I thought I'd show you a few more of the colorful textiles I told you about in yesterday's post. Here is another shot of the labyrinth with all the flags forming the pathway.
This one captures a moose in the forrest.
This one conveys another message about the importance of bees and how we all can work to save the environment.
This last one amazed me in just its sheer beauty. It almost looks like a painting.
After spending 5 days stuck at home nursing a nasty cold, on Sunday afternoon I decided I needed some time outdoors so I headed to the Desert Botanical Garden. That's where I got to see a new installation I had been hearing about called TOWARD 2050. It's an exhibit led by textile artist Ann Morton that invites the public to craft handmade artworks that express their views on the environment. The little textile works of art are arranged in a labyrinth that visitors can walk through and study the different panels or flags.
People had all kinds of ways of expressing their concerns. This one is straightforward.
Here is another of the "I am Black History" murals. This time we see a gentleman greeting us with fist bump, a sign of respect and friendship.
Taking part in Monday Murals.
In case anyone is wondering what that is on the roof of this building, it's an evaporative cooler, used to cool a house or building using a water evaporation method. It uses less electricity than air conditioning but it really only works in a dry climate like ours. This one looks like someone has been working on it.
I featured Pepper two years ago on my blog. He's a neighbor of my friend Glenda and he has a sort of ritual of visiting Glenda for a little while every day. He was at her house recently when I stopped by and he looked so cute with a colorful ribbon/flower tied to his collar. I could resist another photo of that cute face.
Okay, so I couldn't resist two photos of that cute face.
Pepper is a true sweetie.
I shot this photo through the window of one of the galleries that features pottery. There is a lot of skill that went into painting this pot.
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I haven't seen anything Valentine related recently so when the day popped up on the calendar, I wondered what to post. So I searched through the archives and found three photos that will represent this day perfectly. First up is a bouquet of roses that I photographed way back in 2011. I remember that I liked that bouquet because it combined so many colors.
Roses go well with Valentine's Day but so do sweets. A nice box of chocolates is always welcome but every now and then I indulge in this wonderful chocolate cake topped with a cherry compote and a big dollop of whipped cream. I had this Valentine treat in 2023.
Of course champagne is another indulgent treat that appears on this day. Well, actually it appears a lot more often than that at my house. I do enjoy a nice glass of bubbly champagne. I treated myself to this glass just last October.
The nice thing about all three of these treats is that you can enjoy them anytime. No special day is required.
Happy Valentine's Day.
I spotted the sign above as I was driving past on Indian School Road. Then I glanced over and saw the portrait of Vincent Van Gogh clinging to the side of the building. So, of course I had to stop to get a closer look.
It's a new casual restaurant serving pizza and sandwiches and drinks. I checked the menu and found all the normal things with the exception of a dill pickle pizza. That is very different.
To the right of the entrance is a little patio hidden behind the trees. I peeked into the patio and saw that it contained two pool tables and that rather strange message spray painted on the wall.
It's an interesting new place that I might have to try one day but I think I'll pass on the dill pickle pizza.
I took a few more photos when I was at the Heard Museum Gift Shop last weekend so I thought I'd share these beauties too. These two "Kachina-style" sculptures are actually woven like basket weaving. I had never seen anything like them. Unfortunately, I didn't catch the artists name but I certainly admired the work.
This is a wood carving by Stetson Honytumtewa, from the Hopi tribe. When I first glanced at this piece, I saw the animal climbing onto the rock and I thought it was made of real fur. It's not, it's carved wood.
This is a doll made by Rhonda Holy Bear. It's called Ghost Dancer Doll.
This last piece is a bronze statue created by Larry Yazzie. It's such a beautiful piece.
I love browsing around the gift shop and this last weekend I was there earlier in the morning and had the place all to myself.
I was at the Heard Museum over the last weekend and spent some time in the museum gift shop. That's where I saw this sculpture created by Roxanne Swentzell, an artist I've admired for several years. I've featured her work before, most recently here .
She created this piece as a tribute to the Santa Fe Indian Market. The description card shown in the photo states:
"I sold at the Santa Fe Indian Market for 18 years. This piece is a dedication to this great event. 'Making Babies for Indian Market' is about the creative process. My pieces are like children that are born through me. It's about all the 'babies of artwork' born because of Indian Market."
There are several of these "I Am Black History" murals scattered around the valley. I spot them every now and then. I love finding them because then I learn something about an accomplished person who didn't receive enough accolades during their lifetime.
Since this is Black History Month, this is the perfect time to post the a few of these murals.
Wendell Scott (1921-1990) was the first African American to win a NASCAR race in 1963.
He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1999 and the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015.
Taking part in Monday Murals.
When I was in Scottsdale last Wednesday to meet my friend at the museum, we decided to have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants located right around the corner. It was a quiet night in Scottsdale which I thought was rather unusual since this is high tourist season. But the quiet streets allowed my take a photo right down Main Street while standing in the middle of the street. It has a festive flavor with all those lights stretched over the street.
The painting I used yesterday to talk about the 10-minute Art Challenge, is part of a current exhibition at the Scottsdale Museum of the West. The exhibit contains 50 paintings all by John Clymer an amazing artist who depicted historic scenes from life in the west in the early 1800's. The full name of the exhibit is "People, Places, Predicaments: John Clymer's West". The painting above is called "The Peace Pipe: Overland Astorians, 1811". It tells the story of how the explorers forged a truce with the Native Americans in order to continue their explorations.
Here's another interesting painting called "The Salt Makers: Lewis and Clark Expeditions, 1806". This one shows the explorers boiling water to extract salt from it. I loved the details in this one like the guy carrying a bucket of water from the sea and the natives sitting on that mound and watching the process.
I didn't have time to see all 50 of the paintings so a return trip to the museum will be happening sometime soon. I'm not usually a huge fan of paintings from this era but I think my new found 10-minute art challenge combined with the incredible detail of Clymer's work is giving me a new appreciation.
There is a new feature in the New York Times that gives the reader a 10 minute challenge to look at a work of art for 10 minutes to see if you see things you didn't see at first and to get an idea of the mood of the piece. I tried it with the painting they presented in the paper and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. Later that same day, I met a friend at the Western Spirit Museum of the West in Scottsdale so I decided to use a similar practice to look at a piece of art in a new exhibit at the museum.
I read about this new artwork on Instagram and I decided to see if I could find it. It's located right in the heart of all the light rail construction for the new expansion of the system into South Phoenix.
The piece is made of translucent fiberglass and was created by local artist Isaac Caruso.
I'm guessing it's part of the light rail art project but I don't have confirmation on that.
I think this link will take you to the Isaac Caruso's Instagram account with some wonderful close-up photos of this great new addition to the Phoenix art scene.
I went to the Symphony last Saturday evening with my friends David and Riley. We were a bit early so we decided to go up to the upper level and get a good view of the theatre below us.
It's quite a beautiful theatre when you get the full picture of it.
The main musical piece was Symphonie Espagnole featuring violinist Richard Lin who gave a brilliant performance. That was followed by Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe'. There was lots of great music.
On Sunday I met fellow blogger David from The Adventures of Travel Penguin. We met at the Heard Museum and had a lovely lunch and a little stroll around the museum. At one point we ended up in this little courtyard, a spot in the museum that I rarely visit. It's a quiet little spot that used to be a courtyard for the home that served as the beginning of the museum.
I took one more photo of the artistic "fence" that draws a lot of attention in the museum. This is called "Indigenous Evolution" and the individual pieces were created by Tony Jojoba and Isleta & Rosemary Lonewolf.
It's always nice to visit with a fellow blogger and it was great to see David once again. I love the fact that blogging has opened the door to new friends from all over the world.
I found another mural dedicated to our basketball team, the Phoenix Suns. They certainly do get a lot of attention from muralists. I'm not sure who the artist is for this one. In the upper left corner is says "talentedartist17" and in the lower right it says "Denz". The letters in this one are a little wonky. Phoenix looks more like "Phaanix" to me.
Taking part in Monday Murals.
I had an appointment with the eye doctor on Friday and as I entered the office I was greeted by this enormous painting of an elephant. That wasn't there the last time was at the office. That big painting grabs your attention immediately.
On the other wall was this painting, a colorful Native American themed artwork. It looks like some redecorating had happened since my last visit. It's nice to have some art to admire while waiting to be called.
The February 1st theme for City Daily Photo Bloggers is "Motors" and I must admit this one had me totally stumped. Motors are actually everywhere you look. They are on lawn mowers, motorcycles and of course cars. They also run appliances like food processors and blenders. None of that inspired me. Finally, one day a week or two ago I was shopping Kierland Commons and I passed the Tesla showroom and saw this motor in the window. So I went inside and took a photo of this display of the motor that runs that electric car and decided that would be my February 1st photo.
To see other blogger's ideas of a motor, click here.
I was sitting at a traffic light in the left turn lane with three lanes of traffic to my right. I glanced over at the car that pulled up next to me and noticed that it was one of those driverless cars. Even though they are all over the city right now, it still seemed strange to see a car with no driver in the lane next to me.
Here are a few more of the new sculptures I found in the large garden at the Shemer Art Center. These in the foreground are by Janet Orr. She makes the great ceramic totems that I've featured in the past. She calls this group the Metropolis Collection. (You can also see "Adonis" that was featured last Sunday in the background to the far right of this photo.)
This one is a little strange to me. It was created by Damian Lee and it's called Homenaje a Gaudi (Tribute to Gaudi).
This sculpture was created by Mary Neubauer and it's called Well Flow.
This last one is a ceramic sculpture by David Knorr. He calls it South Seas.
As I said before, there were lots of new sculptures to explore in the garden at the Shemer Art Center.
