Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Raw Art

So, I feel life getting scrunchy. You know how a sheet starts to scrunch up and leaves your feet cold. Well, life is not very smooth right now and my feet are showing big time. But I have this goal to stay on top of blogging and that means three times a week. And today is a current event. But in order to get things done, I am going to skip editing my photos. (Gasp.) True story. All the raw footage, just the way it was shot.

Do you recall the fun art field trip I got to go on back in October? Of course, I only blogged about it back in January, but it was just in time to stay ahead of the second art field trip. This second field trip had a bit more to do with art, although the yearbook squad came along again. I've decided the yearbook team is not very creative. They can't think of their own field trips, so they just tag along wherever the studio art kids go.

So we went to the Springville Art Museum. It was actually amazing. I haven't been there in so long. And the last time I was there, it was for a wedding. We went on a guided tour to begin and then the kids were able to browse the main floor with art from high schools in the area. Upstairs we started in a section called Wit and Whimsy. All the art has an element of humor to it, whether with situation or color. Here are some of my favorites:

We talked about the symbolism of this lady wearing the cow mask. Is she trying to fit in with those around her. What masks do we wear to fit in?


Cass Barney lives not far from me. She is an awesome lady, beyond the fact that she is the daughter of famous artist James Christensen. She did this piece that was on display. I'm just not sure what it means. It is called Tree of Knowledge. How do the knives fit in? I'll have to ask her next time I run into her.


Haha. This one is great.


Here is another by Cass. I love this. The blurb on the side talked about two girls meeting and not seeming to have much in common, but after talking for a while, they realized they were more alike than they thought. Now, they are synchronized swimming partners. Then you view the art and see why it is so interesting.


There were quite a few monster ones. The kids seemed to really like them. This one was kind of sad.


There was a whole section of what looked like doodles done on Sundays. (Robyn does the same thing.) All the pictures seemed to be drawn while listening to a lesson or observing things at church. This one cracked me up.



We left Wit and Whimsy and went to a very different gallery. It was all about transforming hate. Many pieces had to do with this book that was racist and downright awful. They took hundreds of copies and gave them to artists to see if they could find a better use for them. One lady knit hats to cover them up. Notice how they are all unique.


This was possibly my favorite. It shows how hate is passed down through generations as something attractive and enticing. Kids don't even see it coming.


One lady dyed the pages and had people fold them into cranes. I believe she was trying to fold a thousand before she passed away from cancer.


I really like this one too. Giving into hate and evil ideas is a trap. Don't get caught.


I don't know what to think about this one. It is called Phoenix Rising. It talked about all this stuff on the blurb about the Phoenix. But it is clearly a Dodo. Am I missing something? There must be some symbolism about how we see things...


Finally, this would be Tyler's favorite. Old ammunition boxes are filled with the books to show there are all kinds of weapons and ammunition. Words can be harmful too.


Downstairs was all the high school art. Much less symbolism, but I loved so much of it. I won't blather on. I'll just show you my favorites.











From there, we went back on the bus to the mall to have lunch. I sat with Elyse and we played Boinx there and back. It was so fun. She makes me laugh a lot. She had hard words, although I stumped her pretty well with 'units'. As she is using five letter words to solve the game, she sometimes makes words up. My favorite was when she wrote down 'nices'. I said, "That not a word."

"Yes it is," she replied.

"Fine...use it in a sentence."

"...they are the nices people I know."

"hahahahahaha"

Lunch was yummy. It was fun to hang out with June's friends. Some people thought they were sluffing, but I told them kids don't usually sluff with an adult.



The last part of the trip was to the Woodbury Art Museum. I didn't enjoy this place as well, but there was still some cool stuff. More artwork by Cass Barney. That was cool to see her stuff in both places. One artist made a wailing wall out of painted wooden kitchen knife holders. You could write your prayers and put them in the wall.


My favorite piece by far was the flower made from recycled keyboards. It is currently the background on my phone. So cool.



This crew was fun to hang out with. We had a good time.


Almost time to go. Everyone, quick...find the first letter in your name and point to it. What's the matter June...no 'j's?


Back on the bus. I am always happy to help out on these field trips. I'm still the only parent who comes. I'm not sure if that is because no one volunteers or they figure three adults is enough. I do admit that yearbook and studio art aren't the roughest group of kids.


We'll leave you with a parting shot of Christina. We caught her reading. But she still had a smile for us.


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