Growing Up Aspen: Adventures of the Unsupervised

Read Growing Up Aspen now >> PURCHASE HERE on AmazonCatch the Growing Up Aspen podcast with Andy Collen & Chris Pomeroy HERELO SEMPLELo arrived in Aspen in 1974 in the back of his parents green Volvo station wagon. He currently writes a local column every Saturday for the Aspen Daily news, and can be spotted around town or on the bike trails and ski mountains of Aspen and Snowmass.He also helps travelers from all over the world via Suit Yourself, Aspen's mobile skiwear outfitters—renting skiwear for over 25 years.DEAN JACKSONIn another life, Dean Jackson was a professional actor, voice-over artist, and puppeteer. While living the life of a starving artist in New York City was an adventure, that life transitioned into a more traditional career once he got married and discovered that Ramen was not a lifestyle choice.Dean and his lovely wife, Kyra, now live in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has managed high-rise buildings and since applying those skills to create the project management division of a local community management company, is the point-person for managing their team and a multitude of community living challenges. He wrote for an industry magazine for sixteen years, and wrote the travel blog, “So I Married a Tour Guide.” He has begun dabbling in voice work and acting once again.In their spare time, Dean and Kyra enjoy traveling, gardening, reading, listening to Jazz, and slow dancing in the kitchen. CHRIS POMEROYChris was born in the mountains and raised from infancy in Aspen, Colorado. He left the valley in the 1990s to pursue a career in Newspaper management. He worked at three newspapers over the span of a decade, The Aspen Times, the Fort Collins Coloradoan, and the Athens Banner-Herald. He shifted away from the industry in the early2000s with a short stint in agency work, and then to his current job of 15+ years, consulting in Internet Banking for Digital Insight, Intuit, and now NCR.He has won many awards for campaigns, layout, and illustration throughout the years, and has done illustrations for national companies, newspapers, and magazines for a myriad of uses.When not “slaving for the man” he has worked in the art of animation, one of his true passions, for the better part of 30 years. As any animator can tell you, animation is a love of the art and the art of sacrifice. He currently resides in Athens, Georgia with his wife, two sons, a dog, cats, and a bunch of fish. ANDY COLLENAndy cut his entrepreneurial teeth at the age of 16 by becoming Burton Snowboard’s first Aspen distributor. After his college years, he discovered a culture of independent animators in Portland, Oregon, and moved there, working at Teknifilm, the local 35mm film processing lab while connecting with the local artists and studios. He freelanced for Will Vinton Studios (Claymation, California Raisins, The PJs), Blashfield Studio (Photo cut-out, MTV music videos), and mentored with Tom Arndt of Merlin’s Hammer.Andy met Amy Blumenstein while producing It’s About Peace, a collaborative short film that Amy and many other local artists contributed animated scenes to. Andy and Amy soon married (at the Portland Zoo) and started their boutique studio, Happy Trails Animation.Website:  https://www.thequestexpress.comFeedback Survey:  https://forms.gle/6yMieXo2iGEE1Qmr9Say Hi:   [email protected] Credits:  INTRO:  Loyalty - Philip Ayers | OUTRO: Grasshopper's Dance - Etienne Roussel