Artist-in-Residence at Caribou Ranch!

Sea of Cloud. From Twin Sisters Peak, RMNP, Colorado, 2016

From 28 August through September 4, I will be staying in the red cabin up at Caribou Ranch Open Space as an “artist-in-residence”. My “job” for the week will be to capture what I find interesting with my lens and create a work to present to the fine Boulder County folks who sponsor this wonderful program.

And, since I am expected to interact with visitors…Why not come by and say “hi” if you are up in the mountains near Nederland, Colorado during that time!? (I will have a few of my prints and larger works up there for perusal as well.)

As a personal side note…

There is an interesting personal connection to this particular landscape that makes the idea of making art there quite compelling.

From the 1930s and into the early 1950s, my paternal grandparents and their three children—my father being one–regularly visited Colorado from their Nebraska home. They continued these visits even after moving to Cheyenne, Wyoming. They would often stay in Peaceful Valley, not far from Rocky Mountain National Park (and very near where the image above was made), and their wanderings eventually brought them to the Van Vleet spread near Nederland. It was called the Lazy V V Ranch back then. These Van Vleet visits became regular Sunday outings for the Joder family, and it was there that my grandmother’s passion for the Arabian horse was born. The ranch cowboys, you see, rode Arabians, a horse noted for its spirit, endurance, and toughness, despite its smaller size.

By 1954 (after separating from my grandfather and leaving Cheyenne with her horses), my grandmother, Anna Best Joder, had established herself as a national expert on Arabian horse bloodlines, the editor of the national Arabian Horse News, and the very proud and stubborn one-woman owner of Joder Arabian Ranch, in the foothills just north of Boulder, Colorado.

During my grandmother’s later years and after her death, my father, Bob Joder, along with his wife Eloise, maintained the family ranch through the 70s, 80s, and 90s. For my two brothers and me, it was always our second home (although we mostly grew up with our mother in Arizona). During the last few years of the Joder Ranch’s existence, we three brothers took turns helping supervise ranch operations and I eventually returned to Colorado to be the on-site supervisor for the final three years of its existence until the property was sold in 2013.

So, it is pretty safe to say that I would not now be living in Boulder, Colorado if it weren’t for this initial contact between my grandmother, Anna Best Joder, and the Van Vleets of what is now Caribou Ranch Open Space.

Ah, lovely Life’s unpredictable twists and turns…

Naturally, this connection really made the Caribou Artist-in-Residence opportunity especially enticing, and I am proud to have been one of six artists selected for the honor in 2016. Now, it will be interesting to see what imagery I come up with!

For you musicians, rock-and-roll hippies, and general all-around music lovers, here is yet another interesting aside…

The Caribou Ranch Recording Studio

From 1972 through 1985, Caribou Ranch was the location of a top-notch sound recording studio. Yep, a pretty unlikely spot, eh? Especially in February!

Still…it attracted an absolutely amazing array of top artists and groups, including Amy Grant, Billy Joel, Carole King, Chicago, Chick Corea, Dan Fogelberg, Deep Purple, Earth Wind and Fire, Eddie Rabbitt, Elton John, Frank Zappa, Jerry Lee Lewis, John Denver, John Lennon, Kris Kristofferson, Michael Jackson, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Peter Frampton, Phil Collins, Rod Stewart, Sheena Easton, Steely Dan, Stevie Nicks, Supertramp, Beach Boys, Tom Petty, Tony Orlando, U2, War, and Waylon Jennings–to name but a handful of the big names!

THAT is one helluva list of Who’s Who in the music biz, no? Do some Googling around for the Caribou Ranch Recording Studio and you’ll find all kinds of wild and crazy bits of trivia.

Unfortunately, the studio was damaged in a fire in 1985 and never completely rebuilt, although apparently many of the buildings are still there–but in an area off-limits to the public.

[NOTE: The red barn you might see as you enjoy the land as Open Space is NOT the old recording studio building.]

Here is an interesting three-minute video tour of the off-limits buildings along with some fun rock-and-roll nostalgia: