Life in the Fast Lane

We just returned from a vacation to Colorado Springs to visit our daughter who was taking an "early out" from the USAF. She had been in 13 year, worked her way up through the ranks to a Captain with a Masters in Aeronautical Science; her husband had done the the same. While we were there, she was being courted by big business to do their bidding with the US mililtary and at price I thought was not bad. While we were there, we looked a real estate since the cost of living the the Asheville, NC area has really gone crazy. We were there for a week and this is what we discovered: You can buy a VERY nice 3000 - 5600 sq. ft. house there for $347,000 to $500,000. The quality of construction there is considerably better than here. They do not charge you bunches more for your view like they do here. There are so many views, you are a fool if you don't end up with one! Utilities there are 1/4 of what they are here. If you are tired of mowing your yard, never fear, the thing there is to landscape with rocks and forget about mowing. There, people get stressed because they have to spray "Round Up" on the weeds. You have heard there are Evangelicals in Colorado Springs? Yep, it is the home of James Dobson and "Focus on the Family." But guess what, half the people who live there say they don't even know who James Dobson is. And, he certainly does not effect their own person life in the Springs.

The Chapel at the Air Force Academy was awesome. It looked like a giant jet shooting for the stars. I was really impressed!

Now, getting to the subject of what we are here for; art. Art is selling in the Colorado Springs area. The art community there is in a town called Manitou Springs. It is a very neat hillside community with lots of studios/homes built on the hills. The town is a combination of over development/progress with a bunch of tourist shops and the old art community. I talked with a few people and they all said "life is good." I'll be honest with you, I have not heard many artists say that in a couple of years now. At first I thought they were telling stories, then I talked with other people who verified their tales. I did notice they have their art priced less than we have ours priced in the Asheville area, but then their utilities are less and their real estate is less too, sooooooooo.

So I came back and found a very interesting email from a company that is starting a new auction site similar to ebay. The difference is it is an art auction site and instead of being nickel and dimed to death with all the fees they have on ebay, this company charges a very reasonable annual fee and that is it. You can put all the art up there you like and leave it up there for quite some time. It can put work up for auction or sold as "buy it now." I have already signed up to give it a try. The following image will be my first auctioned item.





Go check out this new auction site at: http://www.art-bidder.com my user name is pht_art if you want to find any of my listings.