The Phoenix Art Museum (Again)

Yes, as I pointed out in July 2017, this Tyrannosaurus Rex is sitting caged outside the entrance to the Phoenix Art Museum.  Apparently, it wasn't there from the beginning.  It was added later, along with a few other sculptures, preceded by a rather inventive ad campaign.

This tree, which takes up an entire wall, is mesmerizing.  It's actually just a looped video of a swaying silhouette, but look at it!  It goes through all the seasons - leaves change color, fall, blow away, branches twist and turn - mesmerizing. [However, it looks like you'll have to use your imagination because this video doesn't work on the blog for some reason.]

When I visited the Museum on Wednesday (June 20, 2018), so much was the same as it was almost a year ago.  However, there were a few new exhibits and this one took my fancy.  I'm a librarian (retired), after all, and this, my friends, is about BOOKS!  I wish I could have captured the mattresses, pillows, bed headboards, and spiral stairs that accompanied many of these exhibits.  My photos really only give you a small inkling of the look of the whole exhibit.

There was a room where overlaid video showed people dancing (modern dance) to a song from my generation -  The Look of Love by Dusty Springfield.  The overarching theme, in my opinion, was Love.  You can hear it in the music; see it in the man and woman dancing, in the titles of the book jackets and book covers that are mounted in a variety of ways, and read it in the huge oval installation comprised of book inscription pages.  There is a whole, six foot deep, wall of hundreds of silver-looking chains hanging from the ceiling, which you have to pass through in order to get from one side of the exhibition to another,   There appeared to be one Museum attendant whose job was mainly to untangle the chains after a few people traveled through. And, there is another area that has dozens of dangling mirrored balls, disco balls if you will, that are hanging only a few inches from the floor with a few feet between them. (No one walked through the disco balls, I guess because there was a path around them and it might actually hurt.)

Valeska Soares did a wonderful job! http://www.phxart.org/exhibition/valeska-soares

The installations are all very large.  This Green piece is about 8 feet tall - all book jackets.  If you can enlarge the photo, you'll be able to read the titles.

This Red piece is the entire corner of the room.  There were also floor pieces, like carpets with the center cut out, scattered around.

This is the oval of inscriptions.  Some are handwritten by the other or a gift-giver.  The majority are the printed dedications by the author.  What you see is a collage of single pages covering at least twenty feet of wall.

Close-ups of the individual pages.  Some are pretty fascinating.

I liked this wall best of all.  It's so colorful and most of the titles are easily read.  Of course, your neck may start getting uncomfortable trying to read the high up titles, if you "middle aged" as I am.  Also, these sections of library stairs are awfully cute, and tempting.

This was my second choice.  Bookshelves with the actual books, but they are all variations on beige and brown.  If you look very closely, you realize that every single title appears to contain the word Love.  Many are written in languages other than English, but you can still see the word Love - Amour (French), Amor (Spanish), Amore (Italian).   At least, those were the ones I recognized, but the fonts appeared to be very similar and, at first glance, the piece is rather drab.

The Girl Playing Guitar  (Pieter Janssens) is still my favorite in the whole museum.  I love the light, the detail and the fact that this is one of the very few paintings from the 17th century that I've seen that shows a female doing something for enjoyment, something other than yard or house work.  She seems so calm and content.  Of course, being an introvert, I suppose the fact that her back to the viewer 

Last, this is the painting from the 13th century that makes me giggle.  Not because of the content, but because this is the painting that my husband was looking at so closely that his nose almost touched.  He was reprimanded by a very upset docent after he did it the second time. [My giggle may actually be more of a nervous titter because the docent was very much in the right.  This is an irreplaceable treasure and ANY touch can do irreparable harm.  The signs say to stay at least 18 inches away for very good reasons.  We should be very grateful that the exhibits in this Museum are not behind bulletproof glass or a 3 foot velvet barricade as some were in Europe.]  Yes, the background is really gold leaf.  It really is magnificent, but it's no Girl Playing Guitar.

This is going to be my summer - inside with air conditioning: museums, movies, power walking the indoor shopping mall, streaming and reading or streaming in our (very nice) apartment.  It isn't even full summer yet and today, my friends, it was 111 degrees Fahrenheit just West of Phoenix, Arizona.  Yes, we had to purchase two humidifiers to make our apartment livable.  Before that, I literally shocked myself turning on any light switch, our skin started looking more than usual like parchment, and don't get me started on dry and cracking feet.  This place will suck the moisture out of you and you have to drink H2O all day long.  But, as you can see from this blog, it has its beauties.  We seem to discover more every week.

Goodby to Arizona

Leaving Phoenix area...  We had one last visit and meal with my brother and my Mom and Dad on Tuesday to say goodbye; always hard.

On the way to Mom and Dad's, I took these photos of one of those palm tree cell towers up close.  It is located at the local fire station.  As you can see, this is not an actual palm tree with added equipment, but wholly man-made.  In fact, it probably has an antenna for the local emergency radio, too.

Steve packed the car today.  The trunk had to be packed just right in order to get all our camping equipment in; there is a lot.  All we need to add now are our suitcases, computer equipment, and bathroom gear.  I think we have realized that we may need to bring fewer clothes and use only one suitcase, plus a small backpack for the Europe trip.

Tomorrow, we leave around 9am for Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We'll be staying at a place north of Albuquerque in order to visit Los Alamos, Bandelier Park, Espanola (especially, the road to Espanola), Camel Rock, and Santa Fe.  Once again, we will see if my childhood place looks the same.

A library in the wilderness and St. Mary's Basilica in Phoenix

Steve and I discovered a library next to a city park on the way to my folks' house.  The city of Phoenix appears to be 100s of square miles.  A city park like this looks like it is far out in the rural area, but it is actually inside the city limits.  I have never seen city limits like these.  Here's the sign outside the the library as you come in from the parking lot.

My librarian friends may enjoy the views from inside the library.  They have the most saguaros I've seen since we arrived.  Here is White Tank Branch Library.

The front door from the outside.

The front doors from the inside.

They also have a Nature Center and a Friends Book Store!

The view from the parking lot.

It's has it's own Native American circle.

More views from the parking lot.

After the Library, we had another dinner with the family yesterday.  All of us shared carry out and had a great time chatting.  It's possible we may run out of conversation soon, but not yet.

Today, in 109 degree heat, I left Steve in the cool house and ventured out for root beer and a visit to St. Mary's Basilica.  Needless to say, I was probably the only person wandering around outside in downtown Phoenix today in the late afternoon, but look at these photos.  Even though it was closed, the outside of the building and its grounds are very beautiful.  Construction began on this adobe church in 1880 and it was completed in 1881.  It was the first Catholic church and the second church of any kind to be built in Phoenix.

This is the Basilica's little gated courtyard.

Across the street on one side is a theater, with fascinating sculptured figures outside.

Look closely, there are icons trapped inside this arch next to the theater.

And across the other street from the Basilica is the Phoenix Convention Center, a beautifully designed set of buildings.

And, of course, more of the Basilica as I returned to my car.