I saw this beautiful mural along McDowell Road and was drawn to it to get some photos. It is beautifully painted and so vibrant with colors.
On the far end of the mural were these words in Spanish which translate to "Fighting is Voting". It is also the name of a grass-roots organization formed to educate and get-out-the-vote. A perfect message for any time but especially relevant these days. The artist is La Morena.
Taking part in Monday Murals.
The challenge for our June meeting was "Balance" and my creation is to the left. I call it "Kaleidoscopic Totem Pole".
Here are two more from the group. Above is Jim's piece. Sorry for the reflection. Those guitar necks are all cut out very finely and then set against a painted background. We kept it in the plastic wrap because it was so delicate.
To the left is Tim's drawing of the view from his studio at home. Tim usually does sculpture work but being an architect by trade, decided to use his drawing skills.
These are just a sample, there were several more great creations that I didn't get captured. It's fun getting together once again and even more fun getting those creative juices flowing again.
These works in clay caught my eye. They look like strange creatures from a galaxy far, far away. All of these are the creations of Meg Gizzi.
This one is called "Or a Receptiveness".
This one bears the name "Or Just to Make a Sound".
This one goes by the name of "I Seek a Certain Magic".
And, this last one is called "Favorite Colors (Myself with Others)".
There is no doubt that it took some talent to create these 'stoneware' objects. It also took some imagination to conceive their design.
However, having said that, they are a bit too extraterrestrial for my taste.
Although, they did make a fun blog post.
Our summer temperatures have arrived here in the desert southwest. We are supposed to reach 110 F degrees this weekend. The last three days have hovered between 106 and 109.
I'll have to curtail my early morning walks at the Desert Botanical Garden for a while. I'll keep my fingers crossed for a few rainy days that could bring those temperatures down.
It will be a while before I find any more pretty blooms like the Caper bloom above or the cactus blooms to the left.
Oh well, we live in the desert. We are used to it.
I'm going back in time with this post. Way back in 1982, I accompanied my parents to attend the dedication of the World Showcase EPCOT Center in Florida. For those of you who have not been to EPCOT, it is located next door to Walt Disney World and contains a multitude pavilions featuring man's achievements in art, industry and science. It also contains 10 international pavilions featuring customs, art and food from the those countries. While I was there, I collected a special glass from each of the countries represented. The glasses feature Mickey Mouse and few of his friends dressed in the attire native of the country they represented. In the photo above you see Canada, America, France, Japan and Morocco.
Here are the other five representing the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, China and Mexico. I was clearing out some clutter over last weekend and saw these fun glasses and I just had to get them out for a closer look. The poor things have been sitting in the back of a cupboard for years. I used to use them quite often but over the years they gotten relegated to the back. I'm trying to decide if I should part with them or put them back in the cabinet.
This is a photo that was used in the Bob Haozous exhibit at the Heard Museum that I posted about yesterday. There is a series of these huge sculptures that line the street just outside of Sky Harbor International Airport. Each one has a theme of air travel. The sculptures were created by Bob Haozous and they are located along 24th street where it curves around the end of the runway. I've admired them as I drive on this street for many years now. Behind the fence in this photo is the airport runway.
This is another example of one of of the sculptures. This one was recreated on the gallery wall.
I have wanted to get photos of these wonderful sculptures for many years but there is simply no way to get one. 24th Street is a very busy thoroughfare with no parking on either side of the street and jet airplanes taxiing right up to the fence on the airport side. I'm willing to bet that the photo above was taken by city staff who could park an official city truck with flashing lights near the art to take that photo.
So now I can finally post about these fabulous pieces even if it's only two of them and they are just reproductions.
I was at the Heard Museum again last Saturday for another "Artful Mornings" lecture. As I do every time I attend one of those lectures, I took a stroll through the gallery. This exhibit of the works of Bob Haozous has been up for several weeks now but his works are so vast and wildly unique, I love looking at them again and again.
On this latest visit, I fell in love with this small sculpture of a man holding a rabbit. I see from the sign that it's in a private collection. The owner is very lucky to have such a wonderful piece.
I also saw this painting that is called "Old Indian Artist". This looks very much like a self-portrait.
This exhibit is the first retrospective of his artistry and brings together six decades of his works including sculpture, paintings, prints and jewelry.
"Throughout his career, Haozous has shaped current dialogues about the complicated reality of American Indian creative expression as art, commodity, and cultural practice. Haozous uses satire and irony to reconsider figurative traditions within Indigenous Art while contemplating the philosophical meaning of being Indigenous in the postmodern world." That quote is one of many from the exhibit.
The piece above is called "Sistine Cowboy" a homage to Michaelangelo's famous painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Tomorrow I'll show you one of his works that I have wanted to get a photo of for many years.
I did some online searching for the artist but I had no luck.
The new apartments are on McDowell Road at about 17th Street and they are called "The Governor".
Governor Hunt has a very unique tomb that I featured back in 2011. It's a pyramid. If you look at that post you will learn a few more facts about this colorful man and his unique tomb.
Taking part in Monday Murals.
I had a drink with a friend at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel and we both walked out the doors to face this new outdoor bar that opened about 2 years ago and we both turned around and went back inside. We decided that we liked the old bar inside the hotel much better. This modern looking space just seems out of place in such a historic hotel. It just doesn't seem to blend in the with the rest of the place. New and modern isn't always better.
I moved over to another location at Papago Park and I found a snowy egret standing on a rock. Here's another calm and graceful bird.
The egret soon jumped down off of the rock and into the water so it could poke around trying to find some tasty bits to snack on. It was a good day for finding some of the birds I don't see often.
At a recent trip to Papago Park I found a Great Blue Heron standing at the edge of the water and that grackle in the photo was not happy about it. The grackle and another friend kept dive-bombing the heron. The heron appeared to be minding its own business but those grackles were not happy.
The funny thing was that the heron was totally unfazed and simply ignored all the screeching and flapping around. Herons are such calm and graceful birds.
I was there for about 20 minutes snapping photos and the heron just walked along the shore and watched the water.
Shortly after I admired all those Buddhas I posted yesterday, I came across these frogs who appear to be mimicking a Buddha pose.
Their smiling faces caught my eye.
This visit to the nursery started out as a search for a white peacock (see Tuesday's post) and even though I didn't find the peacock, I did find a lot of other interesting things to photograph. It was a worthwhile adventure.
I took photos of some of them.
I took a walk around Whitfill Nursery on Saturday hoping to see a white peacock that I heard was roaming the grounds. I had no luck finding the peacock but I did run into this fellow. It was a bit of an unexpected encounter. I had no idea I'd find dinosaurs hiding among the trees.
There is a new mural on the street side of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. It was painted by Kayla Newman and commissioned by the museum. Since I always enter the museum from the Scottsdale Civic Center Mall side, I hadn't seen this one before.
The City Daily Photo Bloggers theme for June 1st is Shadows and it gave me a perfect opportunity to show a few more photos from the recent "Light Bloom" exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden.
The patterned shadows cast by these giant sculptures was amazing.
I thought this show was pretty spectacular.
If you want to see more "shadowy" photos, click here.
I've seen several Chaste Trees around town lately and all of them are bursting with these pretty, lavender blooms. This one is a small tree that I saw in the Scottsdale Civic Center Park.
This one is the size of a bush right now but there is one closer to my house that is a full sized tree. I posted a photo of it five years ago.
I was exploring the art along Main Street in Scottsdale when I stopped into one gallery to have a look around. I focused on an abstract piece across the gallery when this foreboding fellow stepped into the frame. Not really. He was just standing there but I thought he added some mystery to the shot so I included him.
I found this new sculpture in front of a shop on Main Street in Scottsdale. The shop is one that sells pottery for plants and outdoor decorations. You can see a few in the background.
The sculpture has some very graceful lines that goes well with that reflective surface.
I saw this brain shaped sculpture on a wall in front of a new building in Scottsdale and I had to stop to see what it was all about. It turns out to be a public art piece commissioned by the city for a new building.
The building houses the Bob Bove' Neurosciences Institute. It's located in an area of Scottsdale full of medical buildings and the Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center. The building is nice looking but just driving past, I couldn't figure out what the raised area was all about. Now I know. According to the plaque near the "brain", that entire wall was created by Kevin S Berry specifically for this building. It's called "Stream of Consciousness",
When I did the two previous posts about the "Orchid Fever" exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden, one of my followers asked what will happen to all those beautiful orchids when the exhibit is over. I found that answer last week on an Instagram post.
They were all donated to nonprofit organizations.
Over 2,000 orchids were donated to different hospitals around the valley and to the Child Crisis Center and to the various Hospice of the Valley locations. It's good to know that these beauties have gone to places where they will continue to bring smiles to faces.
