In March 2026, I submitted an application to Bonfils-Stanton Foundation’s Social Artist Impact Award and was rejected. In this blog post, I share my application responses because I am continuing on with the project and seeking support, collaborators, and funding to make it all possible.

For reference, here is the website to the application: https://www.bonfils-stantonfoundation.org/grants/artist-award

Q: Describe your artistic vision: How do your skills, aesthetic styles, and perspectives shape your artistic practice? 500 words

A: I am a student of life and art is how I express the lessons I’ve learned. Through my years, I have journeyed the sciences, healing modalities, and worked with the earth to understand the forces that comprise the oneness of life. My art is an expression of the beautiful concert of energies that assist one another from the micro to the macro. I think that art is a sacred tool that allows the impossible to be possible and I want to help artists, students, and clients make their creative dreams come true as well as my own. As a self proclaimed master of visual art, I work in a wide range of media; and if I can’t make it, then I know someone who can. Creating art and preserving creative space has been the central focus of my art career. During and after my degree, I operated artist collectives across the country since 2010, produced numerous multidisciplinary art installations, and volunteered my administrative skills for multiple arts nonprofits. I believe in the power of helping others express their creative voice in gratitude for those who have helped me find mine.

As a child growing up in Boulder and Denver, CO - my artistic practice taught me to replicate the world in photorealistic perfection. As I grew in my art education, I explored abstract art, illustration, printmaking, digital art, and immersive/installation art. My 30+ year journey through the visual arts has transformed my style to be adaptive to the project at hand, but it hasn’t always been that way. I doubted my ability to make a living as a professional artist and also just wasn’t sure that’s what I truly wanted. I studied dense scientific subjects that taught me intricate knowledge of the human experience and our natural world. I studied Ayurvedic medicine, massage therapy, yoga, and martial arts. My life long journey of learning astrology led to more ancestral wisdom of herbalism and animal totems. Currently, I journey through my internal world which is leading me on a path to understanding consciousness and I am rediscovering where the power of art exists: that artistic expression creates space for the realness of our feelings and the flaws of our thoughts.

In all my journeys there’s no denying that art is what I do. I have tried different directions in life but I have always been redirected back to art. I don’t struggle with inspiration and enjoy working diligently to channel creative consciousness that can be shared with the world. Ultimately, my work and styles come from a profound appreciation for the magic that surrounds us both inside and out.

Q: Social impact of your work: What social issues does your artistic practice address? How have your projects promoted equity and justice in the community? 500 words

A: Long term, my artistic practice addresses social issues of insecurity around artistic expression. Through my administrative work, I have helped thousands of artists achieve their first exhibition opportunities and continue to show their work. As a teacher, I have helped hundreds of students channel their creativity which they thought impossible. My work as a visual artist has created multidisciplinary art experiences that combine performance, writing, digital technology, and architecture. I believe that it is so important to reconnect to our sense of play and creativity so that we explore the magic that exists both inside and outside of us. The arts bring humanity together to create a shared experience of the trifecta: mind, body, and spirit. Co-creating together, keeps our humanity vibrant.

Creativity isn't limited to traditional art media but a lack of art education seems to limit the idea of artistic expression. In my practice and classes, I incorporate craft, folk art, and alternative media to provide a creative space for kids and adults to express themselves. In my classes I always hear students start as, “I am not artistic.” To this I reply, “I know you have a sense of what is beautiful, allow that to guide your creative process.” By the end of class, my students discover their creativity and have artwork to show for it. I think it helps that I offer classes using media that are not widely used or accessible to the Denver Metro Area. I know I am one of a handful of providers who sustain space for students to explore their creativity outside of traditional art media.

Personally as of Aug 2025, I became a sole custody single mother and survivor from five years of domestic violence. I was already recognized as a minority, woman owned small business by the City and County of Denver and now, I relate even deeper to oppression in society. I wish to create a series of work, called the Spirit Guide Series, that is founded in my personal story but connects to a broader theme of healing from complex trauma and recognizing the magic that is all around and within us. Every year I create a new art series and this one is unexpected but deserves to be created. I could not have survived such a major life crisis without the support of my Denver-based community and local ecology. I want to celebrate and recognize that: love and caring for one another creates space for peace, dignity, and freedom.

Q: Engagement with community: Describe how community members or organizations have informed the development and implementation of a project. What were 1-2 key takeaways from your collaboration? 500 words

A: As a founding member of the Denver Art Society, I have invested sweat equity, money, and reputation to support space for creatives of all backgrounds. My work with the Denver Art Society has helped thousands of artists and has maintained a base of 150 local artists through the years. I joined as a member in 2013, helped build the Underground Studios in 2014, and kept the organization from closing its doors in 2015. The growth and work that I continue to gain as a volunteer and member of The Denver Art Society, has supported me beyond my art practice. I have gained a network of artists who have supported me through personal life crises and milestones.

My work with The Denver Art Society led me to Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe and Spectra Art Space. With Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe, I served as a volunteer board member (Event Committee Chair) during the pivotal moment of merging the art district with the Santa Fe Business Improvement District that secured funding for Colorado’s first creative district. This was an incredible team effort that transformed the business model of Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe, which has inspired formation of creative districts in Colorado but risked significant lack of funding to maintain operation. My board’s work provided the art district with the means for longevity.

Simultaneously, Spectra Art Space originally hired me as a consultant to keep the gallery doors from closing. In 2019, I introduced the idea of creating an immersive art experience and co-founded the core team that co-created with dozens of artists of all artistic disciplines and backgrounds. The immersive art experience was able to generate enough revenue for Spectra Art Space to create jobs for artists and make it successful.

In Sept 2025, I completed a monumental public art piece for the city of Grand Lake Colorado that took 5 years to complete. I named the sculpture “We’re All In This Together” because a local Denver architect, Tim Hodsdon and I collaborated with the Grand Lake creative district to pull funding together from the citizens of Grand Lake, municipal funds, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The sculpture was created in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the East Troublesome Fire, both events truly brought everyone together.

Recently, Safehouse Denver and the Rose Andom Center have been a lifeline for my personal life. Due to my work with Denver’s domestic violence resources, I am inspired to create artwork that celebrates a domestic violence survivor’s journey. This work continues with Spark Alchemy, a Denver-Based career coach organization that facilitates retreats for high achieving women to reconnect to their sense of play and joy through art and metaphysics.

Ultimately I believe that what makes humans special is that we help one another and I aim to lift up my community the way they have lifted me.

Q: Connection to Denver: How does your personal background and lived experience influence the way your work authentically amplifies the perspectives of marginalized communities? 500 words

A: My artwork serves as a voice for Chicanas, Astrologers, survivors, mothers, and the magic that is always around us. In 2024 my small business was certified as Minority Owned, Woman Owned, Disadvantaged Business Entity and Emerging Business Entity by the City and County of Denver. My inspiration comes from connecting to the natural elements and channeling my lived experiences of witnessing that magic through connecting to the world around me. Through my years, I have not lost the ability to explore, learn, and create something never seen before. Each person has their unique view of the world but, as a teacher I have discovered, the majority of students feel inadequate, afraid, and resentful about their creative process. I encourage my students to start with their sense of beauty because everyone has a sense of what is beautiful to them. Then I describe that making art is a dance, “Where you are the leader of the dance and the art media has its own moves it can do. Then you create something beautiful, together.”

From 2006 - 2021, I lived in different co-housing communities which taught me to be a strong community leader and seek out those connections. In 2013, I began my professional art career after college as an artist seeking to co-create in community. I believe in making art accessible to those who seek it because art is a way to connect the mind, body, and soul. In over 10 years of working as an artist in Denver, I have embedded my work within the arts community as a means to preserve space for creative expression and wisdom.

I align closely with my parents' careers in serving marginalized communities through their law practice as social security disability lawyers in Denver. Also, I grew up learning from my Uncle, Dr. Colorado Tom Noel who has written over 60 books about Colorado history aiming to tell the stories of all the different groups of people in Colorado’s diverse history. Both my mother and god-mother grew up as minorities in poverty who achieved high earning professional careers. So now, here I am, hoping to tell their stories through art as a way to express that against all odds - the impossible is possible. Perhaps that's what I mean when I wish to transcend the limitations of the literal interpretations of our lives. Art is the expression of the intangible and makes it tangible, so that thoughts and dreams become realities.

Q: Community Testimonial

My name is Rhonda Skallan, Founder & CEO of Spark Alchemy, an experience production company that designs and produces immersive gatherings centered on creativity, connection, and community impact. I have had the privilege of collaborating with Grace Noel for over three years through art classes, workshops, and multi-day retreats that we have co-created and facilitated together.

Working alongside Grace has given me a deep appreciation for both her artistic talent and her ability to cultivate meaningful human connection. She is not only a skilled visual artist, but a thoughtful facilitator who understands how creative expression opens space for dialogue, reflection, and belonging. In every environment I’ve witnessed — from intimate studio workshops to larger retreat settings — she creates a welcoming atmosphere where participants feel safe to explore and share their perspectives.

Grace’s work promotes discourse by using art as an accessible entry point into deeper conversations around identity, resilience, environment, and community. I have seen individuals who initially doubted their creativity discover their voice through her guidance. The creative process naturally evolves into authentic dialogue, strengthening connection between participants and encouraging them to see both themselves and others more fully.

Her public art installations in the mountains of Colorado demonstrate her commitment to place-based creativity and environmental reverence. These works honor the natural landscape while inviting reflection and engagement from those who encounter them. Additionally, her active participation in the monthly First Friday Art Walk in Denver’s Santa Fe Art District reflects her dedication to sustaining and enriching the local arts community. By consistently showing up in these cultural spaces, Grace contributes to Denver’s vibrant creative ecosystem and helps ensure that art remains visible, accessible, and alive.

Grace’s impact extends beyond individual pieces of art. She builds community. She collaborates generously with other creatives. She designs experiences that bring people together across industries, backgrounds, and life stages. In a time when meaningful connection can feel rare, her work creates it intentionally.

I wholeheartedly endorse Grace Noel as an artist whose work fosters dialogue, celebrates Colorado’s natural and cultural richness, and strengthens the fabric of our creative community.

Warmly,
Rhonda Skallan
Founder & CEO, Spark Alchemy

Q: Project potential & feasibility: Describe how the $15,000 project funds will be used in your artistic practice. 250 words

A: For this application, I propose the Project Phoenix Rising which celebrates the survivor’s journey. I am creating the written content and gathering materials to paint my new series of artwork: the Spirit Guide series. I want the premier of this new art series to be an art show event in which I hire speakers from Denver based organizations who represent women and communal living. For the art show event I wish to hire Denver - based artists to document the event through photography and live painting. In addition, I would like to hire a Denver based DJ who represents immigrant communities and specializes in dance music. Marketing, promotion, and refreshments will be completed by Grace Noel Art. The location of this event is still raw, lacking finished walls and electricity so in this proposal I am asking for funding to take an unfinished, dark room into the light to expand space for creativity and joy.

Grace Noel Art is the sole producer of this event and artwork. Studio renovations are in collaboration with Denver Chicano artist Dino Castellano, a senior citizen who has spent his lifetime in the La-Alma Lincoln Park Neighborhood since infancy. Together and with your help, we will have a day of celebrating the individuals who shape Denver’s vibrant culture. We will celebrate the birth of a new artwork contemporary to our time: The Spirit Guide Art Series and initiate an expanded studio space that will foster creativity & community connection in adults and children.

Q: Full project description & details

Estimated timeline (completed by Aug 2026)

June 2026 Spirit Guide Art Series completion
Jun-Aug 2026 - Spirit Guide Art Show preparations including creations of reproduction, scheduling online product posts, marketing and promotion
Aug 2026 Studio renovation completed with collaborator Dino Castellano
Aug 2026 Spirit Guide art show

The Phoenix Rising Project comprises three goals: Spirit Guide Art series, completed renovated studios, and the Spirit Guide Art show.

Goal No. 1: Spirit Guide Art Series, fine artwork oil paintings on stainless steel & aluminum

Each year I create a new art series and for 2026, I am working on the content and production of the Spirit Guide Art Series. I already have most of the materials but am struggling with finding the studio hours to complete this project. I need funds for childcare, studio operation, and materials & reproduction. The inspiration for this series is my own personal healing journey that relates to a broader theme of healing from complex trauma and recognizing the magic within and around us. The series will depict x4 bird species that are native to Denver’s local ecology and one mythological bird: the phoenix. The birds represent spirit guides that helped free my two children, ages 1 & 4, and I from the domestic violence we lived with for 5 years on nearly a daily basis. I am envisioning these spirit guides in flight or perched on abstract painted fields of color that will represent my healing journey through healing from intimate partner domestic violence. Once the artwork is completed, I will have it photographed for art print reproductions.

Details of creating the Spirit Guide art series will happen as follows: Currently I have x2 stainless steel panels that were gifted to me by the Denver artist Mai Wyn, 30” tall x 24” wide. Then I have x4, 12”x12” aluminum plates that I have mounted to a frame. I have acquired and am constructing the final surface that I need for the 5th panel: dimensions 30” tall x 15” wide. I will tape off 25% of the metal panels to retain the reflective quality of the metal and paint on the remaining 75% of the metal. Once the painting surfaces are prepped, I will create abstract paintings or “fields of color” to express my own healing journey using the Internal Family Systems therapy I learned while healing for complex trauma. Finally the birds/spirit guides will be painted perched or in flight over the fields of color using photorealism. I want to create these paintings using oil paint on stainless steel & aluminum to represent the current political climate of the United States.

Goal No. 2: Improved and Expanded Studio Renovation

Simultaneously, during cure times of oil painted layers of the Spirit Guide Art series, I plan to work with Dino in renovating the expanded studio space. Grace Noel Art in collaboration with Dino Castellano, who is a Denver Chicano Artist and lifelong west-sider, will renovate a raw studio space that is over 100 years old and an approximately 300 square foot room that was unused for 10 years. In 2023, Denver artists Body Art and My Blue Dog, who were members of the Denver Art Society, did the first round of renovations of this space but moved out in May 2025. They built an immersive art experience that had become popular but after they moved out to pursue other projects, the space was going un-used, again. The space shares a wall with my studio and I desired to expand into that space when I realized it was vacant. I mentioned this to my long term Denver Art Society colleague and cousin, Dino Castellano, and we submitted a proposal to the Denver Art Society Board of Directors. We received permission to have access to the space rent free until renovations were completed. Unfortunately, I endured a major personal life crisis weeks before we received approval from the Denver Art Society Board of Directors. Consequently, Dino has been handling renovations on his own, as I sort out the dense legal matters I am tending to as a sole custody single mother of a one and five year old.

The vision for this improved and expanded space is to provide children and adults with a place to reconnect to play and creativity through art classes, exhibition opportunities, and immersive art experiences. These improvements will also benefit the Denver Art Society, a fully volunteer run Artist Co-op & Nonprofit where I have been a founding member since 2013. Member artists of the Denver Art Society are strictly local artists due to the work-trade business format and the majority of artists are Denver-based. Dino and I will install finished walls and hire an electrician to install lighting, ventilation, and proper electrical. My studio also needs renovating and I will source a local flooring contractor to level my studio floor that is sloping. This sloping floor drastically affects the self leveling art media that I use in classes. For years, I have been working around this issue by shimming up my drying rack and work bench to as close to level as I can achieve. A completely level floor is necessary for continuing to provide the creative services that I offer

Goal No. 3: Spirit Guide Art Show

All of this work will culminate with the Spirit Guide Art Show which I want to have occur around the one year anniversary of my children and I’s liberation day which occurred on Aug 17, 2025. The release of the Spirit Guide Art series will be a 3 hour event and will create space for survivors to heal through dance music from a Denver-based DJ who represents immigrant populations, a black female Denver-based visionary live painter who will paint a mural with art show attendees that will be of a phoenix in the newly renovated studio. Talks featuring myself and x2 guest speakers who serve minority populations and foster communal living spaces will be hosted in my main studio event space. The event will be photographed by a Denver-based Puerto Rican single mother. Both speakers, the live painter, and photographer are chronic illness survivors. The event will happen on 08/15/2026, 5 - 8 pm, in Grace Noel Art which is located in the Underground studios of the Denver Art Society, a completely volunteer run Artist Co-op and Nonprofit.

In this proposal, I am seeking your help for funding the three goals of Project Phoenix Rising. Together we will celebrate these themes by empowering the creatives who reside in Denver and represent marginalized people on their healing journeys. You can trust me to have the skillset and years of experience at a top administrative level to complete this work. Through funding Project Phoenix Rising, we can create a little bit more space for community building through creative self expression in Denver, CO. Keep in mind that this is my current project, in a history of similar projects, that I am fully capable of managing the work and talent required to complete it. I am seeking your help in funding that work, thank you so much for your time and consideration.