Votive lights rudy pozzatti noah

BY NANCY HILLER

Considering his international reputation as a fine-art printmaker and cofounder of Bloomington’s Echo Press, it may be a surprise to learn that Rudy Pozzatti might have become a doctor had it not been for a chance encounter when he was 17.

Pozzatti, 86, grew up in Telluride, Colorado, an area then known not for ski resorts but the gritty culture of gold and silver mines.

Votive lights rudy pozzatti noah

His mother had come to Colorado by herself from her Italian hometown of Trento at the tender age of 13, invited by her uncle to help run a boarding house for miners. Several years later she married a miner who was also, coincidentally, from Trento.

As a child, Pozzatti developed a keen interest in drawing, though formal art instruction scarcely existed in the largely working-class town.

With a scholarship to the University of Colorado, he imagined he would study medicine, but when the head of the art department happened to see his portfolio, she declared, “You’re going into art.”

After serving as