Colorado State University-Pueblo student Joseph Parada has experienced a lifetime’s worth of impactful events and is  now expressing his experiences and emotions through the years into his art.

Artist Joseph Parada | Photo by Alec Herrera

Parada, 73, has an entire corner of the Fine Arts Gallery devoted to his distinct artwork, including numerous paintings, a piece of woodwork and a children’s book that was written and drawn by the artist.

Born in the country of Chile, Parada’s voyage to the United States alone was something to behold, as he took several different directions until one eventually led stateside. Son of a military man, he learned unique life-lessons that would prove valuable to him later in his own armed forces experiences.

Something also passed down to Parada was an idea of what makes artists tick as his father played the trumpet and even performed in his own band.

“Artists’ brains are wired differently. They are bohemian,” Parada said of artists’ mentality.

As a youth in Chile, he was pushed to learn artistry similar to his father, mainly focusing on the piano. Parada spoke of his love for dancing and how it would forever be a part of his life, even coming out through his painting.

As he grew up, Parada started on his own personal path by joining the Chilean Air Force while still a teenager and earning the first notch in what would become an extensive military career.

It was here that Parada began to travel the world. He traveled to parts of Europe foremost with Germany being the most common destination. Through all this time, he made sure to take advantage of the various learning opportunities provided by the Armed Forces, taking classes as much as possible.

Parada’s artwork at the Fine Art Gallery | Photo by Alec Herrera

Ultimately he began working on a large ship during the 1960s and saved his money, focusing on the goal of reaching the U.S. Parada worked on the ocean for two straight years from 1965 to 1967 before finally having enough money to reach America, first living in Baltimore then New York.

Despite the strangeness of late-60s New York, Parada said that there was no real culture shock.

“When you travel the world you learn that the people are very different,” he said.

Despite that, Parada still had to adjust to life in a new situation, eventually finding comfort in the books of Napoleon Hill.

His life of military duty was not over however as Parada joined the U.S. military, once again engaging in a life of travel and danger.

“The Vietnam War was happening. I thought ‘take me to Vietnam, take me to active duty!’ and I will serve if it is what I have to do,” he said, though he never saw active duty as the war had slowed down by the time he had joined.

Eventually retiring from the Armed Forces, Parada’s new direction in life led him back to his deep-rooted love of the arts and looked to find his voice through school. With his family having gone to school in Colorado, he began to look at his own opportunities and found himself at Pikes Peak Community College.

“My professor there told me ‘Joseph you are really good!’ He really empowered me, made me feel motivated,” Parada said, adding that his professor implored he attend a four year university to further learn his craft.

Now at CSU-Pueblo, he began to realize his own potential as well as what inspired him to create, with numerous life moments and passions to draw inspiration from.

A theme very dear to the artist is the representation of veterans. Two of Parada’s paintings featured at the Fine Arts Gallery are tributes to veterans around the world.

“Veterans want respect, not pity,” he said, explaining how they can often be abandoned or forgotten.

Other persistent themes in his work are landscapes and the beauty of nature.

“(Colorado) Springs and the Rocky Mountains remind me a lot of the Andes,” he spoke, relating the Colorado signature with the Chilean mountain range.

A piece at the gallery features an amalgamation of the two areas, titled “A Touch of Nature.”

The last huge inspiration to the artist is a prevalent one in most people’s lives: his family. Parada relayed a story about a chihuahua dog he adopted from his daughter when she moved to Texas and couldn’t take the dog, named Rocky, with her.

“I never liked little dogs, they reminded me of little rats,” he said.

Despite this, he took in the dog and the two began to connect, with Parada calling him a great friend.

“I took him all around the world with me,” he claimed, adding that the dog was very macho, even married twice. Rocky died in 2009.

Parada paid tribute to his beloved friend in the form of a children’s book title “Wonder Dog and the Old Man,” a story about a small dog finding a home. Parada can also be seen with Rocky in the picture “Winter Walking,” where the two are seen traversing a snowy forest.

The veteran spoke nicely of the art program at CSU-Pueblo, expressing praise for professor’s allowing the artists to find themselves and feel their way through their art.

“I would take my art to one professor and they would go bananas, asking ‘what is that?’ but then I’d take it to another and they’d go bananas for the opposite reason,” Parada said.

Parada has achieved quite a bit in his time, not only in the confines of CSU-Pueblo, but across the globe. Now at an older age, he says that working on his art has made feel “like a kid again,” igniting the passion of a man who has contributed so much to the world.

Parada’s art is available to see at the Fine Arts Gallery through the rest of the spring semester.

From Navy recruiter to flourishing art major, Suzi Reaves’ journey to the senior art gallery has been one of frenetic change and progression as she has found her voice in the expressive world of art.

Artist Suzi Reaves | Photo by Alec Herrera

Reaves, 62, is currently showing off a small portion of her diverse art portfolio at Colorado State University-Pueblo’s Fine Arts Gallery, all of which encapsulates a lifelong love of the arts and an expression of deep-rooted passions.

Born into a military family, Reaves traveled the world at a young age, living in foreign nations and settling in various states from Florida to Oregon. Despite the movement, she gained a passion for art over time crafting several pieces in school, one of which will be featured in her senior seminar presentation.

She accomplished quite a bit in her academic career prior to reaching CSU-Pueblo in 2013. Reaves received a bachelor’s degree in recreation administration from the University of Northern Colorado-Greeley where she was able to find steady work and experience in the administration field.

Despite her major emphasis then, Reaves never strayed from her love of art, actually owning an art shop in the Colorado Renaissance Fair up in Larkspur, Colorado, where she made ornaments for sale.

“I custom made ornaments for all the ski areas here in Colorado for Vail, Breckenridge,” Reaves said.

Despite the success she experienced running the shop, Reaves said that her “hands got tired” and it got her thinking about things more long-term in regard to health care and retirement. This led her into an impressive 23 year career in the U.S. Navy where she spent the majority of it as a recruiter.

Reaves described the experience as mostly being a “sales job” but in her time she learned valuable communication skills, on-the-job training and various forms of education that would go on to aid her once she would return to an academic setting.

Moving forward with the military career wrapped up, a G.I. Bill in hand, and a passion for art ahead of her, Reaves became a full-time student at CSU-Pueblo in the fall of 2013, majoring in art with an emphasis in ceramics.

In spite of her years of vocational experience with art, Reaves admitted that there was still a lot for her to learn in regards to different styles and practices.

“When I came here, I knew nothing about painting or print making,” she said, later adding that the college allowed her to find her voice in painting.

Now a large painting of a Walking Stick Cactus adorns the back wall of the Fine Arts Gallery, exhibiting years of improvement and progression in Reaves’ ability as a painter, as well as an understanding of her preferences.

“I like realism in painting. I can really appreciate the work that goes into making something look real, like a Rembrandt,” she added.

A piece created by Reaves | Photo by Alec Herrera

Her painting skills evolved from practically nothing, but her ceramic work grew to something even greater with numerous pieces featured in the senior gallery.

With inspirations ranging from Mexican ceramist Gustavo Perez to Japanese Jomon Era Pottery, Reaves’ ceramic work captures multi-cultured concoction that exemplifies her personal style.

“I enjoy ceramics because of how tactile it is. You get to really feel your way through a work of art,” she explained, pointing out the complex methods she used for her pieces, including a Jomon Era pot that was painstakingly coiled by hand.

The piece de resistance of Reaves’ ceramic work is a clever if strange piece titled “Eye Pods” which features repurposed forks, steel wire, and a CD rack paired with assortment of handmade ceramic plant pods. Combined, the materials form quite a sight.

The piece has already been featured in other galleries around Colorado and won various honors.

“I like when I’m asked to do something I’ve never done before.”

These are only a sample of all the work that Reaves has completed during her years at CSU-Pueblo, but she doesn’t see any end in sight for her artistic practice, in and out of the college.

“I still plan on taking the studio courses because I figure they’re here, the instructors are here, why not use them?” Reaves said.

She does look back at her CSU-Pueblo days fondly, remarking on the great experiences she’s had with the teachers and classmates calling them all “art buddies” of hers. In regard to her own art, she said that compared to her days as an ornament maker, she now feels that her work is much more of an “art” and less of a “craft.”

From youth to retirement, art has always been a staple in Suzi Reaves’ life; now she will be leaving CSU-Pueblo with an amazing resume and a bright future as her artistic vision’s become more expansive than ever.

The senior art gallery featuring Reaves’ art will be open through the remainder of the Spring semester and is located in the Fine Arts Gallery.

Seniors in the art department are currently displaying a variety of work in the Fine Art Gallery. | Photo by Alec Herrera

A culmination of hard work and self-exploration over college careers, the current senior art gallery exhibits a variety of pieces, all created by students attending CSU-Pueblo.

Open for the entirety of April and part of May, the gallery will be the last of the school year to be featured in the Fine Art Gallery and will fittingly go out in artistic style, packed with art ranging every possible style.

Showing off the work and imagination of the artists, this gallery is something special to the university as a direct symbol of what its students are capable of creating. These include classic painting, drawing, acrylic painting, digital art, photography, Photoshop, sculpture, ceramics, metals and woodwork.

Simply entering the gallery, one can witness the amount of work adorning the floors and walls of the gallery. To the right there is a wall covered with paintings, drawings and digital art. In the middle of the room sits a plethora of pieces, ranging from photography to sculptures. That’s just from looking through the entrance.

Assistant professor of contemporary theory and art history and gallery director Caroline Peters spoke lovingly about the gallery while examining the works. “It’s always one of my favorites,” Peters said, adding, “It’s always so different.”

The artists themselves are currently working on perhaps the hardest part, presenting their work to members of faculty. On April 15, the featured artists began working on their presentations, using them as an opportunity to reflect on their own accomplishments as well as display their own artistic identity to peers and superiors alike.

Art professor Vicki Hansen held what was a practice presentation session, allowing the students to feel out their own speeches in front of a room of fellow presenters. The work-in-progress speeches had strengths and weaknesses, but gave a strong glimpse into each presenter’s mindset and artistic vision.

It also gave a feel for the notable amount of diversity that is present in the gallery and in each person’s art.

Ras Christian Marker, an artist with several pieces featured in the senior gallery, detailed his past in the arts and his own personal code in life, ending with the poignant statement “Think freely and embrace art.” Some of Marker’s gallery pieces include hand-crafted sculptures titled “Waves” and “Mama Africa.”

Elizabeth Smith, a casual and comfortable speaker, talked about her own personal interests in relation to art, taking the very distinct path of a biology and art student. Smith’s featured pieces in the gallery reflected her interest in biology as they focused very much on the natural world, portraying various species of birds.

Wylie Grubitz described his art in colorful fashion calling it an interpretation of “the media influenced orgy of animation in my brain,” touching on the eccentric variety of his work. Some of pieces include works on the anatomy of guns, some which can be seen right at the entrance of the gallery.

All of the artists presented their years of work and all the different types of art they worked on throughout college, with everyone dabbling in a little of everything.

Photo by Alec Herrera

Their art spans various styles of art, including abstract, realist, surrealist, portrait, modernist, post-modern, and even works based off of pop culture, such as Alix Bowman’s Totoro whistle.

It also included several types of concepts including album art, book art, self-portrait and promotional art, with “All Pueblo Reads,” projects popping up a few times.

Hansen expressed great pride in her students and their presentations, adding that they all show great promise and showed off their art in solid focus.

The presentations are still gestating at the moment, but the students will continue to work towards the end of the year. Just like every student, their task isn’t quite done yet, but to get a glimpse at what they’ve accomplished to this point, one only needs to visit the Fine Arts Gallery.

The senior gallery will remain open throughout the end of the school year and will be open Monday through Friday, starting at 10 a.m.

The Classified Staff Council at Colorado State University-Pueblo operates largely unknown at times, but has gone to great lengths to improve the lives and financial situations of all its employees through astute and calculated measures.

The Classified Staff Council | Photo courtesy of csupueblo.edu

There are three categories of employees at CSU-Pueblo: faculty, administrators and the classified staff. The council was formed in order to aid classified employees, which covers everything from custodial services and maintenance workers to secretaries and information technology workers.

Council president Vicki Becker, who has worked extensively for the board, detailed what the council sets out to do.

“It’s to make sure classified employees have a voice,” Becker said, summarizing the general focus of the group.

The formation of this council has allowed its employees to serve as an advisory group for the university president, which in turn has allowed the employees to actually be able to control some aspects of their position and possibilities at the university.

This group has also accomplished the often elusive goal of communication. With “classified employees” covering a broad range of workers, creating a forum for workers to truly communicate may be difficult but the classified council has been able to excel in that capacity reaching out by meeting every month and being readily available at the Administration Building.

One of the most significant functions that the council accomplishes is looking out for the families of classified employees. The best example of this would be the various scholarships that the council awards in each semester that are made exclusive toward family members of classified employees at the campus.

Awarding up to four $1,000 scholarships each year, the council has put an emphasis on how important it is to aid members’ families and that starts at the very institution that the council operates.

To get this scholarship money, the council has conducted a litany of creative projects and events that initiate student, faculty and general community engagement.

Some of these events include selling various items. This could be anything from basic food and crafts that are made by council members to actual cookbooks.

One unique event that pulls in the community is the Craft Fair that the council holds every fall to gain awareness to several artistic projects. This coming fall may face difficulties for the fair due to the ongoing construction of the new Occhiato University Center Building but Becker has reassured that they are still planning on holding the Craft Fair.

Some close upcoming events that the council is holding include two unique raffles that are open to the general campus and community.

The first raffle is what the council calls a “50/50 Raffle” where half of the proceeds will go toward the raffle winner and the other half will go toward the scholarship fund.

The tickets are currently being sold for $1 for one or $5 for six, with the winner being announced at the Employee Recognition Luncheon on April 21, 2016.

The other raffle is what Becker is calling a “Dollar Prize Raffle” where people buy tickets for prizes that were donated by the community and council members. The tickets for this raffle are being sold for the same prices as the “50/50 Raffle.”

To purchase a ticket, contact a classified staff member at the administration building, such as president Becker or Vice President Loretta Cisneros.

With big events going on at this very moment, the Classified Staff Council continues its efforts to make their members and employees lives better as well as connect with the community.

An exploration of perspective and the history of art, artist Mike Womack’s gallery “Shoved Forward from Behind” wowed observers throughout the month of March.

Presented in the Fine Arts Gallery at Colorado State University-Pueblo, “Shoved Forward from Behind” was quite the sight for curious art-goers as it prominently featured tables bolted into the walls of the gallery.

A piece of Mike Womack’s art on display at CSU-Pueblo.| Photo by Alec Herrera

Each table included a sort of alteration intended to shift how one views the furniture, with many including a square cut-out, or a canvas added to a part of the table.

The works skewed the definition of each object, making the tables equal part “painting, architecture, and space,” as Womack put it.

Womack, born in Texas, has had a diverse and successful career as an artist, being profiled by established publications such as The New York Times, New Yorker and Sculpture Magazine.

He is currently the assistant professor in the department of art and art history at the University of Colorado Boulder, while still maintaining art studios in Boulder and Brooklyn, New York.

Gallery director and assistant professor of contemporary theory and art history Caroline Peters expressed her own insight and enthusiasm about the gallery saying she liked the “simplicity” of the pieces.

“It almost has a calming atmosphere,” Peters said in regards to the gallery’s artistic aura, later adding that the gallery “doesn’t tell you how to think or feel.”

She also praised the gallery for his examination of the history of painting, claiming that the tables and canvases exhibited the simplification of painting and the focus of the “essentials” in art.

Peters also explained the extensive process of setting up this distinct art gallery, seeing as how it wasn’t as simple as hang a piece of art on the wall.

Peters, her assistant Chris Rivera and Womack had to detach the legs of each table first, bolt them into the walls, then attach the tabletop, all while adding the canvases at various points in the process.

Despite the actual construction of tables, Peters actually said that setting up the lighting for each piece was the most difficult as the shadows were a very precise point of each piece.

On display for the majority of March, the exhibit culminated in a reception on March 31 that featured Womack mingling with guests, giving a speech about the gallery and discussing his view on art in general.

The reception was attended by students, past and present, staff members, and inquisitive art connoisseurs who sought insight on the creative gallery.

Professor of art Richard Hansen praised the uniqueness of Womack’s pieces, as well as their ability to simply pull in the interest of people.

Former CSU-Pueblo student Flo Nethery thought that the gallery was impressive for a variety of reasons as it was unlike anything she had ever seen before.

“There are so many parts of each work to look at and consider,” Nethery said.

Womack spent a good amount of time at the reception walking around and conversing with people, before giving a semi-formal talk in front of the audience at the Fine Arts Gallery.

His speech took a look at a variety of turns, foremost explaining the origins of “Shoved Forward from Behind.”

“I was able to take ideas that I was interested in and explore them further,” Womack said.

He commended the CSU-Pueblo art department and gallery for allowing him to experiment with his art, saying that he may not have tried something so “bold” if it were displayed somewhere else.

Womack summarized the gallery as an effort to be honest and an exploration into his own relationship with art.

It was later that the artist talked about how people take in, appreciate, and study art and how art has a stigma or preconception about it that makes people think a certain way.

“How deep can we intellectualize something before we recognize an emotional component?” Womack presented, explaining that people often feel pressure to feel a certain way about art or “high art” at times.

“I’m not afraid to admit I like some Taylor Swift songs… I know that she’s a (bad) pop artist, but I like it, so what,” Womack detailed, using a personal anecdote of how people shouldn’t feel forced to have a certain opinion about a piece of art.

He ended by saying that the most difficult thing for artists is “getting out of their own way,” as he spoke about recognizing the meaning in every work of art and realizing there doesn’t always have to be a “lofty” meaning.

Womack left the Fine Arts Gallery having educated, entertained, and engrossed the artistically attached crowd with “Shoved Forward from Behind’s” run at the gallery formally ending with a bang.

April’s featured gallery will host senior art students’ works with a reception at the end of the month.

With over 30 films to her credit and 30 years of film industry experience, producer Lydia Dean Pilcher brought unique insight, opinions and stories to the Colorado State University-Pueblo campus on March 14.

Lydia Dean Pilcher | Photo by Alec Herrera

Visiting from New York City, Pilcher held three separate events on campus, including two workshops in the Library and Academic Resources Center and a large presentation titled “The Audience in Revolt: Culture Wars and Disruption in Hollywood” which was held in the Occhiato University Center Ballroom, all of which were open to the public.

Pilcher’s first workshop explored her various experiences and opinions on “crowd funding” in the film and industry and how it has affected modern filmmaking.

She outlined her own experience having crowd-funded a movie titled “The Sisterhood of the Night,” which was released in 2015.

This experience includes making a crowd-funding campaign to get people interested, making videos to let people know what the movie is about and considering feedback from the audience.

“When you reach out to people, they talk back,” Pilcher explained in regards to her production company having to progressively make more videos and provide more information at the behest of people asking for them.

This presentation on crowdfunding also included Pilcher’s thoughts on how movies seem to have diverged in production value in budget. Pilcher explained that independent movies tend to “challenge the status quo” and explore stories that are not told in Hollywood.

Despite painting a picture disparity between Hollywood and independent movies, Pilcher felt that the two styles were very much connected.

“Hollywood needs independent movies and independent movies need Hollywood,” Pilcher said.

The audience watches Pilcher’s presentation. | Photo by Alec Hererra

Ending the first workshop, Pilcher said that she will be crowd-funding another movie this coming year titled “Sight.”

The second workshop focused on sustainability in the movie industry and Pilcher’s own efforts in “greening” sets. A member of the Producers’ Guild of America, Pilcher has long been trying to improve the environmental sustainability of film sets and industry endeavors.

The final portion of Pilcher’s eventful day was the presentation “”The Audience in Revolt: Culture Wars and Disruption in Hollywood,” which examined filmmaking trends as well as the role of a producer in the industry.

Opening with an introduction of herself, Pilcher talked about herself and even showed a video consisting of movies she’s produced, including “The Darjeeling Limited,” and “The Reluctant Fundamentalist.”

One of the first questions that Pilcher addressed in her presentation was “What does a producer do?” She broke down the various tasks that a producer has, both creatively and financially, but she essentially answered the question by saying, “If you are someone who is good at making people say ‘yes,’ then you would be a good producer.”

The meat of the presentation really started to show itself when Pilcher spoke about the various changes that have hit the industry in the last 10 years.

She talked about the generational change from generation x to millennials, stating that the millennial generation now makes up one third of the U.S. population and is nearly 50 percent “diverse,” making for a lot more diverse stories worth being told.

This idea of diversity led to a presentation on “unconscious bias” in not only the film industry, but in everyday life. She presented various scenarios and engaged the audience on how they felt on stereotypes and unintended biases, all just to illustrate her point on the subject.

Pilcher briefly touched on this year’s Academy Awards as an example of the newer generation’s diverse audience wanting more representation in films, and eschewing the “traditional” sensibilities of the academy.

Highlighting her own experience, Pilcher talked about an upcoming movie of hers about a Ugandan chess prodigy. Titled “Queen of Katwe,” the film is meant to explore aspects of life that Pilcher explained, “aren’t really talked about or told in Hollywood.”

The film is scheduled to release this September.

In the end, Pilcher accepted questions from the audience and enthusiastically met with students and faculty after the presentation for brief one-on-one discussion, a lot of which consisted of questions from enthusiastic aspiring filmmakers.

Pilcher herself reflected positively on the experience, complimenting both the campus and the people, saying that it was an all around great experience.

Film and TV producer Lydia Dean Pilcher will be visiting the Colorado State University-Pueblo campus March 14, leading student workshops and giving a presentation on a range of topics in the film industry.

Lydia Dean Pilcher | Photo courtesy of http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0212990/

Pilcher, a producer with over 30 movies to her credit, has a diverse portfolio of movies ranging from large-scale releases to independent films and documentary. She was recently nominated for an Academy Award for the documentary “Cutie and the Boxer” in 2015 for “Best Documentary- Feature.”

The producer has made movies featuring a plethora of prominent names in filmmaking, including Wes Anderson, Barry Levinson, Tim Robbins, Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Owen Wilson, Al Pacino, Susan Sarandon, Dennis Hopper and Lupita Nyong’o.

Based in New York City, N.Y., Pilcher currently runs her own production company, Cine Mosaic, which has become a prominent name in the independent film industry.

With a large number of films on her resume, Pilcher takes pride in the diverse range of voices she has sought when producing movies explaining that about half the movies she has produced were directed by women.

“There’s a lot of shift in today’s culture with women and diversity,” Pilcher said. She also talked about how the “demographic shift” happening today provides filmmakers with a chance to make “different” stories.

“You see a lot of different types of movies being (made) these days,” Pilcher said, later saying that the new generation has a lot to do with that as there is increasing number of diverse voices trying to be heard.

Pilcher referenced the controversy surround the 2016 Academy Awards as a sign of audiences wanting a wider range of voices being heard and stories being told.

One of Pilcher’s upcoming endeavors that really exemplify this diversity in storytelling is “Queen of Katwe,” a Disney film based on the life of Ugandan chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi. Set to release this September, Pilcher praised the production of the film and was excited about the unique narrative.

Commenting further on the current state of the film industry, Pilcher spoke about how the business has changed in regards to actually getting a film made.

“We’ve lost the mid-range studios,” she said, later elaborating that “you have either big budget movies … or independent style movies where people struggle just to get it made.”

One of Pilcher’s workshops that she will be leading on March 14 will be centered around the idea of “crowd funding” and building an audience.

Another part of filmmaking that Pilcher has championed is the idea of environmental sustainability in the film industry, or “greening” sets.

Sustainability will be the focus of Pilcher’s other workshop on March 14.

As a member of Producers Guild of America, Pilcher has become a leading figure among her peers in ensuring movie sets are “green” and environmentally sustainable in the future.

Her visit to CSU-Pueblo will mark Pilcher’s first visit to the city of Pueblo and the producer showed excitement about the visit. “I’m interested to learn about the students and see what they think about the film industry,” Pilcher said.

Having taught seminars to film students at New York University, Pilcher has experience talking to college crowds and reflected positively about the experience saying that it’s “always interesting” seeing the students input and seeing if “they think they’re being properly represented in movies and media.”

In giving insight to aspiring filmmakers, the producer says that she often tells the students “to find their personal vision.”

Pilcher’s workshops are free and open to the public. The first workshop will be held from 10 to 11 a.m. in LARC Room 109 and the second will be held from 2 to 3 p.m. in LARC Room 108.

She will be giving a large presentation called “The Audience in Revolt: Culture Wars and Disruption in Hollywood,” which will take place in the Occhiato University Center Ballroom from 7 to 9 p.m. There will be a reception prior to the presentation at 6 p.m. in the OUC Ballroom where food will be served.

College students from multiple universities across the western U.S. gathered at Colorado State University-Pueblo to appreciate informative speeches, tour Pueblo and discuss the expansive intricacies and various applications of industrial engineering at the Institute of Industrial Engineering Western Regional Conference.

The 2016 Institute of Industrial Engineering Western Regional Conference at CSU-Pueblo | Photo by Alec Herrera

The conference was held on campus from March 3 to March 5 before culminating in a ski trip at Monarch Mountain on March 6.

The campus hosted students from distinguished universities such as Oregon State University, New Mexico State University and California University Polytechnic at Pomona.

The event put a heightened focus on sustainability in industry and business as well as teamwork, trust and innovation within the field.

The conference was organized by the CSU-Pueblo chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineering which includes faculty advisor and associate professor Leonardo Bedoya-Valencia, IIE member Justice Smith, IIE Vice President Gavin Reimer and IIE President Mariana Hosomi.

Hosomi said that she was excited for the event and pleased to see the turn out from other colleges and the varied speakers in attendance.

CSU-Pueblo engineering professor Ebisa Wollega commented that the event was impressive and transcended his expectations of it going in.

Psychology professor and speaker at the event Fred Stultz offered similar adulation for the conference, commenting on the effectiveness of the networking sessions and the nature of the event.

IIE member Emily Donaghy concurred, saying that the smaller scale of the event allowed for people to converse casually and really get involved.

The event got into full swing on March 4, as a multitude of speakers engaged those in attendance and the attendees were treated to plant tours of Pueblo’s various industrial businesses.

The speakers on Friday started with health care extraordinaire Marci Jackson who talked about her extensive experience in the field of health care, which included personal stories about how the field has affected her. The speech exhibited the strong convictions of all involved at the conference right off the bat.

Following Jackson was CSU-Pueblo’s own graduate student, Meral Sarper, who relayed her graduate research paper on economic and environmental sustainability in the community.

The paper, which also featured contributions by CSU-Pueblo’s Kelly Gehlhoff and Wollega, highlighted the problems facing the expansive Pueblo community and proposed possible vitalization solutions for said problems. Sarper’s speech also included some of CSU-Pueblo’s own efforts in improving sustainability.

The last to speak on the day were the two entrants in the IIE Undergraduate Technical Paper Competition, the team of Breanne De Anda and Kyle Smith from California Polytechnic and Mariel Vargas Haddad from New Mexico State.

The day finished up with a tour of Pueblo’s impressive industrial plants. Food production company TR Toppers, wind energy expert Vestas and Pueblo signature EVRAZ Steel Mill were all prominent destinations on the tour.

The next day provided the conference with more speakers, more networking and more important information.

The day featured a couple of United Technologies Corporation speakers in adjunct engineering professor John Linck and UTC manager Kendra Washington. The two talked about effectiveness in business and “applied knowledge.”

Washington, a “continuous improvement” manager, spoke extensively about Sigma-Six and the application of its ideals in a steady workplace. The talk highlighted the conference’s focus on teamwork and efficiency within industrial workplaces.

Also included in the event’s fun was Kevin Gilford who spoke at CSU-Pueblo back in January. Gilford, assistant sustainability director at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, gave an extensive speech about the history, importance and application of sustainability in cities as well as how his expertise fits into the engineering field.

Leland Lorentzen, the primary operating executive at Golden Aluminum, gave the audience a very detailed speech about his first-hand experience in the industrial field as well as personal anecdotes about learning how things work inside the industry.

A team workshop organized by Stultz brought a different speech to the table as well providing the assortment of students with an opportunity to understand what they look for in trust and communication.

Stultz did this by first showing a TED Talk video that highlighted his speech, then broke the room into teams to see what everyone thought about the concept of trust. This included each team making a list of what makes them trust a person.

The day finished off with an award banquet ceremony to announce the winner of the Technical Paper Competition who was Breanne De Anda and Kyle Smith from California Polytechnic.

While on paper the event may not have seemed to be entirely focused on engineering, the conference provided people from different parts of the country and opportunity to talk and learn about their experiences, opinions and their ideas for the future. Over its three day period, the conference exemplified the hard work, community and brilliant minds in the industrial engineering field.

Over the last two weeks, those who have walked into Colorado State University-Pueblo’s Fine Arts Gallery have been greeted by numerous drawings scattered around the room, unique documentary style videos throughout the area and an enormous wall-spanning mural.

This display is the collective product of the “Localized Radical” exhibit that held a closing reception on Feb. 26. The exhibit featured three artists, including two locals from Pueblo and one all the way from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Local artist Arley Woodty had the most pieces on display at the gallery, with nine of his original drawings appearing on the walls. Each drawing had a specific look and theme, whether it was patterns, abstract shapes and figures, or interpretive pieces.

Artist Arley Woodty | Photo by Alec Herrera

Pueblo native Mathew Taylor created an immense mural that covered an entire wall of the Fine Arts Gallery. With the specific theme of “violence in the community,” the mural portrayed strange, monstrous creatures alongside artistic beauty.

Taylor, who also goes by “Refic” and “Matte Refic,” has traveled around the country specializing in large-scale murals and graffiti art. As of now, Taylor intends on staying in Pueblo, working on neighborhood projects and local murals.

The final artist, Steve Wetzel, contributed four non-fiction videos that explored human nature and everyday life, including videos on Minnesota “tick races” and archive films from an inventor.

Wetzel is an assistant professor and director of the graduate program in film at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The champion of “anthromentary,” a term Wetzel came up, his films tread the line between anthropology and documentary, hence “anthromentary.”

Assistant professor of contemporary theory/art history and gallery director Caroline Peters expressed her thoughts on some of the art being exhibited as well as the themes of the overall event.

“Pueblo is creating this culture inspired by our own circumstances here,” Peters said in regard to the concept of “community” that was on display. She added that people from Pueblo “should be proud of where they live.”

Peters called the entire event diverse and said that most of what was included escaped categorization and presented art unique to the community it was conceived in.

The Localized Radical exhibit’s closing reception, which was held in Art Room 105 and the Fine Arts Gallery, included discussions by the artists along with a mingling session that allowed the many in attendance to meet and greet.

During this reception Taylor talked about his past, working his way from to Pueblo to college in Boston and mastering his trade. This included showing pictures of his past murals and even those on 2nd and Main Street in Pueblo.

“It’s angst driven. You turn that angst into something productive,” Taylor said of his art.

Taylor eventually discussed the technical aspects involved in his mural painting, including the amount of spray paint he uses, which he guessed around 30 cans for one of his drawings in Pueblo.

This technical talk led to some interesting anecdotes about having to stand on ladders on scaffolding on truck beds just to reach the desired height to work on his mural.

“I’ve never actually fallen off a ladder,” Taylor said, despite the innumerable amount of time he’s spent on them.

Artist Mathew Taylor | Photo by Alec Herrera

The reception moved forward with Wetzel speaking next, though prior to his discussion an unexpected scenario played out before the audience involving the speaker.

Illuminating the casual nature of the reception, Wetzel joked about not being comfortable talking without some sort of sports coat on only to have an audience member offer to lend his sports coat to Wetzel for his talk. Wetzel accepted.

After finding his comfort zone, i.e. coat, Wetzel read an original writing of his about “Truth in Correspondence Theory” and how it relates his art and art in general. The writing explored what it meant for something to be the “truth” and how it relates to “anthromentary.”

In his reading, Wetzel also provided the question, “can you make someone be curious?” He explained that curiosity shows interest and intent to go out of their way to learn more about it or understand it.

While talking about the reception itself, Wetzel claimed he was “surprised they reached so many people on such a beautiful night,” clarifying that you don’t see too many nice nights in February.

In relation to the actual art he said that he was “honored” to be featured in, the gallery gave considerable praise to Woodty’s work calling it “super lovely.”

Wetzel ended the night giving his golden goose egg of advice for aspiring artists, saying “follow your muse,” coupled with, “you got to listen to yourself.”

Artist Steve Wetzel | Photo by Alec Herrera

Woodty, despite not having a designated speech time in front of the audience like his fellow artists, still got the opportunity to converse with those in attendance and comment on the art in the exhibit.

His choice words for Taylor’s mural were “incredible” and “impressive.” Woodty also provided his own inkling of advice saying “express yourself as much as you can.”

The closing reception fittingly capped what was a memorable exhibit with the artists comfortably talking with enthralled audience members, all the while creating the unique sense of community that the exhibit strived to express.

Next month, the Fine Arts Gallery will be showing the work of an artist who was rated the No.1 artist in Colorado under 35 years old by the Denver Post.

A caucus training was held at CSU-Pueblo. | Photo by Alec Hererra

Colorado State University-Pueblo held a “caucus training” Feb. 18 that was designed to attract leaders in the community of Pueblo and give them a general understanding of what the upcoming democratic caucus will be like in early March.

Organized by house district captain of Pueblo Rick Ringler and training captain Meral Sarper, the training took place on campus in LARC room 236, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Sarper said this event was purposefully organized to be a little more “low-key” and designed to attract leaders in the community who were already heavily involved with the race or were looking to be involved.

Those in attendance featured musicians, former teachers, sociologists, psychologists, retired workers and other members of the Pueblo community who wanted to be involved in the upcoming presidential race.

While the event was put together by Bernie Sanders supporters and looked solely at the democratic side of the race, it was focused in on general information about caucuses and how the process happens.

Many who attended the training had never participated in a presidential caucus before, so crucial information was given out on how to become a “caucus captain,” how a preference poll is conducted and the mathematical breakdown of how votes will ultimately be counted.

Several hypothetical scenarios were done at the training just to make sure everyone understood how things were calculated and how certain situations might be resolved.

One attendee, Rob Moore, 45, had previously acted as a delegate in a state election and attended a caucus before. He explained his experience to the others at the training.

Moore said being a delegate in the past was “a lot of fun” and that he was taken aback by the raucous crowd holding up signs, chanting and showing support for their candidate at a large event.

Moore also said it was important to show that “no matter how big the campaign is, it really does come down to the individual.”

In spite of a lack of student presence at the event, many thought something like this training would benefit students and young people more than anyone.

“This election represents the millennials taking control of the future,” said Andrew McGregor, 50.

McGregor said he thinks an event like this “should be mandatory” for young people. Moore added that a civics class should also be mandatory.

While talking about how the university should handle political events, Bea Butler, 57, said that the college should “absolutely provide a political platform for student,” and should teach students how to be more involved.

Sarper reiterated that this event wasn’t necessarily designed to bring in students or focus in on young people. There will, however, be events that are more student-focused, she said, such as a “general training” for the public that will be similar to the “caucus training.”

There is currently no designated time for a general training session on campus, though there is still the possibility of other political events being held at CSU-Pueblo in the upcoming months.