I had pictures last Tuesday of lots of blooming palo verde trees around town. The Desert Botanical Garden has a lot of them too and when those yellow blooms start to fall, they cover the garden in a carpet of yellow.
You can see here how the petals have covered the ground. They are clinging to the cactus too. Everything in this section of the garden had a warm yellow glow.
This dove has some seriously ruffled feathers! He's gotten himself twisted into a knot too!
I took a walk at the Desert Botanical Garden early Friday morning and saw this dove doing a little preening while sitting on top of a cactus. I snapped the shot just as the bird twisted around and looked in my direction. This is the best representation of "ruffled feathers" that I've ever seen.
I mentioned last Friday that I'd show you some more of the ancient ceramic pieces I saw at the Tucson Art Museum.
This one was my favorite. I'm not quite sure what it is about this one that I find so fascinating. It is so beautifully detailed and well preserved.
It was described as a Standing Male Dignitary found in Veracruz Mexico. It dates between 400 and 800 AD. See what I mean about "well preserved"?
This fellow is described as a seated male orator with raised hands. It dates to 300 AD. He looks like he's telling a story.
Here is an athlete. It's described as a ballplayer and dates between 100 and 300 AD. Another beautifully preserved piece.
One thing I found interesting about all of the figures in these displays were how elongated the faces were on all of them except the one in the top photo (above). That top figure has a completely different look.
One of the many things I love about the Arizona Inn in Tucson is its beautifully landscaped grounds. Everywhere you turn there are special places to admire. One of my favorites is this little spot with the fountain and flowers.
The grounds are full of flower beds that were bursting with spring flowers.
I admired all the flowers but I have to admit I have a special fondness for the pretty hollyhocks that surround the tennis courts. I don't see many hollyhocks in the Phoenix area.
I happened to be in my old neighborhood over the weekend and I noticed that this house has a whole new look.
This is what it looked like 10 years ago when I was living near by. I like that yellow with the blue trim but I like the new version too.
It's a sea of yellow here in the Phoenix area these days. It's the time of year when the palo verde trees bloom and they are currently in full force.
Three in a row in a nearby parking lot.
This isn't the prettiest shaped tree but I couldn't resist a shot with the yellow wall in the background.
This one appears to be exploding with color.
An up close look at one of the blooms. They are so pretty!
My photo only shows a little slice of this mural. It's located in Downtown Phoenix in spot very difficult to photograph. It was painted last year when Phoenix hosted the Super Bowl.
The artist is Lucinda "La Morena" Hinojos. She is an indigenous artist and she gave this mural a very Native American look.
If you want to see the whole mural, click here. It will take you to a newspaper article about the mural with a great photo that appears to have been taken from the roof of one of the buildings.
I featured that mural in the foreground two years ago. That post is here.
Taking part in Monday Murals.
This curious little metal box was attached to the door of a small closet in the hallway outside my room at the Arizona Inn. I snapped a photo so I would be sure to investigate what a Detex Watchclock was. It turns out that a watchclock was a mechanical clock used by security guards for tracking their routine patrols. It's a relic of the past.
I found this very tattered dictionary in the library room at the Hacienda Del Sol resort where we stopped on our way home from Tucson. This dictionary has been brutally used. I hate to see any book in such a tortured condition.
I have a new post on Sharon's Sojourns today. Look at a little bit of Scotland in central London.
When I was at the University of Arizona Art Museum in Tucson last week, I fell in love with this painting. I love the abstract style and the bright colors. Reading the information card, I found a bit of a mystery. Not a big mystery like the one for the Willem de Kooning painting I mentioned two days ago, just a little mystery. You see, the card said the artist was Minda Hess with a birth date of 1906 but a question mark was in place of a date of death. It said she was a native of Baltimore and that she studied with Morris Louis known for something called Color Field Painting.
I was curious as to how such a talented artist could leave this earth with no record of her passing. I did some online research and could find no other information about her except that the top price for any of her art was $1000.00.
I like her painting so much, I made it my current "wallpaper" on my iPhone. She may have faded away from the art world's records but, I'll remember her.
I spotted this garage while I was in Tucson last week. It faces an alley-way that was adjacent to a parking lot where we parked the car while having lunch nearby. The neighboring garages looked rather dull compared to this eye-popping color combination.
Last Saturday, I posted about a visit to the University of Arizona Art Museum in Tucson and I mentioned that I'd tell you more about the the artwork I wanted to see at that museum.
This is that painting, "Woman-Ochre" by Willem de Kooning. I didn't want so see it because I was especially fond of it, I'm not. I wanted to see it because of the mystery that is now attached to it.
You see, on the day after Thanksgiving in 1985, this painting was stolen from the museum by a man and a woman. The woman distracted the guard with questions while the man cut this valuable painting from its frame, rolled it up and hid it under his coat.
The pair left the museum 15 minutes after they entered and made a quick get-away in a red sports car.
In 2017, the painting was purchased along with furniture and other things for $2000.00 at an estate sale. The buyer was the owner of an antiques store in Silver City New Mexico. The estate sale was at the home of Jerry and Rita Alter, two retired teachers who lived in the small town of Cliff New Mexico. The painting had been clumsily re-framed and was hanging behind the bedroom door in the Alter home, a place where it was only seen by the couple when the bedroom door was closed. When the owner of the antiques store learned that the painting was stolen, he returned it to the U of A Art Museum. From there, the painting spent several years being carefully restored before returning to the museum in 2022.
So many questions remain a mystery today. Did the Alter's steal the painting, which seems likely, and if so why? Had they stolen other works of art that were never discovered? And, how did two retired teachers have the money to travel to 140 countries? There are so many more questions.
It's a fascinating story. If it interests you, check this Wikipedia page. It has a lot of information. I also discovered that a documentary was made about the painting, the Alters and the entire mystery. It's called "The Thief Collector" and it's available on Amazon Prime. I watched it and it reveals even more mysteries about the couple and it opens up even more questions.
Like I said, I love a good mystery.
Here is a couple of happy cyclists enjoying a ride in Arizona. I pulled this photo out of my archives from way back in 2007. That's me and my sister Judy one spring day near Judy's house in Prescott Valley Arizona. I remember this ride. Judy loaned me the bike and we rolled around the hilly streets.
The City Daily Photo Bloggers theme for May 1st is "Cyclists". I didn't catch any local cyclists in the last month so I dug around in my archives to find this shot. If you want to see other cyclists shots, click here.
One of my favorite things about the Arizona Inn is this room called the Library. This room is set up with coffee in the morning and it's a quiet place sip a cup and read a paper.
I don't drink coffee but holding a real newspaper in my hand is kind of a treat. I don't think I've held an actual "paper" news source in ages.
On the way out of Tucson on Saturday, we decided to stop at the Hacienda Del Sol Guest Ranch. My friend Glenda had just been there a few months ago for a tour of the grounds and it sounded like a beautiful place to have a look around.
This resort is another one that is on the Historic Hotels of America list. It sits in the foothills of Catalina Mountain so the views all around are beautiful. And, as you can see, the grounds are very welcoming too.
It's another magical option for visiting the City of Tucson.
Tucson has a lot to offer the visitor.
We were having breakfast on the patio at the Arizona Inn when these two stopped by for a visit. The waitress said "oh, that's Hector and Joslyn". She said they stop by for breakfast most mornings. They hung around under the tables the entire time we were there.
I wonder who gave them those names.
After enjoying the beautiful morning by the pool, we packed up and headed home. This little get-away is over now but, I do have more photos to share in the future.
I have a new post on Sharon's Sojourns. More public art to think about.
Yesterday we went to the University of Arizona Museum of Art. I wanted to see a specific painting which I'll tell you about in another post. I didn't realize that the museum has such an impressive collection of paintings.
Here is a truly wonderful Georgia O'Keeffe. It's called "Red Canna".
Above is an Edward Hopper called "The City". It shows his love of New York City around Washington Square.
To the right is a Mark Rothko called "Green on Blue".
Here is a Jackson Pollack called simply "Number 20".
Pollack usually worked on a massive scale but this particular painting was painted on the back of a game board. The game was called Autograph Baseball Game from 1948.
I'm glad I finally visited this museum. It had some unexpected treasures.
I arrived in Tucson around 11:30 and after having lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant, my friend and I visited the Tucson Art Museum. The museum has been expanded since the last time I was there. It's almost double the size it was in 2019. Above is a scene from the Arizona Inn. My room is the two windows just above that statue.
At the Tucson Art Museum I saw a wonderful display of incredible ceramics dating back to 100 AD. This group is from Western Mexico. There were 3 rooms filled with ancient artifacts that were beautifully well preserved. I had a great time reading about all of them. Sometime next week, I'll show you a few more. I found them all fascinating.
I'm heading down to Tucson today and will be there through Saturday. It's just a little spring break trip that will include a few museums and some relaxing time at one of my favorite resorts, the Arizona Inn. I'm looking forward to a change in scenery and a taste of Tucson.
