Land of Lincolns

Lincoln Logs master mason Michael Ensminger has done it again: The local artist has created a monumental installation of Lincoln Logs with help from a small flock of girls from the Colfax Community Network. Tower of Babel, the product of Ensminger's six-week residency at PlatteForum, far exceeds anything the toy...

May 31, 2007

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Lincoln Logs master mason Michael Ensminger has done it again: The local artist has created a monumental installation of Lincoln Logs with help from a small flock of girls from the Colfax Community Network. Tower of Babel, the product of Ensminger's six-week residency at PlatteForum, far exceeds anything the toy building blocks were ever designed to do.

"Lincoln Logs are very limited," Ensminger explains. "They have very strict rules, and they're not at all built to go high." Yet Ensminger's grand-scale log city includes an elegant thirteen-foot-tall Sears Tower-like structure (not to mention a replica of Denver's own Wells Fargo Center, complete with cash-register silhouette) and is surrounded by a gallery-filling suburban sprawl of log cabins — set, Denver style, at an angle to the central cityscape.

Prepare to be amazed: Babel opens tonight at PlatteForum, 1610 Little Raven Street, with a reception from 5:30 to 8 p.m.; the exhibit remains on view through June 2. For details, call 303-893-0791 or visit www.platteforum.org.

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