The Rattan Bicycle

 

Here are two more observations from my recent visit to the Phoenix Art Museum.  I loved seeing this bicycle covered in basket weaving. It's called "Cicloviaerea (Aerial Velodrome)" and the artist is Jarbas Lopes.  It's a beautiful piece and it actually looks like someone could ride it.  

The other piece that caught my eye last week was this one by Louise Nevelson. It's called "Royal Tide V".  I've seen this piece around the museum before but for some reason, on this day it made me think of a piece I put together for one of our art Challenges.

Here is that piece.  The challenge subject was "Masks, Mannequins and Marionettes".  I actually posted this photo after the art challenge back in 2016 so some of you might remember it.  I still have this piece that I made.  It's currently sitting on my balcony.  

Photographing Mercury

 

Last November I did a post about the Florentine Baroque exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum.  The exhibit contained some impressive paintings and some equally impressive frames for many of them. In fact, I mentioned in that post that the frames were also works of art.

The exhibit also included this statue of Mercury in his most common pose.  The statue was inside a glass case and against that very "busy" wall so it was difficult to get a good photo of it. I think this is the best one I got.

When I was at the art museum last week for the mini symphony concert, I decided to try taking another photo of that statue.  I decided to try the "stage light" mode on my iPhone to see if I could get the image without that busy background.  This was the result.  It managed to get rid of the background but it picked up reflections in the glass case.  I believe that is a face from one of the paintings on the opposite wall.  It certainly gave Mercury a ghostly look.  

Instrument of Troubled Dreams

 

There was one more exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum that I needed to experience.  It's called Instrument of Troubled Dreams and it was created by artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller.  The couple is known for creating interactive audio installations of all kinds.  This one had a replica of a 1960 Mellotron that had every key wired to play a specific musical piece or voice track.  Participants can compose their own film-like soundtrack.  It was fun to play with and to listen to others play.

Proper Driving Attire

 

We can't go driving in those new-fangled cars that were so creatively depicted in some of the posters I posted yesterday without the proper driving attire.  The Discount Tire exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum also included some examples of clothes needed to drive around in those old Model T's and Duesenbergs.  This motoring duster from 1909 fits the bill perfectly and those goggles would be a necessity.

For the ladies, a motoring hat would be needed to go with the more stylish motoring duster.  

I bet my grandparents might have seen some clothes like this back when they were driving the roads back in the 1920's.

Modern Treads

 

There was one exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum that I was looking forward to seeing.  It is called "Modern Treads: The Discount Tire Poster Collection".  The Discount Tire Company is headquartered in the Phoenix area and they are strong supporters of the arts communities in the valley including the Phoenix Art Museum.  Their collection of vintage posters from between 1900 and 1930 are on display at the art museum for all to enjoy.  

The Goodrich poster almost looked familiar to me.  I wonder if I saw one when I tagged along with my dad to the auto shop. 

I found the poster above rather intriguing.  It represents Fifteen Fisk Boys.  The Fisk Rubber Company's mascot was a pajama clad child and this poster shows fifteen of those. 

Of course the show had to include "Bibendum", the Michelin Tire man.  

He was also on display in his metallic armor.  

I also like this poster from the Excelsior company.  They made precision seals and gaskets for pneumatic thermostats and pneumatic actuation systems.  

This certainly brought back a few childhood memories of the times I went with my dad to a local auto repair shop and saw our car up on those tall lifts and the mechanics doing their work beneath it.

Music at the Art Museum

 

I got an email from the Phoenix Symphony listing some upcoming summer events and one of the events listed was a 30 minute brass concert at the Phoenix Art Museum early Wednesday evening.  I decided to check that out.  The symphony players were part of the brass quintet and they played in one of the galleries with lots of museum goers as their audience.

Each one of the pieces they played had some reference to art such as two movements from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.  It was a perfect little diversion from a heat filled day.

Of course, while I was there I wandered around a bit to see some art pieces that weren't on view the last time I was there.  

This untitled sculpture by Robert Therrien caught my eye because it was looming over the musicians in the first photo above. The piece is untitled but is described as a flagpole.  Apparently Therrien is known for turning everyday objects into larger-than-live depictions.  

Hiding in a Corner

 

When I was at the Phoenix Art Museum last weekend, I happened to step into a little windowed alcove and discovered this fellow sitting there and enjoying the view.  You might remember him.  He's been on my blog several times before.  It's a sculpture called "Naked Man" by Viola Frey.  

The museum staff tend to move him around quite a bit.  At present he has this small alcove all to himself.

You might remember that I found his fully-clothed "sister" at the Tucson Art Museum back in 2024. 

I hope he's enjoying this nice quiet spot.  Who knows how long it will be before he gets moved again.

New American Doll

 

Continuing with more photos from the Phoenix Art Museum's exhibit of Cara Romero's photographs, this section was called "New American Doll".  Although the descriptions didn't mention it, I immediately thought of the American Girl dolls that have been so popular for the past 20 years or so.

Romero created box like structures to highlight photos of young women in various native regalia.  This one is a photo of Naomi and is themed California Culture.

This one is a photo of Julia surrounded by nature's bounty.  I loved how she created these elaborate borders around each box setting.

I was quite mesmerized by this last photo.  It's a photo of Nikki in the traditional birthing position.  What I found so appealing about the photo is how the shape of the body perfectly reflects the pattern on the rug she is standing on.  This photo was put together brilliantly.  

Living Light

 

While I was at the Phoenix Art Museum last Friday, I stopped in the contemporary art gallery to see a new exhibit of photographs created by a Native American artist, Cara Romero.  She combines traditional stories from her tribal experiences with messages about injustices, humanity and vitality.  Her work celebrates the beauty and resilience of the Native People. The photo above is obviously a play on The Beatles Abbey Road album cover. The name of this photo is "17 Mile Road".

This photo is another obvious take on the famous Annie Leibovitz photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono.  She calls it "Two Virgins". 

The exhibit was broken into several themed sections.  The section above dealt with female empowerment.

Another section was about how Native Americans are fitting into the future.  The photo above depicts coyote woman as an astronaut.  Just aroud the corner from the photo, I found the actual coyote woman standing guard.

She created a lot of messages and social observations in these photos.  I'll show you a few more tomorrow.

Creativity in Fashion

 

This was by far my favorite costume from the exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum.  Not because I would have ever worn it but because it is just so wildly creative.

This design was created by a Native American artist who goes by the name of "Son of Picasso". He began his career as a painter but expanded in 2018 to found a fashion label called "Products of My Environment" which is centered around the ethos "Made on Native Land By Native Hands." He repurposes garments into something entirely new.

This was a recent purchase by the Phoenix Art Museum's fashion collection.

There were also less radical selections from the collection on display like these lovely vintage gowns.  The one in front by Christian Dior from 1957.

This pretty gown is by Escada and was from the 1999 collection.  This one is timeless.  

I can't leave this exhibit without showing you these wild and crazy shoes.  I didn't catch the designer's name but wow, how about those big bows and golden toes!  I do love a nice pair of shoes but there was never a time that I would have coveted this pair.  

Two Museums and an Opera

 

It was a busy weekend.  On Friday I saw that the Phoenix Art Museum got a mention in the New York Times about a spring exhibit called "Color Wear: Kaleidoscope of Fashion." It was curated to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Phoenix Art Museum's Fashion collection.  I'll have a few photos to share in the coming days.  On my way to see the exhibit, I passed this sort of Calder-like mobile sculpture.  I discovered it was created by Tuan Andrew Nguyen from metal scraps from unexploded artillery and bomb shells salvaged in Viet Nam. If you look closely, you will see my reflection in one of those discs.

Fashion exhibit was also worth seeing and as I said above, I'll have a few more photos from it to share in the future.  For today I'm just featuring this Salvatore Ferragamo shoe-print silk scarf,  It features images of some of Ferragamo's shoe designs over the years. 

On Saturday morning I was at the Heard Museum for another Artful Mornings lecture and Saturday evening I attended the opera with a group of five other friends.  We saw "La Cenerentola" which translates to "Cinderella" in English.  The story was not quite the same with a nasty step-father instead of a step-mother and no fairy godmother.  The opera is very amusing prompting lots of audience laughter. 

On Sunday, I rested up! Phew!

    

Weekend Recap

 

This last weekend was a busy one for me with that Desert Botanical Garden brunch that I posted about on Saturday morning which was followed by dinner downtown and the symphony that evening.  

Standing on the front patio of Symphony Hall, I snapped this photo of a residential building that looms one block away.  You also can see our Art Deco styled street lamps that can be seen all over downtown.

On Sunday I met friends for lunch at the Phoenix Art Museum before we went to a play at The Phoenix Theatre which is right next door.

I snapped this photo of an ikebana arrangement in the Asian gallery as I passed through to the restaurant.

The play we saw was "Come From Away" which I had seen before several years ago with a broadway cast.  This was a local production and it was every bit as good as the broadway one. 

The play is about the 7,000 people that were stranded in the town of Gander in Newfoundland on 9/11.  It's a heartwarming account of people coming together to help each other in a time of crisis.  It's a great story told in a fun way with humor and heart.

You can read a full synopsis here.

Theme Day: Photo of the Year

 

My photo of the year was a tough choice this year. As I scanned my 2025 posts, I found so many photos that I loved.  I narrowed it down to two photos.  

This one is a portrait of Alexis, one of the three dogs that belong to my friends David and Riley. I posted it in July.  It was sheer luck that Alexis posed so perfectly and long enough for me to grab this shot.  

This second one I took at the Phoenix Art Museum.  I posted it last May. I had just recently taken that class on iPhone photography and I was practicing the use of the "portrait" mode. There was a colorful painting on the wall a few feet behind this Buddha statue and the portrait mode blurred that painting into a perfect backdrop.  

There are still a few of us City Daily Photo bloggers out there.  If you would like to check out their Photos of the Year, click here.

Happy New Year to All!!

More Radical Clay

 

When I was at the Phoenix Art Museum a week ago, I made another pass through the Radical Clay exhibit that I told you about last month. The one I've pictured above is called "Dream Flight" and was created by Tanaka Momomi using a multitude of layers of feather thin clay.

This one looked like an old log that has been decaying in a forest somewhere.  It's called "Big Birth" and was created by Fatumura Yoshimi.  It's amazing how much it looks like a piece of wood.

I loved this one.  It has an other-worldly look to it like it had just landed from outer space.  It's called "Form of the Progenitor".  The artist, Tamita Mikilo is inspired by motifs from temples and mosques and illustrations she sees in science magazines. It contains fractals, catenary curves and logarithmic spirals. It's an amazing piece.

This one is called "Leaf Vessel" and was created by Inaba Chikako. It's another graceful and delicate piece.

This exhibit of clay sculptures was truly amazing.  It takes pottery-making to whole new level.

The Art of Philip C Curtis

 

I don't think I've ever posted any photos of paintings by Philip C Curtis on my blog before. I'm surprised that I haven't because I have a special fondness for his work.  Curtis was born in 1907 in Michigan and he studied law before enrolling in a the fine arts school at Yale University.  He went to work for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), part of President Roosevelt's New Deal law.

In 1937 he was sent to Arizona to organize the state's first Art Center in Phoenix.  That art center later became the Phoenix Art Museum.  In 1947, he made Arizona his permanent home.  He lived in Scottsdale until his death in 2000.  

As you can see from the paintings I've chosen for this post, he was a surrealist painter.  I think the museum's description of his style is perfect:

"Drawing inspiration from the Arizona Desert and through the lens of magic realism, he created landscapes and figural compositions that often included Victorian-style subjects to complete his surrealist fantasies about human life and relationships."

The newly remodeled wing of the Phoenix Art Museum has a gallery dedicated to the works of Philip C Curtis.  Many of the paintings in that gallery I had seen before in different locations but it also had some new ones that I hadn't seen before.

So let me tell you the names of the paintings I've shown here starting from the first photo.

1. Two Way Parade

2. The Band Concert

3. The Farewell

4. After Dinner Speakers

5. Casino

I really enjoy seeing Curtis' work so it was great to see so many all together in one place.

Ed Mell's Southwest

 

In the Ed Mell gallery at the Phoenix Art Museum, I saw some fascinating pieces that I had not seen before.  This Painting of a cactus flower about to open is called appropriately enough, Opening Cactus Bud. It is part of a private collection so it had not been on display before.

This one was part of a series of abstract paintings that Mell had done.  It is called Summer Hunt.

This small painting was a part of a series of canvases that were painted as ideas for larger paintings.  I loved this one.

This last one is a painting also found in his studio that is a typical Ed Mell southwestern scene.  It's called Reverent Land.  

I love seeing the small paintings that were usually studies for something much larger like the lightening strike one above.  It was enlightening to see how the artist came up with ideas for his paintings. 

Big and Bold

 

There were several spots in the newly restored wing of the Phoenix Art Museum where the art was big and bold in the way it was displayed.  This scene greeted me as I entered the gallery.  The painting on the right is by the native American artist Fritz Scholder. It's called "Posing Indian with Headdress".  The sculpture on the left was new to me.  It's by Virgil Ortiz and it's called "Po' Pay".  

Around another corner was this "ofrenda" created by Amelia Mesa-Bains.  This one is called "Queen of the Waters, Mother of the Land of the Dead".  The artist says it's an offering to the mother goddesses of three cultures, Mexican, Spanish and West African.  That is real potpourri on the floor around the alter and it sent up a sweet smell that envelopes you the minute you enter this gallery.

A third bold statement was made when I rounded another corner and saw this display.  The center sculpture is by artist Carlos Alberto Estevez Carasa and it's called "Across the Universe".  

I found all of these bold exhibits to be fascinating and imaginative.  They blended well with the European Art pieces created hundreds of years ago.