Roadrunner Morning

 

On Sunday morning I finally was able to take a nice walk at the Desert Botanical Garden.  I went at 7:00 AM for the members only hour.  I was greeted by this roadrunner before I had even made it through the park's entrance.  I had my cell phone in hand because my ticket was on it so I snapped this photo.

Then I stood there quietly and got my camera out of the bag so I could get a closer view.  The roadrunner obliged by getting up on the fountain for a little drink of water.

Then an hour later, this fellow crossed my path.  It was a roadrunner morning at the garden.  Sometimes I can go to the garden and not see any roadrunners. On Sunday they were everywhere.

The Hand of God

I recently found this mural on the side of a shop that sells antiques and unique furniture and decorator items.  It's an image of the hands in Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.  I remember getting a bit dizzy trying to see all the paintings on that ceiling when I visited years ago. This is much easier to see.

The "Eye of Horus" was found on that same building high up over the entrance to the shop.  The eye depicts protection, health and restoration.  That seems perfect for a place that gives old furniture a new life. 

Taking part in Monday Murals.  

 

Seasonal Ceramics

Here are a few of the seasonal ceramics I saw when I visited that plant nursery several weeks ago.  They were ready for all those people who prefer something more long lasting than a carved pumpkin.  

This little chihuahua was dressed for some Halloween trick-or-treating.  It looks like he already got a nice treat.   

Will It Never End?

 

Here is a perfect example of how we desert dwellers are feeling these days.  I posted a photo of this little cactus garden in front of the Western Spirit Museum in Scottsdale back in 2022 when all those saguaros were standing tall and looking good.  Even though saguaros are built to take the heat, these look like they've had enough.  

I snapped this from my phone on Thursday.  It appears that it might finally be letting up a bit.  Fingers crossed!!  We've heard these predictions before so I'm only cautiously optimistic this time.  

It's Jack-O'-Lantern Season

 

When I was in Scottsdale last Friday, I walked through this little passage filled with artist studios.  I found this selection of jack-o'-lanterns hanging from a tree that is usually filled with artistic ornaments. The arts community is showing that they are ready for the holiday season to begin.

I took the photo of this glass ornament when I saw it sparkling in the sunshine.  

Gold Rush Dogs

 

This painting is part of another exhibit at the Western Spirit Museum in Scottsdale.  The artist is Veryl Goodnight and she is both a painter and sculptor.  There were several paintings in the exhibit featuring these beautiful working dogs. In this painting she is showing the variety of breeds used during the gold rush era.

Next to the painting was this photo that points out the different types of dogs depicted in the painting.  There is a five minute video telling the story of these dogs and also featuring more of her paintings here.  

I stood there looking at these wonderful dogs and wished I could give them a pat on the head or a warm hug.  

Monet is Back

 

Monet has returned to the Xanadu Galley in Scottsdale. He's still working on that same painting that he was working on back in 2015.  At least he doesn't have to be chained to the building this time.  

Monet has a friend to join him this time.  It looks like Amelia Earhart is back for a visit.  She's in a different pose this time.  When she was here in 2020, she was just relaxing on the bench.  This time she has a model airplane to keep her company.

The Xanadu Gallery always has a few distinguished guests outside their door.  I enjoyed the time that Albert Einstein stopped in for a visit.

American Backcourts

 

When my friend and I were at the Western Spirit Museum last Friday, we saw a small exhibit of photographs by Rob Hammer.  He set out on a project to document a different side of the sport of basketball. He shows how it is found everywhere and loved by all.  I loved the clever way he named each piece.  The one above (sorry about the reflections) was taken in Arizona but he named it "Mars".  I can see the resemblance.  

This one was taken in Utah and he calls this one "Retired".  I don't know, I think there might be a few more baskets left in this one if you aim to the right.

This one is called "Railroad Ball".  

Looks like basketball is loved all over the country and played a variety of locations some in difficult terrain.  

Heavenly Pizza

 

Pizza Heaven is a small pizza restaurant that makes pretty good pizza.  It's not far from where I used to live so I visited several times.  I just noticed this new mural that faces the parking lot. There is a signature on the bottom-left but my searches couldn't find information for either name listed.

Just around the other side of the building was this mural.  This one had the same signature of MRMIMEK on it.  It is quite different from the sunrise image on the other side.

Taking part in Monday Murals.

Back at a Museum

 

My friend Glenda and I went to the Western Spirit Museum in Scottsdale on Friday to get a last look at the William Matthews exhibit.  The exhibit closes on October 20th.  I had only seen it once last fall and I posted about it here.  Matthews is such a talented artist and has had such a varied and extensive career.  

The piece to the left is one of his  watercolor paintings that he had fabricated into glass pieces to form this mosaic piece.  It's called "Hard Candy". 

I was also amused by this watercolor painting called "Anasazi Graffiti".  Such a clever name for this image of a Native American putting petroglyphs on the canyon wall.  

This one really excited my friend Glenda.  She was all set to buy a puzzle like this.

Matthew's had that same painting I featured in the first photo cut into a puzzle with pieces in western-themed shapes.  

Unfortunately, this is one of only a very few he had made and according to the young lady in the gift shop, making just one cost around $2000.00.  So this puzzle will have to stay behind that glass case.

A Touch of Chicago in Phoenix

 

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria started doing business in Phoenix a few years ago.  I remember reading about it in the newspaper when they first opened here but I've never been.  I've never been to one in Chicago either.  I saw one just week ago when I was there but I've never eaten there.  

You see, I've never been a fan of "deep-dish" pizza so I've avoided the places that serve that style.  

They do a good business here in Phoenix so I don't think my absence hurts them in any way.  

Architectural Memories

 

I stopped at a shop that sells all kinds of gift items and decorator pieces and I saw these framed prints.  They commemorate unique places in Arizona most of which no longer exist.  The first two on the left, Cine Capri & Trader Vic's are long gone.  Cine Capri is where I saw the very first Star Wars movie and Trader Vic's was a tropical-themed night spot in Scottsdale.

In the middle row we have Camelview 5, the movie theatre that closed in 2015.  I featured photos from Camelview before it was demolished.  The Safari Hotel in Scottsdale closed and was demolished in 1998.

On the far right, is the Tropics Motor Hotel in Phoenix which happened to be an Al Beadle building.  It is also long gone.  The one below is the Starlight Motel in Mesa and it is still standing.  It's undergone numerous renovations but the one thing that remains the same is that wonderful "diving lady" neon sign.

I found this photo of the sign on line so you could see this wonderful piece of neon art.  Back in October of 2010, there was a really bad storm that took the sign down.  The city helped to raise the money to have it restored and as far as I know, that lady still takes that big dive every evening after dark.  

Locating an Old Favorite

 

One of my all-time favorite paintings is this one, Night Hawks by Edward Hopper.  When I spent those years in Chicago for an assignment, I became a museum member and on the weekends that I didn't travel back to Phoenix, I would make trips to the Art Institute.  I got to know the place pretty well.  It has changed a lot since that time with a whole new wing added on.  On every visit to the museum, I have to call on my favorite Edward Hopper painting and say hello to him and those four people inside that cafe.

It is a popular painting among museum goers as you see from this photo.  It was drawing quite a crowd of admirers when I was in the gallery room.

The same can be said about the other famous painting at the museum.  It's Georges Surat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte that I featured in a post on the 22nd.  I was lucky when I made it to this gallery.  It was during the "member's hour" before the museum opened to the public.  The galleries were a lot quieter then.  

Blue and White

 

I mentioned a little over a week ago that I visited a plant nursery on the other side of town.  I found this display of Delft-like pottery at the garden center.  It was another great option for the theme of blue.

The color blue has such a calming effect on me.  It's a color that my eye always goes to.  Maybe that's why our blue desert skies are so appealing to me in spite of the rising desert temperatures.

Theme Day: Blue

 

I dug very deep into my archives to retrieve this photo.  This was taken in 2008, the very first time that Dale Chihuly did an exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden.  This was one of my favorite pieces from that exhibit.  I love the color.  These glass figures look like graceful water birds stretching their heads toward the sky.  

The City Daily Photo Bloggers theme for the first of October is "Blue".  Check out other Blue shots here.

All About the Flowers

 

I didn't realize when I snapped this through a car window that it was an advertisement for a restaurant.  All I saw were the flowers and I thought it made a nice mural.  I took this on my way to the airport in Chicago last Wednesday.  I still like all those flowers and I guess technically, it is a mural.

Taking part in Monday Murals.

Georgia O'Keeffe: "My New Yorks"

 

I have always thought of Georgia O'Keeffe as a southwestern artist living on her ranch near Abiquiu New Mexico.  However, she lived with her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz in New York City for a number of years.  While there, she painted city scenes along with her paintings of flowers and shells.  The painting above is "The View From the 30th Story of the Shelton Hotel.  If I had seen this painting all by itself somewhere, I would never have guessed it was painted by Georgia O'Keeffe.

These are just a sample of some of the paintings I saw in the exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago.  

This one is "The Radiator Building - Night".

This one is a painting of the Shelton Hotel where she was living.  It's called "Shelton Hotel NY No. 1".

While painting these views of New York, she also painted scenes from the natural world such as the flowers she is known for.

She had old dried out bones and branches sent from New Mexico to New York and slipped them into some of her most famous pieces.  

This one is called "Cow's Skull with Calico Roses".  

Here is a photo of O'Keeffe with one of those skulls that she had shipped to New York.  She hung it on the balcony at the hotel and used it as inspiration for her art works.

I loved so many of the paintings in this exhibit but, this one I especially liked.  It's called "East River from Shelton".  I love the colors in this painting.  It has that earthy southwestern look even though it's an east coast, urban scene.  

This exhibit will travel next to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta Georgia.  It opens October 25th there.  If you are in that area, I highly recommend seeing the exhibit.  

A Little Taste of France

 

After having a fabulous French meal in Chicago last Saturday, I was craving a bit more so I joined a friend  yesterday afternoon for lunch at Zinc Bistro in Scottsdale.  It's a great place to satisfy that sort of craving. 

I had the crab crepes served with the lobster sauce and shiitake mushrooms.  It was delicious.  It was the perfect 'foodie' treat.  

The Great Wave

 

On my last visit to the Art Institute of Chicago, I was talking to one of the gallery attendants about all the beautiful things I had seen over the past few days.  He told me to be sure to see "The Wave" before I left the museum.  The Wave of course refers to Katsushika Hokusai's famous woodblock print of a wall of water looming over Japan's Mount Fuji.  (I apologize for the reflections in the glass.) It is no doubt an image that would be familiar to almost everyone.  The print is very light sensitive so it only goes on display every five years and for very short periods of time.  

The attendant gave me directions to find the gallery it was in.  I was a bit awestruck by the mysterious feel they have given the room.  The entrance area was dark with many pillars leading up to a very large Japanese screen which also featured Mount Fuji.  The print was on the wall to the left.

Here's a better view of the screen.  It was created by Soga Shohaku.  Even though "The Wave" is a familiar print that has been reproduced many times, I'm glad I got to see one of the original prints.  It is a rare opportunity.

If the history of the print interests you, you will find more information about it here.  It's a fascinating story.  

Just a Few Outtakes

 

I'm back home but, I thought I'd show you a few outtakes from those last few minutes in Chicago.  First up, this was shot through the window of the Uber at the beginning of the long ride to the airport.  I snapped it because I recognized that building all the way to the left. It's the same one that is in the photo I posted on Tuesday shot through the restaurant window.  It's just from the other side this time.

Here is another one I shot out the Uber window.  I was mesmerized by the size of that graffiti on that building.  Painting those letters (or whatever they are) that big must have taken some ingenuity.

This one I shot out the plane window as I waited for everyone to board.  I was wondering what that guy was doing leaning over the engine on the jumbo jet.

Last but not least, downtown Phoenix as we were coming in for a landing.  I really must remember not to choose a seat right over the wing the next time I fly.  It gets in the way of my photo taking.

Lots of Rain and a Pleasant Surprise

 

Tuesday turned out to be another rainy day.  In fact, very rainy.  I did manage to get out around 9:30 to walk to Federal Plaza to photograph Calder's grand "Flamingo".  I think that wet pavement kind of adds to the flamingo's brilliant look.

I walked along Michigan Avenue again while it was drizzling and then stopped for a leisurely lunch. When I was done, it was pouring down rain. I walked for about two blocks and then found a cab to take me back to my hotel so I could dry off. It was really coming down.

See that building on the right, the very, very tall one?  That is the tallest building designed by a female architect and it houses the St. Regis Hotel along with condos above.  That's where I had dinner Tuesday evening.

This is a view from the table at the restaurant.  It just so happens that my friend Dave (of the Julie and Dave that I've mentioned many times on this blog) was in town for a trial.  He didn't know how his trial would turn out so we didn't plan anything ahead of time, but as things turned out, we had dinner Tuesday night at a place called Miru on the 12th floor of that very tall building. It was a Japanese restaurant and the food was excellent.

We walked along the river after dinner allowing me to snap a couple of night time photos like this one of the Wrigley Building.

This one is looking west along the river.  The dreary, rainy day ended up quite spectacular with great food and good friends. 

I fly back to Phoenix this afternoon.  It was a wonderful 5 days.