Logo Design – The Lighting Connection

You know the old saying, “Jack of all trades, master of none.” Well, I beg to differ.

I ended 2017 doing some new logo designs, starting off with The Lighting Connection in Denver. A wonderful group of people, ready to let the design process unfold and a pleasure to work with. (See their info below.) Although I don’t often do logo design, they had faith in my visual and imaginative skills to gave me the opportunity to blend some old-school ways with today’s  easy access to fonts and graphics.

From 1986 – 1991 I spent all day, every day doing design work — paste-up, hand lettering, illustration, darkroom work, color separations for film — for a printing company outside Kansas City which had national clients. As it turns out, six years of total immersion will bring you to that level of mastery enough to call it up whenever you need.

If you’re contractor in the Denver area, contact this fantastic company!

 

The Lighting Connection – Our Story

The Lighting Connection started operations in 1984 and has consistently been providing excellent lighting solutions and service since inception. Our business is unique in the Denver market as we do not offer a showroom nor do we have walk-in traffic. Our sole focus is you, the Colorado builder.  We work closely with builders and their teams — including general contractors, electricians, superintendents, and purchasing agents to provide comprehensive design and delivery of complete lighting packages (residential, multi-family and commercial) across Colorado.

Our team has more than 75 combined years in the lighting industry, and we have been providing lighting solutions to many of the largest home builders (including national, regional and local builders) here in Colorado.  We have the industry and logistics experience to deliver on all your lighting needs. Our team of professionals currently delivers lighting packages to more than 100 sites per week.

Our Mission

To deliver competitively-priced lighting fixtures with exceptional customer service. The Lighting Connection has a legacy of reliability in the lighting industry.

Our Vision

Our company will not waver from its mission, which means competitively-priced lighting fixtures and round-the-clock customer support. We will provide continued stellar builder support and comprehensive lighting packages for all building needs.

Career Advancement Award from the Colorado Creative Industries

The Colorado Creative Industries Division of the Office of Economic Development and International Trade (CCI), has awarded me with a Career Advancement grant. The grant is to be used toward developing, publishing and marketing my Children’s Picture Book, Augustina, as well as a screenplay for animated film to accompany the book.

Here she is!

2Angel_RRoberts1Augustina, is a humorous story about a lovable, barnyard oddball who dances her way into the carnival spotlight, and discovers her true identity — she is a heifer-potamus!

Educators, day care providers and social workers enthusiastically support this story:

“I see all kinds of application potential, everything from children who are adopted to helping children gain ego strength.” — Carol C., Clinical Social Worker

Please contact me for more information about Augustina.

To capitalize on attending conferences and industry workshops I am simultaneously developing an additional story for both book and film. Hint:  the characters are perfect for cute Halloween costumes in coming years. Stay tuned!

Logo

Cover Art for Colorado Central Magazine

CCOctCover2015FINALColorado Central Magazine
cozine.com

About the painting: This oil painting depicts fall cottonwoods on the historic Garcia Ranch. Reyes Garcia is now the steward of this ranch and allowed me to take a walk and paint this beautiful piece of property. As a retired professor of philosophy, environmental and indigenous studies, Reyes is deeply attuned to the legacy of his family’s land and the way of life it has provided for generations. With the Garcia family having originally settled in Conejos County in the 1850’s, he has a long history rooted in the special area between the Conejos and San Antonio Rivers in the southern part of the San Luis Valley.

Conserving the land and water is a way “to make my own small contribution to preserving the family legacy of ranching and the land-based culture of the ranchero tradition,” Garcia writes. “… I came to understand this tradition includes putting into practice ecological values by virtue of an instinctual love of the land that engenders good stewardship and a deep respect for all life forms, the seasonal rotation of livestock and their humane treatment, the acequia irrigation system especially, the transmission of skills which make self-reliance possible…”

in 2013, the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust worked with Reyes to complete a voluntary conservation easement on the spectacular Garcia Ranch, to insure that this working ranch will remain intact with its senior water rights in perpetuity. Learn more about RiGHT’s ongoing conservation work and the ranch at www.riograndelandtrust.org

Cloud 50

 

In honor of my fiftieth year, I will spend it with my head in the clouds,
creating a series of 50 cloud paintings and drawings.
Watercolor, Oil, Charcoal.
Some large, some small, depending on the cloud and what it says to me.
I hope you’ll join me on this flight of fancy.

Cloud 50

Salon International 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Moonrise Over the San Luis Valley” in San Antonio, Texas

Salon International 2012
Salon International 2012 is the eleventh annual juried exhibition sponsored by the International Museum of Contemporary Masters and hosted by Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art. It will feature 434 original oil paintings selected from artist entries from around the world.

Reception
Awards Banquet – April 13 by Reservation Only

Opening Reception
April 14 – 5-8:00 pm

Gallery Exhibit
April 14 – May 4

Internet Exhibit
April 14 – May 4

Fox Theatre Benefit Art Auction

This original oil painting will be up for bid at the auction in April. (see larger image here)

Fox Theatre in McCook, Nebraska
Saturday April 14th  
Auction starts at 7:30 p.m.
Artwork on display at local banks  during the month of March. For more info contact codert59@gmail.com or call 308-340-7955.

“Side Door”
10 x 10”
Oil on Canvas
Retail Value:  $1,200

The Historic Fox Theatre in McCook, Nebraska (my hometown) is under renovation and in need of funds. The building, known to area residents as the “Fox Theatre” was built by A. Barnett and opened its doors January 28, 1927 as The World Theatre, featuring five Vaudeville acts of live entertainment every Sunday.

The basic intent of the project is to preserve the character and charm of the theatre, while upgrading the facility to current life safety needs, code compliance and ADA accessible conformity.

It was in this theater where I originally formed my love of movies. I spent many Saturday afternoons there in my childhood…and Saturday nights during my teenage years. There were huge, red velvet curtain with giant gold ropes that covered the screen. Wooden chairs upholstered to match the drapery. Swirling Art Deco scrolls decorated the walls. Rich and beautifully crafted woodwork in the lobby and balcony. It was a place of magic then and deserved its distinction as the center piece on Norris Avenue which is still a cobblestone Main Street.

I would like to offer an additional donation to the renovation with limited edition giclée prints of the original painting to be auctioned.

I will donate 30% of the proceeds of any print sale of “Side Door” through the month of April, 2012 toward the renovation.

Prints can be purchased through PayPal in the Print Shop (see sizes and prices there) or contact me and include the word FOX in the subject line.

 

Who’s Guiding Whom?

The thermometer outside reads nine degrees — not a morning I would normally emerge from beneath my goose-down comforter before dawn.  “Thank god it’s almost April,” I exhale and begin the dance of pulling chilled silk over my bare skin. Another layer of mohair, then thicker wool, and sturdy denim.

I am meant for equatorial climates.

A stranger on my couch also rises — acclaimed nature photographer, Andoni Canela. I’ve lured him here with alpine promises of buffalo herds, migrating sand hill cranes, and wintry slopes of the Southern San Juans.

I found Andoni and his work on Facebook, of all places. From cyber-land to my doorstep, Andoni is the real deal, only smaller than I imagined. We’re almost the same size and I am decidedly petite. Now he rolls up his bedding, sleepy but smiling and ready to go. Like two little pixies, we tiptoe out into wee hours. Neither of us know what we’re in for.

So, I bring snacks.

Frigid air slaps me awake. I absorb the beauty of predawn half-light.The huge expanse of fading stars presses down, sandwiching us against icy snow that blankets the valley in pinkish- lavender drifts. The cold envelops our heated truck and billows its exhaust.  We’re alone on a silver-gray highway.

This valley is like a small town starlet waiting to be discovered. She makes herself up, dons her finest gown, accentuates her features with jewels, but only a handful of churchgoers get to admire her. Today might be her big break.

I hope she performs, for her sake…and mine.

Andoni took me on my word that a five hundred mile detour would be worth his while. I had the nerve to invite him and he was brave enough to accept. Now it is time for the land to deliver. I’ve made phone calls, scoured maps, and gotten permission from land owners, but we are still at the mercy of this climate’s unpredictable moods. Neither copious prayers nor hopeful offerings can divert the Southern San Juan’s shedding of winter. Gusts and gales come as they must, and we are on the verge the windy season.

Nowhere on earth is there a more miserable springtime.

Our first turn is a wrong one. The sun inches toward the horizon and I realize that we’re supposed to be south of the river but north of the highway. That only involves about fifty yards of real estate, and the pasture we’re trudging through seemed a much more likely place to find a herd of buffalo. We backtrack. The sun and the stakes get higher. We’re on the verge of loosing our morning shoot.

Finally, we locate the herd. I was assured that these bison are used to people, so we enter the small, fenced-in pasture hoping for close-up shots. However, the alpha male takes offense at our intrusion. He bounds to the edge of his group of females and offspring. Steam puffs from his nostrils in audible bursts. Two steps in our direction.

“That one looks like trouble.”

I shed my camera pack, ready to drop it on the other side of the fence, but Andoni holds it for me. That bison shows us his trot. I scramble over wood and wire, shaking just a little. My companion is much quicker over the fence and we back up together as the bulk of four-legged fur huffs toward us at a full run. Did the builders of this livestock enclosure considered the force of a charging buffalo? The burly brute halts in an abrupt stop, exactly where we exited his territory.

Right on cue, dawn breaks. Bravo.

“Here we go,” Andoni whispers. Splendid, first light on a bison rancher’s menacing bull. Our packs drop and shutters click. The bison prances and poses for us in perfect, masculine, untamed power. So much between sunup and moonrise is completely outside our control. Despite initial mishaps, this day continues to grant one photogenic gift after another. Weather and clouds shroud the Sangre de Cristo Mountains with luxurious austerity. And later, a silent blizzard covers a wilder herd of two hundred shaggy-haired beasts; a classic, snow-covered vision of the American west.

It is both comforting and unnerving to me, this blessed but unforgiving geography, like a teacher who pushes you to find the upper limits of your potential when the real lesson is that there are none.”You are one lucky man,” I tell my new friend, as snowflakes melt into his dark hair. Happy, brown eyes smile over cupped hands. He warms them with his breath. “Yes, I am very lucky to find such a good guide for my trip.”

High praise in a Spanish accent.

I’ve managed to live in the San Luis Valley for ten years, without truly accepting it as my home…until this moment. I needed Andoni’s fresh eyes to see it, to remember my place. Open, curious, excited with a child’s wonderment, the wealth of his energy is just as valuable as his technical expertise. Andoni’s profession has taken him all over the world to witness and record
extraordinary spectacles, nature’s premier events. Still, my home has the power to move him. Now I claim it with a sense of prideful ownership.

Neither of us knew what we were getting ourselves into. I expected to be his guide, but it was the handsome Spaniard who showed me where I might belong.
© 2010, Rita Roberts