Intended, but failed, to sleep in after a relaxing night at the historic Alex Johnson hotel. Instead we got ready and check out early, then went for breakfast across the street. In the afternoon, I went back to the Dahl to meet a ranger and summer intern from the park. They were volunteering to help at the Saturday Arts Adventures the Dahl puts on for kids, and they were creating collages of badlands landscapes based on my paintings. The ranger also brought three other students along, classmates of the intern from Crazy Horse High School. These three and I spent time walking through the galleries, then walked around downtown Rapid City to visit a few arts related locations. We stopped by Art Alley (filled with graffiti), the Museum of the American Bison, and the Prairie Edge gallery before going back to the Dahl so the kids could have some time to draw ideas from our conversations. It was a pleasant afternoon and I hope to be able to help the kids on a follow up art project, creating a collaborative painting using graffiti style art to represent the badlands, and discussing how graffiti seems to contrast the mission of the park service. Got back to the housing area and was invited to join friends for a homemade lasagna dinner, then headed back home a little early for some much needed sleep.
The Alex Johnson hotel.
View from the 9th floor. Art Alley is right below.
View of the Alex Johnson from inside Art Alley.
Looking up the fire escape that was out my window.
