U of A's native art and Tucson book festival

I went to the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona in Tucson over the weekend to see its native arts exhibits because I've always loved native jewelry, baskets and pottery. The jewelry exhibit showed contemporary pieces with roots going back 3,000 years. 

Turquoise holds a special place in native jewelry because of its association with the sky and life-giving water. (It also happens to be my favorite stone and is my birth stone. I'd much rather have turquoise than diamonds.)

This soft coloring is from green turquoise and the Cody stone (quartz with silver inclusions). The Cody stone is reportedly from the Santa Catalina Mountains right behind my house! It was named after Buffalo Bill Cody, who had gold mines north of Tucson around 1900.

I love this circa 2000 silver overlay letter opener with its desert scene. It's by an Arizona artist named James Fendenheim, who is Tohono O'odham and German.

Moving onto baskets, this beautiful coiled basket is from 500-750 CE. (I had to look that up. It's the same as AD but doesn't reference religion.) It's made of sumac twigs and was found in a U of A archaeological dig in Arizona in 1927.

The museum has a large collection of baskets on display, each one intricate and beautiful.

Finally, the museum's pottery collection is the largest and most comprehensive collection of Southwest pottery in the world! I could've stayed there all day and still not read or looked at everything. Here's a modern piece from 2011:

Now the main reason I went to the university last weekend was for the Tucson Festival of Books, which was overwhelming in size. There were 330 authors who presented programs throughout the campus, including singer Linda Ronstadt, who grew up in Tucson. And Bernie Sanders was also there. The line to see Linda was hours long, so I didn't try to get in. Her new book is called "Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands."

There were 200 exhibitors under tents on the sunny campus, as well as entertainment and plenty of food. We had falafel platters that were delicious. We sat in on one talk at the Western National Parks tent, but otherwise we just wandered. Maybe next year I'll plan a schedule of talks I want to attend. With 330 to choose from over two days, it could take awhile to come up with a plan.

On the way home we both decided we needed an iced tea, but instead of stopping at Starbucks and looking out at a parking lot, we went to the Westward Look Resort and had this view, above! (We also had Tucson burgers, french fries, salad and iced tea. That took care of dinner.) The blooms below are on an aloe near our table, but I think they look like glass creations by Dale Chihuly who often places his pieces in gardens.

Have a colorful day

Photography, art, hiking and eating!

 

The Feet & Forks hoofed it over to the opening of the late Linda McCartney's photo exhibit last week at the University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography! It's the North American premiere of "The Linda McCartney Retrospective" and runs through Aug. 5.

Linda studied art history at the U of A. After she and Paul married, they bought a home on Tucson's east side where they spent several months a year for nearly 20 years with their four children. Linda died at the Tucson home in 1998 from breast cancer, but Paul reportedly still visits here.

She took the photo above of her daughter Heather (from a first marriage) looking at a javelina in the Tucson desert.

She took many photos for Rolling Stone, including this one of the Jimi Hendrix Experience in London in 1967. There were a lot of photos of my other favorite bands from the '60s and '70s. The crowd at the opening was mainly old geezers from my generation, which grew up with those bands. 

This is a photo of Paul with the painter Willem De Kooning taken in East Hampton in 1982. 

That leads to the next photo, which is De Kooning's "Woman-Ochre" that's on exhibit at the university's Museum of Art nearby.

It was painted in 1954-1955 and donated to the university's art museum in 1958. It was exhibited widely until it was stolen in 1985. Then, in 2017, it showed up at an estate sale in the small town of Cliff, New Mexico. Now it's back home in Tucson.

I'm sure you recognize the painters of these next two -- Georgia O'Keeffe's "Red Canna" and Jackson Pollack's abstract.

It was the first time I was on the campus, and it's beautiful. I'm envious of the kids who get to go to school in sunshine and shorts in February!

And they can order food delivery by these cute little robots, which buzzed all over campus. (I also saw some at the University of Wisconsin-Madison a few years ago.)

We had lunch on the patio of an Italian restaurant next to campus, then walked it off with a little hike at Catalina State Park.

We topped off the day with Mexican at Guadalahara's. That's my virgin prickly pear margarita and salsa that was made to taste at our table.

My enchiladas had three different sauces, green, mole, and red, and three different fillings. And you can't beat the festive atmosphere.

That wraps up my report on the Feet & Forks for this year. (And right after they left we got the big snow storm.) Cheers!

Have a colorful day

Snow, Botanical Gardens and a Market

I woke up this morning to a winter wonderland in my yard, with three inches of snow!!! (Last year on this date it got up to 87 degrees.)

The desert plants and mountains were dressed in white and glittering in the sun.

My front porch chairs looked mighty cold, and the sheet I had draped over my geraniums to protect them from the cold was weighted down with snow.

Palm trees and snow just don't seem to go together!

Just last week, the Feet & Forks were dressed in summer clothes as we toured the Tucson Botanical Gardens on a sunny, warm day. The saguaros were bright green and had no idea that in a few days they'd be covered in snow.

There was a special exhibit of sculptures made from Lego blocks. The yellow gardeners were made from 46,823 blocks and took 192 hours to construct! I didn't catch the number for the deer and her baby, but its probably about the same amount.

On our way to the gardens, we stopped at the St. Philips Plaza Market, where I drooled over the hand-embroidered Mexican clothing and these fun painted sun hats. We bought lots of little things -- cookies, trinkets, some pottery. It's a great place to shop for handmade local gifts.

And in a later post, I'll tell you more about the F&F's adventures.

Have a colorful day

Turquoise doors and pink walls in old Tucson

OMG, I was in color heaven yesterday on a walk through some 19th century neighborhoods of adobe homes on the outskirts of downtown Tucson! Pink, turquoise, lime, lavender, cobalt, coral!!! I only wish I could paint my house like that, but my HOA only allows a pathetic palette of boring beiges.

I went with Joyce, my Feet & Forks friend who was visiting from Gig Harbor. It was her last day and it was her idea to visit the barrios, for which I am extremely grateful. The color combinations are so happy!

Turquoise window and door frames are believed in some cultures to keep away evil. I'd LOVE to put turquoise around my windows.

 

The sign on this door in Barrio Viejo 

is for the Adobe Whisperer.

 

Some of these homes are in Barrio Viejo, which is Spanish for Old Neighborhood. Here's a mural from the neighborhood. Others are in another area of downtown, but I don't know its name.

The adobe buildings come right up to the sidewalk. They probably have colorful, lush courtyards in back, but we couldn't see them.

We did see this open air room in the front of one home. Wonderful! In another home, we could see a screaming lime green hallway. 

I love this coral wall lined with desert plants.

We took a break for some iced tea and a matcha cookie in a little place called Exo. We sat outside in a sunny courtyard and then explored an inside room filled with old typewriters for sale and other paraphernalia. I'm a lover of typewriters because of my journalism background. I still have the one my parents gave me for high school graduation in 1973.

Later, we had lunch at El Charro, sitting right under this mural of the restaurant. El Charro has been under continuous family operation for 100 years, and they definitely have perfected their dishes in that time! I had delicious enchiladas with green and red sauce. For dessert we split a to-die-for flan, which is a creamy Mexican caramel custard. El Charro has been on some of the cooking shows.

And now it's back to catching up after almost two weeks of company. (More on our explorations in future posts.)

Have a colorful day