This is a First

 

I don't think I've ever seen a mural painted on a bench before but here we have one.  I found this lovely bench at the Uptown Plaza shopping center.  It's called Pomegranate Blossoms and was painted by Lisa MacCallum of ThreeMacStudio. It is dated 2020 so it's been there for a while.  I'm glad I noticed it. 

Taking part in Monday Murals.  

Desert Chalet 16 Years Later

 

I posted a photo of this house way back in 2008 when it was looking a little rough around the edges.  It stood out back then because it was made to look like a mountain chalet but was sitting squarely in the desert.  You can see how it used to look here.  It's nice to see that someone has given it a refreshing new look.

One of Those Things....

 

....that caught my eye.  

When I was out taking photos of architectural gems, I happened to come across this building.  This is a view from the side of the building.  The front of the building is rather ordinary but from this side, it has charm in composition and symmetry.  

I love finding little gems like this.

Another Beadle Building

 

This is another Al Beadle building.  I missed it on that day I drove around looking for his buildings.  I happened to be in the neighborhood a few days ago so I finally got the photos.

This one is an office building built up on a platform with the space below open.  The interesting thing I learned about this one is about those diagonal windows.  This is the only one of his buildings with that type a window.  I learned that he was aware that the city would never bury the power lines (seen all the way to the right).  He decided to incorporate the angle of the guylines anchoring the huge power pole into the building's design.  Unfortunately when I took this photo, I failed to get those lines in the shot.

However, I found a photo on line.  Those lines match the line of the windows perfectly.  Very clever!

Birthday Fun!

 

Last Monday was my birthday and my sister sent me this fabulous birthday card.  It came in a big envelope, you open it up and then squeezed the two sides of the bowl and it forms a beautiful standing bouquet of flowers.  I immediately placed it on a nice black background and snapped a photo.

The fun didn't stop there.  The next day, I decided this might be a good photo to play around with the editing software.  

I gave it a "happy face" background to show just how happy I am to have it.

Then I gave it a tropical background.  This one looks nice.

And then I found one of the AI options that turned the bouquet into something very colorful.

I think this was my favorite of all the options.  I love the brass bowl and the pebble-like background.

I kind of felt like a kid again with a shiny new toy!  

Shoes and Art....

 .....two of my favorite things!

There was one other exhibit at the Heard Museum that caught my attention.  This one was called "Art and Sole".  Shoes were provided to a number of Native American Artists and they were asked to create designs for each pair.  The museum matched each of the artist's shoes with one of their art pieces for this display.  This one was my favorite.  The artwork "Pueblo Warriors" is by Lisa Holt and Harlan Reano and Harlan designed those shoes.  I love them.  I'd be happy to own a pair just like them.

Another of the artworks was this painting by Marla Allison called "Dragonfly and Moonlight".  

Here are the shoes that Marla painted.  She calls them Sunday Shoes.  

These last creations are by Les Namingha.  The shoes go rather well with the beautiful pottery.  

This was a fun exhibit.  Now I just need to find out how I can get a pair of sneakers like those in the top photo.

Transformations

 

I stopped at the Heard Museum on Sunday to see a small exhibit of works by Harry Fonseca.  I saw that this exhibit featured works from the early 80's, a period of time he spent in San Francisco.  Early in his artistic career, he adopted the image of "Coyote" to convey the totality of human nature. This exhibition is the first one dedicated to exploring Fonseca's expressions of "queerness" through his beloved character Coyote.  Above is a painting called "Roxie - The Black Swan" from 1984.  

This one is called "Coyote in the Mission".  Navigating the Mission district in San Francisco in the 1980's demanded a certain demeanor and here Coyote is striding confidently in his black leather jacket.

This one is called "Roxie and Coyote Dressed Up For The Heard Show".  

Back in 2022, I featured a Fonseca painting called "Fire" and later one called "Coyote Leaves the Rez".  

The appearance of Coyote makes Fonseca's work easy to recognize.  

Southwestern View

 

Cat Cotter has put a sort of abstract take on a southwestern, canyon landscape in this mural found in the Roosevelt Row Arts District.  You can see more of Cat Cotters art works on her website here.  

Taking part in Monday Murals.  

On Final Approach

 

Last Sunday and Monday I posted two photos I had taken from the airplane window as the plane was approaching the airport and flying low over Tempe Arizona.  Well this photo is taken from Tempe looking up at one of those plane nearing the airport.  I wonder if anyone inside that Southwest Airlines flight is snapping photos out the window as they pass over the city.  It's a good, clear day so it's perfect for photos. I can't be the only one who does that.

The Mickey Mouse Chair

 

Last summer, I found an AI effect on my photo editing software that made photos look a bit like a Disney cartoon.  I did a post about here.  

I found this photo in my photo files a few days ago and thought I should share this one.  The effect has taken the Disney look very seriously in this one.

This is the original photo and as you can see, Mickey Mouse was not present for this photo.  

I found this photo in the folder also.  The funny thing about this one is that I have no idea what photo I used to get this effect.  I searched through my photos looking for something similar but had no luck.  

One of the bad things about the photo app is that effects come and go.  This Disney-like effect is not available any longer so I can't try to recreate it.  

I quite like this one even though I have no idea what the original photo was.  I think it's a keeper.

Watching the Clouds

 

We've experienced a long, hot summer here in the desert.  This last week we passed over 100 days of over 100 degree temperatures.  Predictions say that this heat will continue for at least another two to three weeks.

Usually during the summer months we experience a series of monsoon storms that help to cool the air down.  This year we've had a lot less and here in the city center, hardly any rain at all.

I keep watching the skies for those clouds to build up but besides a few pretty cloud formations, not much has occurred.  

Unique Sandwich Shop

 

There is a little sandwich shop just down the street from me.  It's so close, I can walk there (when it's a bit cooler).  The shop is called Zookz.  The unique twist to the sandwiches is that they are round and cooked in a special round grilling contraption.

They serve all kinds of combinations.  This one was chicken sandwich with a Mexican twist.

This one was a roast beef with peppers, tomatoes and cheese.  It's a clever way to grill a sandwich.  They do make some very tasty combinations.  

Distortion

 

Here is another painting from the new show at the Shemer Art Center.  This one is called "Goldfield" and it was painted by Ruta Janiulis.  The funny thing about this painting is that despite the distortion, I recognized the old western town of Goldfield.  

Here are two photos from the little town of Goldfield way out east of Phoenix.  It's a tourist spot in Apache Junction Arizona.  Do you see the resemblance?  

I did a post about Goldfield ghost town way back in 2013  and again in 2019.

Ms. Janiulis had one other painting in the show.  This one is called Street View.  

She does a good job painting a very distorted scene.

Pretty Pictures

 I stopped at the Shemer Art Center last weekend to see a new show that just opened.  The show is called "Light of Day" and it was filled with beautiful pieces of art.  This one was my favorite.  It was painted by Jennifer Jardine and it's called "Calm Before the Storm".  It's a tall painting and it caught my eye the minute I walked into the room where it was hanging.

Here is another beautiful landscape painting.  This one is called "Coastal Tranquility" and it was painted by Kurt Burmann.  

This one is called "Sentient" by Andrew Manning.  There were lots of beautiful pieces in this show.

State Farm Headquarters From Above

 

When I pulled out the "bridges" photo from yesterday's post, I saw this one taken just seconds before the one with the bridges.  This one was taken as we passed over the State Farm Headquarters office complex.  I posted several photographs form this spot back in 2019.  It's a great place to take photos because those buildings are all glass so they have great reflective quality along with a few interesting architectural details.  You can see one of those posts here.  The buildings don't have the same pizazz from above as they do on the ground.  

By the way, you can also see the Arizona State University football stadium just above the State Farm office complex.  Also, way at the top of the photo and slightly to the right you can see the round Gammage Auditorium.  That's the famous Frank Lloyd Wright designed building that I last featured here.

With the exception of the State Farm buildings in the foreground, most of the rest of the buildings in this photo belong to the university.  It's a BIG campus.  

Theme Day: Bridges

 

The City Daily Photo Bloggers theme for the first of September is "Bridges".  I took this photo several months ago when I was returning from that short trip to Oklahoma City.  If the airplane lands in Phoenix from the east, it gently glides over the city of Tempe and the Tempe Town Lake.  As you can see, there are three bridges that cross the lake at this point. The one all the way to the right is a railroad bridge and the other two carry traffic in and out of downtown Tempe.  If the landing is on a clear day, I can get very good photos over Tempe as we make our landing approach.  You can see another one here.

To see other "bridges" from around the globe, click here.