A fun day with Dana

I'm a few days late in getting this posted. My friend Dana called and asked if I wanted to go to an art showing of one of her old acquaintences. So off we went to Watermark Books to see this one person show on Tuesday, a beautiful and sunny day.

I seem to take a lot of photos through car windows. At least Dana's were clean.

This was Dana's and my favorite (the tulip). His work was mostly fish and tulips. Not sure his style is anything I would hang in my home. Dana thoght the tag read $380.00 for the tulip.

More fish!! He works mostly in pastels.

Fish and tulips. An odd combination. At least he didn't put the fish and tulips together. Or maybe I would have liked them better if he had.

While there, we perused the books and saw this ad for book readings on Tuesdays. Doesn't this look like something Dana would draw? OH LOOK!!! You can see my short little image in the picture. My digi camera doesn't even have a distance setting, so no polarizing filter :>)

Another one, and I'm still in the reflection!!

After spending a long time in the bookstore (well over an hour), we decided to try to find some rusty parts. Dana KNEW where to go (or so she thought). We drove around and around. We found tennis courts that I had no idea were there. We drove over bridges built in the 30s and under freeways built in the 70s.

Then we saw what I think is a bath house. I'm always drawn to concrete and geometric shapes.

I know. I really got carried away on this. But those tall columns really got to me.

Dana was so sweet. She even stopped the car and let me get out to take these photos. I just love the geometry of this entire structure, whatever it is.

We continued to drive around, once again looking for the industrial part of town. We stumbled onto this scene, where the cab was parked in front of this church and the rather tacky sign welcomed one and all. In the background is one of our many grain elevators. After all, we ARE the Wheat State.

The really hilarious thing is that we drove around and actually retraced our steps a couple of times. We laughed so hard our sides were hurting. On a brighter note, we finally found an old railroad track that had spikes and other rusty goodies that we can now use to rust fabric. Some had really cool shapes. Dana found some great sticks that she is going to make into walking sticks. I'm not sure what kind of wood they are, but they are a warm slightly darker-than-honey color.

Speaking of honey, by this time, Dana and I were hungry. I wanted to drop off my rusty parts and change my clothes. I had worn a dress to the opening and wanted to get into something different for the restaurant where we were going. Can't you just picture me dragging rusty parts and walking on old railroad tracks in a dress? Yep, I knew that would give you a laugh.

While deciding where to eat, we decided it was a beautiful day and we wanted to be outside or drawing or doing some kind of art in the park. Since I don't really journal, I let Dana go through my pens and art supplies while I changed. We threw them all in a bag and went off the the Riverside Cafe, a neighborhood restaurant that serves breakfast all day. I think we had originally planned to eat fast (ha, especially if you've ever eaten with me, you know how oxymoronish that is), then go to the park.

Before the food came, we looked at all the bookmarks from the swap, then got ready to get down to some serious art journaling.

The waitress offered to take our picture and we said "hands only." We both wanted to stay anonymous.

Above our booth was a photo of an eagle that was taken locally. A young man who was in high school came by and was studying it. We gave him a piece of paper from my journal and he started sketching it. Within minutes he had created this masterpiece that he didn't think was all that good.

Is this amazing or what? I was so impressed. I told him if he didn't want it, I would love to take it. He was still working on refining it when we left.

Although he was quite shy, he is a very talented young man. In fact, he ran over to the school and got his portfolio to show to Dana and me. I can't say enough about his talent.

When we went into the homey cafe, the sun was shining and the sky had only a few of those cute puffy cumulous clouds in it. When we came out, the sky had darkened, the temperature had dropped, and the cumulous clouds had been replaced with ominous ones :>)

Although I was really taking photos of the sky, I also got North High School, a school built by a famous architect in the early 30s. It's on the National, State, and Local Historical Registries. To the left in the photo is one of our park shelters. The name of the park is Minisa, which is an Indian name. You can see the Indian influence in the shelter design, too. And although it may not look like it, there is a river (the Little Arkansas) between these two buildings. Just goes to show how flat Kansas is and how deceptive perspective can be in photography.

Thanks for stopping by today. No art, but I hope you had as much fun reading this as Dana and I had living it.