As One Portal Closes, Another Opens

Shooting film and riding around Denver allows me to do a sort of slow-motion version of the fixed-gear bike documentary "To Live and Ride in LA," which played an outsized role in getting me interested in riding bikes as a way of life. I love trying to capture what it feels like to live and ride in Denver on film. I am not trying to lay claim to the creation of some master narrative on what it's like to ride here. I am not a business owner trying to get you to visit my brick and mortar. I am not a local tourism department trying to get you to visit Denver. Hell, I am not even trying to sell you anything. No, I just want to tell you my experience, what I see, what I think is important. Like the writers whose tags I photograph, I am just trying to leave my mark; I'm a writer in essay/photograph form.

“See, I’m a writer in rap form, But these are writers who bomb trains and subway platforms, Courageous, bravest street creators.” Nas - Writers

It's up to you if you think that's important. I will keep on keepin' on writing about my rides and what I create because it makes my life come alive in ways that are absent if I am not explicitly trying to make sense of what I see or make.

Denver: a Once Booming Town Gone Bust

One of the very obvious things I see when I ride around Denver is the empty commercial office spaces. I literally find a new for lease commercial space every ride, so I am starting to archive them on film. Sometimes it just makes me sad to see the lack of support for small businesses. Other times, I just say, "Figures," and grunt as another corporation up and runs away from a little adversity. The process of taking these photos has helped me let go of the Denver I knew in the first decade plus of living here. I have been bummed about the number of homies who have left in recent years because it's too expensive and there are no solid job opportunities here now for a while. Taking these photos is a way to grieve while simultaneously imagining the new places where I might meet new friends. As one portal closes, another opens.

Corporations Up and Run

Since I live near Colfax, I have been riding up, down, and around it a lot with the bus rapid transit ("BRT") construction that has been going. There has been a good deal of churn with businesses closing and commercial store fronts sitting empty. Interestingly, it's not the mom and pop small businesses that have closed. No, by and large, it's the corporate food chains that just up and closed along colfax. Case in point, shuddered Wendy's #2 on colfax (pictured below). The shuddered Wendy's numero uno appeared in a previous essay, "Ritualize the Analog," published a few weeks ago by yours truly.

Anyone want to lease an abandoned Subway and run a pog shop out of it with me? As an arm-chair trend forecaster, I think 2027 will be the year of the pog. You can get in on the ground floor today with this primo location on east colfax.

Walgreens closed up shop too and decided to go medieval, making their former location look like a fortress. Yeah, those are metal window covers. I was hoping they would add a moat. To no avail, I haven't gotten to see Steve Irwin wrestle a crocodile outside yet. I keep visiting once a week in the hopes that they will kick it up a notch and moat it. We could kill two birds with one stone by fortifying the empty building that isn't being used and fighting the urban heat island by making a greenspace with CROCS! Now, That's What I Call Conservation!

This barn used to be a starbucks before the BRT and the unionization work that local employees did. In 2023, STARCLOWN fired Trey Slopsema who worked at the STARBARN for encouraging other employees to join the unionization drive. A judge ruled that Starbucks unfairly terminated Slopsema, so STARCLUCKS had to reinstate him and owed him back pay. In 2025, STARBARN was one of 11 colorado locations that were closed amid starbucks economic woes. Now it just sits there as a deserted space. HMM, it sure is disconcerting how a corporation can just cut and run when times get rough to find better "opportunities" for their investment after they discriminate against their workers.

Heck, even the King of Burgers threw in their towel on Colfax. Dang, those chargrilled fumes they put out en mass during dinner and lunch will be missed. Look at that almost perfect color-matched buff of the light grey wall. WOOOO! Black, navy, or red paint would look mighty good on that wall. This must be why there are 45,000 layers of buffed graffiti on that wall alone.

Another Subway bites the dust. Yes, that's two count'em two subways lost on east colfax. Luckily, Catfish King, a local spot, will be moving in here. This is a bit confusing though because Catfish King already has a location about a mile east of here in an old Popeyes that was vacant for about a year. I wonder if they are gonna move to this location because they will be closer to Colorado Blvd., the primary North/South road on the east side. Only time will tell. I also got a photo of some workers taking down the subway sign. I really hope it comes out. It's on a roll of Kodak gold I haven't finished yet.

The Sad Side to Change

Aside from me seeking to stick it to the big guys (corps), there are sadder instances of small business closing, especially east of Monaco. Buffalo Bills Wild Wings was a spot I have passed countless times living on the Eastside at Colfax and Quebec. They had this sign out front that boasted, "Over 5 millions chicken dinners served." Now this "CHICKEN HOUSE and all the other business in this little strip mall are boarded up and covered in various tags, buffs, and destroyed adverts.

Don't worry about this though! The CrossFit gym is still there, so folk can get their SWOLE on. People won't have a place to eat or commune with their neighbors, but they will be able to explore niche fitness interests. HUZZAH! HOORAY! Even the billboards are whacked out on this stretch of East Colfax. Frank Azar, the self-described strong arm of the law who has billboards all over the city, has his billboard posted upside down on east colfax. Is this a sign of distress? Is Frank ok? Is the billboard company protesting the loss in revenue from the empty billboard next to franks? I do not know, but I am watching, waiting, watching. For the record, this is the second upside down Frank Azar billboard I have seen in as many weeks.

Just behind this strip mall underneath Azar's sign of distress, I found a gigantic pile of dirt and a boarded up house. This would be a perfect location for Jimbler's Analog Emporium where you could get yarn, stationary and journaling supplies, cassette tapes, zines, and a coffee. We would have workshops, zine readings, DJ sets, and host scavenger hunts. I would probably try to get a wild amount of bike parking installed and leave the dirt as a Serra Glia involuntary sculpture. Who doesn't want some post modern art next to your analog emporium? I mean maybe this will be the beginning of the analog emporium network ("AEN") right here in east Denver. Shoot, maybe we can get some of our favorite graffiti writers to bless the space with some paint. An old community wizard can dream, right? Maybe we will get a mamdani-esq mayor, and they will create a cultural resources fund and hub to encourage local people to activate some of these empty spaces.

This may be the most indescript ghosted storefront on colfax. If you are ready to open your law or accounting business, this might be the location for you. Bonus points that it's right next to a laundry mat (that's still open). The irony of there being a sign in the right side of this photo in the center of the road that says, "Businesses are Open!" right across the street from the blandest empty commercial office space on the strip is not lost on me. It's pretty depressing, especially given this could all of been avoided with more direct funding to the small businesses on this block.

Subject matter aside, it is fun to find these sorts of accidents in the framing of a photo, because I am not yet skilled enough to capture these moments purposefully. I end up finding them after looking at a photo again and again. Maybe a couple thousand more shots down the line I will be seeing the scene more holistically when shooting. That is something to look forward to. It doesn't really matter either way though. I enjoy the happy accidents that result as well.

I got a bunch of other photos collected in this series. I need to do deeper dives into different neighborhoods to show where those empty storefronts are. Yes, I am a sociologist and I will make explicit and not-so-explicit statements about who the winners and losers are in this new Denver. This is the occupational hazard of going down the Sociology rabbit hole and getting a PhD. In my first sociology class fresh out of 101, my future advisor told me that I would never see the world the same way if I kept on with sociology. She was right.

All photos were taken on Konica Genba Kantoku with Kodak Gold or Cinestill 50D

Weaving

You probably aren't wondering how I am able to weave, write, and photograph things again after being complete invisible for 11 months. But I am going to tell you anyway: I don't got much else going on. Beyond being a husband and dad, working my day job, and bothering my neighbors on bike quests, I have made my entire life about my art projects. Even riding now is art-related with a 35 mm camera on my shoulder. I spend most evenings unwinding with a root beer float, the quiet strivings of the Colorado Rockies who are attempting to be typical awful instead of historically awful, and my various fiber arts projects. A lot of times though, it's more just me staring off into space trying to recover from a 10-14 hour day of care work and wage labor.

The only thing right now that I dont have as much time for is reading. I mean I am still plugging away at books, but it's typically a wee bit at a time in the 20-30 minutes before I pass out from exhaustion. In those 20-30 minutes, sometimes something jumps off the page, and I immediately send a quote from a book I am reading to a home. I just had that little moment of epiphany recently as I was finishing up a book by Brian Polk, who is one of my local librarians, called "A Lifetime of Ephemera: 25 years in Punk Told through Ticket Stubs, Flyers, and Memorabilia." Brian was offering his hard won advice from writing his Yellow Rake zine and what he learned after publishing 15 or so of his zine:

"...Connect with people through commonalities. For example, we all love and mourn. We all try and fail. We all laugh and get angry. You can still write about politics or music, but do it through those universal experiences." (p.202)

This leapt off the page, because this exactly how I come to a page. I am explicitly writing to you about my experiences and my attempts to make things, because I think there is some core human element in what I am going through that you can relate to. Novel concept: write to connect. It's immensely true though. For how many millennia have we transmitted how to get by, survive, and make sense of existence via story? A lot, because story is how we make sense of who we are individually and as part of groups.

Honestly, one of the most human things I do is try to express myself through my weaving and connect to others who like to make things. It's been one of my great joys to find community with other people who make things. It's why I start working at 5 am each day, so I can go out questing in the afternoon to drop in on buds and see what they are doing at their day jobs. You see, that is the role of a questing community fiber wizard. I am here to gas folks up and make weavings who might need a memorial tapestry for a departed loved one or a protection weaving for the top of their front door to keep out bad juju.

I have no goals for this practice but to be here, plying magic and adornment for people. I don't have a "5 year plan." I got a "I plan to do this until I die or get bored plan for my fiber work." I have yet to get bored though. We aren't trying to get into galleries or be noticed by the art world. No, I am just trying to share what I can make with my two hands with anybody who is interested in it. That's enough for me.

Recently, I finished a bike adornment that I made for my buddy erl who also rides bikes like I do. What a privilege to even have ones art be considered for inclusion on a person's bike, especially when bikes are as important to people like Erl and I. I mean, we have both been featured in early issues of Calling In Sick Magazine, so that basically makes us cousins. Let's cut through some misnomers about what this accoutrement (50 CENT WORD!) will do for Erl's bike in typical 21st century bike advertising language. Is it aerodynamic? No, in fact, it may act as a tiny sail and slow Erl down. Is it reflective? Again, no, there is no safety function in the adornment. In fact, a fiber fanatic may get lost in its design. Will it result in weight savings? No, I pack my weavings down hard and it's all 100% shetland wool in that bad boy. There is no utlity for the adornment other than to be another speck of beauty to match the beauty of his bikes.

In the beginning, there were yarn color swatches. I sent Erl the Jamieson & Smith color catalog and told him to pick his colors. He gave me purple, indigo blue, off-white, and black as colors. He gave me the creative freedom to choose the design, which proved to be a real block for me. I was thinking of a very angular design to match many of the beautiful older buildings he shoots photos of on his rides. However, the colors never jumped into a coherent design for me to match that plan. So, I kept the project on the back burner until inspiration struck me.

Then, I thought to myself that I needed to let the weaving flow. I needed to play Erl one of my hits and not try to re-create the wheel. This is when I settled on two organic, flowing lifelines in the center of the weaving that would emerge out of the black of the background through purple, indigo, light blue into white. I carried the thickness of each of the lifelines to add some more organic asymmetry into the piece. I finished it off with an embroidered spiral with some embroidery floss and some white thread that used to be housed on Lily's serger. When she is not serging with white, I do have a tendency to steal some of that thread for hand stitching, with her blessing of course.

I did deviate a bit from Erl's color choices with two substitutions and an addition. I really have a hard time working with the harshness of acid-dyed black and bleached white yarn, so I subbed in my own shetland handspun for those colors. Those two substitutions added another natural, human touch to the piece since my yarn could never replicate the uniformity of machine spin fiber. I also added in some of my headstock sky blue weaving southwest churro yarn that I keep adding into pieces here and there. In this case, the sky blue served as a perfect intermediate step between the indigo blue and the white to ease the transition across the lifeline.

My embroidery was a product of what I was doing at the time. My daughter was having a rough time, and I was trying to protect Lily's sleep from that little flare up. I sat at the entryway to the part of the house where Lily was sleeping, hand-embroidered the spiral, and held a boundary for all involved. Consequently, the spiral is a little ragged and rough around the edges due to the decibels experienced while involved in my sentry duty. If you juxtapose that hand stitching with the neatness and uniformity of my stitching on of my hanging cloths (4x reinforced) that I completed while J and I watched Toy Story 2 together, you can see how big of a difference that sentry duty can have on someone. But, as I say again and again, this is real life art. We are not trying to be perfect out here. We are reflecting the human condition in our art. Do you think if someone was embroidering in a trench that they were able to maintain perfection? No, I rest my case. I mean look at the dark side of the Loom on this piece.

I will get this sent over to Erl sometime this week, but in the meantime, I immediately started another piece. As one portal closes, another opens. As is customarily my practice, I will weave something quick and easy for myself as a way to clear out any lingering energy with making something for someone else. That is typically more necessary after completing a protection or memorial tapestries for folk, but I had a hankering for testing out an idea that I have been stewing on for a while. As the kids say, "Flock it, we ball," or something like that. It always helps to indulge that creativity to keep the creative juices flowing, especially in a case where I had such a difficult time coming up with the design. I need to encourage that creativity and exploration where I can to keep things fresh.

I had a bunch of time on Saturday to weave, because I was down at my ongoing artist residency at my in-laws avoiding the bunker buster fire works that my neighbors like to set off at the open space next to my house. No bike questing for this little guy, so we wove instead. It was a really nice way to end a two week stretch where J was out of school 8 of 10 weekdays, and I am in a two-year long crunch time at the day job. I haven't found a buffed wall that I wanted to weave since I completed the piece pictured above in July of 2024. Instead, I basically just wove an imaginary wall that I would love to find in an alley.

I don't want to talk too much about this ongoing project, but it's really setting my creative fires aflame. Blessed be to me lady Brighid for the flame. When this is complete, I am considering hanging it alongside some other artists who have created public art installations in abandoned spaces downtown. I received a sort of universal confirmation that this was a good idea while I set to start the weaving. I was scrolling through instagram and came across Eliza Swann (@thecircularserpent) recounting the advice she received from her art school teacher: "

"When I was 20, I went to the San Francisco Art Institute to study painting. During my first week our drawing teacher, whose Birkenstocks had been bronzed and enshrined in the school library, asked us to make a life-sized self-portrait as a Tarot card. I drew myself as a see-through Fool whose heart could be seen thudding in her chest. Another teacher at SFAI told me that if no galleries were interested in showing my paintings, I should hang them in an empty lot and invite my friends, telling me that would be more interesting anyway."

I smiled and started weaving this piece. May our art fill all the places abandoned by capital and weave us all together in creative interrelationship.

I hope all y'all are well. If you enjoyed this essay, feel free to sign up for a free subscription to this so we can build ways to communicate off of social media.

Until next time,

James