Tempo:
Telluride was hardly populated until about 1880, and then at first only by prospectors and prostitutes avidly following the lure of gold in them thar mountains. Thereafter, when the gold and silver played out, there were still lead, zinc, and other lesser metals to be obtained by mining companies who had the economic feasibility to get them.
Telluride was then occupied only by miners struggling to make a living for their families -and a few others which made their living off of THEM.
Isolated back then with a population of about 210, today Telluride is a posh, very expensive, very over-crowded resort town -- because of its amazing and remarkably beautiful surroundings, perhaps some of the most beautiful in the United States.
And if there is one fundamental element to my psyche, it was this utter beauty and the aesthetic realization of it. I was transfixed by it from my earliest memories -- and, I feel, not only observed it but participated in it at some deep fundamental level.
High peaks and multicolored cliffs, waterfalls cascading, slopes of forest pines and aspens, crystalline air, clouds, rainbows, flowers, berries and abundant wild life -- all majestic, all virtually overpowering. All somewhat scared here and there by mines and remnants of them, but utterly gorgeous anyway.
And it was this beauty that made me very sensitive to its opposite -- ugliness. And it is because of this that I have studied the elements of ugliness as well as the elements of beauty -- not only in their material manifestations, but beauty and ugliness of mind and psychosocial behavior as well.
Telluride was then occupied only by miners struggling to make a living for their families -and a few others which made their living off of THEM.
Isolated back then with a population of about 210, today Telluride is a posh, very expensive, very over-crowded resort town -- because of its amazing and remarkably beautiful surroundings, perhaps some of the most beautiful in the United States.
And if there is one fundamental element to my psyche, it was this utter beauty and the aesthetic realization of it. I was transfixed by it from my earliest memories -- and, I feel, not only observed it but participated in it at some deep fundamental level.
High peaks and multicolored cliffs, waterfalls cascading, slopes of forest pines and aspens, crystalline air, clouds, rainbows, flowers, berries and abundant wild life -- all majestic, all virtually overpowering. All somewhat scared here and there by mines and remnants of them, but utterly gorgeous anyway.
And it was this beauty that made me very sensitive to its opposite -- ugliness. And it is because of this that I have studied the elements of ugliness as well as the elements of beauty -- not only in their material manifestations, but beauty and ugliness of mind and psychosocial behavior as well.
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