Filed under: Art, Music, Phoenix | Tags: Arizona State University, Art, Casio Clicks, Downtown Chamber Series, Downtown Phoenix, Music, Phoenix, Snaps
Last weekend we went to one of our favorite recurring events, the Downtown Chamber Series, which is held 5 or 6 times a year. The series brings chamber music to distinctive art spaces in downtown Phoenix, showcasing professional musicians (many from the Phoenix Symphony) and the works of local artists. Additionally, wine and refreshments are served at intermission and this is all for the whopping price of 10 bucks! The series has been in existence since 2000 and we have been attending almost from the beginning.
Last week’s event was held at one of the more unusual and unique venues they frequent, the historic Icehouse, an original 1910 icehouse built along the railroad tracks formerly used to keep produce cold before shipping. The art displayed this evening was a special exhibit by some Arizona State University art students just for the two nights of the concert.
The most compelling works (in my opinion) were by ASU M.F.A. candidate Benjamin Phillips, already an award-winning sculptor, from Nova Scotia. The piece above is entitled American Oedipus. This is what Benjamin says about it: “The metaphorical implications of Sophocles’ tragic nobleman, fated to wander blind and begging seems fitting for representing the doubts and anxieties of a once great people; now seemingly doomed to a disparate future, lacking beauty and utterly vulnerable.”
The stark lighting and the shadows cast on the old brick walls and concrete floors added to the raw feeling of these almost life-sized figures.
This piece is called The Obsessive Man and is described by the artist: “T.O.M. merges the idea of obsessive compulsion with an implied peace of sleep, in the form of a sleepwalker. The conflicting signals enhance the psychological disturbance of a dream in compliment with the eccentricities of the form itself.”
This is Benjamin Phillips’ artist statement:
“The figures invoke anxieties about the body and flawed features that we tend to avoid looking and thinking about. Compiled from disparate components, sometimes in wrong scale or oddly joined, the figures project an abject discomfort and uncertainty. This unsettling representation calls upon the viewer’s willingness to empathize with another individual’s shame and/or discomfort.
My composite bodies suggest questions about how we define social status and its relationship to beauty and revulsion. These questions come to life in the physical interplay between the viewer and the sculpture. My freestanding sculptures are generally between four to five feet, to frame the object in the realm between child and elderly. This creates an expectation of frailty and subordination.”
Autumn (above) “explores aspects of uncertainty through wavering confidence, independence and grace. Autumn, the transitional season preceding winter, is portrayed off balance in mid-recline. It appears bleak, yet unresolved.”
There was another of his sculptures there, Effeme, but it was in a smaller area leading to the concert room so I didn’t photograph it but you can see it and more of his striking work on his website.
If you live in Phoenix and like music or art or downtown galleries or wine or all of the above, you should really try out the Downtown Chamber Series in March, which will be held at Modified Arts, another distinctive downtown art space.
Filed under: Art, Books, Home, Photography | Tags: Art, Books, Home, Photography
I have a lot of PTO at work so I’ve decided to take one day a month off and make it an Art Day. Today was my first. Of course, I wasn’t able to dedicate the whole day to arty things but I did a few and got some other things accomplished, too.
This was my model for the day, an orange with character. One of my bosses recently moved to a house with 30 orange trees in the yard so a couple of weeks ago, he brought a huge box of them in (he said he has thousands). They’re very juicy and still delicious several days later. So far, Tony has made orangecello out of them (still fermenting) and I’ve squeezed them for juice and eaten them as they are, of course. But this craggy one seemed like a good photo subject.
Oranges are almost as fun to photograph as eggs were last spring.
And another arty aside, I’m currently reading An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin. “This thoroughly engaging primer on the art world is unusual on a number of levels. Although the lead characters are unlikable, the novel is hard to put down, offers an enlightening explication of how the market for art is created, and includes photos and absorbing detail on many of the artworks under discussion.”
Filed under: Art, Phoenix | Tags: Art, Downtown Phoenix, Global Community, Greater Good, Murals, Phoenix
Two blocks away from the last mural project I blogged about, Calle 16, is this mural. It is on the side of a building owned by the City of Phoenix and it was sponsored by Chicanos por la Causa and Mothers Against Gangs.
It was completed in 2007 and the artist is Pablo Luna who I have mentioned in a previous post as a collaborator with Lalo Cota on some Calaveras murals.
This wall previously had another mural that succumbed to graffiti and this one took its place. So far, so good re: no apparent tagging.
I read this description of the mural, “Family is depicted at the center surrounded by history and cultural identity. Computer keyboards add to the story of what happens inside the walls of Mothers Against Gangs.” Mothers Against Gangs is located in this building.
Filed under: Arizona, Cats, Home, Phoenix | Tags: Arizona, Cats, Home, Phoenix
Is it snowing where you are? I know there are a lot of storms in the eastern and midwestern U.S. now. Well, these are the only snowflakes (above) we’ll be seeing for awhile since our daytime temperatures are in the high 60s to low 70s now.
A few weeks ago I read an article listing the top 20 snowiest cities in the U.S. Here are the top 12:
#1, Syracuse, New York
Average yearly snowfall: 103.1 inches
Biggest storm: 31.9 inches, January 31, 2004
Days with snow, 2000-2010: 26 percent
Coldest day, 2000-2010: -18 degrees, January 15, 2004
#2, Rochester, New York
Average yearly snowfall: 88.3 inches
Biggest storm: 20.1 inches, February 14, 2002
Days with snow, 2000-2010: 26 percent
Coldest day, 2000-2010: -11.9 degrees, January 10, 2004
#3, Buffalo, New York
Average yearly snowfall: 85.7 inches
Biggest storm: 40.9 inches, December 28, 2001
Days with snow, 2000-2010: 12 percent
Coldest day, 2000-2010: -9 degrees, February 5, 2009
#4, Duluth, Minnesota
Average yearly snowfall: 82.6 inches
Biggest storm: 29.9 inches, December 26, 2009
Days with snow, 2000-2010: 14 percent
Coldest day, 2000-2010: -24 degrees, January 13, 2009
#5, Flagstaff, Arizona
Average yearly snowfall: 81.1 inches
Biggest storm: 20.1 inches, December 7, 2009
Days with snow, 2000-2010: 10 percent
Coldest day, 2000-2010: -17 degrees, February 5, 2008
#6, Erie, Pennsylvania
Average yearly snowfall: 78.7 inches
Biggest storm: N/A
Days with snow, 2000-2010: 21 percent
Coldest day, 2000-2010: -6 degrees, January 16, 2009
#7, Casper, Wyoming
Average yearly snowfall: 76.2 inches
Biggest storm: N/A
Days with snow, 2000-2010: 16 percent
Coldest day, 2000-2010: -32.1 degrees, February 18, 2006
#8, Anchorage, Alaska
Average yearly snowfall: 72.7 inches
Biggest storm: 28 inches, December 23, 2003
Days with snow, 2000-2010: 10 percent
Coldest day, 2000-2010: -22, January 17, 2004
#9, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Average yearly snowfall: 72.3 inches
Biggest storm: 16 inches, December 21, 2008
Days with snow, 2000-2010: 21 percent
Coldest day, 2000-2010: -11.9 degrees, January 27, 2003
#10, Portland, Maine
Average yearly snowfall: 70.6 inches
Biggest storm: N/A
Days with snow, 2000-2010: 11 percent
Coldest day, 2000-2010: -17 degrees, February 14, 2003
#11, Albany, New York
Average yearly snowfall: 61.8 inches
Biggest storm: 18.1 inches, January 4, 2003
Days with snow, 2000-2010: 17 percent
Coldest day, 2000-2010: -16.1 inches, January 24, 2005
#12, South Bend, Indiana
Average yearly snowfall: 61.6 inches
Biggest storm: 16.9 inches, November 17, 2005
Days with snow, 2000-2010: 19 percent
Coldest day, 2000-2010: -18.4 degrees, January 16, 2009
My hometown, South Bend, Indiana comes in at number 12! Just a week and a half ago, on January 8, some areas of South Bend had 38 inches of snow in 24 hours. It was declared a snow emergency. Can you imagine? I can because I remember those lovely winters with “lake effect” snow where sometimes I had to walk on paths cut through the snow piled higher than me on either side.
I was surprised to see Flagstaff, AZ, coming in at number 5. Although we hear about their weather here all the time, it’s hard to fathom that just 2 hours away from steamy Phoenix it can snow that much (more than Anchorage, Alaska?!?!?!?).
Many years ago, in the 80s, I spent several days in Syracuse (#1) in the middle of the winter and it was miserable. Huge mounds of snow were everywhere. And one of my good friends, Joyce, currently lives in Casper, WY (#7). That is the extent of my experience with all these snowy cities.
But now…this is all the snow we get on our cars…another one of our sweet outdoor cats…Snowy.
I’ll take this kind of snow. But, seriously, I know that snow can be dangerous so be careful if you’re in it and keep warm!
How about you? Are you having a bad winter?
Filed under: Arizona, Art, Phoenix | Tags: Arizona, Art, Downtown Phoenix, Global Community, Greater Good, Murals, Phoenix
Calle 16 (on 16th Street and Thomas in central Phoenix) is a huge, collaborative project that is still in progress. It was only started last fall and already, the buildings and alleys in that area are full of vibrant color and content.
Because there is so much to see and because I took so many photos, I’ve combined them into a few collages that you can enlarge if you want to see more detail.
This first mural is at the end of a row of buildings that houses, among other things, the excellent Barrio Cafe. It is the Barrio Cafe’s owner, Silvana Salcido Esparza, who started Calle 16 after Arizona gained (once again) negative national attention with SB1070. “The eyes of the world and the nation are on us because of the mess caused by SB1070, and we don’t have our shit together,” says Esparza. “With Calle 16, I’m not looking to make a little Mexico. I want a center of pride and culture that reflects who we are as Mexicans living in Arizona. And that’s going to start with a few murals.”
Esparza was influenced as a child by seeing many of the famous Mexican muralists’ works in Mexico City, including Diego Rivera, Jose Orozco, and David Siqueiros. You can read about Calle 16′s start here.
Down the alley behind this plaza, you come upon many more brilliant murals.
Calle 16 has its own website. Be sure to check out the fun video about the project at the bottom of this page under the list of muralistas (if it doesn’t make you happy, nothing will). In fact, several of the muralistas listed are ones whose other murals I have photographed and written about here, including the late Rose Johnson (whose large mural is just across the street and was the mural that started my interest in photographing all of them), Joerael Elliott, Pablo Luna, and Randy Kinkel, in addition to several more.
With my hiatus from photographing murals due to the holidays and then getting a little off-track, Calle 16 could not have been a better project to renew my interest (“building community, one wall at a time”) and I can’t wait to see more but this will be hard to beat.
