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.

Santa Fe is wondrous and so connected to my town, Los Alamos

Santa Fe is so beautiful with it's gorgeous old church, the hundreds of years old adobe buildings, and the jewelry and other crafts.  But, there is so much more.  However, I was slowed down by the altitude.  It was hard to catch my breath when I walked any distance and I felt a little wobbly now and then.  Even with those issues, which didn't seem to bother Steve as much, we saw a great deal.

First, in pride of place on the Plaza is the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, a beautiful example of soaring stone construction.  The Catholic parish is 400 years old, but the Cathedral was built between 1869 and 1886.  [I seem to love beautiful old architecture and churches are some of the best examples.  I am drawn to them like a moth. 😉]

Just by chance, we happened to come to Santa Fe when there is a show of art works that hang in the Prado Museum in Madrid; beautiful works by Titian, El Greco, Goya, Raphael, Velasquez, and many more.  [The Prado has a very diverse collection, probably due to the fact that Spain was the center of European empire for hundreds of years and they had the pick of art from far and wide.]  It's an outdoor display on the grounds of the Cathedral, basically quality printed signs weighted down with white sandbags.  Many are just portions of much larger works, but they are mesmerizing.  I can't wait to visit the Prado and see the actual paintings.

I know, "Well, show us some paintings!"  I may be able to add some photos later  of individual works because Steve took photos of the actual works of art.  But, you can see them online here.  The Prado in Santa Fe show goes from May 10 to October 29, 2017.

After that we walked past the New Mexico Native American Art Museum and other private galleries. [I wasn't up to the eye strain of a museum today, but they are pretty on the outside, too.]

There were so many jewelry stores and so much jewelry and handicrafts on display in an open market that it was truly mind boggling.  Vendors laid blankets out on the floor of the colonnade across from Santa Fe Plaza.  We wandered and looked at unbelievably beautiful jewelry, which was way beyond my meager pocketbook even in the outdoor market.  It seemed rude, though, to photograph the blankets of wares in front of the artisan and I was starting to feel very ill.  So, alas, no photographs unless Steve can contribute.

However, after a rest in a wonderful little French cafe (yes, French in Santa Fe!), we struck out again to see a few more shops and the Santa Fe Plaza itself.  Oddly, we came full circle back to Los Alamos in the oddest way and found 109 East Palace.

Several glasses of water and a small lunch fortified us. This is Steve looking for a  roof for the night.

Apparently, Oppenheimer had offices in Santa Fe for the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory.  They were in this building (below), which currently houses the Rainbow Man art/craft shop and courtyard.  We were told that Oppenheimer would enter through the courtyard, go past his private secretary into his inner sanctum.  This was probably a place to meet those who were not cleared to actually go into "the secret city" and to conduct other business.  The book 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos by Jenny Conant is a fascinating look at Oppenheimer's world during his time in Los Alamos and Santa Fe in the early 1940s.

As another plaque shows, this same building was almost destroyed in 1680 during the Great Indian Uprising, recycling at it's historical best.

Rainbow Man has been there ever since Oppenheimer left, apparently.

Santa Fe Plaza was busy today, but it will be much more busy next week.  We were told by one of the shop owners that Santa Fe is expecting 73,000 people to visit for the Santa Fe Indian Market. Here are some photos of the Plaza and surrounding streets.

Imagine my surprise to find Oregon Grape bushes in Santa Fe!

And more Oregon Grape.

I'm feeling much better after a rest at our motel (Pecos Trail Inn.  Yes, it's quaint, adobe, typical 1950s, but updated with tile floors.  I rather like it.)  Tomorrow, we are heading for Bandelier National Monument, which includes a huge prehistoric cliff dwelling site, and then the road to Espanola.  I expect disappointment en route to Espanola.  I've been told that the wonderful road of my childhood that felt like a roller coaster is no more, having been replaced with a superhighway.  I live in hope that the road still exists next to the super one.  Wish me luck.