art

Garfield Elementary

April 8, 2017 — Leave a comment

Day ten in my “Leaving Loveland” challenge.

We have been very happy with the elementary school our kids both attended here in Loveland. We moved here the summer before Luthien began fourth grade and Silas began first. Lu has since moved on to middle school, but Silas will have spent all his school years in Loveland right here at Garfield Elementary.

IMG_3457.JPG

Garfield is the arts-focused elementary school here in Loveland, so the arts are integrated throughout the curriculum. One project some of the students worked on was making these murals to decorate the modular building the school uses for additional space; and Silas got to be in a group that designed and painted the mural on the left (under the supervision of a local artist).

IMG_3457

Here’s a closeup of Silas and company’s mural. They wanted to include music and visual art and drama as well as the playground, mountains, and their school mascot, Grizzlies.

Loveland Municipal Building

April 7, 2017 — Leave a comment

Day nine in my “Leaving Loveland” challenge.

IMG_3454.JPG

This is the view from my living room window. The building on the left was originally Washington School, built in 1905, which is quite old for this town. It now, along with the addition built onto it, houses city administration offices. It’s where I go to drop off my ballot for elections, or pay my utility bill (okay, actually I pay my bill online but I could drop my payment there if I so desired).

That huge evergreen used to get ceremonially lit for Christmas every year, but now another fake tree gets constructed and then lit up on the main drag, Fourth Street, in front of the Rialto Theater, a few blocks away from here.

It’s a bit hard to see, but there’s a sculpture to the right of the evergreen. Loveland is ga-ga for sculpture – especially bronze sculpture – but this piece is a stone sculpture from Zimbabwe, like many of the pieces at Chapungu Sculpture Park, which is on the east side of Loveland.

 

Luminescent

May 17, 2016 — Leave a comment

Some of us are just destined to do most of our work in the dark. We choose it – sort of – and it seems to choose us too. Not much spotlight, not much sunshine – but oh how we glow in our finest hours – alone in the studio at midnight, on a stage in front of five actively listening people, putting the finishing touches on a poem in the corner of a busy coffee shop.

My song for Week 19 of #songaweek2016 is dedicated to all the introverts, melancholics and not-so-go-getters who persist in loving this noisy, busy, sun-worshiping world through the deep, dark, luminescent art they faithfully create.

 

I’m the glow after the blaze

More subtle glance than open gaze

I’m understated

not overrated

i like my coffee black

i like a strong dark beer

and if you want to be sweet with me

be bittersweet

 

I’ve been singing in the shadows

From the day that I was made

I’m luminescent in the moonlight

but in the sunshine I just fade

 

Don’t cover me in kisses of pure joy

I cannot play along

mix them with tears

be salty sweet

My daydreams never hold a candle to

All the beauty I dream in the dark

Keep your sparkling diamonds

I’d rather have stars

 

I can’t tell you why I’m like this

It’s just always been this way

I’m luminescent in the moonlight

but in the sunshine I just fade