CRETACEOUS SUMMER 2014: A Trip into Quaint Choteau for a Paleontologist Day Off! (blog #3)

WELCOME TO CHOTEAU! (photo by Anthony Martin)

Hallelujah for camaraderie in the field of paleontologists! Hallelujah for nearby towns that offer a respite from camp meals and showerless days. My Chiboogamoo (aka Tony Martin) and his colleagues take Fridays off from their fieldwork to go into the nearby town of Choteau for supplies, showers, and some recreation.

CHOTEAU COURTHOUSE! (photo by Anthony Martin)

I requested that Chiboogamoo take photos of his whereabouts in town. I forgot to emphasize that photos with people in them are quite desirable. However what you see here are his lovely photos resulting from a walk-about the serene town of Choteau and his brief dispatch about his experience. Enjoy!

DISPATCH FROM AN ICHNOLOGIST ON A DAY OFF FROM FIELD WORK IN CHOTEAU

“Every Friday is a day off for the fossil-digging crew at Camp Makela, and it's also a day in town. The town -  Choteau, Montana - is about 10 miles west of camp and has all of the amenities needed for everyone to keep functioning: showers, laundry, food, water, and (most importantly for many people), beer. Although the town is small by most people's standards, it has a laundromat, several motels (which rented out showers for us), grocery store (where you can also get beer), pharmacy, and a few restaurants, one of which is where we had lunch (the Log Cabin).

TREE-LINED STREETS OF CHOTEAU! (photo by Anthony Martin)

Choteau has a main street (I think it is named "Main Street") with a quaint courthouse at one end and the rest of the downtown along its length. Although we have internet access at the camp, further online activity is accommodated by the public library, which is also on Main Street. So while the camp director (David Varricchio) was getting groceries, many people walked around town to pick up needed items or go to the library.

LOG CABIN RESTAURANT. (photo by Anthony Martin)

SPORTING GOODS, ESPRESSO. (photo by Anthony Martin)

WAGON WHEEL BAR (photo by Anthony Martin)

GRAIN ELEVATORS. (photo by Anthony Martin)

I hadn't been in Choteau for about five years and did a walkabout to reacquaint myself with what was there. One of the gems I had forgotten about was the very pretty city park on its east side, only a few blocks from the grocery store. So I strolled over there and marveled at the little stream that runs through it, with its perfectly clear water, and its wonderful shade trees.

CHOTEAU CITY PARK. (photo by Anthony Martin)

The people in Choteau are very welcoming of everyone and there's some justifiable local pride taken in how the nearby paleontology has put their town on the map for us.

Lunch in town was also an opportunity for us to talk about paleontology while all together in one place. Sure, we do that in the evenings during and after dinner too, but people are always coming and going at different times, so discussion is often limited to small groups. 

This time, we were also lucky enough to have Becca Hanna visit us and talk some paleontology with us, too. Becca, who has been living in Choteau for a while, has a M.S. degree in earth sciences and did her master's thesis on a specimen of Allosaurus. So even though she no longer studies paleontology (she's now a yoga instructor), her insights and questions helped spur on more in-depth discussions about what we'd been doing."

 

PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE MEETS COLLEAGUE IN CHOTEAU! Becca Hanna requested to meet up with Paleontologist Barbie. A fan of each other, both paleontologists were glad to "high five" one another in solidarity of loving science and the great western United States. (photo by Anthony Martin)

July days are escaping into ether, its super full moon is waning, and I will be traveling to Montana to join my Chiboogamoo this weekend having completed my InterPlay training and graduating from the Life Practice Program. I happily announce that I am now an InterPlay Leader-in-Training—one that is celebrating by going to the rolling hills of Montana to document my husband’s profound and satisfying ichnological work.

 

INTERPLAY SECOND SATURDAY! While my husband Chiboogamoo explored the fossil beds of Montana in the beginning weeks of July, I remained home in Georgia, completing the Life Practice Program of InterPlay. Here I am pictured (front row, right, seated on the floor) at the Pine Lake Clubhouse after the Atlanta InterPlay Second Saturday, which we included in our weekend Life Practice Program. I am now an InterPlay Leader-in-Training! Hurray! I am also looking forward to venturing to Montana in a few days to join my beloved ichnologist! (photo by InterPlayer)

I am open to the miracles that grace brings to a scientist and his artistic wife. Stay tuned for what we discover together.

 

SATURDAY MOON IN MONTANA! (photo by Anthony Martin)

That’s Coffee With Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me. Tell me what is on your mind concerning the month of July, full moons as they wax and wane, and about my love or your love for that special someone in your life.

CRETACEOUS SUMMER 2014: An Excerpt from the Field from My Honey (blog #2)

RELAXED SCHOLARSHIP AT THE TWO MEDICINE SITE. (Self portrait by Anthony Martin)

Excerpt from Tony Martin's blog entry, "Tracing the Two Medicine" 

My beloved Chiboogamoo (aka Tony Martin) did not sleep well in Camp Makela last night. According to our private exchange on Facebook this morning, he was up most of the night managing his tent from getting blown away while a terrific windy rainstorm blew through his camp. Depleted of sleep, he wrote and posted a blog entry celebrating his first week of field work in Montana on his Life Traces of the Georgia Coast website blog. 

I am so proud of my husband's optimistic and productive disposition. This morning, as the entire group of harried researchers were moving slowly and recovering from little sleep as a result of the raging storm, Chiboogamoo used his time well to write a brief blog post entitled, "Tracing the Two Medicine." An excerpt is below (To see the full blog entry go here):


"So with one week of field work done, I’m happy to report that plenty of trace fossils have revealed themselves to us, and I have every expectation that more will be found in the next two weeks. And this, boys and girls, is why I am a field scientist and paleontologist: to experience that joy of discovery that happens in the same places where the plants and animals of their ecosystems breathed and died 75 million years ago. Field work never fails to take me back in time, to when those animals behaved in ways that left their traces for us recent arrivals on this earth to appreciate with wonder."



That's Coffee with Hallelujah! Stay posted for my next blog post about Paleontologists day off from the field. For now, SOUL BLOG with me and tell me about your experiences with seeing the world around you and your understanding of time.

CRETACEOUS SUMMER 2014: Welcome to Montana and Ichnology through Shared Eyes! (blog #1)

TEPEE AT CAMP MAKELA. The beauties of paleontology, and in the case of my Chiboogamoo (aka Tony Martin)--ichnology--are the open skies, days out in the field and being present for sunsets in summer skies. (photo by Anthony Martin)

Hallelujah for this amazing and intriguing EARTH! Hallelujah for scientists and those who can "read" the rocks and explore the layers of existence for all of us. Let's celebrate paleontology! Let's celebrate big sky country, Montana! 

TWO MEDICINE FORMATION, THE OUTCROP. Here it is! Land rich with fossils, waiting to be read by paleontologists and one dynamo Ichnologist, Tony Martin. (photo by Anthony Martin)

WORDS FROM ICHNOLOGIST TONY MARTIN 

My darling husband sent me numerous photos from his field site in Montana and this dispatch. Enjoy!

THE ICHNOLOGIST. Per my request, Tony Martin (author of Dinosaurs Without Bones:  posed for this photo to show how one happy ichnologist appears in the Montana sky country. (photo by Field Work Comrade)

Dispatch from TONY MARTIN from Camp Makela

Camp Makela - just west of Choteau, Montana - is the base camp for a dinosaur dig crew from June 28-July 31. I joined this crew late on Monday, July 7 and spent my first night in a tepee set up at the camp.

BASE CAMP MAKELA.  (photo by Anthony Martin)

My main reason for being here is to study the trace fossils in the Two Medicine Formation, which is a thick series of 75-million-year-old red-gray-white rocks that are world-famous for its dinosaur nests. This is where Jack Horner and his friend Bob Makela (namesake of the camp) started discovering nests of the large dinosaur Maiasaura in the late 1970s, the first known dinosaur nests in North America. 

Later in the 1990s, David Varricchio found more dinosaur nests, but made by a smaller dinosaur, Troodon. Karen Chin also studied dinosaur coprolites here in the 1990s and 2000s, which held signs that dung beetles lived at the same time as the dinosaurs.

DAVID VARRICCHIO AND CREW. Digging at the Two Medicine Formation. (photo by Anthony Martin)

The trace fossils I’m studying are mostly of insects, especially cocoons and burrows, which are often closely associated with the nests. Most of the insects that made these cocoons were likely wasps, but others might have been beetles. My main goal is to see how these trace fossils show what the ecosystems were like here 75 million years ago: dinosaurs were not alone here, but lived and perhaps interacted with many other animals then.

FOSSIL COCOONS, MONTANA. Stay tuned for the ichnologist in my family to explain more about these in future blogs. (photo by Anthony Martin)

That's Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and my Chiboogamoo about your love of the Earth, Science, and those who understand something about it! 

STAY TUNED FOR ANOTHER DAY OF ICHNOLOGY IN MONTANA. Tony and I promised to blog about his Montana fieldwork at the beginning of the summer as we asked you to help support our trip (see this blog) by buying our Cretaceous-themed artwork (Thank you! We raised enough dollars to buy the plane tickets and support cat care!) I will be joining my little Chiboogamoo in Montana on July 19th. Until then, I will be counting on his considerable story telling skills through photographs and words as expressed in his dispatch on today's blog. (photo by Anthony Martin)

WHAT WORD ARE YOU FEELING RIGHT NOW?: Invite yourself to dance that word!

WARMING UP IN INCREMENTAL STEPS. How is creative movement with the Dancing Flowers done? One idea at a time. One movement. Over the moments, the movements gain momentum. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for the Dancing Flowers for Peace and the way they embrace women 40 and older into their bouquet for their Saturday morning improvisational dance (see here)! Hallelujah for DANCING WHAT WE ARE FEELING and honoring our bodies, leaning in and listening to what we want to dance!

Imagine closing your eyes. Your are standing among a circle of mature women in a dance studio at the Emory Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Lori Teague instructs us to listen and move in conversation with our bodies. As we progress in our individual dances, we are encouraged to interact with other dancers if we want too. As we listen, dance, and connect, we move through incremental steps of creative movement.

After our warm up, we are asked by Lori Teague, "What word describes how you are feeling today? Can you bring this word into your dance today?" Responses included connected, enlivened, relaxed. My word was INVITED.

Yes I felt INVITED into my body, to inhabit each cell from finger to toe tips and from scalp to heel pads. Each physical part of me was dancing with my hopes, my imagination, my soul! And all of my BEING felt INVITED to connect with the other dancers.

INVITED. I felt invited to move amongst the other women, being myself and addressing the needs of my body and soul all the while connecting, engaging in a larger bigger dance than myself. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

During the two hours, my most favorite movement together was flocking! We began as a group walking together, meandering, splintering into small groups, reconnecting, moving together, flowing, separating, reuniting. Our flocking was done with such ease and confidence, my BODY SPIRIT (an InterPlay term) soared. 

Richness of BEING abounded! Thank you Dancing Flowers for Peace for all that you do to support women 40 and older! Much more happened during this magical time, but some things should remain a mystery so you can discover the magic for yourself. Think about joining us one of these Saturdays!

THE DANCING FLOWERS FOR PEACE PLUS GUESTS. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

That's Coffee With Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and tell me what word you are feeling and would like to DANCE out! Did you dance it? Hallelujah to joyful and easeful movement! Hallelujah for embodying who we are!

THE DANCING FLOWERS FOR PEACE PLUS GUESTS. I "invited" myself into the group photo! Oh it is so wonderful to feel invited. (photo by Lila)

METAPHORIC OBJECTS: The subconcious encounters the concious through exercise to discover self

METAPHORIC OBJECTS. What objects would you select to represent your character traits, especially if you were directed to pick them randomly without a lot of thought? These are mine. What do they mean? Let's explore and think inventively! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for encountering oneself anew in a fresh way! Hallelujah for being guided to discover what you want to say about yourself today through image and word to others. Hallelujah for communication and for a warm social online community! Hallelujah for Facebook and my group, The Daily Creative Practice (join us here) that allows us to share our images, ideas, and discoveries!

This blog entry is a response to Monday Funday Blog Prompt on the Facebook group, The Daily Creative Practice (see complete prompt below). 

STEPS 1 and 2: CONSTELLATION OF CHARACTER TRAITS

To participate in this creative encounter designed by artist, lecturer, author Peter London, I first picked the objects before I determined the character traits (a reverse of the assignment). Deciding it is much better to try than to choke and not perform, I lowered the bar and confined my explorations to my courtyard. Quickly gathering objects without thinking. Now upon writing the blog, I have named a constellation of character traits and then asked the objects to represent them. Please look and read!

• I am a PILGRIM on a JOURNEY; therefore, I am curious and in perpetual motion (except when I am in complete collapsed exhaustion).

THE SPIRAL. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

• As a VISUAL and KINESTHETIC learner, images announce themselves meaningfully to me every where I go.
• Experiencing  MEANING throughout my body is essential to my happiness.

PRIMAL QUEEN. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

• I TREASURE connections with other PILGRIMS experiencing and expressing meaning.
• Imagined STRUCTURE provides me with comfort and peace.

VULNERABILITY AT THE CROSSROADS. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

• INTROSPECTION and reliance on INTUITION is my major modus operandi.

HONORING THE INTROSPECTIVE HUDDLE. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

STEPS 3 and 4: SELECTION OF SPACE AND ARRANGEMENT OF OBJECTS

I chose the patio of the courtyard in front of my condo in Decatur, Georgia, USA. The morning light was gentle and overcast making the tiles an expressive mossy green and pink. The arrangement was random yet took a few negotiations to find momentary permanence for this photograph: 

THE ARRANGEMENT OF METAPHORIC OBJECTS. Voila! Here are my metaphoric objects reclining on the pink tiles of my condo patio. The whelk shell from a Georgia barrier island at the center! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

STEPS 5: SUBCONSCIOUS ENCOUNTERING THE CONSCIOUS THROUGH METAPHORIC OBJECTS

Here is an explanation of my "Metaphoric Objects." The center of this SELF composition is the shell spiral--MY PILGRIM'S HOME. 

Tumbling in the GREAT SEA, my journey enlarges me, enlarges my HOME. As I grow, I repeatedly encounter crossroads as expressed by the colorful cross here in this image. There in the center of the compass, I feel invited to adventure in multiple directions. Having choices is important to me. 

The delicate red petals of the New Guinea Impatiens represents how ephemeral we all are. We must live today for tomorrow we die. I've made brave courageous choices in my life to leave what is familiar in order to encounter what is not.

The PRIMAL QUEEN, a frog with a crown, holds me to my most basic concept of self. Out of the primordial ooze we came and to that muddy blessedness we shall return. What might happen inbetween my origin and its finish?

The painted rock with the ocean wave spiral reminds me of the Daniel Dolphin story. I believe either my sister-in-law Liz or her daughter, my niece, Bridget, painted it. Anyways, Daniel Dolphin left his family group of dolphins to go in search of the perfect wave, a goal his society disapproves of. Why waste time surfing? Besides, no dolphin has survived once it has left home. On Daniel Dolphin's quest, he does indeed find the perfect wave, but more importantly than that, he finds that the universe supports his journey. Help and support arrive in surprising ways just when he needs it. Daniel returns to his covy of dolphins alive and shares his story of bravery, fulfillment, and discovery with them, that in turn enlivens his community by encouraging other dolphins to nurture and pursue their dreams. Individuals doing their solo dances in the midst of ensembles enriches our communities. (read my blog about Daniel the Dolphin here)

Finally the broken gargoyle who is hugging his knees, represents me at my common denominator. I am an introspecting mulling introvert who has learned to speak and dance in her community. The warm metallic necklace surrounding this gargoyle protects and celebrates my right to introspect. When I need to huddle in thought and retrieve my energy, I gloriously allow myself to do so.

MONDAY FUNDAY BLOG PROMPT #11:  METAPHORIC OBJECTS (modified from PeterLondon’s book “No More Secondhand Art”):

 1) Think of a constellation of character traits that make you who you are whether it is a quality like patience or impatience or a proclivity for eating oysters and admiring cephalopods. Write them down. Explore. Surprise yourself.

2) Being present to these thoughts of yourself, wander about your home environment, inside, outside, and around your neighborhood. Be on the lookout for objects that represent these character traits in some way. Meander without determination. Be open to what object speaks to you. Wait for the appropriate object to appear. Again, allow yourself to be surprised. Perhaps the object will pick you! Choose 6 to 12 objects. 

  

 3) Find a site to place your objects. Think about the quality of light, space, and background. What resonates with your body as you move from place to place. Find the place that is just right for whatever reasons. 

EMBODIED HALLELUJAH TRUTH  (photo by Chiboogamoo)

4) Arrange your objects within the space you have just found. Ask yourself how you want to arrange these objects. Have the goal be whatever makes you breathe easier and relaxes your muscles. Find a way to place your metaphoric objects in whatever way that expresses yourself naturally. 

5) The culmination of this creative exercise is this next step: Acknowledging that your subconscious has been at work selecting the metaphoric objects, choosing the space, and making the arrangement, you are now asked to summon your rational dimension. Using your intellect, write about the meanings of your objects, their arrangements, and why they exist in this space that you have chosen. 

You are welcome to complete as many steps of this exercise as you like. (post on Facebook group, The Daily Creative Practice)

HELP US GET TO MONTANA IN JULY: Buy quality prints of our Cretaceous-themed artwork

HELP US GET TO MONTANA. Tony Martin and I need travel funds to get to Montana for his research in July. Exciting things will be taking place on the Egg Mountain dinosaur-nest site near Choteau. His colleague from Montana State University, David Varricchio, will be there with a barrage of other scientists, students, and volunteers. I would like to join Tony after I finish my Life Practice Program with InterPlay mid-July. Tony often pays for his own research travel, and because I am in a career transition right now, we want to support this trip by selling giclée prints of our artwork. Up until now, we have been too shy to market these prints. Will you purchase our Cretaceous-themed art?

You can help support fossil research and science-communication outreach by buying one or both of these prints: “Mother Earth, Mother Dinosaur,” by Ruth Schowalter and “Parasitoid: In Rocks, No One Can Hear You Scream,” by Anthony Martin. Both of these artworks relate to Tony’s fossil discoveries from Cretaceous Period rocks in Montana. The sales of these prints will be used to support travel expenses for Tony and Ruth to go to Montana and work at the Egg Mountain dinosaur-nest site near Choteau, Montana, this July (2014). Tony will be working as an ichnologist with David Varricchio (Montana State University) and a group of other scientists and university volunteers. Ruth will document some of the science happenings at the site through photographs and blogging, and will be looking for inspirations for future art projects.

Each signed giclée print is $200 individually, but both purchased together are $350 plus $10 for shipping and handling. The word, “giclée,” is a fine art term which describes a printing process to reproduce an original piece of art work. Printed on high-quality watercolor paper, these giclée reproductions are made with fade-resistant archival inks, which will last 200 years (but not as long as the dinosaur bones and insect cocoons). Contact us via Facebook (Tony or Ruth) in a private message if you are interested in purchasing these colorful interpretations about the Cretaceous.

MOTHER EARTH, MOTHER DINOSAUR, by RuthTruth, aka Hallelujah Truth, Ruth Schowalter

About “Mother Earth, Mother Dinosaur”: This image has appeared in international paleontological presentations, having been printed on commemorative t-shirts for the 2008 “Dinosaur Dreaming” dig-season in Victoria, Australia, and published in the 2010 book, Dinosaur Dreaming: Exploring the Bass Coast of Victoria. “Mother Earth, Mother Dinosaur” also graced the front cover of a book published in Spain, A Burrowing Dinosaur, a bilingual text published by Fundacion Conjunto Paleotologico de Teruel- Dinopolis. In 2011, it was exhibited in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, at Fernbank Museum of Natural History and was selected for and shown at the Science Online 2012 conference at Duke University, North Carolina.

“Mother Earth, Mother Dinosaur” reflects Ruth Schowalter’s interpretation of a new species of dinosaur reported in the March 2007 Proceedingsof the Royal Society of London B. An adult dinosaur was found with two juveniles in their burrow, where they had remained for 95 million years. Scientists had thought that some dinosaurs should have burrowed in the Cretaceous; however, until Oryctodromeus cubicularis (which means "digging runner of the lair")—the scientific name assigned to this burrowing “mother” dinosaur—no evidence had been found to support that hypothesis.

As a painter, she was given special insights into this animal and its burrow with young because her husband, Anthony Martin of Emory University, was a co-discoverer of the new species with David Varricchio of Montana State University and Yoshihiro Katsura of the Gifu Prefecture Museum of Japan. Interpreting behavior from the fossil record is challenging, yet these findings indicate that mothers stayed with their young and maintained some kind of family structure. The findings also show evidence that mammals and insects co-existed with the dinosaurs. Small structures suggesting insect burrows and a small mammal burrow were found off the main burrow of the digging runner’s.

In painting this image of “Mother Earth, Mother Dinosaur,” Ruth wanted to convey both a “womb,” where the dinosaurs were more than likely born, and a “tomb,” where they died when it appears the burrow was flooded. She also wanted to give the feeling of the “mother earth” holding these creatures for all this time to be given a new birth during our life times.

This giclée reproduction of “Mother Earth, Mother Dinosaur” is smaller (15” x 17.5”) than the original painting (18” x 22”).  The original “Mother Earth, Mother Dinosaur” was done in acrylic on wood. These reproductions, which are printed on high-quality watercolor paper, are signed and dated by artist RuthTruth (aka Ruth Schowalter) and her husband, paleontologist Anthony Martin (one of the three co-discoverers of Oryctodromeus cubicularis).

 

Parasitoid: In Rocks, No One Can Hear You Scream,  by Anthony Martin, author of Dinosaurs Without Bones.

About “Parasitoid: In Rocks, No One Can Hear You Scream,” by Anthony Martin. Darwin once said, “I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars.” With that quotation in mind, this artwork is inspired by fossil insect cocoons from 75-million-year-old rocks in Montana (USA) associated with dinosaur nests that hold evidence of parasitoid behavior. This behavior is typically expressed by a smaller insect – such as a wasp – preying on the egg, larvae, pupae, or adults of another species of insect. The figures depicted in this artwork show the stages of parasitoid behavior represented by the fossils (from left to right): pupa --> exit hole --> exit burrow in a larger host pupa. These fossils thus give us insights into how long ago this behavior had evolved in insects.

The artwork and title are meant to evoke memories of the Alien movies, which featured an antagonist creature that used a parasitoid-like strategy to prey on its human victims. The artwork and the science behind it are also meant to echo Darwin’s struggle to reconcile his spiritual beliefs with the factual basis of natural selection.

The giclée print of “Parasitoid: In Rocks, No One Can Hear You Scream,” is 14.5” x 19,” based on the original size of 18” x 24”, which was drawn on black construction paper using watercolor crayon and colored pencil.

 

MISTAKEN POINT, NEWFOUNDLAND 2012. Looking at Ediacaran fossils on a foggy day made it difficult to see these amazing life forms from so many millions of years ago. Here Tony Martin (with Paleontologist Barbie in his pocket) and Ruth Schowalter (aka RuthTruth, Hallelujah Truth) stop for a photo while international ichnologists clamor overhead to discuss their findings. Ruth writes about her experiences on an ichnology field trip in these blogs: here, here, and here. These blog entries serve as an example of what sort of blogs might come out of the Montana trip.

LOVING MY CITY: Thank you Decatur Arts Festival 2014 for such a walkable beautiful place to live!

SATURDAY MORNING AT THE DECATUR ARTS FESTIVAL 2014. My Chiboogamoo and I live in a pedestrian friendly city and during the Memorial Day weekend every year, city inhabitants walk or ride bikes to the arts festival. For us, it is a 15-minute walk to this scene downtown. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for a warm embracing city that loves the expressive arts! Hallelujah for the Decatur Arts Festival 2014 and all its bounty! Hallelujah for being able to walk to and around my city.

SATURDAY FARMER'S MARKET. On our way to the Decatur Arts Festival, we passed by the weekly Farmer's Market held next to Decatur High School. How exciting that it is once again peach season! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

BIKE VALET! Every seen one of these signs? It was a first for me too! I wonder how much it cost to use a bike valet! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

COOLING OFF. Thank you Decatur fire department for cooling off festival goers during the hot Saturday afternoon. Children and adults alike were running under the cool sprays of water right next to the food trucks! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

ART BOOTHS. There seem to be fewer artists booths this year but those that were present were colorful! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

PORTABLE TOILETS. A nice surprise awaited us in front of the Decatur Courthouse and under the magnolias near the acoustic tent--artistically painted portable toilets! Mona Lisa does not seem amused. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

ALONG CLAIRMONT. Events were going on everywhere. Here you can see enthusiastic parents photographing their tutu-ed daughters inside, right off the street where the artist booths were. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

WOW! Loved this artists' work but have lost her business card! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

PERFORMING ARTISTS IN THE GAZEBO. Beyond the people and the tents, is the Gazebo, where there were live performances most of the day! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

THE DECATUR ARTS ASSOCIATION. Finally! My Chiboogamoo and I had been intending for a long time to become members of the Decatur Arts Association and this past Saturday, we paid our membership dues. We are official members now. And we have the t-shirt to prove it. I'm pictured here with Ann Vann Slyke. (photo by Chiboogamoo)

CHIBOOGAMOO!

That's Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and tell me what you enjoyed about the Decatur Arts Festival 2014! Or if you don't live in my city, what do you enjoy about your city's art festival?