Cup of Coffee

On we go. Birthdays are over and done with. Last night, our own celebration included a short Art Walk tour (it was hot) and then dinner at Grilla Bites; a portabella mushroom sandwich with some locally brewed ginger ale. Then I wanted to go back to the first spot we stopped at on the Art Walk; The Art House.

This gallery and garden spot is at an odd location, right on the busy highway, but at a spot where you have to know where you’re going if you want to pull over and park. (325 Nord) You might have to make a few runs at it. The owners, and artists, have taken an odd piece of property and done something quite interesting with it. What was once a parking lot is now a garden filled with sculpture and the occasional tomato plant. Bright red tomatoes make their own kind of artistic statement.

The owners/artists are from Iowa but have lived here for over 20 years; modifying the property and creating a genuine oasis in the middle of student housing apartments and retail spaces. If I were to guess, I would say he creates the garden sculpture while she works in clay. And I had seen an interesting cup and saucer on our initial visit; now I had to have it.

We did go to a few other places on the Art walk, but it was the wrong weekend. All Fired Up, the clay place… was closed for the holiday, as were a few others. We did go to the Chico Art Center and wandered around, but their offerings were mediocre this time. Chico Paper Company had some good stuff, though only about 20% was new. We had seen most of it last month.

And while I was browsing the net this morning; found this… “Did you know Sweden’s taken in 40-50,000 Iraqi refugees? And America’s only allowed in 700? To be fair, of course, America is just 1% of the size of Sweden.”