By Emma Blackball
In search of inspiration, insight and to encourage creativity within students, the McPherson art department set off to Denver, Colorado to visit various museums and natural areas during their trip. I personally have never been to a city as large scale as Denver, Colorado, so this trip provided lots of new experiences for me.
When approaching the city, I kept trying to look over buildings to find the mountain ranges. Our first stop of the trip was Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, which was surreal to experience. I have always seen mountains and valleys in pictures, but seeing them in-person is a vastly different experience. Despite how much fun I spent hiking the area, drawing while people watching and talking to friends, it was clear that I was not accustomed to the area.
I had to firmly grip the stair railing due to my fear of heights. I had to continue chewing gum to help my ears pop, and my legs were burning from walking up and down hills for a couple of hours.
I am built for Kansas.
The next main location was Meow Wolf, an interactive art museum we visited in the evening of our first day there. It is difficult to put into words what it was like to step into that museum for the first time. The area was so large that I lost the group immediately when entering “main street.”
The different rooms were designed by different artists so you could see a wide spread of creative visions. Large spinning castles, a city block lined with missing person reports, a library filled with bestiaries, an underground rat-fighting ring, fantasy sci-fi forests and much more filled the museum exhibits. Everything was to be pressed, moved, opened.
The exhibits promoted child-like wonder within its visitors. I had a blast going through the environment and even if I can’t describe how I felt during the experience, I do believe that anyone visiting Denver should experience Meow Wolf.
The second day we walked over to the Denver art museums from the hostel we stayed in. Overall, it had nine floors to visit between three buildings, but unfortunately there was so much to explore that I only managed to get through about six and a half. My favorite piece of the trip was in the historical pieces of Europe section in the main building, titled “The Family of Street Acrobats: The Injured Child” it is a beautifully tragic painting showing a mother comforting her dying son after he had supposedly had an accident while performing a show with his father.
I was also captivated by American West and Southeast Asian historical pieces, as well as some contemporary art exhibits. What I love about American paintings is how expressive and colorful they were compared to European art during the late nineteenth century. It pushes expressions, uses heavy textured brushstrokes with lots of color, it pushes a narrative to make the art feel larger than life and give it personality. Though I was only able to get through half of the exhibit highlighting Asian historical art, I could spend hours there. The pieces I found there were so intricate and ornate, Turkish rugs, Iraqi medieval manuscripts, Indian statues of buddha, all made with great attention to detail and intention, so I wish I could have given it the time it deserved. The piece of contemporary art that I kept coming back to was massive, spanned over three floors with white walls, and red digital numbers switched between each other at different points in time. The numbers, and the timing of the change, were taken from people throughout Denver and had strong meanings individually. I think art always depicts personal importance and humanity, no one creates without reason, and that is what I appreciate about contemporary art, it allows me to think.
I do believe that this visit did help me want to create more like intended. I want to paint again, show my thoughts and feelings in my work, push expressions and colors, talk to people and collaborate. I think this trip made me enjoy the world more.
