The View From Inside

 

When I was at the Desert Botanical Garden last Wednesday, I found one of those metal sculptures that was designed to climb inside.  So I did.  Here is a photo looking out from inside this sculpture.  

Here it is with the large opening and a wood floor so visitors can see what it's like inside one of the giant sculptures.  I'm glad I found this one while there was still some light in the sky.

Orchid Fever Close Up

 

Here are some close up shots of a few of the beautiful orchids in the Orchid Fever exhibit I featured on Friday.

None of these orchids were labeled so I don't know any of their names.

They were all so beautiful. 

I enjoyed finding all the exotic shapes and sizes.  Some are tiny thumbnail sized while others are big and bold.  

I loved this orange one with a touch of red.

Light Bloom Revisited

 

The main reason I went to the Desert Botanical Gardens last Wednesday evening, was to see the Light Bloom exhibit one more time before it ends on March 30th.  I was planning to go over the weekend but then I thought that if I went mid-week, I might have less crowds to deal with.  It was still pretty crowded.

I repeated a photo of this spot.  My previous photo from last October ended up being my photo of the year for 2025.  

It was a struggle getting photos without people in them.  I will say that the new tool available on Mac's Photos app called "Clean Up" works exceptionally well at erasing the occasional human encounter.  I erased two people who walked into my first photo above. Two people walked between the two sculptures and as you can see, you can't tell they were ever there.

This last one hangs at the entrance area.  I caught this shot on my way out.

You can see my original posts from last October here and here.

I'm glad I got to see the sculptures all lit up once again.

You can read about the artists known as HYBYCOZO at this link.  They have permanent installations at museums and government buildings all over the world.

Orchids and Cactus

 

There is a new exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden.  This time it features orchids, lots and lots of orchids.  It's called Orchid Fever and it's to celebrate the opening of a new exhibit gallery that was recently completed.  

This exhibit showcases orchids growing side-by-side with cactus and succulents.  It makes a great photo opportunity.  

As you might have guessed, I took lots of photos.  Between all the art shows I attended last weekend and this visit to the garden, I have more photos than I know what to do with.

Tiffany

 

One of the booths at the Scottsdale Ferrari Art Fair was occupied by a New York City antiques store called Lillian Nassau LLC. They had a large display of Tiffany Lamps on display.

This one is a Tulip Table Lamp and it was priced at $185,000.

This one is a Dragonfly Table Lamp and it is a bargain at $165,000.  

Those lamps are gorgeous.  Expensive but certainly gorgeous!

Scenes From An Art Fair

 

I have a few more scenes from the Scottsdale Ferrari Art Fair that I attended last Sunday.  Above is the booth for ARTNWORDZ an artistic group that does works of art over printed pages.  

To the left is a sculpture by Richard MacDonald called "Blind Faith".

Above is the booth for Light Hunter Studios featuring the photography works of Michael Fatali.  I got to talk with Fatali about his work and the places he goes to get these great photos.  That one on the middle wall with the moon peeking between arms of that rock formation ended up on the cover of coffee table book called "The World's Top Photographers".  That is quite a photo!

This booth is for Vallarino Fine Art.  I loved the contrast between the painting in the center and those abstract works in the background.  That center painting is by Susan Bright Hertel and it's called "Early Morning".  

This last photo is the opening scene as I entered the art fair.  It's looking right down the center row of booths.  

An Art Filled Weekend

 

This last weekend was another busy one for me.  It was filled with art and art events.  Starting on Friday when I went to the annual Celebration of Fine Arts event.  It runs from mid-January through March and I hadn't been there yet.  It was another fascinating day meeting and talking with the artists.  The space above belongs to Cindy Dimascio.  She paints with acrylic paints ads a little 3-D effects to many of her pieces.

On Saturday I went to the Heard Museum for another "Artful Mornings" lectures.  This time one of the curators talked about the different types of print making and featured several artworks from the collection.  This one is by Marwin Begaye and is a wood block print called Inner Strength.  It just won first prize in the recent Indian Fair and Market.

On Sunday I attended the Scottsdale Ferrari Art Fair.  This was a new event that happened over the weekend and featured over 100 galleries and art brokers with a few fancy cars scattered around the building.  This show was truly something to see.  There was every style of art you can imagine from all over the world.  There was so much to see it was almost overwhelming.  

Obviously I'll have more photos to show you over the weeks to come.  I was very busy snapping photos right and left.  

Speaking of art, I have a new artwork up on my love of art site. It's an unusual painting.

Faces!

 

I saw this building recently and I have no idea what it is or why there is a chainlink fence surrounding it.  The mural caught my eye.  I didn't see a signature but as you can see, I couldn't get very close.  I have to make a plan to visit it again to see if I can get an idea of what all those faces mean.

Update: I learned that this is the office of The Journey Venture Studio, a Healthcare Innovation Center.  It's in the process of reorganizing right at the moment.  Thanks to Stefan from Photos from Haninge for the update.  

Taking part in Monday Murals.

A Little Something for Spring

 

I was at the Heard Museum yesterday morning for one of those "Artful Mornings" talks and I arrived early so I took a stroll around the grounds.  I was drawn to the flower pots in the courtyard.  They were overflowing with beautiful colorful flowers.

I even met the lady to tends to the flowers and she seemed truly thrilled that I was enjoying them.  

A few minutes later I saw another photographer photographing the flowers.  I hope that gardening lady knows that lots of people are enjoying her gorgeous flowers.

"Kinky Boots" and a Driverless Experience

 

I have a couple of observations from the last week's activities.  I'll start with these very fancy boots spotted at that Habitat for Humanity event.  The theme for their dinner is "Blueprints and Bluejeans" so instead of dressing up in gala clothes, you wear blue jeans or denim and dress that up.  This lady got out the sparkly boots.

I finally rode in one of those driverless Waymo cars.  It went very smoothly and was ever so quiet.  However, there was one incident where another driver changed lanes to right in front of the car causing the car to have to brake.  There was no reason for the lane change so I'm sure that driver  did it on purpose.  The car responded quickly and smoothly and without any hesitation.  I wonder if the Waymo got a photo of the license plate number of that offending car.  I'm pretty sure everything is recorded.

Southwestern Art

 

Here in the southwest, we see lots of cow skulls used as decorative items.  I had never seen one that had been intricately carved in a lacy pattern like this one.  I saw this one at that last house from the home garden tours a few weeks ago.  This one was hanging in the garage/workshop of that artistic house.

I decided that my photo of it might be a good subject for a little artistic photo editing.  Here I gave it a metallic look.

But my favorite adaptation was this one with the floral decor.  It reminded me of Georgia O'Keeffe.

My version has a few more flowers and more color but I think I'll still call it my little tribute to Georgia O'Keeffe.  She is still an inspiration to the art world.

Tudor Style

 

I took a walk in the adjoining neighborhood on Monday afternoon and snapped a photo of one of my favorite houses on that route.  There is something about a Tudor style house that really appeals to me.  This one was looking very welcoming on this sunny afternoon.

They're Back!

 

Those two Canadian geese are back and scouting out our parking lot again.  This one was below my window on top of the carport cover and squawking loudly at its mate.  If history repeats itself, there will be little ones showing up toward the end of April.  They've become quite predictable.  

Busy, Busy Weekend

 

This last weekend was a busy one for me.  On Friday I attended the annual dinner for Habitat for Humanity at the Arizona Biltmore.  You can see above the crowds of people bidding on the many silent auction items.  I donated two framed photos for the auction and you can see one of them in this photo.

On Saturday evening I went to the Symphony Hall for another performance of the Phoenix Symphony.  I was able to catch a photo of the whole orchestra on stage while they waited for the guest pianist to appear. It was another excellent performance by our wonderful symphony.

Just before the symphony my friends and I had dinner at new downtown restaurant called Pa'La.  They cook everything they prepare in a wood burning oven.  We tried several dishes and all of them were delicious.  It's great to find another eating option close to Symphony Hall.

On Sunday afternoon, I attended a smaller musical performance put on by the Arizona Bach Festival.  Their mission is to bring the finest in Baroque music to Arizona.  They did Vivaldi's Four Seasons, one of my all time favorites and they were fantastic.  They performed in a church with surprisingly good acoustics.  It was a busy weekend but I loved every minute of it.

Historian, Scholar, Author, Publisher

 

I found another one of those "Black History" murals last week.  This one honors Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a man who was the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.  He was one of the first scholars to study the history of the African diaspora.  He has some very wise words to say on this mural.  Words we need to take heed of during these politically troubled times. 

It's Been Raining

 

We've had some rain the last three or four days.  Not a deluge but enough to maybe encourage the spring wildflowers to pop up. At least I'm hoping so.

We needed it.  It hasn't rained here all winter so things were getting very dry.  I took a drive out to Papago Park to see if I could get some good cloud photos. These were the result.  

More Garden Ornaments

 

One more post from that elaborate garden I toured two weeks ago.  This was another patio on the back side of the house.  You can see that pretty shade of blue carried on in this area.

One of the home's owners does a lot of work with ceramics.  In fact, there was a kiln located in the garage/workshop.  The yard was full of ceramic totems.

In the background, a small totem and in the foreground a ceramic cactus.  It looks so real, it blends right in.

This area was a far corner near the end of the tour.  

I have more photos of all kinds of unique things found on this property.  I'll probably post a few of them sometime in the future.  For now, I'll end the tour here.