Happy 47th Anniversary to Mom and Dad!

The Mexia Daily News, June 3, 1968:

Ali heads back to Texas

Last night was Ali's final evening in Denver, so we hit up NoNo's for dinner.

We were shocked to discover Ali had never heard of beignets!

We solved that problem immediately.

 

It was gorgeous today. Bright blue skies and big fluffy clouds. 

Sad to have to take Ali to the airport instead of to the mountains. 

I had to laugh when Sam and Jason returned from taken Evan on a walk and Sam gasped, "It's so hot." 

It was 66°.

We did get caught up in the traffic nightmare that was the Rocky Mountain Air Show, but apparently the time we spent trying to get around them was nothing compared to the poor folks who actually wanted to attend. Some folks were reporting they sat in traffic for three hours, missed the show, or were turned away from capacity parking. There were folks getting out of their cars, stuck in the right lane of attendees. As we were crawling along, we were reading discussions via the Waze app lamenting the poor planning. 

Then I managed to get Ali to the departures area, without thinking that, to park, we should've taken the arrivals signs. She was flying United, which departs from the West side of DIA, AKA, the side we never go to.

I dropped her and Nick off and made the circle again to get parked and meet them inside.

Once she got through security, we headed back to the specific weird painting that marked where I'd parked. Seriously. What is going on? First panel is all love and light and Peace on Earth . . .

and the next panel is THIS.

Welcome to Denver! 

In that vein, Nick snapped Blucifer on our way out. 

But really, who else gets this as a view coming back from the airport? 

(We stopped off at Goodwill on the way back.)

Miss you, Ali!

Just a Wednesday

Man, I've promised Ali that I'll wake her to go with me if I spot a full-on-color sunrise coming. But she leaves Saturday and this is as good as it's been, thanks to all the rain. Maybe tomorrow . . .

Ali treated us all to Einstein Bagels, including the puppies, this morning. Yes, Einstein bagels makes bagel puppy treats. It's Colorado.

And Evan has his own Coke. He doesn't seem all that impressed.

Sammi's Big News

Sam was at work last night when the mail came.

And there was a big envelope for her.

I texted her about it:

  

Congrats my Sammi Girl, newest Illustrator Major of Ringling College of Art and Design!

So we are now planning one epic mom and daughter road trip from Denver to Sarasota in the middle of August, by way of New Orleans and several friends houses and possibly some time back through Houston. (In August. I need my head examined.)

Gah. I'm going to miss her like crazy. But what great experiences await her!

One of our favorites:

The Ringling Vimeo Channel

Deborah Butterfield Exhibition at Denver Botanic Gardens May 2015

So Ali and I met up with Amber at the Denver Botanic Gardens and I decided to leave my heavy camera at home and see what I could get with just my new phone's camera.

I hadn't read about the Nature of Horses installation which is this summer's exhibit, so when we saw the first piece at the front, Ali and I both thought, "Oh, cool. They're made from tree limbs."

from this angle, I assumed it was a horse, bending down to eat hay.

Then we walked inside and caught the film. 

Not wood.

It was incredible to see.

Deborah Butterfield starts with found wood and pieces together her horse sculptures, but then numbers every piece, photographs them, pulls them apart, and the wood is turned to ash in the molding process where they are individually cast into bronze. And THEN, she reassembles them,  and paints and patinas each piece back into looking exactly like wood. They're never infested by bugs or worn down by time and weather this way. 

So when we emerged to look at these guys again, I realized that wasn't hay. It was another horse.

In the arrangement of the exhibition, her oldest piece, Aluhani (1991) was paired with the newest, Charlo (2015).

Throughout the gardens, other horses adorn the space.

She keeps a ranch near Bozeman Montana as well as a studio on the Big Island of Hawaii.

She only works in the winter.

As we are gazing and talking about the incredible paint job on bronze, some folks say to us, "That's not wood?" After we explained the process, they headed directly to the film room to see for themselves. It really should be required viewing prior to the exhibition.

Luna is the only piece at the Gardens that is made from found steel.

oh, yeah, and there were plenty of flowers in bloom, too. . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this was completely unplanned, but photo worthy

And, holding with tradition . . .