I walked into a museum, but it took me to a whole other decade.

The Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art: Pure Genius

I have been to a lot of museums in my life. I lived 20 minutes from New York City for god's sake. The Met, the MOMA, the Museum of Sex (I actually highly recommend that one), the Louvre, the Musee D'Orsay in France. The list goes on but I could never compare any museum to this petite house on the corner of Pearl Street in Denver. My expectations were extremely low. Denver isn't a huge city and the zoo isn't that great and I went to another museum early that year that wasn't impressive so I had no doubt in my mind that this one would match up to those.

When you walk up to the door, you have to ring the doorbell to enter which I thought was very clever and personal and made you feel like a special guest. As soon as I walked in, they noticed I was by myself and that I'd never been there before so they let me in free of charge and a smile and thoughtful "Merry Christmas" to go with it.

There was a cute little old woman in the center of the museum who personally told you the story of the building and Vance Kirkland himself. She was absolutely adorable and you could see her love for the collection and the artist.

Now it's  time to go back in history:

1929: Vance Kirkland founded the School of Arts at the University of Denver
1932: He left the school because he found out that they weren't giving full academic credit for art courses toward a degree which was the original agreement he made first coming into the University. Vance leased the property on Pearl Street and opened up the Kirkland School of Art so that his students could continue to learn and be taught by him. In 1933, the University of Colorado gave full academic credit to those who partook in the school. He utilized that space as his studio until his death in 1981.
1996: The Kirkland Foundation was founded to preserve his legacy.

Throughout his 54 years of painting, he art went through five different periods:
     Designed Realism (1927-1944) - mostly watercolor

Surrealist (1939-1954) - mostly watercolor

Hard Edge Abstraction (1947-1957) - 50% watercolor, 50% oil

Abstract Expressionism/Floating Abstractions (1951-1964)
- oils

"The Dot Paintings"/Energy in Space Abstractions (1963-1981)

 

As time went on, Hugh Grant (the new owner of the property and Colorado resident) began collecting artwork from other Colorado artists. He believed that people from Colorado saw the state from a different perspective than others. These paintings represent the history of Colorado art from traditional to modern.   Not only are there paintings, but pottery, art deco furniture, flatware, and dishware were all displayed at the museum. But what made the Kirkland Museum so unique is the way in which the exhibitions were presented. It was as if you were walking into a real room, not a museum. The furniture was set up as if you were stepping into a living room; you felt like you were a part of the art. But the most incredibly part of the entire museum was his studio which hasn't been touched since the day he died. You walk in and see his last dot painting that was in the works of being finished, his paints are lying all over the table, a huge canvas lying on the table with these straps laying above it, which you learn, was for him to lay on. He was 5'3" and for him to be able to put these dots on the canvas, he had to lay across these straps, 3 feet above the painting and place the dots onto the canvas one at a time lying directly above it. To see how much work goes into these paintings really shows how dedicated and in love he was with art and exhibiting it to others.

This museum may be small, but it's full of magic. Even if you aren't an art buff (Which I will happily say I am not), this is just a place to go, open your mind, and reflect. The entire building is art. Inside and out.

New Years: A New Beginning or a Continuation of Reality

Every Girl:
"My New Years Resolution is that I'm going to go to the gym every single day and look like a model, and be tan, find a boyfriend, and most importantly be happy with myself."

Every Guy:
"This year, I want to gain a ton of muscle so that all the girls will come running after me. I also want to make hundreds of thousands of dollars. I also need to get my act together and figure out what I want in life and get a job that is right for me and stop all the partying and part-time jobs"

BLAH, BLAH, BLABBITY BLAH!

Let's be realistic here. Honestly (and I mean honestly) How many times do you make a New Year's resolution and it actually comes true? I'll be dead serious when I say NEVER. Why? Because who wants to make a to-do list for your life? Was what you had prior to this year just not acceptable in your opinion? Was the job you had or friends you made not enough to make your life feel complete? Because I don't know about you, but I met some amazing people this year and had the time of my life. I made life changing decisions that may have not been very effective at the time but now, I realize that my life could be completely different if it wasn't for that one day I couldn't make up my mind and decided to do something outside my comfort zone.

I love this holiday. I thoroughly enjoy the hundreds of Facebook statuses, tweets, and IG posts about how this year is going to be the best year yet. It's as if this year is when all of your dreams and aspirations are going to come true. But let me ask you this:

What have you been doing with the last 22 years of your life!? Just sitting on your ass watching the sun rise and set? NO you blubbering idiot! You've been living out your life's dreams...but slowly.

OH MY GOOD GRACIOUS, I HAVE!? How did I not know that? And I'll tell you why. It's because you don't have patience. I certainly don't and I'll happily admit it. But I know that your dreams don't get handed to you on a fucking silver platter. That you can't be lucky all the time. That is reality. I'm sorry if you didn't get that job you wanted or didn't lose those 10 horrific pounds that form that lovely bloated section around your midline we all like to call your "muffin top." But what about those incredible relationships you were once a part of or those family vacations where dad fell off a horse while pretending he was Prince Ali from Aladdin? People are so focused on the negative aspects on their life that they always forget the good.

And THAT is why I love this holiday so much. Every year, people use the new year as a way to fix the bad: Lose weight, make friends, make memories, travel more, eat better, love myself. Has anyone ever considered maybe, just maybe, that you should use the new year to commemorate the good that has occurred over the years? To acknowledge those time that once made you smile.

Stop degrading yourself and for once, just once, love what you have. Take 2014 to reflect on memories of  the previous years that made your dimples appear and ask yourself, "How can I enjoy what I already have but make it even better?"

Sure it's a new year, but there's nothing new about it. It's your old life with new memories. You can't make memories disappear, you can only add to them.


With Love,
Emily

It's a Proven Fact: Friendships form out of food related activities.

We all know it. I love food and every aspect of it. I enjoying eating it, cooking it, reading about it, watching it, (insert any other verb in front of the word food, and honestly, it's probably true). But there's a reason as to why I'm so obsessed (too strong of a word?) about food...

Because it brings people together. I like to think loving all varieties of food as a prerequisite to becoming my friend. If I can sit down and have an hour conversation with you all about food and neither of us end up snoring by the end of the conversation, there's a pretty good chance that our friendship will be long-lasting.

But now I'm getting off topic. The reason I bring this up is because on of my roommate's friends, I found out, loves to cook. Maybe even more than me. Shocking, I know. So we decided to spend all of Saturday baking holiday presents and some cookies for each other. I think throughout the duration of the day we made, breakfast burritos, goat cheese stuffed figs wrapped in bacon topped with her homemade jam, paleo coconut chocolate bars, failed attempt at hard candy which was later remedied to be perfect, and candied nuts that are ridiculously good. It's better described as an orgasm in your mouth.....times 1000. However, it wasn't just the food that brought us together or the 1000 piece puzzle we finished. It was the 10 hours we spent together while we were doing all of that. Sometimes you don't realize how much you talk with someone until you really spend time with them. So not only do I have a new friend, but I have an insane cooking buddy who is going to give me some of her homemade naan and tikka masala to try this week. Free food is also a perk of being friends with fellow foodies.

Yes, I cook a lot but sometimes I try to do other things. Lets take yesterday for example. Before I had to go to work, my roommate and I decided to try and hike the royal arch in Boulder, again. It's a quick hike which is why I tend to lean that way when I want to go outside but don't have a lot of time. When we got there, we figured the snow would be melted because it was 55 degrees and had been at that temperature for a few days now. But I guess the mountains like to think differently and make our lives that much more difficult. We were hiking in mud, ice skating everywhere because, as you know, you don't salt or sand hiking trails, and the wind was so strong that I was literally falling backwards bursting out in spurts of laughter every minute. Although the weather, I guess I could say, sucked, we decided to push on. This was until we hit a beautiful chain and sign that sign that loudly spoke to the words: DO NOT PASS. To this day, I'm not quite sure if we were actually upset or relieved that we couldn't go any further. For the sake of this story, I will say pissed. So we decided to take revenge. Christmas is next week, we don't have a tree, I'm Jewish so I really don't need one, and I don't want to spend the money on one for one day of a holiday I'm not even brought up to celebrate. On the other hand, I love Christmas as a whole and the joyous festivus that is the holiday of Christmas (that sentence was terrible, but I'm keeping it). So my roommate and I found this pine tree that was being trimmed of it's branches, probably because it was blocking the trail. Although it  wasn't a 6 foot tree, it was a branch, with living pine needles, had branches, and smelled like sap. Henceforth, these two branches we found became our "Charlie Brown Christmas Trees" We figured, Boulder took our hiking trail away so we are stealing your branches. There may have been some odd looks on our way down but it's because they are jealous of our brilliant idea. Because now, those branches are leaned up against our wall with ornaments on them and presents underneath.

I think that this time of the year isn't about presents or money but the ways in which you cherish it. Spending time cooking with friends, listening to music, laughing, making memories; those are the ways to spend the holidays. Be happy for what you're given and take advantage of it. No One's life has a specific path you're supposed to follow. You're entire future could change in a matter of minutes. So live in the moment, don't worry about the past because it's already happened, and enjoy what your life is giving you now, because the way you utilize those minutes and seconds, that's what will determine your future.

Happy Holidays Everyone! <3

The Crag Life: Broomfield Edition?

So this blog seemed like a really good idea at the time, mostly because I was excited to live in Boulder and could tell everyone from home about all of my spectacular journeys.

Well, clearly that moment of glory was short lived because I had to move back home right after I found a good job and was starting to meet people. But life has a funny way with life and there's reasons behind everything, right? I'm starting to think that there's no such thing as bad luck, but just a detour on the way to happiness. Luckily I have some amazing friends that have taught me that I have been helping people my whole life to become happy and now it's my turn and all I have to do is sit back and watch it fall into place.

And right now, I think it's beginning to...

I have finally moved back to Colorado, with no job, no friends (with the exception of my roommates), and a lot less money (also known as anxiety). But even though I have to start from scratch, I know this was the right move for me. I live in a beautiful house with three friends, I am back in foodie heaven, and now have the ability to really figure out if I know what I want in the future. Although I can't do any sort of sports for a few more weeks, I am still trying to get out and enjoy the outdoors as much as I possibly can. Even if that means taking photos of friends enjoying the new boulder problems or just going on a short hike enjoying the beauty I am surrounded by every single day.

I don't really have much more exciting news to enlighten all of you with mostly because it's my fourth day here. But one thing I can say is the weather is by far the most incredible aspect. The last three days it's been 65 degrees and sunny and tomorrow it's supposed to be -3 during the night (okay, that part I don't enjoy so much) But after talking to multiple Coloradoans, the weather here is unpredictable. We can have a 3 foot blizzard during January and the week after, it could be 70 and sunny which would explain those photos of people skiing in nothing but their underwear. (Or those people could just be insane)

I can't wait to see where this journey takes me....as long as it's not back to the operation table. I've had enough of those in the last 2 years.

May the world surprise you, enlighten you, and cause you to dream <3