Went to the Denver Art Museum twice a couple of weeks ago. Once by myself, once with my brother. I’ve been reflecting on that experience a bit lately. The several hours I went by myself proved a really good experience for me. I took time to just stand in front of the paintings and really think about the process that the painter took. I stood in front of the DAM’s not-so-well known Picasso and a few other Cubist and Impressionist painters that you might know. Though the Denver Art Museum’s collection of these is not exceptionally well-known, I particularly enjoyed it. I think I particularly enjoy seeing little-known works because it helps me realize that even the biggest names out there had works that weren’t masterpieces. And sometimes these type of paintings give a more intimate look into an artist, into life. At least, that’s what I see.

I enjoyed going with Seth, and I think he liked the experience a lot. He and I have a similar eye for art. I was so glad to be there with him seeing him enjoy it as much as he did.

African Art
The afternoon that Seth and I went together we saw an African Painting that was so colorful and rich, that I was really surprised I didn’t see it when I went the day before. I was glad I had gone a second time so I didn’t miss it. The artist’s name is Moyo Ogundipe and he has a website. The painting was called Soliloquy: Life’s Fragile Fictions. I love the name of the painting for one. The details were really amazing to me as well.

Doing
I’ve been learning a lot about the process of “doing” lately… the processes that an artist, or a creator, or a builder, or a researcher takes to do their work. And to do it with perfection or mastery takes a lot of time.

Finding the Color in things
I really liked these pottery pieces that I picked up the other day at the Lakewood Arts festival – one of the “quaintest” festivals I’ve been to in a long time. I admired this lady’s work – she did them in her basement and made the impressions with doilies. Her business card says her company is called Anasazi Spirits. After taking them home, I realized how intricately colorful they are. I had to use the Photoshop color picker and get an array:

I loved the blue hues I found. Maybe these colors inspire something in you.

Do you do FaceBook? It’s the new (and cleaner) MySpace. (See, don’t I sound all hip and cool.) Anyway, I recently joined up, and they have a new application called Causes on it. It allows people to spread the word about their cause. So for example – say you really want to help people learn about foster care and the importance of kids finding a good home, then you could start your cause and people can join in, have conversations about it, tell their friends about it, and give money to a specific charity that supports foster care, locally or internationally. I wanted to mention it here because, being big into the Non-Profit world, I’m excited about applications like this and how that will change non-profits and how they raise money and awareness. Read more about Causes and then maybe you’ll want to join in. I normally don’t suggest social networking things. Usually they seem here one day, crazy the next, in the tabloids the next, and gone the next. But, this causes thing is interesting. I started a Cadence cause to see how it goes. If you get on FaceBook you can look it up or look me up.

June in Wisconsin is like paradise. Though it was humid and hot, I really enjoyed the destination of my trip. I went there for work, and drove with a couple other coworkers and volunteers. I actually enjoyed the drive too. Seeing Nebraska, Iowa, and Minnesota was really interesting. Living in the middle of the city and/or suburbs I hardly ever think about the rural areas (the hundreds of miles of rural areas) that provide food and energy for us all! I’ve been trying to think what the actual driving was like. I enjoyed it thoroughly, but can’t exactly explain why. Driving on the highway was like a subtly changing scene. Kind of a long, long artsy film where 500 different shades of green and brown flow into eachother slowly. It certainly gave me ideas for painting.

Anyone know why most barns are red? We had this question while driving. I found these answers, but it seems that there must be more than that. Hmm…

Of the 4 states I drove through, Wisconsin was my favorite. It was like the farmland tropics. For real. It was lush and green green green. And full of fields that rolled and looked they went on forever beyond the hills.