Just As I Said...

Here is the finished and framed mosaic the PTSA had commissioned.  Our fabulous head custodian called me just minutes after I finished my blog post yesterday to tell me the frame was done and they just finished hanging up.  Pretty cool.

Gifted Art

This is a sneak peek at the mosaic mural that the high school's PTSA commissioned at the end of the school year in May, as a school gift, to celebrate and commemorate the 100 years of our local high school.  It was created over the summer by a wonderful local artist, Lynde Mott.  The portion that the PTSA commissioned wouldn't have purchased even half of this size of a piece, but Lynde donated much more of her time and resources to create a stunning, colorful landscape of the "G" mountain that sits above the site of the school.  The cabinetmaking/wood working teacher is building a framework for it and the piece will soon hang in the front hall between the finance office and the attendance office.

I know it is hard to see here, but the colors are bright and engaging.  And uses shapes, colors and patterns found in nature.  It is coated in an epoxy so the kids can handle it and not hurt it.  It is light and airy and uplifting.

I'm not an artist, by any stretch of the imagination, but I really like this piece.  When they talked about and voted on commissioning a mosaic, I wasn't even sure what it might look like.  I had no vision for it, myself.  I am sure grateful for talents that others use to bless me.  This isn't something that I could envision or create, but I can appreciate it and enjoy it.  And I can't wait to get it up and then unveil it to the students and the community.

Good Bye to a Master

"Art is always at it's best when serving a cause greater than the artist."

Last week a marvelous artist passed away. Arnold Frieberg was 90 something years old and had painted for long time. He painted some of the world's most recognizable art. My favorite of his is The Prayer at Valley Forge. But he also did the artist's renderings for Cecil B. DeMille's The 10 Commandments.

Mr. Frieberg also painted some exquisite scenes from the Book of Mormon as well as more folksy western, British, Canadian, and even athletic scenes. He had an eye for detail and could capture the feeling as well as the action.

A few years ago I dragged the family to the Salt Lake valley to see an exhibit of some of Mr. Frieberg's work. This exhibit included The 10 Commandments drawings and paintings as well as artifacts from the production itself. They were pretty impressive.

But hanging in the hall as you finished The 10 Commandments portion was the original, and humongous I must say, Prayer at Valley Forge. It was massive and intricate and beautiful and powerful and quite moving.

I don't have the artistic talent to express myself in that way, but I am so grateful for people who can capture a feeling or a scene and paint it full of emotion and awe and gratitude. For me, that is what Mr. Frieberg brought to his work. While he lived he painted prolifically and I think the world is lucky to have so many examples of his varied work to uplift and inspire us.

And I have to wonder as Mr. Frieberg passed on and met His Maker, if he thought just to himself "I really captured His essence in my paintings." I wouldn't be surprised if he did.

Creativity Isn't Just for Artists

Saturday night I was able to attend the Relief Society General Broadcast and hear, among others, President Uchtdorf, 2nd counselor in the First Presidency, speak on Creativity. I was a little surprised by what he said, but as I have thought more about it, I am increasingly pleased.

I took scattered notes, but one section I jotted down was this: Don't think you're creative? Think again. We are daughters of God--the Master of Creation. We all have talents and gifts. Creation means bringing into existence something that has never been there before. We all want to create something. It brings satisfaction.

Perhaps my creative streak doesn't not extend to the canvas or stage. Because, in fact, it does not. But in thinking about his message, I guess I fall into the unseen creative works.

I get a kick out of an empty laundry basket; I like the feel of the kitchen floor when it is freshly mopped and dried; I like to see the basement storage room full and organized; I enjoy hearing from people around me that the kids' Halloween costumes look cute; I treasure the pages and albums that for years I have scrap booked as our family's memories.

I guess that only downside to that kind of creativity is there really isn't a category in a talent show or a museum where that can be displayed.

Monet to Picasso to The Girl

The Girl and I took advantage of The Boy being gone (on his first overnight camp out with scouts last night--surely there will be more on THAT later) and we spent the morning at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City. The museum's current visiting exhibit is called "Monet to Picasso" and has many works of painting and sculpture on display. IT is visiting SLC from the Cleveland Museum of Art. We also, by virtue of paying top dollar to see this traveling exhibit, were entitled to listen to the audio tour via "Magic Talking Wands".

Almost every piece had a number posted near it to tell us to punch in that number in our magic talking wands and we can listen to art experts tell us what we are looking at in person.

In actuality it was kind of cool to see the canvases or sculptures in real life. Names I have heard of or even studied, briefly, like in Dr. Green's very cultural history courses in college. Some of the names are just fun to say: Picasso, Cezanne, Seurat, Monet, not to be confused with Manet, Pissaro, Rodin, Matisse, van Gogh, Modigliani, Gauguin, among others. When you say them out loud, even to yourself, it makes you feel smarter.

The Girl was very patient and seemed to enjoy herself. She is a talented artist, you know, with increasingly mature and sophisticated work. Her Horse with Flower Detail, above, is one of her more recent pieces, created of virtual airbrush on computer screen. She has a lot of imagination and enjoys the creativity of doing the art.

We went up there with no intentions of forcing an impressionistic style (or any other) on her, but I figured the experience doesn't happen every day and you can appreciate beauty and artistic expression anywhere, if you practice.

And there is an element of "Wow, Pablo painted this actual canvas" or "Auguste's fingers made the indentations in that sculpture". These were certainly masters of their art, but who is to say that The Girl can't become that if she wants, and works hard to do it, and studies what has already been created. Even if she never has a UMFA traveling exhibit of her own, she is developing her talents and her appreciation for art in general. That can't be bad, no matter how you look at it.