Artist April McConn looked out the window of her studio, taking in the flat landscape of the Colorado plains as she started her new painting of ancient Rome. McConn has spent the last two years creating popular paintings of life in the Roman empire, despite not having access to the massive architecture the Romans are […]

In my home office, behind my computer monitor and at the front of my desk, is a board of various quotes that help me think. Most of them sit outside of my view tonight, in the dark of the evening, but one in particular from Theodore Roosevelt stands out in the light from my lamp. It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds;