What's cooking? Artist Martha Keating has already made northwest Denver look better, with projects like the 20th Street Viaduct mosaics that she created with Bob Luna and a host of neighborhood children. Now she's preparing to inject more good taste into the area--in the form of a bakery she wants to open in the alley behind Patsy's, just down the street from Pirate: A Contemporary Art Oasis, at 3659 Navajo Street.
Keating knows her breadstuffs: In addition to making art, she cooks up all the desserts at the Denver Chop House--including the five Super Bowl cakes and two Vince Lombardi chocolate trophies presented to the Denver Broncos when they celebrated their win there two weeks ago. (Two years earlier, she was responsible for the celebratory Stanley Cup Cake.) The Broncos downed only half of the sheet cakes prepared in their honor, but the staff quickly snarfed the rest, Keating says, "since they love their sweets." Other sweets Keating's known for: cheesecake, chocolate pudding, banana cream pie and Martha's chocolate malt pie, named after...who else?
Keating had to work fast to prepare the Bronco goodies, since she couldn't start before their Super Bowl victory was in the bag. So the tight turnaround on her American Pie Company doesn't worry her. Originally, she'd hoped to open in January, but she just got the final plans on Monday. The Denver building department predicts that getting everything approved will take two more weeks; skeptics tell Keating it'll be closer to four. That's about all the leeway she has: she's already taken orders for wedding cakes due in April. Keating also plans to bake assorted breads, as well as cheesecakes, cakes, pies and other confections. "I want to do things that don't require me getting up at three in the morning," she says. And she's already signed her first client: the Chop House.
But she doesn't plan to abandon art entirely. A member of the cooperative Zip 37, at 3644 Navajo, Keating's slated a show for May 1999; in the meantime, she's finishing a mural project for the radiology department at Children's Hospital's--one of several works being done at the hospital by local artists such as Dede LaRue and Emmanuel Martinez (whose sculpture of firefighters drew such heat last year). "It's a mural of a canyon scene, with beautiful tiles done by a North High School ceramics class," she says. "We're going to have to rise to the occasion--those are really cool."
For years, the Wazee Supper Club, at 1600 15th Street, was the last refuge of the truly starving artist in search of a place to show and perhaps a few slices of pizza. But as LoDo boomed, the Wazee's art shows grew fewer and farther between--until they disappeared altogether.
Since Westword reviewed the bare walls (Patricia Calhoun's "Hanging It Up," January 22), however, the Wazee has been busily booking shows--and now has a schedule that runs through May, thanks to local artists who contacted the longtime LoDo institution. "They thought we'd gotten just as uppity as the rest of the places down here," says Wazee manager Russ Barrett. The artists should get over that in a hurry--or at least within a few beers.
First up (on the walls, at least): Joan Bondy, a former employee of the Wazee's sibling, My Brother's Bar. That venerable spot eight blocks farther down 15th Street (at 2376) continues to conduct its own artistic outreach by piping in classical music and presenting live performances.
Got tips for Artsbeat? E-mail tips@westword.com or call 672-1262
