This morning's shoot took an interesting turn (so to speak). My oldest was over a friend's house for a sleep over and needed to get home. I grabbed my gear before leaving (this would be a typical weekend jaunt, camera gear always comes with me) and put myself in "Find a subject" mode. The trip out was uneventful, it was a great overcast morning and I really wanted to find something of interest outdoors to make use of the better lighting (a reminder that it is winter here, direct sun and snow don't mix that well).

I picked up my daughter & we made it about 500 feet from her friend's house before I had to swing around because I'd found my subject. There is an old church that is in the process of getting a new paint job. The use of bright colors really drew attention to itself (though for some reason I'd not seen it before). Before reading the sign in the front, I realized it was an Art Related establishment. My daughter gave me the "teenage sigh" and the look of "oh my god my dad is going to take more pictures" (if you have teenagers, you can insert whatever activity you want in place of "take more pictures", the look is the same ;)

There were a few other buildings surrounding the main "Church" building and a well plowed parking lot with a number of cars present. I figured the occupants were inside one of the out buildings, which I figured for a gallery, perhaps a number of galleries. I grarbbed my camera (and today I actually left the 17-55 on!) along with my Whibal card (I knew this would be a color shot) and stood in the not-so-traveled-street to try and do some justice to the brilliant building.

As I was walking back, someone came out of the main building and asked what I was doing. This has happened a few times before, people ask me what I'm doing or I have to explain to people before I start photographing a scene, what it is I do this for ("you take a photo a day?"). I felt a lot more at ease this morning as I figured I was in the "Sanctuary" of other artists, they might understand. After a very brief explanation of what I was doing, we were actually invited inside where a private brunch was going on. My daughter actually jumped at the opportunity to go inside (shocking me).

There were quite a few people inside and lots of great food (my daughter & I both remembered this huge pie on the table as you walk in). We met a number of people, all of whom were very happy to find out that I was not some form of spy, that I really am just this really strange guy who goes around and takes pictures of things.

My daughter & I stayed for a little while, the person who originally engaged me (the brave soul who was sent out to investigate the 'spy'), Lauren, taught us about Foundry operations. Lauren is this bundle of energy who is obviously very passionate about casting. We were shown a few pieces cast in iron and in bronze and Lauren explained the process for creating each of them. As we were walking away, my daughter was very excited about all of the art in just the one room we were in. She was scanning the whole room while I was busy talking.

The name of this place is Sanctuary Arts. Suffice it to say, there is much more to this School & Gallery than the shapes on the front of their building ;-)