Studio Colfax, a gallery-like retail space in the landmark Austin building, is a family of local artists trying to change the business of art on Colfax. Owners Marguerite Specht, Sara Bruce, Rebecca Tischler, and Sarah Tischler think featuring local artists is an important new enterprise for the “longest, wickedest street in America.” Through unique materials, forms, and philosophies, each artist they feature contributes to the vision of a new creative process. In turn, Studio Colfax adds to the Colfax Renaissance that has emerged here over the past two years joining new shops, communities, and visions—like Voodoo Donuts, Café Max, Green Door Fitness, Velowood Cyclery, and plans for a recreation center at the corner of Josephine and Colfax.

Enter the shop: statement blues, handsome yellows, and glittering crystal draw the eye along. There is a seductive sensibility to the arrangement of Studio Colfax’s art objects that makes you ask, “What’s that?!” Vintageleather purses, wooden tablet cases, and guitar-string bracelets are laid openly along warm cherry tables, reclaimed blue doors, and cool steel shelves. Along the walls are eco-poetic paintings, crocodile tapestries, and mysterious papier-mâché garden tools. For each hand-crafted tea-cup, bowtie, and art print, the owners can name the creating artist, describe the crafting process, and satisfy more bursts of enchantment. You arrive authentically surprised and seduced, leaving with the story of how what is in your paper bag came to be your treasure.

STUDIO COLFAX RENAISSANCE

ENTER THE SHOP

"There’s magic in an artist’s studio," says Specht, co-owner of Studio Colfax and director of the Boulder Arts & Crafts Gallery. “We want that magic to continue in our shop.” She lets me put on a pair of magnifying goggles used in jewelry making that she calls “the otherworld glasses” before we sit down in a corner for her mid- afternoon ebaki. “As a family, we nurture artists,” Specht continues, “we’re committed to art and hand-crafted work. We know where our collection comes from.” The new creative process coming into form in the Austin building through Studio Colfax is different because it’s invitational. We are invited by the careful arrangement of handmade wonders to disarm, to take a little pleasure, and to indulge a higher aesthetic sensitivity.

Studio Colfax features dozens of artists and is always adding to their collection of sensual mysteries. Rebecca and Sarah Tischler’s father, Maynard Tischler, is a ceramicist and former chair of the University of Denver’s art school. He said daydreaming inspired his sculptures of shovels, tanks, suitcases, and ray guns displayed at Studio Colfax. Frank Kwiatkowski, August’s featured artist, carves safety cones to printactivist art as The Kwiatkowski Press. Through chaotic carvings of candy, syringes, insulin, oil, and skulls, Kwiatkowski’s underground press explores the slippery relationship between creation and con. “We rely on trickery, pranks, and all the other magic that’s involved in art,” said Kwiatkowski. Denver fashion designer Lawless Ambition aims to “rid the world of label conformity” through comfortable, clean, and coordinated patterns. The clothing line incorporates Kwiakowski’s prints on “luxurious fabrics to enchant even the most discerning palette.”

P A G E 2 | L O N E P L A N E T

P A G E 3 | L O N E P L A N E T

Tischler ensures that Studio Colfax offers original pieces “made in the USA” of remarkable design and craftsmanship by attending fairs, reaching out to artists, and creating community through social media, but her art speaks for the vision of Studio Colfax on its own as well: “Minus the Dart refers to the process of pattern-making,” she explains as she holds a deep yellow piece of linen up to the light, “If you change one element of thepattern, you can create an entirely new piece.”

Studio Colfax is part of this changing pattern on Colfax by inviting you to open your eyes to visionary artists, to glide four fingertips over fine fabrics, open your ears to the story of art objects, and to take home new forms of quality expression. The artistic revitalization we are invited to through the September Minus the Dart feature is characteristic of what draws people into Studio Colfax. To have a place where you are challenged to “look anew” seems like a slight change in the norm of retail, but its transformative power is personal as well as local.

This month, Studio Colfax showcases Minus the Dart, a limited edition designer clothing line and alterations business by Rebecca Tischler, who helped start Studio Colfax after being the Creative Director of the Denver Design Incubator. Tischler created Minus the Dart as an expression of her personal belief in small batch production made in the USA. “Things should last,” says Tischler, “so that they can take on their own story.” Having studied pattern-making at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, Tischler’s Minus the Dart clothing line and fashion show focuses on high- quality accessories for men and women. “The focus for this fall show will be classic looks,” Tischler explains, “I like to make pieces that are personal, comfortable, and funky to make the wearer feel like a piece of art herself.”

With a diverse, hand-crafted collection that blends intention and imagination, Studio Colfax creates “a sacred place for artists” where raw energy finds form. For more information about events or to apply as an artist, contact info@studiocolfax.com, call (720) 328-4896, or visit 2418 E. Colfax Ave.—DEVON VAROZ