June 25 - Utah Arts Festival
July 4 - Hale Center theater
July 10 - Ballet Under the Stars
July 16 - ???
July 25 - Getty Museum
July 30 - Salt Lake City Twilight concert
August 6 - Sundance Summer Theater - The Fantastics
August 10 - Muse Music Film Screening
Friday, June 26, 2009
Utah Arts Festival
Yesterday I attended the Utah Arts Festival in downtown Salt Lake City. I went with my daughter and two little granddaughters. I have had a tendency in the past to avoid art festival type events, seeing them as just a place to spend money. (Again, my husband's views have rubbed off on me.) So yesterday I was determined to go with different eyes, look beyond the money and just enjoy and appreciate.
It helped to have my granddaughters there. The first place we visited was the children's area. There was a white-washed wall 3-4 feet tall with lots of containers of paint in the grass for the children to just come and paint on the wall. This was a big hit! Even my granddaughter who is only a little over a year old wanted to paint. She also wanted to eat the paint, but that's part of the fun. I wouldn't say they have great artistic talent, but that's the great thing about being a kid. No one cares if you do or not, you can just paint. There was even a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and milk booth for food to feed the kids.
I found myself really enjoying the different artist's booths. There are so many different media from which to create art! One of my favorites was a booth with art they called X-Rayographs, where they took x-rays of different plants and objects and somehow printed that on paper and then tinted them with color. The result was light, ethereal, breathy prints that were very unique.
Another booth I totally enjoyed was an artist that did drawings, pencil I think? One I particularly enjoyed looked like a self-portrait on a 8 1/2 x 11 paper that had been torn into several pieces, and then the artist was reaching out of the paper trying to tape the pieces back together again. I saw myself in this picture, not that I am torn, but that I feel I am constantly trying to put all the pieces that make up me together in better ways, trying to smooth the rough edges and wrinkles.
The weather at the outset was blazing hot, but mercifully after an hour or so clouds arrived bringing some relief. The Maui Wowi Strawberry Banana smoothie also helped. It was a great setting between the Library and the City and County building. In addition to the artist's booths, there were musical performances, film screenings, food, and on and on. I thought since we went on the first day, and it was a Thursday, it wouldn't be too crowded, but there were plenty of people. I can only imagine what it will be like Saturday. It was a little pricey, especially since they don't let people bring in their own food (they check your bags at the gate for food). But going before 3:00 meant it only cost $5 to get in. I also indulged my older granddaughter with a marionette horse and found a unique and lovely birthday gift for my future daughter-in-law. You can just go and enjoy, if you don't go hungry. Overall, a really enjoyable afternoon.
It helped to have my granddaughters there. The first place we visited was the children's area. There was a white-washed wall 3-4 feet tall with lots of containers of paint in the grass for the children to just come and paint on the wall. This was a big hit! Even my granddaughter who is only a little over a year old wanted to paint. She also wanted to eat the paint, but that's part of the fun. I wouldn't say they have great artistic talent, but that's the great thing about being a kid. No one cares if you do or not, you can just paint. There was even a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and milk booth for food to feed the kids.
I found myself really enjoying the different artist's booths. There are so many different media from which to create art! One of my favorites was a booth with art they called X-Rayographs, where they took x-rays of different plants and objects and somehow printed that on paper and then tinted them with color. The result was light, ethereal, breathy prints that were very unique.
Another booth I totally enjoyed was an artist that did drawings, pencil I think? One I particularly enjoyed looked like a self-portrait on a 8 1/2 x 11 paper that had been torn into several pieces, and then the artist was reaching out of the paper trying to tape the pieces back together again. I saw myself in this picture, not that I am torn, but that I feel I am constantly trying to put all the pieces that make up me together in better ways, trying to smooth the rough edges and wrinkles.
The weather at the outset was blazing hot, but mercifully after an hour or so clouds arrived bringing some relief. The Maui Wowi Strawberry Banana smoothie also helped. It was a great setting between the Library and the City and County building. In addition to the artist's booths, there were musical performances, film screenings, food, and on and on. I thought since we went on the first day, and it was a Thursday, it wouldn't be too crowded, but there were plenty of people. I can only imagine what it will be like Saturday. It was a little pricey, especially since they don't let people bring in their own food (they check your bags at the gate for food). But going before 3:00 meant it only cost $5 to get in. I also indulged my older granddaughter with a marionette horse and found a unique and lovely birthday gift for my future daughter-in-law. You can just go and enjoy, if you don't go hungry. Overall, a really enjoyable afternoon.
Thoughts on Reading
I enjoyed the reading on education early this week. I though the book made some very valid points about education becoming too specialized, even to the point of removing culture from society. I really liked the quote from Alan Bloom about how substitutes for real diversity are dyed hair and other external differences that tell you nothing about what is on the inside, and how this is happening because students are no longer acquainted with great works of literature.
It seems to me that people in society of all ages no longer have discussions of ideas. They instead pick a side, often just because everyone they know picks that side, and then they have a shouting match telling anyone that will listen that their side is right. Politics in particular is discouraging and increasingly disgusting to me. Politicians and even pundits and commentators no longer discuss ideas and try to come to a consensus or really solve a problem. They simply yell at each other and try to find tiny things to pick at and blow out of proportion.
I can see this as a possible symptom of the culture disappearing from our society; that specialization has convinced people their view is the only correct view and anyone who disagrees with them is just wrong.
It seems to me that people in society of all ages no longer have discussions of ideas. They instead pick a side, often just because everyone they know picks that side, and then they have a shouting match telling anyone that will listen that their side is right. Politics in particular is discouraging and increasingly disgusting to me. Politicians and even pundits and commentators no longer discuss ideas and try to come to a consensus or really solve a problem. They simply yell at each other and try to find tiny things to pick at and blow out of proportion.
I can see this as a possible symptom of the culture disappearing from our society; that specialization has convinced people their view is the only correct view and anyone who disagrees with them is just wrong.
Class thoughts
After the first day of class, I began to think that maybe I actually need this class. When we watched the David Byrne video the first day, I was relatively unmoved. It was OK, the music was OK, the performance was OK. Then as we began discussing it, I found that many people got much more out of it than I did. I wondered if maybe I was missing something. I told my husband that night when I talked to him that maybe I had been around him too long. (My husband is an accountant, and the epitome of left-brain, rational, logical, non-emotional thinking, very sophic.)
I am an early-morning seminary teacher, and as I thought about this experience, I realized that maybe I need to look at art, music, theatre, whatever, in the same way I look at the scriptures. I constantly try to teach my students to dig deeper into the scriptures to find more meaning out of what they read. Perhaps I need to apply this to my perception of the arts. I need to go beyond just the surface and dig deeper to fully appreciate the beauty that lies within.
I am an early-morning seminary teacher, and as I thought about this experience, I realized that maybe I need to look at art, music, theatre, whatever, in the same way I look at the scriptures. I constantly try to teach my students to dig deeper into the scriptures to find more meaning out of what they read. Perhaps I need to apply this to my perception of the arts. I need to go beyond just the surface and dig deeper to fully appreciate the beauty that lies within.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
My First Blog
OK, so I have resisted this blogging thing as being for the younger generation, but now, by assigngment, I have joined the throng. First Facebook, now blogging, what's next, Twitter?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
