Another Wood Fired Oven

 

A friend and I were leaving The Parlor Restaurant after dinner Tuesday evening when this scene looking toward their outdoor patio caught my eye.  My post on Tuesday featured the wood pile for a different pizza place.  The Parlor also has a wood fired oven for their pizzas.  No, I don't eat pizza every night.  Tuesday's photo with the big tree was taken about 3 weeks ago.  

The Parlor had just opened the outdoor patio as we were leaving.  When we arrived it was still too hot to sit outside.  Once the sun had gone down, they turned on the misters and opened the patio.  

Pizza Under a Big Tree

 

I just love the big ficus trees that are scattered all around the old part of Town and Country Shopping Center in Phoenix.  I stopped to get a photo of this on when I was on my way to Pizzaria Bianco just on the other side of the tree.  I featured this pizza place way back in 2008 when it had been named "Best Pizza in the U.S".  Back in those days, they only had the one location.  Now they have several.  This one happens to be the closest to me.

It takes a lot of wood to keep those wood-fired ovens pumping out pizzas all day long.  

Wild Menagerie

 

I was at my friend Glenda's house last week and while she took a phone call, I was wandering around and caught sight of this little menagerie of interesting animals.  This room is decorated with all things related to the animal kingdom.  I posted a photo of this room back in 2020 when we were slowly emerging from the pandemic.  I love walking into this room because I always see something new.

Fighting is Voting

 

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.

Art Challenge....Back in Business

 

My Art Challenge Club is back in business.  Some of you might remember my small group of friends who challenge each other with an art project over the summer months.  We hadn't met in about two years because of scheduling conflicts and all of us were missing the challenge and the camaraderie.   

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.  

Alien Clay

 

I was at the Shemer Art Center a week ago and I saw their current exhibition called "New Art Arizona".  It featured the work of 10 college scholarship recipients who were selected by the Arizona Artists Guild, the Arizona Watercolor Association, and Arizona Clay.

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.

The Summer Heat Has Arrived

 

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.

Mickey Mouse & Friends

 

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.

Airport Art

 

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.  

A Retrospective View

 

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.  

The Governor

 

I discovered some new apartments near downtown Phoenix and the building has this huge mural of Governor George W.P. Hunt, the first governor of the state of Arizona.

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. 

It Seems Out of Place

 

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.

Snowy Egret

 

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.

The Great Blue Heron

 

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.  

Posing Frogs

 

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.

An Abundance of Buddhas

 Buddha is a very popular garden ornament.  So unsurprisingly, the nursery I visited last weekend had an abundance of them for sale.

I took photos of some of them.

They exuded a calm and peaceful atmosphere over this section of the nursery.  It was a nice change after finding that dinosaur that I featured yesterday. 

Jurassic Park at the Nursery

 

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.  

Giant Lizard

 

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.  

It's a great looking lizard and it fits beautifully on this side of the museum, 

Theme Day: Shadows

 

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.

Chaste Trees Are Blooming

 

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.

A Gallery Adventure

 

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.

Here is a close up of that work called "Abstract Lands".  The artist is Kevin Irvin who works in wood.  The piece above is dyed and painted wood pieces fitted together like a giant puzzle.  It's beautiful. 

He had these two black and white pieces in the gallery too. I discovered that he also makes furniture and public art.  Check his website to see more amazing pieces.  His furniture is wonderful.