Saturday, September 14, 2019

Alfred Lambourne Prize

So I did a show Friday night... The Alfred Lambourne Prize. It's a show all about art inspired by the Great Salt Lake... I did this show last year, and since I am such a fan of the lake and the cause I made a repeat performance.

This year I did a weird(?-compared to to the standard 2-D sort of fare) I made a ceramic bowl glazed with clay from the lake bed, and in it I placed marbles that I made to represent beautiful things about the lake experience; tinted waters, salt sculptures, rocky landforms, sunset skies, moonlit nights, diverse wildlife.

I didn't win, (of course there are lots of visual arts entries, as opposed to the literary, musical and movement categories, so I never expect to win, I just like to participate!) to) but I was totally shocked when during the program the announcer singled out my piece and gave it gave it a glowing description of as an example of the visual arts category. The program had two slides introducing the visual artist who's work was displayed in the gallery like mine, followed by videos, readings and music performed my those in the other categories.

The interesting thing for my lampwork friends...My other thrill for the night came after the program when a fellow approached me making a funny movement with his thumbs... the traditional marble shooting movement. (Which at first I did not get, because we played marbles in a different manner as kids) He was thrilled about my piece because he really liked the marbles, and my piece took him back to his childhood love of marbles. He really liked how I used them to represent the lake.

I was pretty thrilled to find a marble lover at the show, it is always so exciting when my art lets me make connections with strangers. I wish I'd gotten his name, as I would love to send him a marble.

Wednesday, September 04, 2019

Thermopolis

Labor day weekend I got to cross an item off of my hot springs list; a trip to Thermopolis Wyoming. I've wanted to go there for quire some time, but it's a little out of day trip range. The spring is large and impressive, cascading over 'waterfalls' of mineral deposits into the Bighorn River. It was very reminiscent of Yellowstone. The spring is located in a state park, and the state operates a bath house with a large indoor tub and outdoor pool where you can soak for free... for 20 minutes (and they say nothing in life is free!). There are also two private resorts with pool and slides.It was super hot that weekend so we just did the short free soak, which was long enough to tarnish all my silver. We also walked the boardwalks and swinging bridge and drove up high in the park where the views are lovely.