Monday, July 6, 2009

Artful 4th of July Weekend

I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! Denver has a full calendar of free events and celebrations around the city, and we had a great time getting out and enjoying the arts this weekend!

On the 4th, we headed downtown to the Cherry Creek Arts Festival. My friend Heidi was in town from Montana, so we enjoyed chatting and catching up on life while we wandered around all of the booths with creative art from artists across the US. Tru also enjoyed some delicious dishes from the Culinary Gallery.

There were so many talented artists with interesting and unique work. I was especially drawn to several mixed media artists and their intriguing art pieces. I could stare at their work and continually find new details combined with such surprising and storylike qualities.

Some of my favorites were Gena Ollendieck who created fabulous 3-D hand bound albums using found items and vintage in dimensional collages on the one-of-a-kind leather covers;
Credit: "Go Ahead. Open It." Copyright Gena Ollendieck

Richard Curtner who uses magazine pages to create intricate still life collage art;
Credit: "Messages Remaining" Copyright Richard Curtner

Lynn Wipple uses bits of history, old books and memorabilia that fascinates her to create vintage mixed media art;
Credit: "Look" Copyright Lynn Whipple

Truman loves photography and found several photographers with original styles, but Audrey Heller was a favorite of us both. Her insightful & playful photography uses tiny models to create visual puns;
Credit: "Ultramarin" Copyright Audrey Heller

On Sunday, we headed to Red Rocks Amphitheatre for Symphony on the Rocks by the Denver Orchestra. We had a fabulous evening enjoying many recognizable works in my absolute favorite venue.

Red Rocks has amazing natural acoustics and it's beauty creates such a memorable atmosphere for a concert. I love listening to live music in the midst of God's magnificent creation, and what music could be better in this spot than that of a full symphony! It was a cool evening that even required jackets and the perfect night to enjoy an outdoor concert.

We had a wonderful weekend! What did you do to celebrate the 4th?

3 comments:

Infarrantly Creative said...

I love the Red Rock Ampitheatre. We have a friend who lives in Denver and he took us to it when we were out there. It looks like the two of you are making it home

Dawn said...

Sounds like you're settling into your new life there in CO. So glad you're not forgetting us Texans, too! LOL

And, I'm quite certain you're not missing our record-breaking heat. (Yes, we've continued to set records - 105 yesterday.)

What's the update on your house?

Blessings!

Dawn said...

PS - I'm heading to Ohio on Monday for a week's visit with my family.