Sanguinity: Art

Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

3 Rivers Arts Festival (Part 1)

Alright, Blog Readers! Here's a real post! This one goes back all the way to June.

Pittsburgh is a generally gloomy place, weather-wise. We actually get two more cloudy days each year (on average) than notorious Seattle. Perhaps as a result, when it gets nice here, folks make the most of it. Part of the local celebration of beautiful outdoor days is an annual festival downtown. The 3 Rivers Arts Festival is ten days of fair food, seas of local artist-merchant stands, and free live music!

This is actually from the Glen Hansard concert which will be featured in "Part 2".
Fun Fact: I didn't realize these were my friends, Kyle & Mikeala on the right until after I took the picture!

Some past years, I've simply avoided the crowds. (I don't do well with crowds, even in the nicest weather.) But this year there were two music performances I simply couldn't miss!

The first group were the festival headliners: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. I headed straight to Point State Park after work, and ran into friends on the way!

Derek and Jenn being awesome (no idea who girl in tie-dye is)

We went to buy food and wait for Kira; and ran into more friends!

Ellie, Matt, and Brandi (Sorry, Matt. That's my best picture of you...)

In the following half-hour or so, I probably saw a dozen people I knew. When talking to folks later, I heard there were a bunch of friends there who I didn't see. We took a seat on the lawn just past the sound-booth-tent. "We" was me, Shane, Kira, and the lovely folks pictured above. Dan and Sarah came by later with baby Selah, who they were baby-sitting. I didn't get any pictures of them. Probably because I spent most of their time with us with Selah asleep on my shoulders.

Proof Shane was there too. No photo-love for Kira. I took some, but none turned out.

I was lucky to have found friends, and double-lucky they were friends with blankets. I had totally failed to consider what we would sit on! Then again, after the show started, there wasn't much sitting. I was also glad we arrived early. There were maybe 500 people ahead of us, but probably another 1,500 behind us!

(Here is a map I made for your reference. The whole red circle was full, and then some! Source)

I forgot my camera, so I have no pictures of the band. But here's a cell-phone picture of the stage:

They had all sorts of fancy lighting effects!

Yes, that's a guy dressed as Jesus in front of us. I also saw a little boy in a Link costume, teenagers wearing tails, and girls in Japanese Lolita outfits. I guess something about a big event makes folks want to show off.

Anyway, the energy of the crowd was exuberant (and not too over-stimulating)! The babies were adorable and really into the music. I was impressed by their behavior! I myself had to wear earplugs to feel comfortable with the volume of the sound system. Their parents/babysitters took them home about half-way through, because they are babies.

The band played a good show. Not a beat or note was out of place. But they seemed a bit taken-aback by the size of the crowd. I guess no one told them they were going to be the main event!

(Part 2 coming soon!)

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Kira's Art Show

I would like to introduce you to my housemate Kira! I have lived with Kira for a year and a half now, and I've learned that she likes indie music, cute dinosaurs, and quiet time at home. She devours fiction books and gluten-free baked goods with equal enthusiasm. She is ridiculously skilled at braiding her super long hair, and is learning to play the glockenspiel. But I think the first thing most people remember about Kira is her art. She majored in art at college. She carries her sketchbook with her everywhere. And this month, she put up a public art show!

I got to help hang her pieces. Here she is making sure everything is just right. They had a really neat mounting system; a metal runner stretched across the wall and wires were hanging from it. Each wire had an adjustable hook attached, so we could easily change the height and spacing of every frame.

The ‘gallery’ is also a hair salon. Tula Organic Salon & Spa is a new business in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Every month they feature a different local artist on their walls.

(Fun fact: Tula means “balance” in Sanskrit.)

A week ago, she held an art show opening party. Here’s Kira in her cute new "I'm the artist" outfit:

(The dress is from ModCloth. And you can’t see it here, but her earrings totally match her tights!)

My husband and I bused straight from work to the event. We arrived a bit after it started and the place was packed!

Everyone had a great time talking and checking out Kira’s work.

And what was I doing this whole time? Why, taking pictures of course! Here’s a self-portrait of me being overwhelmed by all the happy people:

I suppose you would like to see the art itself. Here you go:

The middle frame in the top picture got a lot of attention. Kira is considering making prints of it since the original has already been sold. The right one is the background for her business cards. She works mostly in colored pencil, but has started adding water-color paint sometimes too. Her pictures are often semi-autobiographical, and tend to have a flowing feeling of movement to them.

You can check out more of Kira’s art on her portfolio page. And if you’re in Pittsburgh, you can stop by Tula to see them in person! The salon welcomes visitors. Kira’s work will be on display until February 28^th!

^{UPDATE: Kira has an album up now of all her pieces from this show. They look much better than my hastily color-adjusted snapshots. Check them out HERE.}

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Friends Are Like Stars

I made a thing! I did it because Jenny Lawson said something hilarious, and one of my housemates told me it needed to be a poster. You can (and should) read the whole funny story here: