With a determined posture and a set look on her face, Kim Seaborn takes a deep breath to begin another take.
After singing a few lines, she stops, looking satisfied.
“I think we got it,” says Keagan Kellogg, sound engineer for Studio916.
Seaborn relaxes her shoulders and smiles before stepping away from the microphone to celebrate with the rest of the team. Her full-length album: officially a wrap.
Seaborn worked for weeks alongside Kellogg and Studio916 producer TerryJosiah Sharpe to record her second full-length album without incurring any expenses, inside a facility of Pikes Peak Library District.
“Here, I got to work with professionals,” Seaborn says. “I found the team here was so easy to work with and just really let me be myself, and they helped me flourish creatively.”
Seaborn started performing in front of her church’s congregation when she was just a sixth grader, and remembers the intensely overwhelming feeling of impacting the crowd.
“I saw people crying,” Seaborn remembers. “Seeing that emotion from the crowd… that was something I liked. If I can get a person to be transformed with my singing, that’s what makes it worthwhile to me.”
But standing up in front of large groups wasn’t something that came naturally to her.
“I’m a very shy person,” Seaborn says. “When I was growing up, I tried to do things that would take me out of that shyness. I felt singing was one of the things I could do to get me out of my shell.”
Her first album, His Glory, was completed in 2014. She was ready to record another one soon after but wanted to break away from the traditional feel of her first full-length album.
Plus, the sheer cost of recording an album was another hurdle.
“These hours in the recording studio can cost thousands of dollars,” Seaborn remembers.
But then she learned of a studio she could use at no cost at Sand Creek Library: Studio916. She attended a studio orientation to learn more about using the space. Then, she checked every day for open studio sessions because they were so frequently booked.
As she got into the studio more and more, Seaborn found that she had a team of experts at her disposal in Kellogg and Sharpe. “It helped me break out of my shell,” she remembers. “When you have people who know what they’re doing, it just gels.”
Now, Seaborn has a vision for her future as a musician, hoping to record more music as well as further market herself as a singer/songwriter and get her music out into the world.
She hopes other aspiring artists in the Pikes Peak region will take advantage of Studio916.
“To these young people with a dream, I say go for it,” Seaborn says. “If music is something that is a part of your purpose and you’re willing to put in some work, do it. It is thousands of dollars to do elsewhere what you can do at the Library for free.”
The top 10 of 2019 are here! Learn more about what the Pikes Peak Region read in 2019 and add any you missed to your 2020 reading list!
Adult Books
- Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- The Reckoning by John Grisham
- Educated: a Memoir by Tara Westover
- Wolf Pack by C.J. Box
- TransAtlantic: a Novel by Colum McCann
- Redemption by David Baldacci
- Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
- Unsolved by James Patterson
- The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Teen Books
- Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
- Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
- On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
- To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
- Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth
Children's Books
- Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
- Harry Potter and the Socerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
- Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin
- Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown by Jeff Kinney
- The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
- A Long Walk to Water: a Novel by Linda Sue Park
- Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
- Warriors in Winter by Mary Pope Osborne
- The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen
eBooks
- A Dangerous Act of Kindness by LP Fergusson
- Redemption: Amos Decker Series, Book 5 by David Baldacci
- The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
- Wolf Pack by C.J. Box
- After the Flood: A Novel by Kassandra Montag
- An Anonymous Girl: A Novel by Greer Hendricks
- Run Away by Harlan Coben
- Connections in Death by J.D. Robb
- The 18th Abduction by James Patterson
- Neon Prey by John Sandford
eAudio
- The Silent Patient (unabridged) by Alex Michaelide
- Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals (unabridged) by Rachel Hollis
- Redemption: Amos Decker Series, Book 5 (unabridged) by David Baldacci
- The Giver of Stars: A Novel (unabridged) by Jojo Moyes
- City of Girls: A Novel (unabridged) by Elizabeth Gilbert
- The Dutch House: A Novel (unabridged) by Ann Patchett
- The Institute: A Novel (unabridged) by Stephen King
- Daisy Jones & the Six: A Novel (unabridged) by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- The Turn of the Key (unabridged) by Ruth Ware
- The Guardians: A Novel (unabridged) by John Grisham
The natural environment is one of our treasures in Colorado. Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) sought proposals for an interactive, 3D, freestanding art piece to draw attention to this resource and its conservation. The call was answered by several artists and, after a jury process, Virage was selected. It is eye catching, conversation evoking, appropriate for all ages, safe for public spaces, and movable among Library locations. Throughout the year this sculpture will travel to four PPLD locations: Penrose Library, Sand Creek Library, East Library, and Library 21c.
With a focus on the beauty of our natural environment and conservation, PPLD hopes to evoke conversation and interaction among patrons. A variety of programming will be offered throughout the District that relates to this topic.
Click Here to learn about related programs.
Post your photos of and with #PPLDSustainaball on social media!
Artist Narrative:
The current political atmosphere has created an unsettling time with the lifting of protections to the environment, denial of scientific knowledge and climate change, and inclusiveness and access to education. Virage subtly, yet critically speaks to the impacts of humans on the environment and the consequences ahead. The beauty of the barks’ texture together with the perfect form of the sphere is meant to give a sense of hope and promise that humankind will take responsibility, humankind will find a respectful and healthy balance with the natural world and ecosystems. Human beings have the incredible ability to be innovative and creative, when presented the opportunity solve insolvable puzzles. The artwork invites the viewer to consider and reconsider the current choices and actions as a consumer. There is an intended charge to the viewer to make our natural world the highest priority - to practice conservation.
Artist Biography:
Nikki Pike grew up in Black Forest, Colorado, where she learned to ride bikes and climb trees in between flashlight tag, midnight soccer, and competitive sledding. The adopted daughter of a nurse and an engineer, and sister to four brothers and a sister, Nikki learned to work in groups and negotiate at an early age. Fighting over the measuring cups in the bathtub and wooden spoons in the garden, the Pike family children grew wild imaginations.
The earliest sign that Nikki may later become a sculptor was in her sixteenth year in being grounded for a month. Rather than moping around and feeling sorry for her new life in confinement, Nikki raided her father’s toolbox and undertook the accidental but artistic resurfacing of her very first vehicle, an AMC gremlin. Otherwise, realizing her interest and making a commitment to art came much later after her surrender to finally join the quest to attend college and explore communications design. Her exposure to materials and objects fed her need to make and build and fulfilled the physical gap that once was spent playing soccer.
Now, Nikki Pike is an artist and activist committed to serving the community through her art practice and role as an educator. Through the use of universally positive human experiences such as curiosity, music, surprise, and gifting, along with the influence of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, she spreads values of empowerment, vulnerability and connection in the form of experience as opposed to product. Nikki sees herself as a cultural agent working together with local communities promoting activity and creativity. With her an expansive practice, Nikki straddles public arts, social sculpture, service srt and is exploring ideas of relief art intended to aide communities responding to disaster. Her methods start from the ideals of democracy and her work has been featured at the Denver Art Museum, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, and Art Basel Miami to name a few. Currently Nikki resides in Denver, Colorado, and holds a professorship at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.