The Southwest Arts Festival!

Written Sunday, January 30, 2011:

Well, I didn’t wake up early enough to have alone time in the morning, but I guess that’s okay because I spent a good amount of time alone last night after everyone else went to bed.

Today we had an AWESOME time at the Indio Arts and Music Festival! We volunteered there from 8am until 6pm. There were artists from all over the country, and we were “artist ambassadors” whose responsibilities included watching over artists’ booths if they needed to go to the bathroom or leave their booth for any reason, getting lunch or coffee for them, and just doing random things to make their experience at the festival a good one. At least, that’s what it was in theory. While we DID actually do those things, most of our time there was spent wandering around the festival, looking at the beautiful pieces of art (paintings, sculptures, photographs, clothes… all sorts of stuff!) and chatting with these interesting people.

We wore these bright (almost neon) green shirts that had VOLUNTEER in big lettering on the back and got flagged down by artists whenever they needed something. They also had these little red flags that they placed in the ground in front of their tent if they needed anything (each artist had a small tent and they were arranged in a grid-like pattern). For volunteering, we got our super stylish neon green shirts (just kidding… they aren’t really all that stylish at all and unfortunately are all Larges), free admission to the festival (normally $10), a free $12 lunch voucher, a free festival poster (which they were selling for $35… we were able to get the poster artist to sign it too!), and got a bunch of other little perks like free date shakes. The date shakes are a specialty in this area and were pretty delicious… they were kind of like milkshakes but date-flavored, haha.

My favorite part about the experience today though was just getting to walk around, see and appreciate the diverse array of beautiful art, and chat with all of the different artists. The art was so incredible… it was kind of like being in a museum, except the artist was RIGHT THERE and you could talk to them and have them tell you about individual pieces and ask them about what inspired them to make their art.

There was one couple there who created art out of recycled junk, and it was pretty incredible because every piece they made had a story behind it and it was all interesting to look at. One of the pieces had a layer of broken glass on it, and the wife explained that they had found the glass when they were in the mountains of Oregon, trying to get through a pass. They weren’t sure if they were going to be able to drive through, so at one point they parked their car and walked a quarter mile ahead to scout out the road and came across the broken glass on the road. The wife decided to bring it back with them and they incorporated it into this particular piece! It was really cool because to anyone else, it would have been just junk… just trash on the road... but they were able to turn it into something beautiful.

And I guess that’s part of the reason why I think art can be so incredible. Through art, artists can share the beauty they see in their mind with other people, leading others to appreciate something that might have otherwise been mundane or uninteresting. Through the work of an artist, a blank canvas and some paint can be transformed into a breathtaking landscape, a stunning portrait, or an emotion-invoking scene.

One of my favorite tents was that of a photographer who had photographed various landscapes, particularly in the Southwest region. There were pictures of the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Antelope Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Death Valley, Yosemite, Canyonlands, and a lot of others. While all of the aforementioned places have been photographed innumerable times, the thing that really struck me with these particular photographs was the unbelievable level of detail each picture had. From afar, you could appreciate the beauty of the scene, but as you came right up to the picture, you could see the tiny pebbles in the foreground or the subtle colors and textures of the bluffs and buttes on the horizon. They were some of the most vivid and realistic photographs I’d ever seen! Each one was an adventure… you could explore the picture and all of the minute details it contained. There was so much to see in each picture and it was like you were discovering little things in each photograph that maybe you hadn’t noticed before. Even trying to write about it right now, I simply can’t convey the ineffable beauty of these pictures with words!

So in short, the festival was a lot of fun. Even though it was a ten hour day, it was a blast. And what a great way to enjoy the festival by being a volunteer. We got a lot of stuff for free, got to meet lots of super interesting people, got to see lots of incredible art, and got the appreciation of so many people who were really grateful for what we were doing. It was just fantastic!

Tomorrow (Monday) the team and I are going on a hike in Ladder Canyon, a 15-20 minute drive from our apartment. It’s a pretty fun hike, one that Maddy and I did last Sunday. So it should be fun! And then in the afternoon we’re just going to have a little bit of downtime and then go grocery shopping for the week. I’ll probably also do laundry tomorrow and take care of a few errands. Then on Tuesday my supervisor Jeanine is coming for our midsite visit to see how things are going here in the Coachella Valley. So she’ll be with us Tuesday for dinner and then will visit us at work Wednesday.

Can’t believe we’ve been here in Southern California for almost a month already! How time flies. And it’s especially weird to think that this is ONLY month 5 of 11 for me. We’re not even halfway done yet!!