The Curmudgeonly Professor

Rusting Bucking Bronco Lawn Ornament

Sculpture Titled "Puffed Up Prince" by Gary Lee Price in 2011 St. George Art Around the Corner

 
Each year the original downtown area of St. George UT features about two dozen works of sculpture by various artists that remain on display and for sale.  The sculpture posted here is Gary Lee Price's "Puffed Up Prince."

Creative Fun and Frivolity at the Annual St. George Art Festival 2011

 
Obviously not a juried art submission, but fun nonetheless.

Sidewalk artist at work.  I would last about 2 minutes on my knees, and then I would have trouble standing up!

Visiting the Annual St. George UT Art Festival on April 23 2011

Each year the St. George UT annual Art Festival has become more competitive with countless applicants from a multi-state area.  The resulting collection of booths contains painters, photographers, glass makers, weavers, potters, metal crafters, and virtually any form of creative arts you can think of.  St. George has become widely known as an "arts" community with various art shows and public displays of art and sculpture throughout the year.  The Kayenta residential community just north of St. George has become especially well known for the talented collection of artists who paint, do various forms of craftwork, and display their work in the Kayenta community.

 
Just a few examples of the kinds of craft work shown at the Art Festival.  I don't feel that I can take photos of copyrighted paintings and photographs, so that excludes a large part of the Festival.  But these colorful pieces of work are illustrative of the wide variety of wonderful creative works shown.

 

 

 
This photo is for my wood turning brother in law.

 

 
A Few of the 100+ booths at the St. George Art Festival.  The D on the hill stands for "Dixie" since the St. George UT area was referred to as Utah's Dixie in the late 1800s when cotton was grown and a cotton mill processed the cotton crop.  The name Dixie has stuck ever since and countless businesses, medical facilities, schools, and other local areas are prefaced with the name of Dixie.

Two Sculptures of Two Children Swinging Two Other Children in the Air by Gary Lee Price titled "Flight Time" in St. George 2010 Art Around the Corner

 
  

Sculpture by Martha Pettigrew titled "The Searcher" in 2010 St. George Art Around the Corner Project

Sculpture Titled "Little Squirt" by Dan Hill in the St. George Art Around the Corner Annual Sculpture Display

Red Geranium Blossoms

Three of Our Favorite Photographers and Artists at the 2010 St. George Art Festival

Roland Lee has long been a favorite Utah artist, located in St. George.  Here are two of his sites you won't want to miss:  www.rolandlee.com, in which he shows galleries of his work and other information.  The other site is a gem, because he shows how he works, even showing how he teaches his family to paint: www.travelsketchbook.blogspot.com.

Some of the finest fine art photography I have seen was shown by Leon Sadlo and Tracy Peterson-Sadlo, with studios in both Philbrook, MN and Payson AZ under the name of Whispering Impressions.  You can view the beauty and talent of their work at www.WhisperingImpressions.com.

Another intriguing artist was Patricia Stanton, with whom I visited for a few minutes.  She has an incredible combination of skills, including mounting a variety of different photo and photo-art media on numerous kinds of wraps on wood and matboard.  She is from Sunnyvale CA.  You can see some of her work at patriciastantonimages.com.

These are only three among the many examples we could include here, but demonstrate the level and quality of the entrants in this year's St. George Art Festival.  The bar for showing work raises a bit each year.  And the food court is pretty good, too.

Katie Patten and Leonard Tinnell's Kiln-fired Glass Art at the St. George Art Festival 2010

Every year we watch for our favorite kiln-fired glass artists from Missoula Montana at the St. George Art Festival.  Here are a couple of photos of their work, taken with permission.

 You can contact the artists at mercurialart.com.  They do not have an extensive web site, but they show four outstanding examples of their work, including pendants and earrings, which are special.

 

 
  

The 31st Annual St. George Art Festival April 2-3 2010 in St. George Town Square

One of the great benefits of being in St. George Utah is the commitment of the community to theatre and the arts. The 2010 31st annual Art Festival selected by jury 110 participants from hundreds of applications from throughout the United States.  Arts and crafts of all types are included.  We noticed that increasing numbers of photographers and photographic art are showing up each year.  Fortunately, the weather cooperated, unlike some years when rain interferes.

Woodward School is on the left; Historic St. George Tabernacle in the background. 

Sculpture By L'Deane Trueblood titled "Celebration 2010" in the Richards Sculpture Garden at Dixie State College in St. George UT

L'Deane Trueblood is a popular and much loved sculptor in the St. George area well known, especially, for her sculptures of children.
   

My Wife's 1500 Piece Christmas Jigsaw Puzzle; Naturally, Piece No. 1500 is Missing!

Special Moments in Mid-October Along the Wasatch From My Back Door

 

 

 
   

The Curmudgeonly Professor enters his Entrepreneurial Phase

The reason why the Curmudgeonly Professor remained in the professor profession for so long is that he failed at every entrepreneurial enterprise he ever started, each of which was expected to make him rich.  Among the notable business failures were: 40 student apartments at the University of Wyoming, two book and gift stores in Fort Collins, a business newsletter, a couple of MLMs, and  probably others that I have forgotten.  Being an economics professor is great because all one has to do is to assume stuff, draw curves on the blackboard, solve equations, and pontificate.  Other than humiliation, no costs attach to being wrong, except perhaps not getting tenure if you make too many dumb mistakes.

So now I am entering upon my next entrepreneurial phase.  I have already launched my photo print business on Zenfolio galleries at dmblood.zenfolio.com.  So far, I have sold zero prints, but I have had several dozen photos  printed so at least my walls will be gorgeous.  If people could actually see the prints, I think they would sell.  The metallic prints from MPix, Zenfolio's photo printer, are absolutely stunning.  And the prints I have converted to photo art and then digitally matted come ready to frame without the complications of finding your own mats or having them made for you at additional expense.

The next phase of my entrepreneural forays is starting the sales of photo note cards and photo calendars.  I haven't quite decided how to do this yet, but will probably start out on Etsy, and then see if I can figure out how to start my own web site for card and calendar sales, the word sales being used optimistically.  I have spent considerable time looking through other web sites for photo note cards.  Some are better, perhaps, but I think my photos are at least as good, if not better, than many I have looked at, especially the photo art conversions and the double matted images. 

If you have a $1 friend, you can go to the Dollar Store and buy a $1 card for them.  My cards will cost $4 each, which will provide a frameable keepsake card that your $4 friends will love you for.  And you can compare my $4 cards with other cards costing at least that much and see what you think.  I've studied a lot of photo card websites, and most of the better cards are in the $4 range.  Some are in the $2 range, but I have no idea how people can manage that, since it costs about $2 for the blank card stock, a professionally printed photo, and other supplies. 

I have several dozen categories for groups of cards, or they can be mixed or matched.  These categories include wild roses, white roses, red roses, tulips, Oriental poppies, wild poppies, flowering spring trees, spring blossoms, flower gardens, petunias, white cactus, yellow cactus, orange cactus, and on and on.  If anyone wants a particular flower or photo, just ask me and I'll see if I have it.

Calendars with 13 original photos attached usually sell for $25.  Again, each photo is a frameable keepsake and is worthy of a frame to be hung permanently on a wall.  If anyone is interested, let me know soon.

So here goes another entrepreneurial venture.  I've already spent the thousands of dollars necessary on computers, cameras, software, supplies, and such, so I can't lose any money on this adventure, as I did on other serious get-rich adventures.  At best, I might make enough to replenish supplies or update some software, and that will be fine.  Working with these photos is so much fun, and the photos are so gorgeous, I at least have a wonderful hobby that keeps me occupied.  So watch for further announcements here.