Tail(s) of Two Cities

These lizards hang around under the Tanque Verde overpass in Tucson.

and these lizards are along the McDonald underpass at highway 101 in Scottsdale...

political bull, pure and simple

I found this political bull today on the roof of an antiques store on Speedway Blvd. I'll leave the interpretation(s) of this art to the reader... *smile*

Goddess of the potted plants

This is a sculpture in front of a used furniture store on Grant Road in Tucson (Grant & Sparkman). I remember back in the 1980's when this building and the plant goddess in front were part of a nice restaurant. Good memories.

There are trees somewhat blocking the view of her from passing cars on Grant Road -- I wonder how many people know she is still holding her own...

The building appears to be up for sale, I hope someone figures out a way to keep or save her.

why does your cat grin like that?

"Please, would you tell me," said Alice, a little timidly,
"why your cat grins like that?"
"It's a Cheshire cat," said the Duchess,
"and that's why."
-- From Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

While stopping to take a picture to submit to the Tucson Mural Project I spotted the above cat reflecting off a window. I didn't have time to watch it vanish as the sun went down...

Here's a link to the actual mural.

#47 leaning into things outside

I dropped by the DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun today to view the "Revolucion: Tierra y Libertad" exhibition on his artwork depicting events of the Mexican Revolution. I decided to try my hand at taking some relative closeups of some of the interesting things to be found outside along the paths and gardens. I tried to frame areas that were very roughly about six inches square of foreground subject area, plus or minus a little... This hanging can (candle holder?) appeared to have holes melted by a torch.

I've not seen these in bloom before, very big and seemed to be purposely attracting flies...

Part of the front iron door. Inside, the marbles are nicely backlit by the sun.

on the ready for ramada repairs

This was one of many translucent single color blocks in the wall of of the Little Gallery, reflecting the desert landscaping.

Yaqui dancer sculpture in the courtyard

under a ramada

part of a grinding wheel

#46 abridged bat music to fly by

Tonight I hung out with about 20,000 out of town visitors. The Rillito River Project held an event to watch the evening flyout of about 20,000 Mexican Free-tailed Bats from under the Campbell Bridge. It was very nice to see so many people interested in learning about and watching bats. I had to smile when I saw the size of the crowd, even though I knew it would make tonight's bat watching more difficult and a little less eco-friendly.

People starting to arrive, Pete Swan entertaining the crowd.

Lots of bats in the air, but I wasn't able to get a good picture of them so I took this one of part of the huge crowd that showed up. I've enjoyed watching the smoky plume as thousands of bats fly out for the evening from one of the bridges over on my side of town and hopefully one of these days I'll be able to get a tolerable picture of them to share.

#45 visited Taliesin West

Back on Labor Day weekend, as a new thing to me, I decided to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West. Taliesin West was the famous architect's winter home/school and showcases a number of very interesting Wright designs. The only way to tour the grounds is to pay for a tour and one is only allowed on the grounds during the tour. I enjoyed the 90 minute tour very much, but I thought the price ($32, pricey!) was high by at least 10-15 dollars due to the limited amount of time allowed on the actual grounds.

lots and lots of interesting designs and art on the grounds...

interesting angles, corners, and doors!

My favorite entryway door design of the various doors

leading to a private hidden patio...

A very cool dragon, which actually does breath fire on the evening tours. To see a picture of it lit at night, check out the Taliesin West fire breathing dragon picture on flickr. Impressive.




There are a number of outstanding cast bronze sculptures on the grounds by artist Heloise Christa, including this large collection in a sculpture patio outside the performance hall.

This was my favorite sculpture, "Coming into the Present", by Heloise Christa.

far away & not forgotten

This is a sculpture I walked by in Christchurch, New Zealand, back in 2003...

on my return walk, I passed by the other side and discovered what a small world it is...

how to confuse an archaeologist

I drove past this wonderfully strange building in Scottsdale and had to turn around to take some pictures. Its a water treatment plant located on the grounds of Chaparral Park. This very large building has architectural art designs certain to confound some future archaeologists. The plant is capable of producing 30 million gallons of drinking water per day.

The rest of the park is full of lush green grass dog runs, baseball fields, and an artificial lake. I've never visited this park before, so I'm going to count it as (#44) a new-to-me item.

#43 Herd it at the Heard

I was in Phoenix this weekend for some errands and decided to tour a few spots that I haven't been to before, one of which was the Heard Museum . The Heard Museum displays the best of traditional and contemporary Native American art. I really liked the above Sculpture in one of the courtyards.

Notice the blown over Palo Verde tree in the background? A storm had just recently passed through Phoenix and there were trees down all around the downtown area.

A very round and very straight fountain, I like how it moves water from one area across dry rocks and then pours water down below [ocean, clouds, rain?].

a couple taking a break outside

I actually liked the carved stone Tufa mold by Ric Charlie even more than the resulting casting shown below.

Now is this a good representation of the Trickster, or what? Even has a can of pork, whiskey, & bible in one hand. One of the exhibit rooms had lots of interesting murals running around the top wall of the room.

This basket is by Terrol Dew Johnson (b. 1971) Tohono O'odham (2001).

This is just a very brief sampling of art at the Heard, with an emphasis on the outdoor sculptures. The inside collections display really nice examples of traditional and contemporary Native American art in all types of media. Well worth a visit.