street art 101

The 101 Loop through Scottsdale has some great street art lining the highway walls -- very large walls with very large art, impressive.

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...

#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.

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.