Slow Moving Skyscapes

 

While I was in Scottsdale last weekend, I stopped in at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.  The museum was in the midst of an exhibit change so there were only two exhibits on view.  This one is called Pathfinding by artist Evan Roth. It had two components, a slow moving video of sky images and a series of quilts inspired by the sky.  The video was slow paced visions of clouds passing across the sun.  It was quiet and relaxing.

The second piece was a series of quilts all designed with inspirations from sky scenes.  

I only took photos of two of the quilts but they were all interesting to see.  

Art comes at us in many, many ways.

Dots, Circle and Blips

 

Last weekend, I stopped at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art to see one of the exhibits which ended up not inspiring me to take any photos.  However, one of the other exhibits was in a small dark room with lots of moving patterns and some blips, boops and bubbling noises to accompany it.  

I stayed in that room for at least 10 minutes and luckily they had positioned two comfortable chairs in there for people like me who got mesmerized by the changing shapes and movements.  

The exhibit is called Biophony and was created by Alida Sun. It's described as "hand-coded art" meaning it is a digital artwork coded by the artist.  Whatever you want to call it, I found it be relaxing and stimulating at the same time.  

Knight Rise

 

While I was at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, I took the opportunity to visit James Turrell's sculpture called Knight Rise.    

It can only be accessed through the museum even though it's on the outside.  Guests follow the little partially enclosed walkway I've pictured to the left to get to it.

Once there, I stepped into the circular space, sat down and enjoyed the view of the sky through the opening above.  The sky was look a bit 'lacy' on this day.

Knight Rise is one of many Skyspaces that Turrell has created all over the world.

Brains and Beauty

 

Thought Patterns by Monica Aissa Martinez

I went to see a fascinating art exhibit at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.  I actually heard about this exhibit on the PBS Newshour earlier last month and I wanted to see it before it leaves on January 19th.  The full title of the exhibit is "Brains & Beauty: At the Intersection of Art and Neuroscience".  

Red Mask by Rufino Tamayo

The exhibit used a series of artworks to emphasize how different things about a piece activates the aesthetic triad referring to sensory-motor, emotion-valuation and knowledge-meaning neural systems.  In the painting above our visual cortex takes in the color.  Our eyes can detect more than 10 million colors. The color red is especially effective in stimulating our brains in different ways.

There were two places in the show where the viewer interacts with a piece that contains cameras.  The one above is a camera that distorts what it is seeing into fragmented pieces but I could still make out me, taking a photo of me. The other piece used two cameras on each side of a person showing a split screen version of me from angles that I cannot see in a normal mirror. 

It was a fascinating exhibit that gave me lots and lots to think about.  I love viewing art and I think this exhibit might enhance the way I look at different pieces of art.  I might end up staring at different pieces even longer than I do now.

Painting With Shoes

A week or so ago, I went to the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and while I was there viewing exhibits, I came across this case with these shoes inside.  Next to the case was a little video showing an artist and a helper painting panels for the exhibit with these shoes.....on the artist's feet.  She would dip her toe in the paint, brace herself on her helper and then kick her foot out to splatter the canvas.  I'm not kidding....that's the way the paintings below were painted.

I've seen many interesting ways to create art but, that had to be the most unique I've ever seen.  I won't be trying this one at home.  I have too much respect for my shoes!

I have a new post on Sharon's Sojourns today.  I'm paying a little tribute to poor, "wet" Venice.

Theme Day: Red

I have literally hundreds of photos of red flowers but, I thought that was a little to easy.  So, I went scouring through my photo files to see if I could find something different for today's theme.  I found this photo that I took at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art for an exhibit of art works by Betty Saar.  This particular piece appealed to me I think because of the color and the wonderful shadow it threw on the red wall.  The piece itself is also red.  So it's red on red!

To see other visions of red, click here.

Contemporary Glass Art

The exhibit I went to the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art to see was called Divergent Materiality: Contemporary Glass Art.  There were some very creative and beautiful pieces in this exhibit all using glass in different ways.

The piece at top made me chuckle a bit.  It's called "Aristocrap" by artist Matt Eskuche.  It features all kinds of everyday things that appear to be silver plated but, it's all glass.

To the left is a piece by Vivian Wang and it is called Rooster Princess.

This last one is called "Seeker" by Lucy Lyon.

The third exhibit at the museum was called Mutual Reality: Art on the Edge of Technology.  That one was really impossible to photograph.  It contained a series of interactive exhibits.  I had fun making shapes change and music play simply by moving and touching.

If you live in the Phoenix area, I highly recommend seeing these three exhibits.  It's something to do inside a cool museum on these hot summer days.

The World is Full of Incredible Art

On Friday I went to the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and was wowed by three amazing exhibits.  I was drawn there to see an exhibit called Contemporary Glass Art (I'll show you some of those pieces next week) but found myself mesmerized by the portraiture of artist Shizu Saldamando.

Saldamando's work focuses on friends and family and often-overlooked communities of color.  "Her work allows the underground crowd to see themselves reflected and affirmed in contemporary culture, while making them visible to new audiences."

She works with paint, collage materials, charcoal, pencil and graphite and on both paper and wood panels.   She has an incredible amount of talent.  The faces of each person depicted in this exhibit were so full of life and emotion.  I loved them all.

I have a new post on Sharon's Sojourns today.  I'm completing my story about a very special wine tasting event in Oregon.  I'm feeling hungry just thinking about it.

The City is Nature

The second exhibit I saw at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art was called Repositioning Paolo Soleri:  The City is Nature.  It was a retrospective of the life work of artist and architect Paolo Soleri who made his home right here in Arizona.  Soleri pioneered the term "arcology" which is described as the fusion between architecture and ecology with is designs for urban environments.  Above is a drawing Bow Bridge a design of his that was never built dating back to 1977.

I spent quite a lot of time looking at this model of a city that is very similar to one that is still being built in central Arizona called Arcosanti.  (I really need to get up there and get some photographs from that place.)

One of the docents in the room saw me taking photos and came over to show me this little guy, the only human figure in the model looking out of a round window.  He couldn't be seen from anywhere except one position.  I'm so glad she pointed him out to me.

The exhibit included a lot of Soleri's drawings and sketches he made throughout his long career.  He was certainly a remarkable man.

They also had a few of the vintage Soleri bells on display.  Soleri became well known for making these bells and his students still make them at his Paradise Valley studio today.  You can see photos from that studio here and here.

Marking the Infinite

While I was out for my walk at the Scottsdale Civic Center Park, I decided to visit the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art to see what exhibits were on.  I'm so glad I did.  I saw two wonderful exhibits, the first was called Marking the Infinite:  Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia.  With my love of patterns, all of the pieces in this exhibit appealed to me.  The poles and paintings above are by Nonggirrnga Marawili who was born in Darrpirra, Northern Territory.  She depicts the elements of lightning, fire, water and rock which play a role in the beliefs of her clan.

This painting is by Carlene West, born in Tjitjiti, Western Australia and now works and resides in the town of Tjuntijunjttarra.    Her paintings are related to the environment of her birth.  Many of her paintings have large white patches that represent the vast salt lake that is on the edge of Tjitjiti.

This last one is fiber art by Lena Yarinkura also from the Northern Territory and a city named Maningrida.  This piece features mythological female figures called Yawkyawk.

I really enjoyed seeing these wonderful works of art.

Tomorrow I'll show you some things from the second exhibit I saw.

Contemporary Art

The last time I was at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, one of the docents asked me if I had ever seen the sculpture on the patio of the museum.  He said it is an interesting piece, so I followed the path outside and around a corner and came to a round room with a huge opening in the center of the ceiling.  It turns out, this was the sculpture.

Looking down, there is a ridge around the walls that forms a sort of bench and of course, the sun shining through that opening created a huge sun spot in the room.

The sculptor is James Turrell and the piece is called Knight Rise.  Its made of Venetian plaster, concrete, steel and neon.  At night, the neon lights upward from that ridge just above the sun spot in the photo above. If you would like to see what it looks like at different times of day, click this link.  You will see a short slide show of photos taken and different times.  I love it!  I'll be checking it out every time I go to the museum to see how it looks at different times.

Still Tickin'

I visited the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art on Saturday to see an exhibit that had just opened.  I missed the opening night reception on Friday evening because of another commitment so I headed over first thing on Saturday to check it out.

The show is called Betye Saar:  Still Tickin' so it seems appropriate to show you this piece from the show first.  The name of the show could have several meanings but, the one that resonated with me is the fact that Ms. Saar is 89 years old and still creating art.  Or as she puts it; "still spinning on my ninetieth revolution around the sun."

Ms. Saar has been creating artworks since 1960 reflecting on African-American identity, spirituality and how different cultures are interconnected.

The show was divided into three themes:  nostalgia and memory; mysticism and ritual; and political and racial.  The above piece has a definite mystical theme with the table and chairs surrounded by natural elements and various Tarot cards.  One of the docents told me that the natural materials are gathered in whatever city the exhibit is taking place.  Members of staff helped to collect the tumbleweeds and branches for this display.

This piece was called "Loss of Innocence" with that christening dress hanging over a child's chair with a picture of a baby on it.

Upon closer look at the christening dress, you will find words that some people have used to describe a young African-American child.  It's easy to see that this piece falls into the political and racial theme.

This last photo is of a room full of pieces that that were all created with a color theme of red.  The bright red room really pulled me in and made me want to stay for a while.

It was an interesting and powerful show that I enjoyed very much.