Banksy Visits Utah

Don't worry, I didn't know what a Banksy was either until a few days ago. But then the infamous graffiti artist visited Utah and tagged a bunch of buildings in Salt Lake and up at Park City and caught my attention. Turns out he is a world renowned artist from Great Britain and his artwork is all over the world. He visited this corner of the globe this week during the Sundance Film Festival and got the whole state talking. My photography teacher told my class that he is the only artist in the history of forever that has had at least one piece of artwork in every major museum at one given time. And most of those museums didn't even know his artwork was there because he put it up himself. How cool is that? Want to know something even cooler? No one knows who he really is, no one has ever seen him. I do love a good mystery :]

These are some of the things he has done here in Utah.
Here are a couple of other Utah ones...

The rest are from various places around the world.

And my personal fav...

All of these pictures were taken from Banksy's official website

Open arms and open eyes

Sometimes, I feel the fear of,
uncertainty stinging clear.
And I can't help but ask
myself how much I'll let the fear
take the wheel and steer.

It's driven me before, and it seems to a faint,
haunting mass appeal.
But lately I, am beginning to find that I,
should be the one behing the wheel.

Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there,
with open arms and open eyes, yeah.
Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there,
I'll be there....

So if I, decide to waiver my,
chance to be one of, the hive.
Will I, choose water over wine
and hold my own and drive?

It's driven me before, and it seems to be the way,
that everyone else gets around,
But lately I'm, beginning to find that,
When I drive myself my light is found. 

'Drive' by Incubus

Livin' it up in the 801... Fools!

Greetings from SL,UT! aka Salt Lake City, Utah (I like SL,UT better). It has been the BEST WEEK EVER! You want to know why? This is why... 

No more of this!

Or this!

Or this!!

No, your eyes are not deceiving you... that is what I have been breathing in for the past 2 or 3 weeks, I have lost count. It is one of the many reasons why I hate winter... the dreaded iNvErSiOn!! For some reason, Mother Nature decides to torture us poor Utahns every year by trapping all of this gunk in the valley for weeks. Or at least until it snows. 


We had a lovely snow storm earlier this week and it blew out ALL of the smog. Normally I hate snow, but now I can actually see the sky again! I hadn't seen the mountains for so long I had forgotten how tall they were! I took this picture yesterday from my backyard because I was so stinkin excited that I could actually see the mountains!

But wait, it gets better! Today on campus it was actually WARM! Or at least warm for January. It was about 45 degrees Fahrenheit! Can you believe it?! Normally it's like 12 degrees this time of year! I took an extra long walk on campus and breathed like I never had before. Who knew clean air tasted so good? 

Here are pictures I took on the drive home from school. (And yes, I did take these while driving on the freeway. I almost hit an old lady in a Subaru but it was totally worth it!)

This is Mount Olympus! It's the mountain I want to hike to the top of this summer. It's on my list!

Oh hey, I haven't seen the other side of the valley for quite some time!

Mmmm... Makes me want to go skiing!

And so this was the week that I made peace with the snow and ice, breathed a little deeper, laughed a little louder, and realized that life is BEAUTIFUL. Even when the smog of life gets you down, there is always a snow storm ahead to blow it away. I realized that sometimes the beauty of life lies beneath the pain.

Free Rice!

FreeRice.com

I found this website a while back and had totally forgotten about it. I was doing some research on how I could help with the efforts in Haiti and just happened to stumble upon it. It's an amazing website that not only donates rice to struggling countries, but also sharpens your noggin. 

It gives you trivia questions in a variety of subjects: Geography, Spanish, French, math, vocab, chemistry, art, etc. For every question you answer correctly, they donate 10 grains of rice! Right now the majority of the proceeds are going to the people of Haiti. 

Please take some time to check out this website and make a difference in the world. It may not seem like much, but your contribution will change someone's life. 

Refugees

photo

We were born sining prayers to the Earth.

Our songs carried in the wind

and took refuge inside of fire.

They lit from the outside in

as they twisted

and curled.

We let the meaning rest

on the skin of our faces

and sink into our bones.

When our fingertips no longer needed answers,

we silenced our songs with the breath of our lips,

turning the words to gray as they spiraled upwards

to become part of the Sun.

Now we stretch our arms to the sky

longing to hold the Sun in our hands

and let its light break between our fingers.

Mother Earth writes poetry in the lines of our skin

and whispers to the furthest point in our eyes

longing for us to remember.

We forgot how to listen.