The First Friday Of December

Yesterday, I attended the First Friday Art Walk on Denver's Santa Fe Drive. It was by no means as crowded as during the summer months, but there were still a fair number of people in the galleries. And I was happy to see that a lot of those galleries actually had photographs on display. Of course, years ago, there were several galleries on Santa Fe Drive that were completely dedicated to photography, including John Fielder's Colorado Gallery, which is now occasionally rented out to allow various artists to display their work, as seen in the photograph on the left that I took yesterday evening. And was that John Fielder himself I saw at the bar, drink in hand, looking around the room, shaking his head?

I must say, however, that a lot of the art galleries have been replaced by what to me look like second-hand outlets. I have never considered old clothing and knickknacks as art, but as they say, art is in the eyes of the beholder. I am guessing that once spring arrives, more traditional art galleries will return. One of the most notable buildings on Santa Fe Drive is the old Santa Fe Theater, seen in the photograph on the right, which rents out space for events, in addition to housing a bar. The marquee above the door, by the way, is calling out the City of Denver for doubling their property taxes this year. Which I guess is understandable, since directly across the street a huge upscale apartment building is being built. But can small business owners in the area survive as the neighborhood continues to gentrify? That must explain why the Santa Fe Theater looks like it has been deferring maintenance since the 1930s.

The alleys behind the galleries are often more interesting than the art displayed inside them. At one time, an entire block contained paintings of "Bad Barbie" on the alley walls, showing her passed out next to a liquor bottle, and in other embarrassing situations. Artists can sometimes be a vicious lot. I took the alley photograph on the left last night, with a very strange mannequin next to an open door. I peeked in, but it did not look like a gallery to me. Best to just walk away than to throw caution to the winds and step inside. After all, this is the state which has the Colorado Make My Day Law, which gives homeowners the right to blast to pieces anyone who crosses their threshold uninvited, a particularly favorite law of Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, whom I think would be a lot of fun at a party, especially if everyone was armed.