Utah Arts Festival

I have a new dare for you:  I dare you to go somewhere that inspires you.

I dragged my husband and baby to the Utah Arts Festival on Friday and had a lovely time.  Tanner was amazing and spent most of the time in the shade making sure Camryn didn't overheat, which allowed me to walk around and feast on all of the beautiful and inspirational ART.  I can't tell you how much I love doing this.  And I also love that the artists are in their booth most of the time because it's so cool to meet them and ask questions about their work.  A lot of times they end up telling me something amazing that makes me love their work even more, or explaining their process to create it, which is always fascinating.  

These are a few of my favorites:

She told me that a lot of her work (like this first one) is inspired by and includes drawings from her 2 and 6 year old.  These "nice creatures" are so cool! She has two of them tattooed on her forearms. She says  "The big eyes and long legs represent, to me, a willingness to see the world in all its glory, and to move about in it fully." She also lets her children name the paintings (the ones that include their sketches)  which is how they end up with awesome titles like "a girl taking a walk with a nice creature who is a boy."  I also love her other titles, bright colors, abstract ideas, and overall amazing creativity.  I wish I was rich so that I could support her art and have it hanging all over my house.

Lisa Kattenbraker:

"a girl taking a walk with a nice creature who is a boy"

 The big eyes and long legs represent, to me, a willingness to see the world in all its glory, and to move about in it fully

This is not Chaos

"All those things I feared would bruise him, he caught with grace and ease"

 A change in the weather II   

"Strong will, fast wheels"

Gia Whiltlock:

This woman had her 6 month old baby on her hip, which added just one extra component to me being impressed.  I love collage.  

Liz Collins

This next picture unfortunately does not at all give credit to how cool this lady's work looks up close.  She does 2-D mixed media collage/painting using a lot of maps and cut up pieces of her own writing.  

One more.  I just like this guy.  That's all. 

Richard Curtner

I wish I had a better picture, but there was an infant play yard with this AWESOME toy hand made by some creative carpenter.  It was a big box painted funky with a bunch of fun knobs, door handles and hinges attached.   And a couple of huge tubes sticking out the top.  I thought it was so cool and kids were going crazy over it.   I thought it would be so fun to make one myself!

Sand sculpting