Last Friday, Shari and I met up with our friend, Alyssa, to wander around First Friday Art Walk. It had been a few years since I had gone and I wanted to check it out again. I’m so glad we went right when it opened at 5:30pm because it meant we had about half an hour to 45 minutes to wander around without there being so many people. It got real crowded from like 6:30pm on. We’ve made a game plan for next time to avoid most people but still give us a chance to enjoy ourselves. So it was a lot of fun walking down the street, popping our heads (and bodies) into different galleries that caught our eyes. We talked to a few artists and grabbed some dinner from food trucks. I couldn’t have asked for a more lovely evening. We sat on the grass in front of a house as we ate our food (best vegan gyro I’ve had!) and chatted it up. Then we ended our evening by painting our own mini masterpieces at a Denver library. Well, Alyssa and Shari painted masterpieces. I couldn’t come up with an idea I actually wanted to paint so I ended up just painting and repainting the canvas while Shari and Alyssa created. No bother though, it didn’t diminish my joy. Shari painted a beautiful desert sunset and cactus and Alyssa painted a really impressive copy of The Scream.
Saturday, Shari and I headed down to the Springs to spend time with my parents in honor of my dad’s birthday today! We were lucky enough to also get to hang out with Emily and Ollie and Lisa, Kevin’s mom. She was in town visiting and helping with the kids. We hung out outside for most of the afternoon because it was warm and everyone benefits from being outside. On Sunday we went out for Chinese for lunch to celebrate my dad’s birthday.
Yesterday I went to my very first pottery class! That’s right, yet another item I can cross off my #30 before 40 list. I’m slowly chipping away at it. Only 18 more items to go, I’d say that’s pretty good for still having 6 1/2 more years to complete these goals. Hopefully my dad and I can get up to Pike’s Peak sometime this summer so I’ll be able to cross off something else this year.
Pottery is going to be a challenge, I think. It requires good hand work as well as a good eye for design, neither skills of which I currently excel at, at least not in regard to building items out of clay. But, one skill I am good at, is asking questions, so I imagine that will be useful in future classes. I made a bowl and a soap holder in my class yesterday. I’ll have to do some research and thinking and come up with a list of items I want to make as this class is definitely more free form than I expected. If anyone has requests for a clay item they’d like and they don’t mind if it’s a little rough around the edges, send in your requests and I’ll consider making them. No guarantees though.
Here’s to us all having a great week of discovering new hobbies and trying out new experiences.
Just Lauren 