Arty Weekend

I didn't expect to get to the Marion Arts Festival on Saturday--it was supposed to be rainy and unsettled. But in the afternoon it cleared up.

I talked Eli into going with me. It was a deal something like this: I'll take you to the Marion Goodwill (Eli loves hunting for treasures), if you go with me to the Arts Festival. He was hesitant at first, but agreed.

Turns out, he enjoyed it. We each decided on a few things that we would buy, had we enough money. I decided on a beautiful watercolor

a silk scarf,

and a sculpture for our backyard.

Eli thought these image-changing photos were cool.

So that was the visual arts part of the day. That evening, Bruce and I heard some music by a local chamber group, Red Cedar Chamber Music. The group is a husband/wife duo: flute and guitar. They play a lot of 19th century parlor music, which I don't like much, but when they're playing music of the more classical variety, I try to hear them.

Saturday's concert was the world premiere of a piece of music they commissioned for them and a string quartet from a local composer, "Perhaps Gilead," a three-movement piece based on the book Gilead by local writer (a local theme here!) Marilynne Robinson. I loved that book, and immediately wished we could take Mom to the concert. She would have liked the book, too, and she enjoyed going to concerts.

The music was modern--sometimes atonal, odd textures and rhythms. But it also quoted hymns (the book is about a family of pastors in 19th through mid 20th century Iowa). The group, which is big on sharing music and educating the public--began the program by sharing an "Introduction" to the music, in which they explained some of the motifs and things we'd hear. They even read excerpts from the book.

The music itself was transporting--I felt wholly wrapped up in the world of the novel as I listened; maybe I even got new insights, too. I think I need to read the book again now.