Night Lights Denver Illuminates December With New Winter-Themed Works

Growing up in the Denver area, artist Charly Fasano passed the Daniels & Fisher Tower nearly every day. The historic building, part of a department store built in 1910 and at the time the tallest structure between the Mississippi River and California, became part of Fasano’s personal landscape.

“When you look around, the tower’s uniqueness in the midst of all the more modern buildings, as well as the concept of commercial shopping, really stands out,” Fasano says. “The Daniels & Fisher Tower is an icon in Denver and Western lore. If you’re a local, it’s just one of those everyday buildings that you really end up appreciating.”

That familiar landmark has taken on new resonance for the self-taught animator, poet and illustrator this month. His latest short film, Winter Break, is one of several works being projected on the tower throughout December as part of Night Lights Denver, light-based art that transforms the buildings downtown into illuminated canvases. For Fasano, seeing his work woven into the city’s nighttime skyline feels like a full-circle moment.

“I don’t know how many times I waited for the train or bus right there and just looked at it, so it’s neat that my art is being projected up there,” Fasano says. “It’s one of my favorite projects and ideas that I’ve come across, simply because you’re taking the architecture of a classic building in the Denver skyline and incorporating non-damaging art. It just enhances the nighttime experience…so it’s a really cool moment for me as a Denver guy and a guy that’s been doing art around Denver for 25 to 30 years.” 

Night Lights Denver, produced in partnership with the Denver Theatre District, has become a defining presence in the city’s cultural landscape over the last few years. Each night, beginning roughly thirty minutes after sunset and looping until midnight, the program activates the Tower, the Kittredge Building and SPARK window installations along 16th Street.

The lineup changes monthly; December features works by local and national artists Emilie Upczak, Andi Todaro, Jessie Rodriguez, Danny “Dan Matic” Staton and Fasano, whose styles reflect the rhythm and brightness of the season. Placed alongside these contributions, Winter Break offers a distinctly handmade, whimsical counterpoint.

Fasano crafted the entire stop-motion piece with acrylic paint on canvas and paper, cutting out his characters, including a pair of bears, a bird and a returning rubber duck from his earlier project with Night Lights Denver, The Big Bath, and animating them in slow, deliberate movements. The story follows the group as they sled, hang lights and celebrate New Year’s Eve, capturing what he describes as “a nostalgic tribute to the youthful anticipation for holiday vacation and celebrations growing up in Colorado.”

Fasano first discovered Night Lights Denver through his friend, artist Doug Spencer, who had a short film projected on the tower in collaboration with another artist. “I was like, ‘Oh, my god, that’s the coolest screen in the universe,’” Fasano remembers. Inspired, he reached out to David Moke, director of Night Lights Denver and director of programming at the Denver Theatre District.

“I contacted David, and it was a really easy process,” he says. “He said, ‘Do the film, and come down and test it,’ and it all worked out with the formatting. It’s one of the coolest opportunities I’ve ever had.”

That first opportunity became The Big Bath, which screened on the tower in April and introduced audiences to Fasano’s choppy, glitchy, stop-motion universe and his now-signature duck character. To promote the project, he hand-drew 500 small ducks on canvases and walked around 16th Street and other parts of town handing them out, using the giveaway as a way to start conversations with strangers and connect directly with the community.

He describes Winter Break as a winter “sequel” to that spring experiment, allowing the duck to return, this time in a snowy, celebratory world. Adapting his work for the vertical expanse of the tower required careful experimentation and problem-solving.

“Making the tower work for the animation that you want to do is kind of tricky,” Fasano explains. “It can’t be too fast because it’s so big, and in person, the movement causes a lot of vertigo if it’s not slow and steady. If you notice, a lot of the films have a pace that kind of creeps up and down the wall and stuff. So that was fun to just sit and figure out how I could put a bunch of elements in there, and then I started just drawing.”

Working within that constraint pushed him toward a style that leans into slow-building motion and embraces imperfections. Once he saw test projections of Winter Break on the tower, he realized the little jumps and odd transitions he’d been tempted to fix actually added personality.

“Sometimes accidents become the magic,” he says. “I feel like a magician sometimes, and I suppose I am, because my work involves playing with the magic of curiosity.”

Fasano animated the film in his Capitol Hill apartment using a simple iPad app, a board propped on crates and a couple of can lights. He hand-drew and painted every character and element, cut them out, and then painstakingly moved them frame by frame. It took him about three weeks to come up with the idea, and two weeks of near-constant work to finish the project.

“It’s very childish and fun,” he says. “It’s like playing. It’s almost puppetry as you’re moving things around. You have a basic outline, but you get to creep outside that outline. I work quickly because I don’t want to lose momentum, and with a cat in my apartment, I need to finish quickly or it will get messed up.”

Even as he talks about his own process, Fasano is quick to fold his experience back into the broader Night Lights Denver ecosystem. He expresses admiration for Jessie Rodriguez, a fellow December artist, whose film Solstice/Sol Invictus “blew my mind.”

He also admires the philosophy behind what Moke affectionately refers to as “The People’s Projector,” a bank of six powerful projectors housed in a nearby parking garage that Night Lights Denver uses to display everything from professional works to high school art.

“David Moke is making this a very approachable community project,” Fasano says. “His belief is that these are Denver’s projectors, so he really makes sure that everybody gets a chance.”

For someone who has been making art in Denver for decades, the chance to contribute to the city’s nighttime landscape feels both humbling and exhilarating. Fasano plans to visit the tower often this month, walking down from his apartment with a thermos of coffee and finding a spot near Rock Bottom Brewery to watch people as they catch the show.

“It’s neat to become involved in the cityscape,” he says. “I enjoy seeing how people react to my work as well as the work of the other artists. Seeing what you created and loved become part of the downtown celebration is truly incredible.” He hopes the experience will inspire not only locals but visitors who see what Denver is creating.

“I hope that other cities use this as a model for what they can do and that they invest in the same concept with different landmark architecture in their own cities,” Fasano says. “It would be really neat for that to really develop and to be something, because it’s different than graffiti or a mural; it’s something that’s not permanent, but it’s always going to be there, and it’s so enormous that you can’t stop looking at it while you’re walking around. It’s very forward-thinking. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s going to go on in the futurem because I think it’s going to be really fantastic.”

Night Lights Denver is on view nightly approximately thirty minutes after sunset and loops until midnight. Learn more at denvertheatredistrict.com/night-lights-denver.