9. Grassroots Art Center and Deeble House

We visited the Grassroots Art Center for a look at some of the city's famous Grassroots Art.  Unfortunately, the batteries died in the camera at the beginning of the visit so we have no real pictures of the tour.  When you pay admission to the Grassroots Art Center, you get a tour from a tour guide who does an amazing job explaining all the art you will see in the building and some around town.  Angel and Eric were especially impressed with the pull-tab sculptures of a car, motorcycle, clothing, etc.  There were sculptures of animals made out of barbed wire and painted.  We all enjoyed limestone sculptures and our daughter left wanting to begin some rock carving of her own.   

Some of the art we didn't appreciate or really understand--it just looked like trash put together randomly.  Eric described some of it as looking like preschool macaroni art.  The courtyard exhibit was not totally accessible at this time of year because there was snow on the ground, but what we saw looked great.  The tour finished with a journey over to the Deeble House.  The backyard was a rock exhibit that the owner of the home created throughout her lifetime.  She would bring rocks home from vacation and then recreate the parts of the country she had visited.  (i.e. Arizona, Colorado, Mt. Rushmore, etc.)  Our daughter was fascinated because she is currently doing a rock unit at school and very interested in rocks at the moment.  Then, they headed into the house for more art exhibits. 

The Deeble House is not wheelchair accessible, so Angel did not go in, but after seeing pictures on the Internet when we got home, she is glad she missed it.  The artwork was full of "ReBarbs"--Barbie dolls created into "art" projects.  As an avid Barbie collector, Angel was absolutely horrified.  Angel can't even describe what it was like.  The closest we can come up with is to say that it reminds us of that kid "Sid," the neighbor who "doctored" all his toys in Toy Story.   That is not our idea of art, maybe yours so don't take our word for it...see it for yourself...then we can giggle together.