|
 Visual
Arts: Jimmy Sellars
Jimmy Sellars
has one of those rare brains with a bridge between the right
and left lobes. He's a talented artist in his own right, but
he's also a gallerist
who aids other artists with their businesses. "I really just
want to be a part of this community and help where I can,"
Sellars
says.
That's quite the understatement.
Sellars has been a fixture in the Denver art
scene since he moved here in 1990, but his artistic roots go
much deeper. He grew up in Kansas City, the son of two
artists, and was in his first show at the age of eight. "It
was just a pencil drawing, and it was so great because they
didn't know the age of the people who submitted stuff,"
remembers Sellars.
"We showed up, and they're talking to us like, 'Don't you
just love art?,' and I'm like, 'Yeah, that's my piece.'"
His family moved to Estes Park in 1982,
and a decade later,
Sellars came off the mountain and got involved
with several Denver arts organizations; he also founded an
international arts group. At the same time, he continued
creating his own art and had his first local solo show in
1992, the same year he opened Studio 211. He had that
gallery for about nine years, until the
ballpark-area
prices forced him out. After that, he was on Broadway for a
nanosecond -- but by then he'd already found another
constituency online. "I was new to the Internet, and it was
very different back then," Sellars says. "I kept running
into people here and there, and it was amazing how many
artists were online in the beginning. I started this
international group, and we had a couple of shows, several
in the U.S and Mexico, and another traveling exhibit that
was in Europe."
He was also experimenting with what
would become his signature work: photographs of G.I. Joe
dolls. His first show featuring the action hero was at the
Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, and several
hundred people turned out. "But then they all left for one
of the movies that were playing,"
Sellars says, laughing.
That good humor has carried him over
the hurdles of starting his own business, closing it and now
restarting it as
sellarsprojectspace, located behind the
Oriental Theater. He's also formally assisting fellow
creative types with their marketing and
websites,
even scouting potential galleries for them. And while he's
working to create a Tennyson Street Arts District, he's also
keeping an eye on the scene as a whole. "What I've seen, and
I've always proclaimed this, is that we've always had an
incredible arts scene," he says. "Being in one of the states
with the lowest funding for the arts, it's amazing how much
the artists have chipped in to make it as vibrant as it has
been. People around the world have started to notice what is
happening here, to invest more into what we do. This is
really such an incredible community. I always feel fortunate
to be a part of it."
back to
top |