Drive Through Art Show Virtual Tour
"Looking Down, Climbing up & a model of Pikes Peak" by Samantha Roseboom
Watercolor, Chalk Pastels & Ink
Artist Statement
My name is Sam (Samantha) Roseboom and I am a freshman in High School. I am in the middle of a school transfer so I'm not really sure where I go right now. My mentors were Shane and Kumiko but I got to talk to all of them at some point. I created Looking Down, Climbing up, a model of Pikes Peak. I used a multitude of materials: tin foil, painters tape, plaster, paint, and decorating things. I grew up looking at this mountain everyday and thought it would make a great piece. I benefited from this whole process. It was nice to have something to do every Tuesday while I was stuck at home. It was something other than school and a place where we could have actual conversations and not just learn material like in a Zoom for school . I want to thank all of the PV mentors this session for helping me complete my mountain, Looking Down Climbing up. I had an amazing experience even though we couldn’t do all of it in person. I am so grateful for the new friendships and the growth in the already established ones. I am excited to return next session.
Below is a description of my key on my project:
1) The Peak
Pikes Peak is the base of my whole project. Standing at 14,115 feet and highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in North America, I grew up looking at the mountain everyday. We drove to the Top for some of the amazing donuts at the gift shop. This amazing mountain is named after Zebulon Pike, an American brigadier general and explorer working under President Jefferson.
2) Santa’s Workshop
Santa’s Workshop is a North Pole themed amusement park that sits towards the entrance of the Pikes Peak Highway. We would go here on summer field trips at school. It was the amusement park I grew up going to, the one everyone knew about. Kind of like the ValleyFair of the springs (the slang term for Colorado Springs).
3) The Manitou Incline
The Manitou Springs Incline, also known as the Manitou Incline or simply the Incline, is a popular hiking trail rising above Manitou Springs, Colorado, near Colorado Springs. The Incline ascends on the east slope of Rocky Mountain which is itself on the eastern flank of Pikes Peak. The trail is the remains of a former 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge[1] funicular railway whose tracks washed out during a rock slide in 1990. The Incline is famous for its sweeping views and steep grade, with an average grade of 45% (24°) and as steep as 68% (34°) in places,[2] making it a fitness challenge for locals of the Colorado Springs area. The incline gains 2,011 feet (613 m) of elevation in .88 miles (1.42 km) horizontal. Currently the Incline has approximately 2,744 steps[3] from the bottom to the summit, although the top step is numbered "2768". The number of steps changes occasionally with trail maintenance and deterioration.- Wikipedia Description
4) Manitou Springs
Manitou Springs is a city/town outside of the Springs. It is mostly hills. There are a lot of shops because it is a great tourist town. They have an awesome penny arcade that goes around a lot of downtown. It goes through several buildings and has a lot of old games and several new ones. It is so much fun. Manitou is a great fun spot to go. I also have some family friends who live in manitou. It is just an overall awesome town.
5) Olympic Training Center- Colorado Springs
The United States Olympic & Paralympic Training Centers (OPTCs) are two campuses created by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) as training facilities for its Olympic and Paralympic athletes. They are located in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Lake Placid, New York. The USOPTCs are all open to the general public for tourism[5][6], and they are the only facilities for Olympic training in the world to do so.The Colorado Springs OPTC was the first to be built, and has been the home of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee since 1978. Its location on the former Ent Air Force Base was selected for its relatively high elevation, which is often thought to improve training effectiveness. Its facilities include an Olympic-size swimming pool, an indoor shooting range, the Olympic Training Center Velodrome, two sports centers housing numerous gymnasiums and weight rooms, and a sports science laboratory, in addition to an athlete center and dining hall, several dormitories, a visitors' center, and the offices of both the USOPC and U.S. Paralympics.
My mom was the director of the Center for 17 years and went to 6 olympic games; Salt Lake, Athens, Torino, Beijing, Vancouver, London. I would go to her office and hang out there all the time. I practically grew up there.
6) Colorado Springs
I was born and raised in Colorado Springs. We moved to MN when I was turning 10. At a population of almost 473,000 people it is very different from living in Central Minnesota. I still have many family and friends there and return there very frequently.
7) Palmer Park
Palmer Park is a regional park in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Located at 3650 Maizeland Road, the park is several miles northeast of the downtown area.[2] Elevation Outdoors Magazine named it Best Urban Park in its Best of Rockies 2017 list.[3] One of Best of the Springs Expert Picks - Sports & Recreation by The Gazette, Seth Boster states that it may have the city's best views of Pikes Peak and a place "where an escape into deep nature is easy. It is strange and marvelous to look out at urban sprawl while perched on some high rock ledge, surrounded by rugged wilderness."[4]
We would hike there all the time. We still go sometimes when we go back.
Oral Statement
