Fall Festival Botanic Gardens Chatfield

This weekend we set out to celebrate the coming of fall. I looked online for Denver events in the fall and was not surprised to find a bazillion ideas. It was my day to choose the activity so I settled on the Denver Botanic Gardens Fall Festival. It was about a half hour drive in the rain from our place to the festival.

When we got out of the car the clouds broke up and the sun poked its head out from behind the clouds. We wandered the pumpkin patch for awhile to find a good carving pumpkin, but sadly it seemed they were all picked over. The only ones left were rotten, green, and deformed which is not a good base for great carving. We strolled through the vendors and enjoyed all the kids participating in fun activities while sporting their creative Halloween costumes. There was a really impressive exhibit of turn-of-the-century steam engines on display. One of the collectors gave us a great demonstration.

For our finale of the day we decided to try the corn maze. The first picture below is the design of the corn maze and it looks impressive but we never really found a dead end and was able to do the whole maze in less than a half hour. We were a little disappointed with the easy skill level of the maze but glad to get out of the house. When we walked back to the car the clouds began to gather and it started to rain.

First Friday

This week we headed down to the art district on Sante Fe street. Every town seems to have some type of art walk including Denver. We have been to many art walks, but I think this was the most impressive with 10 blocks packed with people cramming into over 60 independent art galleries. It was even expressed to us that this may even be the largest art walk in the country. This exhibit included many impressive 3d canvases ranging from landscapes to emotional faces.

This very simple exhibit explored light and shadow. White paper folded into cranes and oblong circles were pinned off the all the walls and lit from above the space to create a very impressive piece of art. This was the only space I saw people whipping out their camera phones to capture the essence of the piece. Although I think it was impossible to capture the emotion without experiencing the space itself.

This picture shows one of the packed galleries overflowing onto the street. Portland never had the art following that Denver has. It was amazing to be part of the experience. Galleries full of unique original art with everyone from the artist to ordinary people critiquing the pieces and filling spaces. Street vendors trying to sell art and musicians playing instruments or free style raping capturing crowds on the street. It was fabulous.

Here is a pic of MoJo standing in front of a artistic film piece capturing the process of the artist. I can't wait to go back next month!