The Art of Life

One of the best juried art fairs is held every year in Old Louisville. It is the St. James Court Art Show. It has been held every year since 1957 in one of the most interesting residential areas of Louisville, Kentucky. This is probably the third time that we've been down there since we've lived in this area. Luckily, Dennis is a willing companion for these events (most of the time :) With our late summer 90 degree weather, we got an early start to miss the most of the crowd and the worst of the heat.

There is such a variety of art forms that is impossible to give you an idea of everything there. I did find a couple of presents and also purchased the poster for this year's show. If you go to this link you can find a picture of it on down the page. I hope to get it framed and hang in my sewing room/office somewhere.

St. James Court is known for it's park and fountain surrounded by beautiful old restored homes. Every time we go down here we think we should come back some day when there's not an art fair going on to be able to get a better perspective of the architecture.

As you can see, some of the art is not what the average person would buy to place in their homes. But it is so much fun to enjoy the talent of so many artists on a pretty "fall" day in a pleasant location.

A weekend on the road with us would not be complete without some type of motorcycle excursion. This time it was a trip to Alton. Now many of you may automatically think of little Alton, Kansas and there's probably a couple of you who will think of Alton, Illinois but Alton, Indiana was our destination on Saturday. All of these towns are interesting in their own right and would make a good destination for a motorcycle ride. Alton, Indiana sets on the banks of the Ohio River. I should take the time do some research on the history of the area but I'm sure at one time it must have been a flourishing river town.

Our friends following us on their bike probably think Dennis was crazy for taking us down some of these back roads but we sometimes find that more interesting than speeding around on the interstate highways. (I like to think that it is safer too!)

To go right along with the Alton theme, we found this store in Leavonworth, Indiana. I bet there is a few of you who will remember the Stephenson Store in Alton, Kansas where Dennis' mom worked as a young woman. We browsed through here long enough to cool off, get a cold drink, use their restroom and concluded that the eclectic collection of inventory must have been similar to their sister store in Alton, Ks.

One more ride for the weekend included a trip through an Amish community to the east of here. I didn't realize that there was one so close to us and we will have to go back when some of the interesting little shops are open. I could have taken a photo of this family in their buggy after they had passed us. It would have made a better picture if I had taken it as we passed them but they were waving and smiling so nicely I didn't want to offend them by putting a camera in front of my face! There's kind of a nice contrast though with M & R's motorcycle on one side of the highway and the buggy on the other.

So here is the post for our adventures of the weekend. As to the title this time I think we covered portions of the "art of life" pretty well with good weather and appreciation of the talents of others in the company of a patient spouse; riding through scenic little known parts of the country with good friends; and good food and the pleasant company of friends and new acquaintances (this was a wonderful party at A & T's beautiful home Saturday evening that I didn't even mention yet!). As I look back over the past few weeks of my entries here, I think we've done pretty good at an "artful life" ! I hope you all had a good weekend too!

I have one complaint though! I am really beginning to enjoy coming up with this blog entry every few days and I don't mind letting you know what silliness we've been up to on the bike or whatever, but I would like to hear from some of you too! My thanks to the few of you who have sent comments, but please let me hear from a few more. I think there are some lurker friends and relatives out there and I would love to know what you've been up to also. Okay - that is my rant for the day. Thanks for reading - even if you don't comment!

I hope you all had a great weekend too.