Denver Crush Walls 2019

The 27th and Larimer area was like a second home to me while living in Denver during the early 2000’s. Aside from teaching art at a private school, I curated art at the Meadowlark bar for a few years on the corner of 27th and Larimer in the Ballpark area, also known as the Rino Arts District. The owner of the Meadowlark convinced me to take on the vacant position and recruit young artists to exhibit their art work. It was already established as one of Denver’s premiere music venues and art bars. The position provided me an opportunity to connect and surround myself with like minded Denver creatives. I’m grateful for many of the friendships that grew out of the Meadowlark and the opportunity to be a part of a creative community.

Robin Munro was one of the first artists to approach me to show artwork at the Meadowlark. At the time, Robin (aka Dread) was beginning his street art journey and showed me his graffiti black book with conceptual drawings and his preliminary sketch of the canvas that would eventually be displayed on the notable stone walls in the Meadowlark bar. I recall the large panoramic canvas depicting a young boy facing his fears among life challenges in the finest graffiti style painting. After his month-long show, I remember Robin mentioning a Crush Festival he was organizing in the neighborhood with a few of his painter friends. I never attended his CRUSH festivals then but admired the alley walls around the bar after the event. The next year he would help me teach a street art class with my art students at Humanex Academy and showcase our school’s crew at a mural competition at the annual Peoples Fair. I’ve always admired Robin’s passion for expressing himself through his larger than life street paintings. He’s worked long and hard at perfecting his skill and that doesn’t come easy for any successful artist. I’ve enjoyed watching his life as an artist grow through social media while now living away from Denver. So, when I decided to travel from Pierre, SD to Denver a few weeks ago for this year’s Crush Walls Festival, I wasn’t sure I was going to see Robin, the festival’s brainchild. CRUSH artists are spread throughout the Rino Arts District and local artists are juggling home/work life during the week long event. Luckily, I ran into Robin briefly at the festival’s entrance toward the end of Thursday afternoon and was able to catch up before we departed for our evening commitments. I don’t remember how long it had been since we last saw each other, but we both talked about his first art show at the Meadowlark and how much the Crush Walls Festival has progressed in the last 10 years beginning with a few interested painter friends to being an internationally recognized street art event.

While attending the 10th annual CRUSH Walls Festival , my focus was to observe the artists create their larger than life canvases so that I could share with my art students at TF Riggs what it’s like to be a working street artist. It’s important to note that established artists are invited while emerging local artists must submit an online application to be accepted to paint at Crush Walls and earn a stipend. It was thrilling to watch the artists apply their fluid spray paint lines and delicate mists of highlights and shadows. I’m not skilled at using aerosol paint so when I saw that artists were also painting with brushes; I was reassured that my mural painting abilities weren’t far reaching. The other street art techniques I observed was carefully applied paper lettering, photographs, and textiles wheat pasted to the wall’s surfaces. Some artists installed hand lettered wood pieces to fences, foam and rubber sculptures to alley walls and electrical poles. Printed and hand painted stickers also covered garbage bins and electrical boxes. Many artists were in deep concentration either referring to preliminary drawings or listening to music through earbuds while they painted. While some painters relied on the breeze to ward off paint fumes, most artists wore paint respirators to protect themselves from chemical vapors. At times I caught myself in a friendly dance with an artist while walking down the alley as they stepped back from their work to observe from a distance. Artists were one with their work in a crowded space but allowed time to interact with viewers and answer questions. It was an opportunity to observe established street artists from all over the world in action doing what they do…create a positive vibe…a celebration of art, culture and community in a space of diversity.

Sacred Heart Catholic Church in the RINO Arts District.

Sculptural pieces attached to electrical poles.

Goals for 2019

June of 2018, I opened a small teaching space below my friend’s photography studio and named it the Art Makerspace. My goal for the first two months of the summer was to provide art classes for kids during the weekday mornings and afternoons. Word spread through Facebook, word of mouth and referrals. I also recruited newcomers by selling play-dough kits to kids and parents at local farmers markets!. By the time the school year started., a handful of regular students became two handfuls of regular students! Not too bad for a small community!

My goal for the Art Makerspace is to continue to provide a space for kids and adults in the Pierre and Fort Pierre community to learn basic art skills and to help them develop confidence to express their unique thoughts, feelings and ideas in a positive environment through art. Enhancing and improving the Art Makerspace environment is a constant endeavor. Some of the ways I’ll be approaching this is through engaging art/STEAM projects that kids love to explore, showcasing student artwork in the community, making student art available for reproduction through www.Artsonia.com and providing a scholarship opportunity for disadvantaged students who would like to attend classes at the Art Makerspace!

2018 has offered me many opportunities to grow as an artist and as an art teacher! I’m most grateful to the South Dakota Arts Council for the Artist Career Development Grant in allowing me the funds to help reproduce my work and to the South Dakota Space Grant Consortium for allowing me to attend the prestigious NASA Liftoff - Summer Institute for Teachers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX.

I look forward to 2019 and the continued experiences as an artist, art teacher and adventurer! Please stay tuned and in the meantime, link below to the kid and adult art class pages on my website to learn what’s in store for the month of January!

Thank you for your interest and continued support for JIll Kokesh Artist and the Art Makerspace!!

Happy New Year!!

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Spring Snow Storm Xanto

On Friday, April 13, Spring Storm Xanto was beginning to form in western South Dakota and making its way to Pierre. School officials called off school expecting the storm to arrive in Pierre by 4:00 am. Naturally, I slept in and woke up to find no sign of snow! I texted a friend from Rapid City to see how much snow had fallen and if he had a snow day. He jokingly replied, “A nuclear fallout wouldn’t stop UPS!” We exchanged our usual banter and he asked me “what do you do on a snow day?” I replied, “if I can get in a long walk, have a nice lunch with a glass of wine, read a little and work in my studio it will be a very productive snow day!”

Thankfully, Xanto wasn’t as harsh to the Pierre area as expected. Area farmers and ranchers were especially concerned about their cattle during the peak of calving season and those concerned about area flooding in the coming months were thankful the area didn’t receive the 14 inches of snow originally forecasted. After the skies cleared Saturday morning, I was anxious to go for a drive to see the effects of the blizzard on the remaining ice on Lake Oahe and hike the snow covered bluffs to the frozen shoreline. I didn't have to convince my hiking friend to come along, so we made our way to Billy Goats trail head and layered up for the 30 mph gusts of cold wind. My brain loves water and when the site of a large crack in the reservoir’s ice appeared, it was like seeing one of my favorite paintings on exhibit. I stood in awe and studied its overall composition and scale.

It didn’t take long to warm up and adventure down the river bluffs to the icy shoreline. On our way down, I wanted to cross through a patch of tall grass and shoot a video inside the giant plumes. Once in the middle, the magic wand of calmness sprayed its sparkles over me and I became joyfully entranced, protected and grateful. No wonder the area’s wildlife seeks shelter in places like this. As we made our way to the shoreline the beach became soft, muddy and slices of open water appeared among the shifting chunks of floating ice. I was shocked by large boulders that shifted in the soft gumbo caused by glacier activity. The force of nature is incredibly powerful and beyond our understanding. It occurred to us that it’s only a small scale glacier compared to what it must of been like during the ice age millions of years ago.

The hike back up the bluff was a good reminder to work-out more, but my mind was grateful for the big dose of inspiration, mindfulness and creativity. I was reminded of a quote from The Nature Fix by Florence Williams, “Go outside, often, sometimes in wild places. Bring friends or not. Breathe.”

Easter Vacation

For Easter vacation I was initially planning to travel to Denver to visit friends, take in a few art and music venues and embrace the experience of a road trip in all of it magic. However, no trip in any direction from Fort Pierre goes unplanned due to traveling on the prairie in the early spring. I decided to stay home when I heard a snow storm was in the forecast and instead continued a bedroom renovation project I started a few weeks ago.

The front bedroom has been in transition since my dad passed away in June. We had planned to make repairs, repaint and replace the carpet in my dads room while he was still living, but moving him to a new space in our home was not as important as providing him comfort and eliminating any kind of change along with his regular dialysis treatment. My dad remained happy in his own home till his death at the age of 84 on June 8, 2017. He survived my mom who died at the age of 73 on July 5, 2012.

DIY renovation projects are always more complicated and expensive than originally planned, especially when you have only a few friends helping. In the last week, we've ripped out the carpet, resurfaced and primed the drywall, and demolished the 1/2 bathroom. My mom and dad would be proud of the work we've done to preserve their home and I feel so lucky to be living in a space I grew up in.

After accomplishing the renovation tasks, I set aside the last day of vacation to create my website and write its first blog post. Sadly, it's taken 4 years to complete my website. Early on I had the best intentions, but wasn't clear who I was as an artist. Clearly, I wasn't ready to promote myself as a working artist since dedicating the last 4 years as an at-home-caregiver for my elderly dad and working full time as an art teacher in a new school district. Stepping out of the role as a caregiver to a life that is more independent is not as easy as it seems, although I feel more grounded than I ever have.

Creating a website is a daunting task, although web-hosting sites have made the job less so for a tech savvy creative. I'm the webmaster of my own site, which gives me the freedom to add and edit content to my heart's desire so that I can communicate freely to viewers. I wanted to create a space that would allow me to share my photographic work and log my progress in creating new works. In the past, I've been motivated in capturing the natural world that surrounds me, people who inspire me and structures that tell stories of the past. That motivation still holds true, although life experiences have steered me in unexpected directions in telling new stories with different tools and mediums. Today, I begin sharing a new journey in my creative process! Welcome!