Light and Water

 

As I parked my car at my friend's house, I noticed the late afternoon light on the fountain in the parking area.  The light from behind the fountain was making the drops of water glow.  

Seeing things in better light can lift the spirits!  

Those Lovebirds

 

Seeing that peach-faced lovebird that I posted yesterday reminded me of all those birds that used to visit my yard when I lived in the house on the other side of town.  I went into the archives to look at some of those photos.  If you have followed my site for the past 12 years, you might remember how they used to flock to my yard because of the seed blocks I put out for them.  I found this photo in the archives of one of the lovebirds inviting a little sparrow to take a bite.

For those of you who haven't followed me that long, here is what it looked like back then.  I would get a big block of bird seed, and put it on a big rock in my back yard and these cute fellows would show up and feast on the seeds.  I miss seeing them all the time so I'm happy when I spot them around town in different locations.  

I See You!

 

Look who I saw!  Actually, I heard this fellow before I saw him.  When I heard that familiar squawk, I stopped to see where it was coming from.  That's when I spotted this fellow.  I'm lucky I had my camera with me.  I could hear a few others but they must have been up in the branches.  I only saw this one.

It's always a fun to see these cute little peach-faced love birds around town. 

Singer

 

I saw this in the window of a tailor's shop and boy did it bring back memories.  My grandmother had one very similar to this.  I loved watching her use the foot pedal to increase the machine's speed while she was feeding the material through it.  I can almost hear the sounds it made. 

Anyone else have similar memories?

A Little Floral Beauty

 

I haven't been out taking photos for the past few days so I scrolled into the archives and snatched a couple of photos from last year's orchid show at the Desert Botanical Garden.

I spent most of the weekend watching and reading news and writing to my representatives.  

Flowers mean a lot of things to different people at different times but their beauty is universally recognized by all.  We can all use a little beauty right now.

The Ladies of the Intertribal Greeting

 

When I was leaving the Heard Museum last Friday, I caught sight of these ladies who stand guard in front of the museum.  They were created by Doug Hyde and they have been standing in front of the museum for a very long time.  The light on them that morning was appealing so I stopped to take some photos.  I've pictured this sculpture before.  The last time was back in 2022.

They were looking so good, I decided to take some close-up shots of each of these lovely ladies.

They all look so good with their various hair styles and their lovely beads.

This group of young ladies are the perfect ambassadors greeting guests as they arrive at the museum.  

The Chosen Paintings

 

Yesterday I posted about a new exhibit at the Heard Museum featuring Kay WalkingStick's paintings.  Today I have three of the paintings from the Heard Collection that she chose to go with this exhibit of her works.  I found the one above fascinating.  It's by Dennis Numkena who was an architect as well as an artist.  He formed the first Native American owned architectural firm in Arizona.  This painting is called "Sky City" and it is described as "imagining a future world informed by Hopi cosmologies and ways of being." To me it has a "Star Wars" look to it. I like it a lot.

This painting is by Darren Vigil-Gray and it's called Motherland of Basketmakers #16.  He is an Apache artist and musician who studied at Santa Fe's Institute of American Indian Arts.  He has painted a series of paintings with the same name and featuring this type of lush landscape.

This last painting is called Sun's Power and it was painted by David Chethlahe Paladin.  Paladin was an influential artist in his contributions to contemporary Native American arts.  His paintings always contained Native American symbols and patterns many of which were formed into something new and imaginative.  

These are three completely different styles of art but I can see why they would appeal to Kay WalkingStick and her artistic vision.  

This is another great show that makes you think about what you are seeing.  I'm sure I'll tour it again before this exhibit ends.

Another Opening at the Heard

 

Yesterday morning I attended a special member's opening for a new exhibit at the Heard Museum.  This exhibit is called Kay WalkingStick/Hudson River School.  This show was organized by the New York Historical Society after they purchased the above painting of Niagara Falls.  It's the first painting by a Native American artist in it's collection.  Kay WalkingStick (b. 1935) was inspired to create a painting of Niagara Falls after viewing an exhibit at The Historical Society in 2022 of paintings by members of the the Hudson River School, a group of 19th artists, mostly men who helped to forge an American landscape tradition.  She said she considers it to be one of her best.

Kay's landscape paintings include Native American symbols and patterns that in a way reclaims the land as native.  She says that after all, "every American lives in Indian territory". The painting above is called St. Mary's Mountain.

This painting is called "Our Land".  Kay WalkingStick is from the Cherokee indigenous people and she has a strong bond with the Heard Museum.  She worked closely with the Heard Museum curators to meld this show as it appeared in New York with paintings from the Heard's own collections.  I'll show some of those in the future.  They included some that haven't been on view in many years and all were selected by Kay WalkingStick.

Another great exhibit at the Heard!

Red Hibiscus

 

The gardening team has been giving the grounds where I live a big landscaping update.  Yesterday when I went to get my mail, I saw new sets of plants have been added in multiple places.  This big hibiscus plant caught my eye immediately.  It was full of beautiful red blooms.

They were too pretty to pass up.  I had to grab a few photos.

The brilliant red of these flowers makes them stand out among all the other plants. 

The Arizona Biltmore

 

Back in December when I was roaming around several resorts to see their holiday decorations, my first stop was the Arizona Biltmore.  Since it's just around the corner from where I live, it was easy to make it the first stop.  You might remember that I was disappointed that they used the same dull looking decorations they had used the year before.  So after snapping the obligatory shots of the decorations, I took a few more inside the lobby.  I was there early in the day so everything was quiet and there were only a few people around.  Above is the lobby bar.  It tends to be quieter now that they've added a fancy outdoor bar.  I like this one the best.

Looking down from the bar, I could see into the restaurant called Renata's Hearth.  I've eaten there several times.  They have delicious food with a little Latin influence.  

Getting a little closer to the restaurant, I saw that they had some subtle holiday decorations.  They added the poinsettia blooms to that row of light fixtures.  Now that I like.  

Celebrating Human Form & Mother Nature

 

About two weeks ago, I took a walk in the Scottsdale Arts district and wandered into a few galleries.  That's were I found the work of Estella Fransbergen.  She works in clay to make torso shapes that mimic the female form.  She then uses natures elements to create unique sculptures like this one that looks like a ballerina's tutu.  

These two look like ball gowns.  She uses things like feathers, branches, gemstones and rare stones to enhance the torso form and turn each one into something new and surprising.  

Estella was born and raised in South African, studied art in the Netherlands and is now living in the heartland of the United States.  

These are such interesting  sculptures unlike anything I had seen before.  I love discovering new things.

Dancin' to the Oldies

 

Or, maybe that should read "the oldies are dancin'!  On Sunday afternoon, I joined some friends for what we thought would be drinks, laughs and conversation.  As it turned out, the pub we went to was hosting a band called "Dirty Yachtin' Scoundrels" and boy were they popular.  It was easy to see (and hear) why, they played 70's and 80's rock music and they did it spectacularly.  Everyone was on the dance floor because it was impossible to sit still. 

So, it was a louder, busier and more active Sunday retreat than planned but boy, was it fun!!  My motto is you are never too old to dance.  

More From the Art Challenge Meeting

 

Here is most of our Art Challenge Group enjoying some time spent around the fire pit at Julie and Dave's house.  Two other members hadn't yet arrived.

I snapped this shot after the sun went down and before we set about the art challenge business.  It was a nice evening for sitting by the fire.

I thought I'd show you a couple of other completed bodies photographed before we mixed them up.  This one was created by Larry Nisula.  He's the artist who was in the Biltmore Fashion Park art walk show that I posted on the 14th. 

This one is by Marcia, the wife of our club member Jim Lowman.  Marcia doesn't usually participate in the challenges but I'm so glad she did on this occasion.  I like her creation.

Exquisite Corpse

 

"Exquisite Corpse" is a surrealists collaborative art game where each person adds to a drawing on folded paper with each person only seeing a the edge of the previous contribution.

My Art Challenge group took up that idea.  We were given four sheets of paper and told to create an image with a head on the first sheet, then a torso, legs and feet.  Each one of us did our creations separately and then at last night's meeting we mixed them up to get new images.

This was my original piece. I made mine from cut paper.

These next shots are examples of how they were mixed up.  To the right we have a creation using pieces from four different people.

Here's another with four different pieces.

These two were the "judges" favorites.  My "legs" got into that one on the left and my "head" made it into the one of the right.

This project was one of the most fun challenges I can remember.  I loved doing it.

Birds and Water

 

Whenever I'm walking around Biltmore Fashion Park, I can always count on seeing a number of grackles playing in the various fountains that are along the center walkway.  I was there late Wednesday afternoon when the sun was already low in the sky.  I saw this bird wading in the water and taking an occasional drink.  I like how the light on the water turned the bird into a silhouette.  

These two birds were waiting in the wings for their turn in the 'wading pool'.  The natural food for grackles is bugs and seeds but they've taken a keen interest human food scraps.  Since Biltmore Fashion Park has several restaurants all with outdoor tables, it makes a great place for them to hang out and watch for those scraps.

Gables

 

Gables tend to make a house look more interesting or give it some style.  A good place to find these elaborate gables is in our historic neighborhoods.  That's where I found these two examples recently.

These two houses were a street away from each other but the style makes me think they might have been built by the same builder.  They certainly have a similar look.

I love driving around in the historic neighborhoods.  I always find something interesting to admire.

A Touch of Surrealism

 

Here are two more paintings that caught my eye at the Biltmore Art Walk I mentioned yesterday.  Both of these paintings are by Emma Florance and to my eye, they have a touch surrealism about them.  

This first one is called Phoenix Lights I. You can see the lights of the city extending behind that saguaro cactus.  But wait, there appears to be someone living inside the cactus skin.  That would not be an easy trick.  

The second painting is called Desert Dracula and it shows a young lady hiding behind the tall bloom stalk of a century plant.  

I really enjoyed this little art exhibit.  I'll make a point of going again when it returns in February.  

Art Walk Close to Home

 

I recently learned that Biltmore Fashion Park has started a new special event called the Biltmore Art Walk.  It's a rotating outdoor exhibit of art works by local artists.  I stopped at the mall on Sunday afternoon to check it out.  

These first two photos show some paintings by artist Cher Juracich.  She displayed five large-scale paintings that were very realisitic.

On another wall, I captured a photo of the artist Reed Hearne posing in front of the three paintings he had on display.  

Larry Nisula is a member of my Art Challenge group and he had three of his works on display.  It's always great to see members of our little art group appear in different shows.  

Those Silly Koshare Clowns

 

I was at the Heard Museum Saturday morning for one of the Artful Mornings lectures and although I didn't go in to the museum that day, I did stop in the gift shop to peek at the treasures on offer.

What caught my eye on this day was this display of carvings by Kerry Davis.  They are all what is called "Koshare Clowns" and each one is involved in some whimsical activity.  

Mr. Davis is of mixed Native American heritage with a Navajo mother and a Hopi Father.  Having started carving at age 7, he has become a master carver.

I loved the one in the back on the right.  It took me a minute to realize he was carrying a young clown on his back.  I zoomed in to get a better view.

In Honor of the Roadrunner

 

There is a brand new set of Apartments on McDowell Road in Scottsdale called Roadrunner on McDowell.  The last time I drove past them I notice that there was a giant mural on one wall depicting a desert scene and a single roadrunner studying the situation.  I didn't see a signature so I don't know who the artist is.  It's a nice addition to the the otherwise 'brown' walls of the building.  

Taking part in Monday Murals.

A Creation From My Kitchen

 I love to make risotto.  I actually enjoy the constant stirring needed to do it right.  And, I certainly love the creamy texture of the finished product.  I make all kinds but I recently was reminded of a tasty saffron risotto that I had in London last August so I decided to give it a try.  I had some saffron in the cupboard but I didn't have any shallots.  I did have a nice, fat leek so I used that instead.  I tossed in a a tablespoon of lemon juice and the zest from that same lemon.  It was every bit as good as the risotto I had in London and maybe even a little bit better.  

Here's a photo of the London version.  I think mine even looks better with that little sprinkle of parsley on top.  Don't get me wrong, this one was very good.  I just think that little bit of accomplishment in making it myself gave mine an extra zing.