There and Back Again....

We started our recent trip to Pennsylvania by driving over the mountains to Denver to deliver a small tapestry to the Foothills Art Center 'Amuse Yeux' small piece exhibit, and to see our grandson graduate from 8th grade. ( I made an attempt to sketch him, but sketching people who are truly special to me is a challenge I've not yet mastered! The quote was one painted on the Denver Museum wall.)

While in Denver, our 2 grandchildren went with us to the Denver Art Museum. My grandkids are all very creative, and all appreciate seeing good art. One of the featured exhibits at DAM now is of very large paintings done by Jordan Casteel, an artist formerly from Denver, in fact having gone to the high school my grandkids go to. 

Another exhibit, "Serious Play," is a mid-century modern exhibit. I especially liked the textiles, of course. The only woven piece was the large rug (in middle) by Marianne Strengell. It featured a lot of metallic yarns, which I wouldn't think would have worn well, had the rug been used.

After our short stay in Denver, we flew to Pittsburgh, for the opening of Fiberart International 2019 (see previous post.) The photo above is the baggage claim area, after everyone else had collected their bags. Ours did not come until several days later, just in time to check it again to go home.

We had included a day to rent a car to go see Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's beautiful nearby creation. We had been to Chicago to see his studio there and a number of his other buildings in Oak Park, a few years ago. On our way back to Pittsburg, we stopped and purchased a very few things to get us through the next few days without our luggage, still hoping it would be at the hotel when we returned, but it was not.

After two amazing days at the galleries for the FI2019 opening and Fiber Forum, we had an evening to walk around Pittsburgh a bit. We had heard proud residents tell us that it is the 'city of bridges' ("as many as Vienna,")  the 'city of colleges,'  the 'city of rivers,' and the 'city of cathedrals.' Indeed, there were all those things in Pittsburgh! Cathedrals alternated with colleges on every other corner, it seemed. And the two amazingly combined in the Cathedral of Learning, a very tall 40-story tower in the heart of the city  on the University of Pittsburg campus. We wandered inside to see that it truly is a gothic style 'cathedral,' dedicated to inspiring students to excellence. It is still used for classrooms, and I would absolutely have loved to have had a 'study hall' like this when I was in college! Even though the academic year was ended, the cathedral was open and available to visitors.

Our bag finally was delivered to the hotel, so we took it back to the airport, and headed home. I came home inspired to work, but am still struggling with getting a design out of my head and onto the loom. Maybe I will work small until that happens...