When I was at Biltmore Fashion Park last weekend I happened to see a young mom and dad trying to coax their very young child into sitting on Santa's lap.
The parents were being so patient and assuring with the child and Santa was being very calm and interested. If I hadn't needed to be somewhere, I would have stayed to see if the mission was accomplished.
Here is another mural with some of those big, fancy letters in it. (At least I think those are letters.) I can make out a message in smaller letters. To the left it says "As Above" and to the right it says "So Below". I believe that is a message of interconnectedness which I might agree with. It was painted by and artist named "Indoneejah".
Yes, that is the way it appears to be spelled.
Taking part in Monday Murals.
The poinsettia tree is also up and ready to be admired. Which I did, I took several more photos of it which I'm sure will show up on this blog as the holiday nears.
I like that they topped it with white poinsettias at the top this time.
If you look closely, you will see Santa (in the white coat) set up for some photos just behind the tree.
The restaurant at the Phoenix Art Museum closed about a year ago and a new restaurant was opened in its place just a few weeks ago. When I visited the art museum two weeks ago, I decided to give it a try. I thought that large group table in the corner by the windows made for a pretty dining scene. The windows look out on the sculpture garden and the Phoenix Theatre next door.
I met some friends at a new restaurant last weekend that has a tropical theme. As we were leaving, I couldn't resist getting a photo of these lovely flamingos that were decorating the entry way.
Those pink Santa hats hanging from the ceiling in the background are just an added bonus.
Commercial decor that has a balanced style catches my eye. I snapped these two examples recently. The one above is in an entrance to the Nordstrom store. The one to the left was in an alcove at the Canopy Hotel in Scottsdale.
They both are aesthetically pleasing.
This little waiting area at my chiropractor's office also caught my eye. There is a certain appeal to the layout.
Just some of my silly observations.
I spotted this very sleek Lincoln Mark V sitting in the Whole Foods parking lot last Sunday. It was so shiny and polished it was reflecting the sun. That car has been treated with great love and care. It must have a nice cozy garage to live in because it has been raining the last few days and this car does not have one spot on it.
We had some rain over this past weekend. Not as much as predicted but enough to water the thirsty desert. I love when the rain starts moving away and patches of blue sky appear with big puffy clouds to complement the blue. I was headed east on this street when the sight of those clouds over Camelback Mountain was too pretty not to capture. According to the weather experts, we are supposed get some more rain today and tomorrow. We'll see how accurate they are in the next few days.
It took me a while to figure this one out. I found this mural in a shady residential area on a curved wall. I had to look at it closely to see that is was two Mexican dancers only we don't see their heads. All we get to see are the swirling skirts and gaucho pants. An interesting depiction of a Mexican celebration scene.
Taking part in Monday Murals.
My friends Julie and Dave subscribe to some online lectures from the art historian Paola Vojnovic and they invited me to join them at their house on Saturday for a session on Monet and Japan. It was a fascinating lecture about how Monet was influenced by Japanese art to the point of designing his garden in Giverny after a Japanese garden. The expert giving the program was Ross King, an author and art historian who has written a book "Monet: The Water Lily Pond". I got to thinking that surely I have a photo of one of Monet's garden paintings featured during the lecture and sure enough here is one I took at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He featured a number of other Monet paintings during the lecture and he discussed how Monet wasn't they only artist inspired by Japanese art.
I decided since Julie invited me to join the lecture, I should bring something for all of us to enjoy. I baked my first French Apple Cake of the season. It's one of my favorite fall/winter cakes. I think of it as being more healthy than most cakes because it contains more apples than cake batter. It's not hard to make. In fact, the hardest part of this cake is peeling the apples. You can find the recipe here.
The third exhibit that I wanted to see at the Phoenix Art Museum last weekend was called 'Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan".
All I can say about this exhibit is WOW what a fantastic array of sculptures crafted by some brilliant artists.
This piece to the left is called "Bag Work" and it was created by Tanaka Yu. It looks like a vessel wrapped in cloth but every bit of it is clay. It's a bit mind-boggling how the artist got that cloth-like effect.
This one is called "Eroding Flower" and it was created by Shingu Sayaka. The petals on this 'flower' are so delicate and thin.
This last one is called "Flower #10" and the artisit for this one is Tashima Etsuko.
Every piece in this exhibit was spectacular. Apparently sculpting clay is usually a man's craft in Japan. This exhibit seeks to show what the women can do.
The second exhibit that I went to see at the Phoenix Art Museum is called "Florentine Baroque: The Haukohl Collection. It consists of works from the collection of Sir Mark Fehrs Haukohl, a Houston-based collector. The collection contains paintings that have been amassed over 40 years. The painting above is by Giovanni Domenico Ferretti and was painted in 1740 and depicts God reproving Cain for the murder of Abel.
This painting is called "Allegory of Poetry" and it was painted by Felice Ficherrelli in the 1620's. That frame is adorned with lapis lazuli. Speaking of the frame, be sure to notice the frames on all of these paintings. The frames alone are works of art.
This is another painting by Giovanni Domenico Ferretti and it was painted in 1745. It is called "Harlequin and His Lady". Look at the details in that elaborate frame. I see plenty of cherubs mixed in with a few faces and lots of gold. The frames on all of the paintings in this exhibit seemed every bit as important as the historic paintings.
The presentation of these works at the Phoenix Art Museum is a first of its kind in Arizona. It's well worth a visit to the museum.
The museum nerd strikes again!
I visited the Phoenix Art Museum last Sunday to see three new exhibits that I had been reading about. The first exhibit I visited was of paintings by Eric Fischl, a painter who tells stories with his large scale paintings. I was lucky on Sunday to have joined a museum docent who led a tour of this exhibit and asked the five people in our tour group what we saw in each painting he featured. For the painting above, I had actually already read the description so I knew what it was about. I waited to hear what others thought. The painting is called "October 7: Heading Out". It depicts a women in a big city hotel room who is preparing to go out when she is interrupted by the news of the events of October 7th when Israel was struck by a terrorist attack. One member of our little tour group was extremely good at coming up with stories for each painting. She saw something entirely different before she learned the artists true intent. That lady's ability to create stories made for some fun dialog among our small tour group.
The title for the Exhibit is "Eric Fischl, Stories Told". The painting above is a self portrait of the artist in his studio. I asked the docent about Mr. Fischl's bandaged hands in this painting and he said that the artist explained that all through his career he expected the work to get easier as he progressed. He said it hasn't. Instead it seems to have gotten harder. The bandages are to represent how hard the work is.
It was certainly a great exhibit. I'll go back sometime soon to see it again. I'd like to stand in front of a few more of the paintings and come up with my own stories about the subjects before I read the descriptions.
I am what many people would call a museum nerd. I love a good museum and I seek them out wherever I go. I also love the ancient history of Egypt so, museums that feature Egyptian artifacts have a special draw for me. (Above is the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.)
Yesterday I read an article in the New York Times about the brand new Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo and it inspired me to scan through my photos and look at all the Egyptian artifacts that I've seen that are not actually in Egypt any longer. The Egyptian government would very much like to change that.
I've visited the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum (pictured above) at least twice and I'd very much like to visit it again.
I found this duplicate of Nefertiti at the Rosicrucian Museum. The original is in a museum in Berlin. The Egyptian government has petitioned for its return.
When I was in London last August, I made a point of walking through the gallery with all the Egyptian statues and artifacts at the British Museum.
One of those artifacts is the Rosetta Stone which the Egyptian government would very much like to have returned to them. According to the Times article, negotiations are taking place.
Breakfast restaurants are showing up all over town. I saw this one on Roosevelt Row when I was there Saturday night and I loved the name and logo.
It wasn't open at the time I took the photos but checking their online site, it looks like they serve the standard fare of pancakes, waffles and eggs and bacon.
That is such a busy street so I'm betting they do a good business.
I met my friends David and Riley for dinner Saturday night at a new place in downtown Phoenix that we hadn't tried before. It is located on Roosevelt Row, that very trendy arts district in downtown. Standing just outside the restaurant, I was struck by the 'big city' look of all the tall buildings lit up at night. That combined with the very busy traffic and the crowds of people walking in the area made Phoenix feel like a big city indeed.
After dinner we walked along Roosevelt Row and admired all the new bars and restaurants that have cropped up recently. We picked a few that we need to try sometime soon.
Phoenix is a big city of course, but it is mostly composed of a vast urban sprawl. It feels quite different when you are in an area of high density for both residents and businesses. I like that feeling.
This tree with the oversized Christmas lights was just inside the door of the Coach store.
I went to the mall yesterday and saw this display of some of the fashion designs created by Arizona State University students.
I saw one of these shows once before at the mall but it was 6 years ago. I posted photos here.
To me these fashion look a little wild and crazy but in the grand scheme of things, they aren't much different than what we see on the Oscars red carpet or Project Runway.
I love finding these cell phone towers that are disguised as trees or other plants. This one looks like a tall tree unless you look closely.
From this viewpoint it's pretty obvious.
Most of the ones I see are shaped like palm trees. I've even seen one that looks like a saguaro cactus.
They have been finding some creative ways to hide those antennas.
When I drove over to the old neighborhood to check on the skeleton family, I happed to spot this nice looking Mercury Comet sitting in someone's driveway. It looks like a 1960 model to me and it's looking very well cared for. Wouldn't it be something if it still belonged to the original owner?
I'm mourning the loss of two huge ficus trees that used to shade the central courtyard where I live. They were taken down as a precaution against some of the storms we've been hit with recently. We had one of those storms a few weeks ago that caused some severe damage to homes and apartments in the east valley. Inspectors decided that these two trees were possible targets for what are called micro-bursts that cause severe damage.
I understand the need for safety and damage control but I have to admit this made me very sad. Apparently, I'm not the only one. I see that someone else placed some flowers on the tree stump left behind. When I saw the flowers I thought "my sentiments exactly".
I've been told that the grounds will soon have some new trees which is good news. However, it will take a very long time for new trees to reach the scale of the trees that were lost.
