Springbreak 2012: took the train to Chicago

We dragged the girls on a train to see the Midwest. I don't know if that was cruel and unusual punishment, they did...

But these kiddos have spent their entire lives on the west side of the Continential Divide, up north as far as Idaho, down south as far as Mexico, out west all the way to the coast, up and down the California  and even farther West to Maui.

East of the Rockies, they have been an hour past 1-25 near the Pawnee Buttes. Not acceptable to their mom, not so big of a deal for their father, okay, I kind of dragged him too, but they have roots in the "fly over " states and well it was the last Spring Break that Daughter #1 would be here for, she is off to college in the Fall.

So we boarded Amtrac, in Grand Junction Colorado, it was a four hour drive north to get there and took the scenic train over the Rockies, this is the Glenwood Springs Depot, near the historic hot springs and Colorado Hotel where word is a "teddy bear" was left on Theodore Roosevelt's pillow on one of his visits.

We also went under the Rockies, through the Moffat Tunnel...we were like underground for 15 minutes, thank goodness on the way back I was noozing and Jon did Not wake me up.

We went through Nebraska in the dark, but the sun came up in Iowa, such wonderful rolling hills, trees in bloom and bud and wonderful old farms and a great observation car with big windows and tables to sketch at...

I looked up the word "valley" for its the synonyms....

for valley - a long depression in the surface of the land that usually contains a river.
We have...

vale- a valley

dale - an open river valley (in a hilly area)
glen - a narrow secluded valley (in the mountains)
gully - deep ditch cut by running water (especially after a prolonged downpour)
holler, hollow - a small valley between mountains; "he built himself a cabin in a hollow high up in the Appalachians

I think 9 out of 10 townships we past in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin had one of the above endings, my favorite, Wis Dells- the only Starbucks we found advertised on I-90 or I-94, when we rented a car to head up to my family's "neck of the woods" in Minnesota.

It took a day and a half to get to Chicago... crossing the Mississippi in daylight, thank goodness...

We finally got to Union Station in Chicago and after a "first taxi" ride for the girls...

We settled into our hotel and after freshing up, went out to explore downtown Chicago, the place to start? The Hancock Observatory, of course!
Here is a 360 degree view....

On the way up, the elavator proudly announced it was the fastest in the world- sure made our ears hurt!
Jon's parents both grew up in Chicago in the 20's and 30's, his grandfather worked for Spiegels, a now defunct but well known department store and his mother grew up downtown, spending much of her time in Lincoln Park and family lore has it that as a little girl she went to see the blood splatters the day after the Valentine's Massacre.

Getting Ready for the Hunger Games

I don't know if I have mentioned I'm currently on the board of our little mountain town's library. Well, with the Hunger Games, probably the most anticipated book to movie release since Harry Potter, coming up, we bused kids over the pass to Bayfield, Colorado, to participate in their movie premiere party....

Our library board, nor my daughters could conceive exactly "how" Bayfield library was going to do a "mock" Hunger Games- where the goal was to have only one participant standing at the end, but with faith in our library director and children's library director, who would be helping, we gave our blessing. Logistically, I was going to be over there at the same time for business, so once that was done head over to help as well.

I have a confession- I have never read the books! I have only heard the story from my daugthers and students, so half way into the festivities and to be able to understand the excitement of the sesame seed bread from one district and the lamb stew from another district, and all that black and purple everyone was wearing, I snuck into the main library room, got online and wikipedia-ed "Hunger Games" on my kindle!

With some knowledge now of the "hoop-la" I went back in and with the running of the games well taken care of by adults, about or more crazy about "Hunger Games" then the middle schoolers, I happily took pictures and stayed out of the way the rest of the night!

Contest included, cookie decorating....

Costume Design....

Daughter #2 helped design the winning costume, I am so proud!

Trivia....wow, the finite detail these kids know about these books!!

Then the real serious games began, including the "eliminations!"

Flashlight, a darkened library, librarians cringing and evil green dots smacked on backs, took out a bunch of kids, as did water bottles also found in the dark, some "poisonous" some not!

When you died you could not talk and became an "avox" apparently someone who has displeased the Capitol, would have their tongue cut out, the library settled for duct tape.

Okay, daughter #2 not being able to talk, this I like!

Eliminations continued, until there was only a half a dozen kids still able to talk, a welcome relieve after being confined in a small library with 80 goofy middleschoolers!

And the winner of the games was decided by shooting a Nerf cross bow, at a picture of a pig- again, haven't read the books, so I have no understanding why!

One of the coolest thing about the night, was the Nerf cross bow, so I took out my kindle again, got online and ordered one for my hubby's birthday!

Really, I was very impressed with Bayfield Library's bravery and creativity in putting on such a fun launch party for the Hunger Games movie coming out this weekend, which daugther #2 and I are hopefully going to see later  today. Look over at my movie blog for my review at On Popcorn and Movies, later this weekend!

Bungee Jumping off Corona Arch....really!

Don't you just love it, when you sit down to sketch and it just works! Need to remember that when I sit down and it does not work, that it always circles back- yesterday was a day I told myself I need to do this more often....but with family in tow, I only had time to get the reference points and then finished in the car on the way home.

Jon's Bday wish was to head over to Moab for the day. The weather was good, we were just a half a day away from a very great blustery storm that is hitting today here in Colorado, but Utah is suppose to be getting the brunt of it.

Moab was busy, with the Canyonlands Half Marathon running and nearly 4,000 runners in town. The runners passed us, many in St. Patrick's revelry, as we headed over the bridge, to take the Potash Road on the north side of the Colorado.

The road is squeezed between the river and a sheer wall of red rocks, where all along one section there were at least 50 rock climbers, their ropes dangling in the road, there was no room....

These guys were right above the car, but you know what, that wasn't even the weirdest thing we saw!

We headed down the road to the Corona Arch Trail Head, parked the car and headed up the trail, why is the steepest part of these trail, right at the parking lot!

The scenery was amazing, as it is in Utah...

You can just make out the path of the Colorado in the background, as it weaves itself to Lake Powell...

The slickrock looks like God swirled mud around Utah and then hardened it instantly in waves. Or I say it looks like this is where he put all the left over play dough after he was done creating the rest of the world....

Bow Tie Arch and Corona Arch are about 1.5 miles in and amazing....

And yes there are crazy people above Corona Arch and yes, they are bungee jumping off of it!

We decided the arch is called Corona...

 because you need a few to be brave ( stupid) enough to jump off of it!

Bike Art at the Dairy Opening Reception....

Went over the mountain to Boulder for the opening reception for the Bike Art Show. Took daughter #2 and made a weekend of it, a little trip just with her, since getting Daughter #1 off to college has need many a trip over to the East Slope.

The Dairy Center for the Arts is actually housed in a old distribution center on the edge of Boulder's downtown on Walnut.

Huge space, there was a lot of bike art  and a lot of very "cool looking" people....ahh, Boulder, Colorado- a great place to people watch!

And old film footage that they shot up on the wall...

My piece was not in the back corner, or near the restroom ( it has happened!) but in a hallway....

People did stop, not that I was watching over it. Actually I took this particular picture because there were quite a few parents who took their kiddos around and explained things, it was really cute. A dad was taking his son around and when he got to mine, he said something like " all this is stitched, do you see the sunflowers? The artist stitched that all?" and then it was on to the clay mini bikers that someone had stuck to the pavement of the road and then laid down to get a "Wonky" perspective so it looked like the clay figures were life size!

Like I said I went up in the world- I'm not next to the "loo"!! ( See that orange dot- it mean it has already sold!)

IF: Intentions

My "intentions" this weekend was to get the word out about "Riding Yellow Jacket" being accepted into the Bike Art show at the Dairy Art Center in Boulder Colorado March 9th through the end of the month ( you can read all about it in the post below this one)
But like most artist, I hate promotion and after wrestling with trying to get the info up on my Facebook- Moonflower Studio page- (I love the feature that records everything - "Julia Kelly messed up the setting at 7:57, Julia Kelly messed up the setting at 8:01, Julia Kelly is too inept to use Facebook at 8:14, Julia Kelly told Facebook to go #$@@# at 8:24)
Sorry....
I would much rather tell you the story of how "Riding Yellow Jacket" came to be!
The illustration is actually the rejected proposal for my 2010 National Public Radio's calender entry. Don't feel sorry for me, this was the proposal they accepted...

 and it was July, I think, in their calender. It was quite an honor to be sought out by NPR. We had to have the NPR logo in the illustration. If the biker one had been picked, the water bottle said NPR...

I had a blast working on the layout for "Riding Yellow Jacket". I enlisted the help of a friend who had a bike trainer in her house, and sat on it pretending to drink for me. Then I drove down the highway towards the Utah borders and took many, many photos of the fields and the bean elevators...

The area is known for dryland farming, no irrigation. Beans, some wheat and sunflowers grow here in the hot red soil, though it was too early in the year when I took the photos.
The sunflowers do dot the highway all summer. I know this because I spent a few summers driving kiddos to Dovecreek for karate practice and documented their growth! Very pretty are the blazing yellow flowers a top such red dirt!

The highway has a lot of interesting views, relics from a time when life was slower and one did not get to "town" more then once a month, so little communities sprouted up around the elevators and the post offices....

How this railroad car got there I do not know, because there are was no train from Cortez to Dovecreek. But it served another purpose as a cafe according to the signs...
When I go back to Loveland, on the other side the mountains, I love driving east, towards the flatlands, gazing at the geometric farm houses, barns and elevators, so striking on the strong horizontal landscapes behind them...

The scene in "Riding Yellow Jacket" is not accurate to any given spot along Hwy. 491. The grain elevator is the one in Yellow Jacket, where there exist the elevator, a post office/mercantile and a few hay barns and houses.
But there are elevators at Pleasant View and Cahone along the way as well, and the mountain range, The Blues, hovering over Monticello Utah in the distance are  actually way off to the left...

A lot of "artistic license" was taken in composing the illustration. Oh just looking at the above photo and all the "organic" waves in the winter field, I know there is quite a few more illustration coming from this dry stretch of road between Cortez and Dove Creek- the "Bean Capitol of the World" no less!

"Riding Yellowjacket" headed to Bike Art at the Dairy in Boulder Colorado.

My illustration, Riding Yellow Jacket was accepted into the Dairy Center for the Arts-- Bike Art Show in Boulder, Colorado.

Riding Yellow Jacket

19" x 22" framed

Fabric Collage with

hand stitched embellishments

and wire.

$800

juliakelly@moonflowerstudio.biz

Should be a fun show- the theme is all things bikes and if you have ever been to Boulder, you know how "bike" crazy the area is.

Opening Night is this coming Friday, March 9th,  4-7 p.m.  at the Dairy, in downtown Boulder,  2590 Walnut Street, Phone: 303.440.7826

The openning evening features not just your typical pieces of art work, but apparently artwork made out of bikes and noted local celebrities in attendance like  Boulder resident Michael Aisner, co-founder of the Red Zinger Classic Race and an inductee in the Bicycling Hall of Fame.

Show goes on the whole month and hours are Monday-Friday 9-5 and the gallery is open when there is evening performances in the theaters....

Two bike films will be viewed in the month of the show-

Film:  Freedom Riders | March 26th | 7pm | Boedecker Theater
The film "Freedom Riders" about the rise of the mountain bike sport.

Film: Bicycle Dreams | March 29th and 30th | 7:30pm
This documentary  is about the Race Across America is an epic, 3000-mile bicycle race from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

So if you are downtown Boulder this coming Friday or during the month stop by!