Western Spirit

 

I posted about going to the Western Spirit Museum of Scottsdale a week ago when I featured the outdoor entertainment that was going on.  There were other artistic demonstrations happing inside the museum.  The artist Anton Nowels was doing some work on two large scale paintings he was working on while explaining some of his techniques.

Nicole Carlos was demonstrating how she works with clay to create pottery and figures.  

In another corner of the museum, I found this artist's workspace set up so we could get an idea of how one artist might work.  

The arts were being celebrated at this event.

Children's Art

 

I went inside the very busy Western Spirit Museum with the goal of seeing how the new addition to the museum had changed the layout.  I got stopped in my tracks by an exhibit of student art work that the museum had commissioned at schools across the state.  The talent in these young people was very uplifting to see.

The above is a colored pencil drawing by Camila Aguilar Fiedler, a 5th grade student.

To the left is a water color by Piper Frost, a 6th grade student.

The piece above is a watercolor by Adeline Solomon a 4th grader. 

To the left is a watercolor and pencil piece by Everly Askew who is in the 6th grade.

This young 11th grade artist appears to be channeling her inner " Piet Mondrian" with this color-blocked piece.  Angelica Harrison did this one with color markers.

It's a joy to see so much young talent on display inside the museum.  

A Southwest Maverick

 

On Friday afternoon, I attended a member's preview of a new exhibit that opened over the weekend. The exhibit was at the Western Spirit Museum and it featured an artist that time had lost track of.  She went by the name of Mac Schweitzer (1921-1962).  

I love it when I'm introduced to an accomplished woman that history has forgotten.

If Mac had lived longer, she may well have become as well known as artists like Georgia O'Keefe but her early death cut short a career that could have moved into that echelon. Above is one of her paintings called "Wrangling the Brood Mares". It was painted in 1958.

She was born in Ohio but moved west in her early years and made the western landscape and its people the essence of her work.  Above are three paintings featuring scenes from Northern Arizona and New Mexico on the lands of Navajo, Hopi and Zuni tribes. The larger painting above is called "Second Mesa".

 Her artistic skills included drawing, painting, print making and sculpture.  The two pictures above feature scenes from the blessing ceremonies at the Zuni Pueblo.  

The exhibit featured paintings from many private collections to bring together a large scope of her work.  The curator who led the private showing was Ann Lane Hedlund who was the daughter-in-law of Mac Schweitzer.  Ann and her late husband Kit were instrumental in bringing Mac's work back to the public eye and putting together the exhibit and the beautiful book to go with it.

Woven From the Womb

 

This mural is located inside the Western Spirit Museum.  It was commissioned by the museum and was painted by Thomas Breeze Marcus. It covers over 1500 square feet of space and 3 walls.

It stretches out over the wall above the stairway down to the first floor.  

It's called "Woven From the Womb" and the geometric patterns represent the traditional basket weaving patterns.  Marcus has Akimel and Thono O'odham Native American heritage.  

Taking part in Monday Murals.  

A Fistful of Colors

 One other exhibit at the Western Spirit Museum is called A Fistfull of Colors and it features a large variety of paintings that contain a lot of bright colors. 

This painting by Paul Pletka is a perfect example.  It's called "Danza Mitote".  Its depiction of people dressed in an array of bright colors seems to fit the theme perfectly.

I also liked this painting that was included in the same colorful exhibit.  It doesn't have as many bright colors but I love the canyon country image.  This one is by Marcia Molnar and is called "With Me There is Beauty".  

No deep thoughts were needed for this exhibit. Just pure enjoyment.

Ballet For Billy

 

I can tell from some of the comments to yesterday's post that many of you were as conflicted as I was when I saw the exhibit about Billy the Kid at the Western Spirit Museum.  The exhibit's description material talks a lot about how the history of Billy's escapades has been a blurred through the years.  Some see him as a murderous outlaw while others think of him as a folk hero making his way in a lawless land.  

Thom Ross's paintings depict Billy's life as a feverish dance.  The painting above is called "Escape from the Burning McSween House" and represents one of the stories of how he escaped a burning house and evaded the authorities who were pursuing him.

This painting is called "Arrest at Stinking Springs" which is a place near Ft. Sumner where Billy was arrested.

This last painting is called "Midnight at Fort Sumner" where Billy was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett.  He was only 21 years old.  His life was short but his legend lives on and on. 

This whole exhibit got me to thinking about how history views people who have made a name for themselves either doing good things or by doing bad things.  A good museum exhibit should make you think and this one sure did for me.

Billy the Kid

 

I went to the Western Spirit Museum in Scottsdale last Sunday to see a new exhibit they were featuring called "The Resurrection of Billy the Kid".  The museum and True West Magazine combined forces to bring the west's most notorious outlaw back to life.

The exhibit contained the works of Bob Boze Bell and Thom Ross to reimagine the "kid's" short life.  

The painting to the left was created by Bob Boze Bell and is called "Charming Billy".  It's based on the only surviving photograph of Billy taken around 1880.

One thing I didn't expect to see was this little memorial to Billy the Kid complete with a guest book for people to sign.

An even bigger surprise was opposite the memorial where I saw this statue of Billy laid out for a wake with candles and flowers.  The death-bed statue was created by Buckeye Blake.

Tomorrow I'll show you some of the art works created by Thom Ross for this exhibit. He reimagined the "Kid's" life as a fevered frontier dance.

The Amazing Work of John Clymer

 

The painting I used yesterday to talk about the 10-minute Art Challenge, is part of a current exhibition at the Scottsdale Museum of the West.  The exhibit contains 50 paintings all by John Clymer an amazing artist who depicted historic scenes from life in the west in the early 1800's.  The full name of the exhibit is "People, Places, Predicaments: John Clymer's West".  The painting above is called "The Peace Pipe: Overland Astorians, 1811".  It tells the story of how the explorers forged a truce with the Native Americans in order to continue their explorations.

Here's another interesting painting called "The Salt Makers: Lewis and Clark Expeditions, 1806".  This one shows the explorers boiling water to extract salt from it.  I loved the details in this one like the guy carrying a bucket of water from the sea and the natives sitting on that mound and watching the process.

I didn't have time to see all 50 of the paintings so a return trip to the museum will be happening sometime soon.  I'm not usually a huge fan of paintings from this era but I think my new found 10-minute art challenge combined with the incredible detail of Clymer's work is giving me a new appreciation.  

A New Way to Look at Art

 

There is a new feature in the New York Times that gives the reader a 10 minute challenge to look at a work of art for 10 minutes to see if you see things you didn't see at first and to get an idea of the mood of the piece.  I tried it with the painting they presented in the paper and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.  Later that same day, I met a friend at the Western Spirit Museum of the West in Scottsdale so I decided to use a similar practice to look at a piece of art in a new exhibit at the museum.  

This painting is called "Pride of the Nez Perce" and it was painted by John Clymer. 

I don't think I actually studied it for a whole 10 minutes after all, I was in a busy museum, however I did look at for a long time.  

The painting is about the Nez Perce Tribe and their expertise in breeding the much admired appaloosa horses.

I looked at all of the details of the painting like this closer look at this fellow surrounded by horses and wearing colorful clothing.

To the far right of the painting I saw this dog watching what is going on and then another dog in the shadows.  There is also a woman working on something in the teepee.

To the far left of the painting I see a group of people all going about their daily chores.  There is a child playing, a woman carrying a basket on her back and even a little papoose on her mother's back.

In the middle of the painting is a group of Native Americans who I believe are admiring the horses with a thought to buy one or two. I think some horse trading is going to happen.

I enjoyed this challenge very much. I have always loved art and this is going to change the way I look at artistic pieces.  I may end up spending even more time in museums that I do now.  

Will It Never End?

 

Here is a perfect example of how we desert dwellers are feeling these days.  I posted a photo of this little cactus garden in front of the Western Spirit Museum in Scottsdale back in 2022 when all those saguaros were standing tall and looking good.  Even though saguaros are built to take the heat, these look like they've had enough.  

I snapped this from my phone on Thursday.  It appears that it might finally be letting up a bit.  Fingers crossed!!  We've heard these predictions before so I'm only cautiously optimistic this time.  

Gold Rush Dogs

 

This painting is part of another exhibit at the Western Spirit Museum in Scottsdale.  The artist is Veryl Goodnight and she is both a painter and sculptor.  There were several paintings in the exhibit featuring these beautiful working dogs. In this painting she is showing the variety of breeds used during the gold rush era.

Next to the painting was this photo that points out the different types of dogs depicted in the painting.  There is a five minute video telling the story of these dogs and also featuring more of her paintings here.  

I stood there looking at these wonderful dogs and wished I could give them a pat on the head or a warm hug.  

American Backcourts

 

When my friend and I were at the Western Spirit Museum last Friday, we saw a small exhibit of photographs by Rob Hammer.  He set out on a project to document a different side of the sport of basketball. He shows how it is found everywhere and loved by all.  I loved the clever way he named each piece.  The one above (sorry about the reflections) was taken in Arizona but he named it "Mars".  I can see the resemblance.  

This one was taken in Utah and he calls this one "Retired".  I don't know, I think there might be a few more baskets left in this one if you aim to the right.

This one is called "Railroad Ball".  

Looks like basketball is loved all over the country and played a variety of locations some in difficult terrain.  

Back at a Museum

 

My friend Glenda and I went to the Western Spirit Museum in Scottsdale on Friday to get a last look at the William Matthews exhibit.  The exhibit closes on October 20th.  I had only seen it once last fall and I posted about it here.  Matthews is such a talented artist and has had such a varied and extensive career.  

The piece to the left is one of his  watercolor paintings that he had fabricated into glass pieces to form this mosaic piece.  It's called "Hard Candy". 

I was also amused by this watercolor painting called "Anasazi Graffiti".  Such a clever name for this image of a Native American putting petroglyphs on the canyon wall.  

This one really excited my friend Glenda.  She was all set to buy a puzzle like this.

Matthew's had that same painting I featured in the first photo cut into a puzzle with pieces in western-themed shapes.  

Unfortunately, this is one of only a very few he had made and according to the young lady in the gift shop, making just one cost around $2000.00.  So this puzzle will have to stay behind that glass case.

Patiently Waiting

 

While I was at the Western Spirit Museum, I stopped at the little sculpture garden to see if there might be any new sculptures on display.  This new one caught my eye.  It's called "Waiting for His Lover" and was sculpted by Paul Moore. He looks like a very patient man.

I also wanted to check on that rust wall that I like so much.  It forms such a nice background for this sculpture garden.

I like to check out the patterns made by the water that periodically flows down that rusty wall. The rusting creates its own little abstract artworks.

From Illustrations to Fine Art

 When I was in Scottsdale last weekend, I stopped at the Western Spirit Museum to see an exhibit of works by an artist named Tom Gilleon.  He is an artist who started his career as an illustrator for Walt Disney Imagineering where he created many illustrations like the one pictured above.  

Later in life, he moved to Montana and was inspired by the western landscape and people to paint scenes with a western theme.  His work received notice and praise and he now has paintings in many museums and businesses across the United States.  

His paintings fit in perfectly with the Western Spirit Museum's collection of art.

He has also begun working with digital art.  There were two digital art pieces among the exhibit.  This one featured this mountain and the piece changed from a bright daytime scene into and evening scene and finally a night time scene.  It was interesting to watch. It was also interesting to learn how his career evolved.  

Sculpture in the Courtyard

 

I took this photo when I was at the Western Spirit Museum for that exhibit opening event last week.  The reception was held in the museum's courtyard that I featured on this blog 7 years ago.  There is a wonderful "weeping-wall" on one end of the space and I thought it would make a great background for this sculpture.  

I'm leaving this evening for my trip to London.  If all goes well, I'll be posting from there by Friday.