It began with a drive to my Photo teacher's art gallery twenty minutes late at rush hour. It was located on 1321 south and 2300 east. Well to those who not familiar with Salt Lake, 1300th south is this terrible little narrow road that goes up hill and the higher you go on this hill, the more narrow the road becomes. Not only does it become more narrow but people with really expensive cars park along side this narrow road the higher up/east you go. So imagine me, in my dad's 1987 Grand Marque driving up this hill, 20 minutes late to my Photo teacher's exhibit. Remember my whole cutting back swearing well.... it didn't go so well this evening. I've never spoken a myriad of words so colorful as I swerved between Lexus crossovers and Audi's up a narrow little hill. I know what you're thinking if you are a local of SLC. "Grace, why didn't you just take I-215 to foothill?" Well I'm terrified of my dad's car on the freeway so I take 700 east everywhere. I call it "The Grace Wilson Expressway" so that's how I ended up there on a narrow street upset to say the least. (My apologies about my story being all over I'm more of a poet than a story teller..)
So I'm going up this hill from hell, and I'm so overwhelmed and I yell at God or whomever in my mind I consider is listening (inner self etc.) "I CAN'T blank-blank DO THIS. It's not worth the participation points." Just as I'm about to turn around and go home and sulk, I end up on 23rd east. I pulled my boat into the tiny parking lot and stare at the building. It's that pretentious dark wood that makes it modern and cold but calls itself "natural."I sit there and collect myself. Then I get out and enter the gallery.
There's my really nice teacher talking to a gaggle of students discussing my teacher's art. I'm awkward so I shuffle past them and look at the rest of the gallery. I'm wondering around and then I find this wall of oil paintings. They're are some landscapes of Utah, still life's the usual and then I turn to the right and I see this sunflower oil painting. It's not the typical bright yellow sunflower but its browning and the sky is a storming gray. Looking at it, I feel the month of August. That tired, lazy, summer's ending and I can't do a thing about it, it's humid and ,my hair sticking to my neck and about to thunderstorm feeling. I really needed to feel that . After staring at it for a long time, my teacher approached me and began to discuss the gallery with me. He then led me back to his art exhibit and told me about his amazing photo of water diffusing and gave me 40 minutes of personal one on one attention discussing the U's art program. (just plugging that in for those who think you can't or won't get personal attention at the University of Utah)
It was a weird happy moment that I wanted to tell you about.
It was a weird happy moment that I wanted to tell you about.
