin crescent, rising earlier each month from early afternoon to early morning. In July the moon will rise between the rocks as a nearly invisible new moon, in the early hours of morning before dawn. From August through November, the waxing moon will rise between the rocks from crescent to nearly full, rising earlier each month during the nighttime from just before dawn to just before sunset. Finally the full moon will rise between the rocks at sunset near the Winter Solstice in December.

The Major Lunar Standstill is believed to have influenced construction of the most impressive of the 200 plus structures at Chimney Rock—the Great House Pueblo. People of the Chaco (Ancient Puebloan) culture who occupied Chimney Rock between AD1050 and 1125 built the Great House. Additionally, at the time of the Summer solstice, the Sun rises centered on the northern wall of the Great House and the southern point of the Great House lines up to a spot in the sky where the Crab Nebula Supernova appeared for over three weeks in AD 1054.

According to http://chimneyrockco.org: “In AD 1076, when the Great House Pueblo was built, the moon was rising between the rock towers. And, in AD 1093-94, when the Great House Pueblo was expanded, the Moon was again rising between the rock towers.”

Dr. McKim Malville, who demonstrated the lunar standstill alignment in 1988, proposes that Chimney Rock’s people were more than just aware of these events. Malville suggests that they celebrated them, in part by constructing the Great House Pueblo to mark and revere the beautiful and rare lunar events captured–or protected–by Chimney Rock’s twin monoliths.

Prior to the rising, a 30-minute public program kicks off at the visitors cabin. Visitors then drive their own cars three miles up a steep and curvy graveled road to the upper parking lot. The group then ascends the narrow trail past the Great House site to the Fire Tower observation deck. The program is appropriate for those 12 and over.

Every visitor is required to bring a working flashlight and be prepared to hike a narrow trail at 7,600 feet and stand for the duration of the program. At the end of the program, everyone will hike back down and are invited back to the Visitors Cabin for hot drinks and an optional presentation on the Chimney Rock Lunar Standstill. From arrival at the Visitor’s Cabin to departure from the Archaeological area, total time for the program is approximately 3 hours.

Later in the day on Saturday, July 22 and also on Sunday, July 23, Native Americans gather at Chimney Rock for cultural dances in the Great Kiva with traditional singers and dancers from the pueblos of Hopi, Acoma, Laguna, Zuni, San Juan and San Felipe, as well as Aztec and Jicarilla Apache Dancers. The Traditional Pueblo Dances are at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. No reservation is necessary for these days and admission is only $10. For more information contact Caroline Brown at Friends of Native Cultures (970) 731-4248.

Tickets for the Lunar Standstill Programs are $50 per person and must be prepaid with Visa or Mastercard. Only 24 tickets are available per Lunar Standstill Program and the events sell out quickly. Tickets are still available for the Major Lunar Standstill events in September and October. Fees generated from Lunar Standstill Programs support native Puebloan involvement at Chimney Rock. For reservations and program details, please call Victoria White at (970) 264-9987.

Major Lunar Standstill events differ from the monthly full-moon program at Chimney Rock. During monthly full-moon programs, visitors can watch the moon rise at the Great House Pueblo site. However, during these programs the moon will not rise between the spires. The program includes information about the Ancestral Puebloans, archaeo-astronomy theories, area geology and Native American flute melodies by Charles Martinez, a native Pagosan of Jicarilla Apache and Navajo heritage.

On July 10, the gates open from 7:15-7:45 p.m. and the program begins at 8:15 p.m. with moonrise at approximately 8:47 p.m. On August 9, the gates open from 7:15-7:45 p.m. and the program begins at 8:15 p.m. with moonrise at approximately 8:41 p.m. On September 8, the gates open from 6:30-7:00 p.m. and the program begins at 7:30 p.m. with moonrise at approximately 8:05 p.m.

Reservations are required for the full moon programs and tickets are $15. Add $5 for an early tour of the lower area (Great Kiva Trail Loop), which starts at 6:15 p.m. (5:30 p.m. in September). For tickets call the visitor cabin at (970) 883-5359 from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily.

The visitors cabin at the Chimney Rock Archaeological Area is located ½ mile off Highway 151, 3 miles south of Highway 160, between Pagosa Springs, Colo. and Durango, Colo.

There out to be a more creative phrase, a less conformist way of saying, “out-of-the-box.” Isn’t it interesting that a phrase, meaning original and different, is so overwrought and overused?

I read a quote in Bliss magazine recently from George Steiner. In his book, Grammars of Creation, he says post-structural theorists have argued convincingly “that any origin, any trace or any originary phenomenon or concept, has been visited and many times written over. Origins are lost. And the beginning is always already underway.”

There is nothing new under the sun, so why are we creative types always trying to be new and fresh and original and distinct and unique and unlike anything else? Is it even possible? Can anyone really say they are doing something that no one else has ever done before?

In business, we want to break free of what others are doing; we want to carve out our niche. We aren’t your typical fly fishing store; we offer fly rods and equipment for only left-handed women who fish. Or not.

Maybe we are like banks. We are Third Bank of the Four Corners and we are going to put our bank right across the street from Second Bank of the Four Corners. We offer the same products—checking accounts, savings accounts, money market funds, and loans. The only thing different is at Third Bank we smile and give out chocolate instead of the hard candy they provide at Second Bank.

Yet left handed fly fishing equipment for women and Third Bank are both thinking “out-of-the box.”

Durango-based consultant, Jan Judy with Smart Choices, LLC, said in a seminar a few months ago, that all businesses are service businesses. The most important thing is how your business makes the client feel. It’s about the human connection. It’s about empathy.

In Fast Company in 2002 there was an article about IDEO, a firm behind the I-pod, the flagship Prada store in Manhattan and stand-up toothpaste tubes. IDEO helps companies innovate. They design products, services, environments and experiences. The genius behind IDEO is empathy toward the human condition.

Experiences. It’s what we want as consumers. It’s what makes a MAC better than a PC. The experience—the ease of use, the simplicity—the fact that you can plug in your digital camera and voila! Download photos.

Experience—it is companies like Build-a-Bear. Dress up a teddy bear? You could do that for a whole lot less at Michaels or Toys R Us. Today it is a hugely successful chain of stores, now advertising about the experience of spending time with your children picking out a bear and an outfit and putting it all together for cha-ching, well over $100 bucks. But hey, you work 60 hours a week, what else are you going to do to ease your guilt-ridden suburban mind?

The experience you have with a business is what makes you want to come back. So if it is because you are a left-handed female fly fishing aficionado and the company caters to your every whim; or you prefer the chocolate candies at Third Bank; or that you stopped being frustrated with computing when you bought a MAC; or that you want to create a teddy bear with your six-year-old, you will return to that business because of the experience.

Similarly, if you take your guests to breakfast at the local diner and have to wait too long for food that is cold when it arrives and gets colder as you wait for the server to bring you the flat wear that should already be on the table, chances are you will not go back anytime soon.

So, you want to be “out-of-the-box” and original and creative, try empathizing with your customer and spend some time thinking about ways to provide them with a unique experience that will leave them wanting to come back for more.

Leanne Goebel was the marketing and public relations director for a mid-size publishing firm in Denver for seven years. She has been a published writer for twenty-four years.

Photo: Shanan Campbell Wells relaxes at her Sorrel Sky Gallery on Main Avenue in Durango.

When she was 12 years old, Shanan Campbell Wells met a woman who glittered, and she knew she wanted to grow up and be just like her. That woman wasn’t a movie star; she was a gallery manager in Santa Fe.

“I thought she had the coolest job in the world. She was so pretty and sophisticated,” Wells said.

That day, a 12-year-old girl set foot on her life path and has never strayed from her journey.

Sitting in a large leather chair in the back room of Sorrel Sky Gallery, Wells tells a story that started four years ago on Main Avenue in Durango. The walls behind her are deep chocolate brown, a 3-foot by 5-foot canvas oil painting of a Native American woman in dance regalia by artist Mike Desatnick hangs next to her, and behind her is a bronze sculpture by Denny Haskew. Wells, a slender brunette whose mahogany eyes are filled with drive and passion, sips a frozen coffee drink and talks rapidly about her life.

At 16, Wells, who is the daughter of jewelry artist and former U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, took a job at Toh-Atin Gallery answering phones and filing. The next summer, Jackson Clark put her on the sales floor, and she worked at Toh-Atin while attending Fort Lewis College, where she created her own major in art marketing and management.

After a brief detour working for the Smithsonian and Franklin Mint, Wells returned to Durango and eventually went back to work for Toh-Atin, this time as manager. For seven years she managed the gallery and Toh-Atin’s Art on Main and ran its wholesale jewelry and rug business.

In October 2001, Wells said, “It was like a brick hit me that it was time (to open her own gallery).”

Ten minutes later, she gave notice to Jackson that she was leaving Toh-Atin to open her own gallery. She went home that night and wrote out a budget. By week’s end, she had negotiated a lease on the space. Sorrel Sky opened April 5, 2002, during the weak post 9-11 art market.

“When things are meant to be, they are just not that hard,” Wells said. “What I realized is that I had been working on it for 20 years.”

What she didn’t count on was the Missionary Ridge Fire that destroyed not only the mountainsides and homes, but also Durango’s tourism.

“I just kept saying it can’t get any worse than this. I knew if I could survive that summer, it would always continue to grow and grow,” Wells said, recalling the struggle to make ends meet; the depletion of her life savings; the credit-card debt and loan against equity in a spec home she and her former husband built. “But I never let my staff know how scary it was or about my fear.”

Four years later, Wells said her business has probably tripled, not only in sales, but in size, inventory and artists represented. “We’ve changed and evolved,” she added.

In tandem with working as a gallery manager and owner, Wells also is an art consultant who landed her biggest job to date, the new Mercy Hospital, because of her unrelenting drive.

“It took me five months to get the job. I sent proposal after proposal and letter after letter and called and called. It was a lot of work to get that job, but I got the job and three years later I finished the job.” Wells said.

The work paid off. She’s had six consulting jobs as a result of that one job. And now she’s formed a new company, SCW Art Consulting.

“We pick art for the art collection, not to match your sofa. We don’t want it to blend, we want it to enhance the space and make it feel special like artwork does in your home, where it is thoughtfully placed and it has a reason,” Wells said. The “we” on her team include Lindsay S. White and Jules Masterjohn.

At SCW, Wells works with a business from the ground up, developing a theme based on the corporate identity of the business.

“It’s a lot more intense than throwing some paintings on the wall,” Wells said.

And the new venture is about to explode. Wells has a dozen proposals out and is confident she will land some of the jobs that range from small medical offices to banks to other hospitals around the country to major full-scale developments.

While she is a bit uncertain at the moment, Wells has a consummate faith in her journey. Her fears for the new business are different than those she had when starting her gallery.

“I was dumber then,” she said with a laugh. “I know how hard it can be and how scary. I know what it’s like to be a business owner. I’m a lot stronger now and a lot less tolerant and way more cautious. But I know I’ll figure it out.”

lgoebel@centurytel.net Leanne Goebel is a freelance arts journalist from Pagosa Springs

Contents copyright ©, the Durango Herald. All rights reserved.

Town Council, the Planning Commission, and Mayor Aragon are selling the soul of our town to big box retailers. In a work session on July 18, Council and Planning worked with staff on the town big box ordinance. The ordinance will require an impact study and clarify some design guidelines, but it doesn’t do what the majority of citizen’s want – eliminate big box stores from the future vision for Pagosa Springs.

The Town paid for a community survey to gather important information in developing the Comprehensive Plan, the Master Plan and for the baseline Economic Impact Study, completed in 2005 by Economic and Planning Systems (EPS). According to that survey, 59% of respondents, from all economic sectors, wanted no big box stores in Pagosa Springs. Only 18 % of respondents would support big box stores with restrictions. No definition of restrictions was provided in the survey.

Why then, is town council set to approve an ordinance that would allow huge box development of up to 180,000 square feet? That’s more than three times the size of the Pagosa Lakes City Market, the largest retail store in town at 54,000 square feet. The entire Country Center Development (where City Market it located) comes in at 120,000 square feet according to town planner, Tamra Allen

The Council and the planning commission are putting out the welcome mat and inviting big box and chain stores to Pagosa. This will not maintain our small town character. This will not provide the type of lifestyle we all want. This will not help our local business owners.

According to Building Permit records, EPS reported that the town only allowed 15,000 square foot of retail development per year, for a total of 126,000 square foot of retail development in the past eight years. We are poised to allow in one fell swoop, under one giant roof, 180,000 square feet.

Allen said she didn’t know the size of the Durango Wal-Mart, but estimated in at over 200,000 square feet. (The Home Depot in Durango measures in at 93,700 square feet). In Grand Junction, the K-Mart store is 40,318 square feet, the Wal-Mart is 111,000 square feet and the new Target is 125,000 square feet.

Many small towns and cities have successfully capped the size of retail stores. And these caps have been upheld in courts as a valid use of a local land-use authority. The Big Box task force last year recommended size caps of 35,000 square feet in some areas and at the most 50-55,000 square feet.

In Bozeman, Montana they capped store size at 75,000 square feet. Hailey, Idaho allows no more than 36,000 square feet for a single retail store and multiple retail centers are capped at 72,000 square feet. Homer, Alaska, has capped the size of retail stores at 25,000-45,000 square feet and adopted a community impact review process for proposed retail developments over 15,000 square feet. Santa Fe, New Mexico, prohibits retail stores larger than 150,000 square feet and requires stores over 30,000 square feet to comply with architectural and site design standards. And Taos, New Mexico enacted an ordinance restricting construction of large retail stores. The measure bans new stores that exceed 80,000 square feet and requires developers to obtain a special permit to build stores over 30,000 square feet.

It can be done successfully without affecting the economic growth of our community. And it is what the majority of residents want. It is what EPS recommends in their baseline economic study: “A single large format discounter will cannibalize
or take sales away from the forecasted Other Shoppers Goods retail growth.”

I return to the community survey where citizens were also asked what type of retail they wanted to see in Pagosa. Sixty percent said small, independent restaurants and 56 percent said independent retail while 59 percent said an additional grocery store.

EPS clearly states that: “Lifting the moratorium on big box development will likely accommodate the development of a supercenter with a grocery store, but is likely to preclude the attraction of a second, separate supermarket to the area.” More direct opposition to what citizens want.

EPS suggested that a healthy mix of a handful of mid-box retailers, the size of Ace, would help maintain our small town environment and keep the dollars in Pagosa, thus effectively eliminating a significant portion of the economic leakage. In the EPS study, large format retailers make up Plan B and provide $5.4 million in new revenue and net surplus estimate of $717,003. But the mid-box mix with independent retailers provides $5 million in new revenue and net surplus revenue of $521,105.

Council and the Mayor are selling the soul of this community for an estimated $196,000.

As the big box task force wrote in their report: “Even dressed up in historical costume, a big box breaks away from traditional way of doing business in Pagosa Springs, which is very often doing business directly with the business owner. This is what creates the feeling of history that is missing in the areas predominated by big box retail, and that is what locals call ‘the small town feeling’.”

Communities all over this country are taking a stand to preserve their unique character, their historic significance, and their small town charm by saying no to big box retail – no to the huge structures, trashy parking lots, and $3 gallons of pickles that cannot be consumed before spoiling.

A big point of contention during the work session was the desire for the ordinance to require the large-format retailer to pay a living wage and for the town to be able to audit them to be sure they live up to that requirement. Council member Darrel Cotton made it clear that he would not support the ordinance with the wage requirement. “We don’t belong in a businesses books, that’s not where government belongs,” Cotton said.

The current median wage in Archuleta County for retail workers is $9.28 per hour. The average wage for non-union employees working for major retailers is between $7.50 and $8.50 per hour. Big box wages will be less than what employees are making at independent businesses in Archuleta County.

I find it difficult to envision how demanding a big box retailer pay a living wage goes against free enterprise, as Cotton said during the meeting. A big box store will likely come into Pagosa, take employees and customers from local, independent businesses, leaving them scrambling to come up with a different business plan to compete in the marketplace.

Council member Cotton frequently states that he doesn’t think it is government’s job to (regulate), (govern), (restrict), (plan). Which always makes me wonder what exactly council member Cotton thinks his job is and if he doesn’t want to do it, why the heck he remains on the town council?

Yet, Wal-Mart, the prominent big-box store most likely to come to Pagosa, is known for dictating terms to its suppliers. Not only dictating, but demanding, and even auditing another businesses books to determine if they are worthy to do business with the largest company in the world.

Yet some members of town council and our mayor do not feel they have a right to ask the same of a big box retailer like Wal-mart. I say, they are wrong.

The issue comes before council with a first reading of the ordinance on August 1. The meeting starts promptly at 5:00 p.m. It is time for the 59 percent of us who do not want a big box store in Pagosa to show up and speak out. The current big box moratorium ends in September and believe me, the big box store is coming.

Don’t wait until the plan is up for approval and be surprised that your home in the Pagosa Lakes Ranch now looks out over a big box store. Don’t be surprised if your home in the Meadows is flooded with light pollution from the big box store. Don’t be surprised if you live down Highway 84 and are suddenly inundated with plastic trash bags f
rom the big box retailer. And don’t complain about the traffic, the noise, and the pollution. It will be too late then.

Leanne Goebel
Journal Correspondent

PAGOSA SPRINGS —With the “big box” moratorium set to expire in mid-September, town council, planning commission and staff met for a work session July 18 to discuss the draft ordinance regulating “big box” development. The ordinance will require proposed development more than 50,000 square feet that submit an impact study with their application and go through a design review process. Anything less than 50,000 square feet will go directly to the design review process. The ordinance will cap development at 180,000 square feet.

According to Tamra Allen, town planner, 180,000 square feet is slightly smaller than the Durango Wal-Mart.

“Do we feel comfortable having a building as large as a Durango Wal-Mart in our community?” council member Tony Simmons asked. Then he continued, “I think this whole project is overkill. This (180,000 square feet) is bigger than anything the town currently has. The impact of this is dramatic. There is nothing of this scale in our town.”

Currently, the largest structure is the Pagosa Lakes City Market, which was just expanded last year to a size of 54,000 square feet. The new Ace Hardware store recently expanded into a 36,000 square foot structure. The entire Country Center development (where City Market is located) is 120,000 square feet.

The language in the ordinance did not clarify differences for retail and other business uses, nor did it address zoning or land-use areas. In other words, the 180,000 square foot cap applies equally to downtown as it does to other urban areas. Also unclear is whether 180,000 square feet is the max for single and multiple retail shopping centers or if a multiple retail center could be made up of two adjacent 180,000 square foot buildings.

The draft is the result of a second round of meetings with big box task force committee members, council, and local business owners and reflects “a compromise of setting some cap, but being fairly lenient,” Allen said.

Mayor Ross Aragon said that the committee “worked on it a long time to get to this compromise.”

According to Allen, the current land use code states that if a structure is more than 4,000 square feet, the builder or developer is required to get a conditional use permit. The Master Plan will prescribe height and mass, and design guidelines, but does not address square footage.

Council member Darrel Cotton took issue with language in the document that suggested the impact study requirement address the likelihood of a big box store displacing existing business. “That shouldn’t be there,” Cotton said. “It is not our job to regulate the free marketplace.”

“We need information to accurately assess the positive and negatives,” Simmons countered.

“I’m not sure we can get a fair assessment,” Cotton said.

“You don’t know what’s coming and you can’t say that,” Simmons argued.

“A super mall isn’t coming until enough people will support it,” Cotton said.

“All we are asking for is to know what the entire impacts will be to all of our community. We need a set of criteria to evaluate those impacts. It is not the deciding factor, it is just information to help us make an informed decision,” Simmons said.

Allen agreed saying, “We need to know if we are going to displace current business and then we need to have the appropriate means to mitigate those losses.”

“I won’t support it if it’s in there,” Cotton stated.

A long discussion about the public process ensued and whether the current process was sufficient. Council member John Middendorf wanted more than 30 days to be allowed for public comment once an application for a big box development came into the planning office. But again, Cotton disagreed.

“An impact is an impact. If they say tax dollars are generated then it is just simple math. I think it is a mistake to open a can of worms before we get started. It will take years. We have to deal with the facts,” Cotton said.

The group did agree to widen the mailed notice area from within 300 feet to 500 feet of the proposed development.

Allen said she anticipated that a developer would have a retailer lined up in order to complete the impact study and that if a sketch plan comes in without a retailer and impact study, that it would not move forward until an impact study could be completed.

However, an audience member who stated he was a consultant working for developers who build retail centers with big box stores stood up and asked for clarification. He stated that most of the developers could provide an impact study and that it didn’t matter if it was K-Mart or Wal-Mart or Target, the numbers would most likely be the same. He said that often the developer did not want to announce the large-format retailer up front because often they are in negotiation to get the best deals from the retailer. Allen said that as long as the application came in with an impact study, it could move forward.

The biggest argument came from the recommendation that the town require the retailer to pay a livable wage and that town had the opportunity to audit said retailer to see that they were actually meeting the employment requirements. Again, Cotton said he would not vote for the ordinance if this language remained in the document.

“Everyone should have to play by the same game,” Cotton said. “We don’t dictate wages and benefits to any business. It is not our job. We aren’t here to dictate.”

“But the impacts of these businesses are going to be dramatic,” Simmons countered.

“Then do a minimum wage ordinance because I don’t think we can legally do this. Government doesn’t belong in a businesses books.”

“But we have absolutely no way to gauge how these big companies do business,” Council member John Middendorf said.

“How can we dictate? The state of Colorado determines what the minimum wage is. We can’t tell them what they must pay,” a planning commission member said.

The wage requirement was scratched from the document. But Tony Simmons asked that the impacts on the health district be added to the required impacts to be studied.

The committee did agree to define more clearly what “vacant” meant and to see if they could add the requirement for a bond posting in the amount of generated sales tax in the event that the retailer vacates the building.

The draft document also recommended that the building not be transferable to a different business or owner without that new business or owner going through an impact study. Darrel Cotton again disagreed. “Nontransferable is too harsh,” he said. “It should say we may require a new impact study.”

“Subject to the approval of council,” John Middendorf suggested.

The first reading of the ordinance is scheduled for 5 p.m. Aug. 1. Public comment will be taken at that time and a second reading and adoption is scheduled for Sept. 5. The existing “big box” moratorium expires Sept. 15.