Colors of Flagstaff

It's been awhile since I did a "Colors of ..." post, so here's some major color from my trip to Flagstaff, Arizona, this past week. The parrots belong to a guy from Cottonwood, who was showing them off on a downtown Flagstaff street corner. I thought I was just going to hold one for a picture, but he kept adding more!

And this is me with Judy Sall in one of her shirts in her very colorful booth at Flagstaff Open Studios. Her dyed shirts sold like hotcakes.

I also bought these cards at Open Studios because they show the cheery colors of the sunflowers that are blooming all over Flagstaff right now. My friend Don lives on the property in the photos and he was pretty sure he knew the woman who owned the horse. By coincidence, we ran into her later in the day and she confirmed that it was, indeed, hers.

Then there were these two paintings of horses by Tanner Jensen on display in the Coconino Center for the Arts. These colors are so delicious that they made my mouth water! The show features horses by three artists, but Tanner's are my favorite for their pure saturated colors and curving lines.

We also saw this beautiful big Navajo rug on display at an open house held by the Museum of Northern Arizona at its Easton Collection Center. Normally the center is closed to the public, so there was a nice crowd there for this special treat, which focused on rugs. This one is 18'4" by 12'2" and was made between 1885 and 1890 by an unknown weaver.

The exhibit included this display of native plants and the colors they produce when dying yarn.

The collection center itself is a work of art, set within view of the San Francisco Peaks in a beautiful stone building with wildflowers on the green roof. Some of the collections can be viewed at https://musnaz.org/collections/

The Museum of Northern Arizona is down the road and is one of my favorite museums in the country for its comfortable ambience as well as its art and culture of the Colorado Plateau. I always relax on the couch in front of the stone fireplace after viewing the exhibits and imagine what it would be like to have a living room like this! We also wandered through the sunny courtyard garden, below.

Hopi katsina dolls at the museum ...

... and a special exhibit of Southwest landscape paintings.

Part of another museum exhibit.

Don's shirt adds a splash of color to the natural beauty near the museum. Flagstaff is in northern Arizona and is graced by the largest contiguous Ponderosa pine forest in the world. The scent of the pine needles on a warm day is intoxicating!

 

Here are the ruins of a Hopi ancestral village nestled in that pine forest that we visited over the weekend. It's called Elden Pueblo and is believed to have housed as many as 100 residents between A.D. 1150 and 1250 and up to 200 over the next 25 years. The San Francisco Peaks of Flagstaff are sacred to the Hopi. Below is a picture of one of the peaks from behind my friend's house.

And then there was the food! I had some of the best enchiladas verdes ever at Agave, above, which also gets major points for its colorful decor, including chairs and tables with Mexican village art. We had our final dinner at another colorful Mexican restaurant, below, called MartAnne's, before I headed back to Tucson the next morning.

And this is the view of bustling downtown Flagstaff on a Saturday afternoon from the Weatherford Hotel, where we ate at Charly's Pub and Grill and then wandered through the historic building. The upstairs balcony was filled with visitors lounging in chairs, drinks in hand, taking in the atmosphere on a lazy, warm afternoon. 

It was a great visit, packed with color and culture. My next post will take you on our excursion to the Grand Canyon and the historic Cameron Trading Post. Stay tuned!

Have a colorful day