Logistics of parking and transportation
Handicapped parking areas available near the entrances to the shows. A valid handicapped parking permit is required in this area. Guests are encouraged to use the free shuttle bus service from various locations around Loveland. Buses will be available to take people to the show between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday and between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Shuttles will stop at King of Glory Church, City of Loveland Service Center, Thompson Valley Towne Center, Orchards Shopping Center and Buffalo Wild Wings at Centerra.
If you go
Art in the Park: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8 and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 9, North Lake Park, 2800 N. Taft Ave. Free to attend. The event offers art and food items for purchase. Call the Lincoln Gallery at 970-663-2407 or visit www.artintheparkloveland.com/ for details.
Sculpture in the Park: 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8 and 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 9, at Benson Park Sculpture Garden, 2908 Aspen Drive. General admission is $7 and ages 14 and under are free. A private patron party is Friday night with a ticket cost of $75. George Walbye will be doing a presentation about the history of the show at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Loveland Museum/Gallery as artists check in, also open to the public, 503 N. Lincoln Ave. Call the Loveland High Plains Arts Council office at 970-663-2940 or visit http://www.sculptureinthepark.org/ for details.
Loveland Fine Art and Wine Invitational: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Owens Field southwest of Loveland High School, on the south side of 29th Street, $7 admission and children 14 and under are free. The event will have ATMs on site, food, beverages and entertainment. Contact 623-734-6526 or visit http://vermillionpromotions.com for details.
Artists’ Charitable Fund: 7 p.m. Saturday auction starts rain or shine, Norma & Lynn Hammond Amphitheater, Taft Avenue and 29th Street adjacent to the Loveland Fine Art and Wine Invitational. Auctioneer is sculptor George Lundeen. Enjoy sub sandwiches, beer and wine. For details, call 970-577-0509 or visit www.artistscharitablefund.org.
Reporter-Herald at Art in the Park:
Children are invited to come hang out with a couple of reporters from the Reporter-Herald to make origami flowers and hats out of newspaper at Art in the Park or draw Weather Kids art. A booth will be set up near the food court at noon-2 p.m. Saturday and noon-2 p.m. Sunday. Weather Kids drawings will be published in the Reporter-Herald in coming weeks, and photos of children making origami will be posted on the RH Facebook.
Artists on the web
Joe Norman: http://joenormansculpture.com/
Joe Norman loves the fact that he is about to move into Artworks, right next door to Creatorspace, and just a block away from Artspace Loveland.
And now he has been accepted into the 32nd annual Sculpture in the Park for the first time.
“It’s funny, I was just in Fort Collins and said ‘I’m from Loveland,’ and someone said, ‘Wow, that’s really turning into an arts hub,’ and I said, ‘Finally!'” Norman said.
Norman — who works with steel, metal sheets, paint and cement to create original outdoor artwork — is very pleased to be part of Sculpture in the Park this year.
He moved to Loveland at the beginning of 2014 and is liking how arts-centric the city is.
Sculpture in the Park will take place 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8 and 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 9, at Benson Park Sculpture Garden, 2908 Aspen Drive; one of three large art shows that weekend.
The sculpture show is at a triangle point across the street from the new Loveland Fine Art and Wine Invitational.
Polly Juneau, Show Business chairwoman with the Loveland High Plains Arts Council that manages the show, said she and her husband went to Arizona to visit another show of Candy Vermillion’s, who is managing the new invitational.
“We were very impressed with the shows there,” Juneau said. “We thought the quality of work was very good. Our impression was the artists were the types of artists that are good compliments to who we select.”
She said she thinks the new show will bring a good dimension of other types of pieces to compliment their sculpture.
“We all want it to work and be successful,” she said.
“The folks that organize it are just incredibly… organized,” Norman said. “They make it really easy. Their rules are clear. I don’t have to bring signage, they send out mailers. I just had a guy from Texas call me who was checking in on the folks doing it for the first time to ask if I have any questions.”
Norman has been working 60 to 70 hour weeks the last few weeks to get 10 to 11 new pieces done for the show.
“There’s no mold for the pieces I do. I have to recreate each new piece,” he said.
Three of his pieces are in a series called “The Sail” because they are tall pieces of twisting metal undulating around each other, similar to sails on a ship.
He is building several other pieces based on photos of stone shards he found in the canyon lands of Utah that were likely chipped away by the Fremont Indians to make arrowheads.
He said traditionally, he always felt the sculpture show was very bronze-centered so he is happy that they are incorporating more artists like himself, who use other types of media.
Norman uses custom car body-building techniques in his art pieces, using sheet metal and steel.
“There are some cool tools that were developed around the turn of the century when metalsmiths built horse carriages into car bodies. Some of those tools are still the best tools to use when forming sheet metal,” he said.
He said when he walked through Sculpture in the Park in 2014, he noticed that the sculptors were both technically proficient and had a good aesthetic eye.
“Those things don’t always go together,” he said.
Jessica Benes: 970-669-5050 ext. 530, jbenes@reporter-herald.com, Twitter.com/jessicabenes.