I just got back from a few days in northern Indiana, where my mother lives. These photos were all taken in her neighborhood…a totally different sort of scenery than I see here in Arizona. There are a lot of trees in her ‘hood, lush landscapes, and ducks enjoying the little pond.
That’s not her house but this one has a lovely setting.
I had no wifi there so I’m behind on reading other blogs. The weather was lovely but I’m glad to be back to urbanity.
I like the darkness of the woods. And I saw fireflies again for the first time in many years…rabbits and squirrels, too, which we just don’t see in central Phoenix.
Here’s some more of the wooded shots I took in a slideshow.
Mornings at Blackwater
For years, every morning, I drank
from Blackwater Pond.
It was flavored with oak leaves and also, no doubt,
the feet of ducks.
And always it assuaged me
from the dry bowl of the very far past.
What I want to say is
that the past is the past,
and the present is what your life is,
and you are capable
of choosing what that will be,
darling citizen.
So come to the pond,
or the river of your imagination,
or the harbor of your longing,
and put your lips to the world.
And live
your life.
~Mary Oliver
Filed under: Art, Phoenix | Tags: Arizona State University, Art, Downtown Phoenix, Global Community, Greater Good, Isaac N. Caruso, Lalo Cota, Lauren Lee, Murals, Niba DelCastillo, Parks, Phoenix, Roosevelt Row
This new Lalo Cota mural is just a couple blocks down from the Lauren Lee mural in my last post. And, being in a busy downtown area, I have had the same problem catching it with no cars in front of it. So I gave up on that plan, wanting to capture it before it might change.
I wanted to make sure I photographed it, even with cars, because I’m wondering if this is one of those walls where the mural may change regularly. Until a few weeks ago, this wall looked like this:
Gold, Oil, Drugs also by Lalo Cota. I blogged about it then here. And it was a fairly recent mural, too, so maybe the current one will not be there long either. Maybe it’s a revolving Lalo wall…not a bad thing.
You can see Niba DelCastillo’s shot of it sans cars here.
Just a little down the street from this mural is a new, temporary park with a big community mural done in late February that I posted about here. Since then, other improvements have been made to make the park a nice gathering place for people in the neighborhood (when it finally cools down).
This piece was at Arizona State University until recently.
There are little benches and shaded areas inside.
The “ribs” were just painted red a few weeks ago.
You can see monOrchid in the background with the Isaac N. Caruso mural I wrote about here.
We have some awesome downtown community activists, artists, homeowners, and business owners who work very hard to turn a formerly blighted area into a dynamic, attractive, fun place to go.
Filed under: Art, Phoenix | Tags: Art, Downtown Phoenix, Lauren Lee, Murals, Niba DelCastillo, Phoenix
Back in May, I mentioned in a post that the new owners of a gallery on Roosevelt Row were commissioning a mural for the side of it. The wall used to look like this and the new owners painted it green (as their business is called Green Haus). The winner is named Lauren Lee and she finished her mural in early July.
So I’m way too lazy to go down there at about 5 am on a Sunday to try to get a shot with no cars so you’ll have to imagine what it looks like without them.
Pretty cool, huh? She used very vivid colors. Lauren has been winning awards and recognition left and right lately and has done several other murals recently. Check out her website to see more of her beautiful work and see more pics by Niba DelCastillo (minus the cars) of this mural here.
Filed under: Phoenix, Photography | Tags: Downtown Phoenix, Niba DelCastillo, Phoenix, Photography, Photoshop, Prescott, Travels
I was out mural-shooting the other day and came upon this little building and it really appealed to me. It was partly cloudy and had rained a lot the night before so I “copied” the style of another local mural photographer, Niba DelCastillo, on the above shot. He does some awesome things with skies and angles sometimes. Update: see end of post*
It is being worked on now so I’m eager to see what it will become. In looking at Google maps, it looks like it was a house most recently with several additions that covered up most of this original building. It’s very small so they’ll have to add something to it, I think, but I hope they are preserving this structure.
These next photos were taken in Prescott a few weeks ago on Whiskey Row, their historic saloon-laden street. In May, one of the old bars, the Bird Cage, burned down, along with 2 other businesses.
Livin’ on the Fringe
This is not the sort of shot I normally take (and I was across the street so he was unaware) but a couple people who saw it elsewhere liked it so I included it here. I don’t think he needs work but he definitely needs some sort of help.
*Here is my original photo, edited by Niba himself in Dynamic Light and Snapseed (neither of which I have ever used). Thanks, Niba, it’s very cool!
What could this bouquet mean?
The language of flowers, sometimes called floriography, was a Victorian-era means of communication in which various flowers and floral arrangements were used to send coded messages, allowing individuals to express feelings which otherwise could not be spoken. This language was most commonly communicated through Tussie-Mussies, an art which has a following today. “Tussie-mussie” is a quaint, endearing term from the early 1400s for small, round bouquets of herbs and flowers with symbolic meanings (Wikipedia).
Apparently Kate Middleton chose her wedding flowers based on their symbolic meanings.
I’m currently reading a lovely novel called The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, set in present-day San Francisco, where the main characters do communicate through floriography (and photography is also one of the elements).
Poppy: Oblivion ~ Red Poppy: Consolation ~ White Poppy: Sleep
Sunflower: pure and lofty thoughts
Daffodil: chivalry
Pink Rose: friendship, grace ~ White Rose: I am worthy of you
Red Rose: true love
Who would think that delicious Basil represents hatred?
Geranium: gentility
Hibiscus: rare beauty, delicate beauty
Gerbera Daisy: innocence and cheerfulness
Marigold: despair and grief
Stargazer Lily: youthfulness and beauty
I can’t remember what this flower is. Do you know? One of the problems with flower meanings (and the characters in the novel encounter this, too) is that there are many language of flowers dictionaries and the meanings are not always the same. Or the meanings can be entirely different depending on the color or subspecies. I’ve been looking online and the sources are endless and often contradictory. It’s a complicated and potentially dangerous art form.
If you’re going to communicate through flowers, you have to be cautious, I guess. Or just make sure they’re really pretty.
Here are a couple of sources in addition to the Wikipedia article cited above: Language of Flowers and Phillips 1-800 Florals.
And, if you read and like The Language of Flowers, try this one, too: Hot House Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire by Margot Berwin; it relies on plant properties, too, and is very lush and fanciful.
