I arrived in the beautiful city of Denver late last Saturday after an easy yet long drive. Sunday I spent the hottest day of the year here so far at the Chalk Art Festival in trendy Larimer Square and at the Capitol Hill People's Fair, a large music, art, food, causes, funky weird stuff (chainmail bikini anyone?), you-name-it festival in Civic Center Park.
I've been thinking about the transience of chalk art. The artists spend days planning and creating their masterpieces which are promptly washed away after the weekend. I liken it to an experience - where artists share their talents, spread their beauty and the viewer is expected to pay attention and learn something, expand their thinking, because this will be their only opportunity. This transience even applies to things not thought of as art, but really are an art, like business acumen. Give your experiences and knowledge to others so they can learn something and better our world!
Monday I plunged right into teaching painting to eleven 4-7 year olds in the afternoons and spent most of the rest of the time unpacking, buying food and other necessities, and basically setting things up here. I am renting a third floor condo which I am dubbing the "Bachelor Pad". It has lots of manly brown furnishings, a kitchen boasting a couple of plates, a pot and a pan (what more do you need?!), a balcony where you can chug your beer and spy on people walking down the street and a rooftop deck with a pretty decent view. The Capitol Hill location is right next to downtown - a bustling, eclectic area.
Wednesday after teaching I hauled my bike down three flights of stairs to take a short ride on the Cherry Creek Bike Trail, a lovely scenic, wide, paved path that runs mostly along a creek. It was really beautiful riding outside in the cool late afternoon air. Denver is second only to Portland as the city with the most miles of bike trails. The people here are fanatical bikers!
It started raining Friday and won't stop until Monday. It is downright cold this weekend, temperatures in the low 50s. Yes, I can hear the whah-whahs from here! Although I would have liked to do something outside, I had an inspiring day today in the Denver Art Museum, one of my favorite places here. I spent some time in the fabulous sitting areas in comfy chairs perusing the loads of art books pertaining to the type of art on that floor. For me that's like being a kid in a candy store!
My happy little students are learning so much! Yesterday we painted Monet Impressionist paintings. Most children have not worked on a very large piece of paper and dabbing the paint all over was a great experience. We also made lily pads out of colored clay to go on our smaller Monet water paintings. Today we had so much fun studying Andy Warhol, dressing up as hippies, creating our own printing plates and making prints. The children came up with so many ways to layer their prints and create prints with a variety of colors. That's creative thinking in action - give people the knowledge, skills, materials and guidance and then let them fly!
