Yuma Art Symposium Getaway!

I thought it was interesting that they need to post this on the front door of the gallery. Arizona.

At the end of February I made my way to the Yuma Art Symposium. I've been wanting to go there since I learned of its existence almost three years ago from my friend and teacher Dawn. Firstly I would like to mention that taking a night class at Cabrillo College changed my connection to the place I call home. I started making roots here when I started taking classes there. I made friends who I really believe will be lifelong friends...back to Yuma: I found a way to get myself to Yuma this year for the symposium. A cheap flight, and free car rental and hotel (via Chris' air miles), and a student scholarship for the conference. It's the first trip I've taken without the boys. It was both exhausting and exhilarating.

Sandy Luehrson table totem

I was excited and a little nervous to go. No, not because I was leaving the boys behind. Because there is a pin exchange on the arrival day. Everyone makes pins - lots of them - and brings them to trade for other people's pins. Your pins can be rejected if it they suck. Mine didn't suck, but they were not up to par for my own expectations. There were so many amazing pins there, and some that sucked. The most amazing thing about the long weekend (other than the evening solitude) was how warm people were and how easy I found people to talk with. Some pretty fantastic artists and craftspeople.  I was also able to read and finished not one, but two books! (Weird how I have to leave the house to be able to finish a book in a reasonable amount of time.)

Every year there is a pin auction to raise funds to keep the cost of attending the symposium affordable for artists and students. Dawn has been running it for years and I was able, along with a slew of others, to help her with the auction. We all got to see the pins as they arrived and met the artists who made them. The whole experience is worth repeating again and again!

The pin auction just before the crowd arrived.

On the way home we stopped at an interesting store, this is a view from inside.

Dawn with one of the five or so dogs who live at the store.

A portion of the wall of the interesting store. Neat bell.

The storefront.