I am happy to report that the debut reading of my Flying Adventures book at Snow College in Utah went well! I thought I'd be nervous but I wasn't, and I really enjoyed giving a talk afterwards about the history of how the book came to be and where it's headed. The audience was so welcoming and asked great questions that made me rethink having taken out parts of the talk in the interest of timing. They need to go back in. What I thought was so funny was that everyone wanted to know what pen I'd used to write the text (it's a Pilot V-Ball fine). I had one in my bag, since it is my absolute favorite pen, and they wanted to try it out and took pictures of it with their telephones. This cracked me up. Someone suggested I should ask Pilot to sponsor me, and it never even occurred to me that I am a pilot using a Pilot pen. Sorta funny.
My first audience!
Students checking out Flying Adventures after the reading
The small part of Utah that I saw was absolutely beautiful --- I've never spent any time there --- and I loved my stay at the Osborne Inn in Spring City. After rolling in hungry late at night, I had a most delicious plate of their homemade chocolate chip cookies for dinner. In the morning I woke up to such pretty light!
My photo-friend and art professor at Snow College, Amy Jorgensen, also runs the Granary Art Center in Ephraim. She was kind enough to give me a tour of their gallery space, which included 40 Moons, an exhibit by another photo-friend of ours, Elizabeth Stone. I loved that I was able to see Elizabeth's work hanging on the wall after having seen it in a portfolio box when she first showed it to me last year.
40 Moons by photographer Elizabeth Stone
I also loved this installation by Stephanie Leitch called Interstices. Long pieces of weighted string hang from the ceiling in a grid, and video is projected onto them --- the whole thing looks like shimmering rain, and you can see the window of the building through the strings. I could have watched that all day.
Interstices by Stephanie Leitch
I tacked on an extra day to my Utah stay so that I could visit my friend Ben and his family. When he first moved to Salt Lake, he posted these beautiful photos on Facebook of Antelope Island, and I knew I had to go! So we took the afternoon and drove out. The weather was moody: on-and-off drizzle, dark clouds, sun here and there... even a rainbow. It was perfect!
Thank you, Utah, and everyone I met there, for making my visit so memorable! I am looking forward to coming back again and staying a little longer :-)