Denver, All Day Every Day
I flew home to Colorado on a Wednesday and proceeded to go back to Denver on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. LOL typical. I'm just going to Denver all the time these days.
Thursday afternoon, Gina and I made the trip south to attend the NFL Kickoff Concert 2016. The Broncos, who won Superbowl 50, were opening the 2016 season in Denver against the Carolina Panthers. The NFL pulled out all of the stops and threw together a little celebration.
The event was FREE. OneRepublic and Dierks Bentley were performing so we thought, why not?! We arrived at Civic Center Park and waited in the sun for about 3 hours. It was HOT. Thank goodness the company sponsoring the event was handing out water and gatorade, but people were still dropping like flies. Lucky for Gina and I we managed to snag FRONT ROW which allowed for a little more breathing room than the pit.
Overall, it was a fun event, but I'd have to really think about waiting like that again. Also, we made it onto national television, pretty cool. [We're bottom right!]
Friday was a busy day for Gina and me. It was full of fun activities. In the afternoon, we drove to Boulder to pay Cristin a visit and eventually go to the Denver Art Museum. Since we had a few things planned in the morning, I told her that we'd play it by ear for when we'd meet up. Well one thing happened after the other and Gina and I ended up being 2 hours later...not my finest moment. It all worked out luckily, although Cristin will NEVER let me forget how late I was. She'll be holding that one over me for the rest of my life, but I've got this gem...so I think we're even.
Now I hadn't seen Cristin since we went to Vegas back in June, so we chatted the whole way down and recounted the funniest moments of our weeks. I love this kid.
The real reason we were going to the DAM was because Cristin wanted to check out the Women of Abstract Expressionism exhibition for one of her classes. Well and she also wanted to go to the art museum for fun too of course! Plus, I'm not going to say no to a museum, so I was game. Cristin is majoring in Humanities, so it's always awesome to talk art and bounce interpretations off of each other. FYI this is the public library across the way from the museum, pretty neat architecture.
The three of us started off in a dance and music exhibition where we got sidetracked by Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds and were throwing balloons at each other. 10 minutes in the museum and we're already on track to getting kicked out, brilliant.
As we wandered around, I spotted a few gems I had studied in my American Art History class to my surprise! it's always rewarding to see a painting in person. All of the knowledge of it comes rushing back.
Moving along in the museum, we finally arrived at our intended destination. I haven't studied the abstract expressionism movement, but it was fascinating! I especially love female artists pioneering the male dominated art world and breaking barriers. Hopefully there will be a day where these women will be considered painters rather than female painters.
"I'm always going to be Mrs. Jackson Pollock - that's a matter of fact - [but] I painted before Pollock, during Pollock, after Pollock." -Lee Krasner
Now it may look like a bunch of paint splatters and you'll think "oh i can totally do that" or "I don't understand it", but these splatters are intentional and evoke particular, calculated emotions. I was impressed with these works; I'd have to say my favorites were:
Lee Krasner's Charred Landscape (1960)
Elaine de Kooning's Bullfight (1959)
Joan Mitchell's Hudson River Day Line (1955)
Lee Krasner's The Seasons (1957)
LOOK AT THIS PAINTING BY JAY DeFEO , YES IT's A PAINTING, IT LOOKS LIKE CONCRETE THAT'S AMAZING.
"Art survives through its effect on others." -Damien Hirst
One of the reasons why I love art is that it expands your knowledge about the world around you. You're exposed to new perceptions of the world through creativity and specifically that individuals interpretation/commentary of a situation. You can learn so much about the artist, our society, and yourself. It's astounding. Go to your local art museum or gallery (take me if you please, hehe) and educate yourself! IT's a lot of fun :)
Saturday brought a family bonding. My family loves food, like loves it. Sometimes we get tired of the Fort Collins restaurants, and make a trip to Denver for the day to mix it up a little bit. Our Saturday brunch outing was a joint called The Squeaky Bean. It's a farm to table to restaurant located in LoDo, and that's all fine and dandy, (don't get me wrong, I absolutely love when restaurants make conscious decisions like this) but the best part was that they play bingo.
How many times do you play bingo at brunch???? It was awesome, now I kind of want to search around for a big bingo board and put it in my house. After a few rounds of bingo, our food arrived and we devoured it.
Mom and I proceeded to play another game of bingo much to Gina and Dad's chagrin, then wandered LoDo for the afternoon. One of my absolute favorite places in the world is Union Station, the newly redone Denver train station. They did such a good job with it and it never gets old walking around there.
Once we were done in LoDo, we went across town to the RiNo Arts District to check out the new street art.
RiNo is an up and coming area of Denver with a bunch of new restaurants and fun places constantly popping up. There are now a bunch of new wall murals dotting the streets and we strolled around taking pictures.
To be honest, I have no idea what Gina's doing...
To finish up our day, we drove outside of Denver to check out some sunflower fields. We've been searching for these sunflower field for nearly three years. The fam went when they were in full bloom and at their prime, but had to show me where they were. Basically they were dead and looked like little people (super creepy) but I'm planning on going here when they're flourishing next time!
