Artists covered their “wooden stamps” with a black quick dry paint. Then they covered the wood with canvas and then the steamroller would slowly and carefully drive over the wooden stamp and imprinting the image onto the canvas.

CREEDE- The Creede Arts Council joined in on the fun Saturday, Sept. 19, with an amazing presentation and introduced the wandering crowd of guests to a new form of art; Steamrolling. Main street was packed with around 100 vehicles of all makes and models and as guests made their way up Main Street, they ultimately met with the Creede Art Council’s booth at the north end of Creede.

It was there that they were introduced to this new style of art and the process was nothing short of entertaining and contained a final “wow factor” at the end. The attending crowd was met with a larger than life steamroller that was driven by a member of the city’s parks and recreation department. The art council spent the morning preparing large planks of wood that were going to serve as a type of stamp that had been carved to depict beautiful scenes and places like old mines, the burn scar and other scenery from around the area.

Several different artists participated in the event and made these large planks of wood into works of art. The process was simple and intriguing to watch. Individual artists would cover their larger than life wooden stamps with a black quick dry paint.  They would then cover the wood with canvas cut into different sizes depending on the size of the piece of art and then the steamroller would slowly and carefully drive over the stamp, imprinting the image onto the canvas.

Guests watched this process over and over throughout the day and at no point did it get old for those that wandered to the top of Main Street. The council sold the pieces for $15 and up depending on the size and the artwork requested. All funds were donated back to the council to help pay for future events such as the annual Small Print Show and the annual Sculpture Show which was canceled this season due to COVID-19.

A huge thank you goes out to the sponsors of the event, Del Norte Bank, City of Creede, Mineral County, Valley Publishing, Tomkins Hardware, Colorado Creative Industries, Chuck and Kay Harbert and Danny Rogers. And of course, to all who attended or bought a piece of art.