1. A novice Art Tourist in Paris (AT in Paris 1)
2. Sante Fe with the Art Tourist
3. Art Tourist in Paris 2
4. Art Tourist in Paris 3

For more information about Talty or to read selected clips:

Resume

Plans Change, Promises, too

Time Share Creates Warm Beds

Follow game to understand TDR

Art Tourist returns to Denver,

Landing in the one-time largest public art project in America

DENVER -- Getting off a plane at Denver International Airport,an Art Tourismay be huanted by evidence of artist-elves at work. There are fossils in the floors of Concourse A; big paper-like folded planes hover above while one rides up the escalators from the trains dashing in from the airport's wings to the terminal.

At the hub of each concourse of gates, there are big sculptures any Art Tourist would be hard pressed to miss. These are busy sculptures that fit the mood of frantic travelers worried about missing their plane or connection, or nervous about wasting time waiting for the plane, or harried at having allowed too much time in order not to be frantic.

This last one, the over-early Art Tourist, can take a train ride to the concourses they were not planning to visit during this flight, and look at the sculptures -- a busy ode to transporation, a movie set style Mayan ruin and something else this Art Toursit can't remember (but I think it's better because of it's simplicity, but unknown because it landed at the most unvisited terminal. Please feel free to e-mail comments about DIA art projects including this one).

While on the train, this Art Tourist was as giddy as a child on her first airplane ride seeing the dark train tunnel lit up by a series of whirly-gig sculptures activated by the movement of the train. When our Art Tourist exits the train or waits for one to come, very  Colorado voices will announce the next actions of the train. “Train arriving at Concours A,” says Raynelda Muse, a long-time Denver newscaster, or “Doors closing,” says Pete Smythe, a voice that embodies cowboys and campfires and was the state’s Walter Cronkite throughout the ‘50s. For this very Western 'howdy' or intimate “Welcome Home” for Denver travelers, the Art Tourist can thank Boulder sound artist Jim Green.

In the terminal, the Art Tourist will have the opportunity to see the balustrade by Boulder’s grand dame of ceramic sculpture, Betty Woodman. If you’ve seen one Woodman, well, you’ll recognize these.

One of the most interesting pieces at the airport is on a hallway that separates the West and East Terminals. It's all about travel in the 50s, a photo montages with humor. This is not a hallway one would usually venture to, so finding it may take some Art Tourist dedication.

Excuse me, what’s your favorite sculpture in the airport? You didn’t know there were sculptures at the airport?

Is this airport information? Do you have a catalogue of the artwork in the building? Oh, you ran out of these several years ago. Thank you.

Being in the know as we are, we Art Tourists, we have sought out and seen, and have been totally stimulated by the artwork at the airport, and the only job left was to be totally critical of the show installed along the long pedestrian walkway to Concourse A. This month, the show was pictures of famous Indians - ho hum, we’ve seen these same portraits in every book on the West.

Are we, the Art Tourists, yet salivating at the prospect of seeing more contemporary art in Denver outside the white dome of the terminals? Surprise. At the "Welcome to DIA -- Jepson Terminal" sign, the Art Tourist is not confronted with the giant fiberglass and gleaming auto body painted Mustang sculpture commissioned from Sante Fe artist Louis Jimenez -- it's not there. The public art funds - the percent set aside for art - ran out before the piece was finished. At the time the airport was built, it was the largest public art project in the country, and two giant tents were enough to fill --the art stops at the flaps.

The city offers a contemporary museum -- small -- a fine art museum designed by Geo Ponte, an addition in progress imagined by the architect who also won the competition for the re-do at the World Trade Center, a Robert Graves drawn public library, but sadly too few funds to have any intelligent shows inside the art museum. For contemporary art, visit south Broadway -- Rule Gallery or LoDo -- Robichon.

Many Art Tourists we never leave the airport, make a connection instead, and my be happily transported to a land of better art unless they are destined for Salt Lake City, the real, not virtual, wastland of modern art. (See Art Tourist at the Olympics).