Saturday, February 21, 2009

. . . had excellent adventures




with Betsy yesterday. After she had watched every Berenstain Bears cartoon on TV and I had finished up a painting, we decided to go see some art. Tonight is the fund-raising auction for the KC Artist Coalition and we went to see the art that was offered for both the silent auction and the live auction. The gallery is in the River Market at what used to be the dead end of Delaware Street. I had not been to the gallery for a few years and I was surprised to see that there is a huge construction project apparently between this formerly dead-end street and the Missouri River. The picture above is the view from the front of the Artist Coalition gallery looking west, and you can see just a small area of the new construction. I took the picture mainly to show the "ART" sign, one of several in the area. I enjoyed the art; my favorite piece was an intaglio print in the basement in the silent auction. It had a buy-out price of $1,200 and had already been sold, so someone else liked it, too. Betsy's favorite pieces were three multicolored mosaic stars. There were a couple of other pieces I could have purchased had I any money. When I told Betsywe were going to an "art show," she must have thought it was a real show, like the ballet or the plays that she has attended in the past. A lady at the gallery patiently tried to explain to Betsy what an auction was and why there were no people in the gallery although there were lots of empty seats. Betsy's analysis of the exhibit: horrible, because there were no people there.





We had taken the camera with us downtown, and as we walked back to our car, I shot this vignette, which happens to capture many of the colors I've been using lately in my paintings,






as well as this wonderfully grungey wooden door or fence. Betsy asked if she could take pictures of the "skyscrapers" downtown while we drove back home, so I gave her the camera. She took many many many pictures of the back of the front seat, the back of my head, her foot, the Skittles that Joey had dropped on the floor of the car. But not even one skyscraper.

5 comments:

RosieK said...

what a great adventure and some great camera shots to feed your collages. Good to see such a large ART sign too - heres to adventures!!

Leslie Avon Miller said...

Sounds like a good day with Betsy and art. I enjoy the way Betsy gets the chance to have opinions, and to try her artistic legs out even if her skyscraper photos are of the floor. It is like you honor her inner artist. Bravo.

Jeane Myers said...

LOL! - loved your Betsy adventure

ps pirro said...

Sounds like a great Artist Date... an adventurous companion, some good art, and lots of urban crustiness to fuel your imagination.

Mary Buek said...

Rose: It was a fun time and the ART signs are so appropriate to the area.

Leslie: I was thinking the same thing: kids can get away with having some definite opinions, and voicing them, and people think they're cute. Her mother gets a little nervous when I let her use my camera, but maybe someday she'll remember. I'm going to print out one of her photos and give it to her, because she keeps a "journal" at her school and she can put the picture in it.

Jeane: Every day with Betsy is an excellent adventure.

Peggy: I do love the urban crustiness. I think it arises out of my preference for random art.