Experiencing the Van Gogh Immersive Exhibit (Scottsdale, June 15, 2022) — Image by kenne
We have wanted to see the Immersive van Gogh exhibit for some time. So, since we had planned on attending Jeri and Ron’s 50th Anniversary, June 16-18 in Palm Springs, we drove up to Scottsdale on the 15.
The exhibition, conceived by Creative Director Mathieu St-Arnaud and his team at Montreal’s world-renowned Normal Studio, is an immersive experience that features more than 300 of Vincent Van Gogh’s iconic artworks and takes the art lover into a three-dimensional world that exhilarates the senses.
“I find comfort in contemplating the sunflowers.”
— Vincent van Gogh
Video by kenne
“I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?”
— Vincent van Gogh
Sunflowers — Photo-Artistry by kenne
“I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.”
Taliesin West, Home of The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Scottsdale, Arizona — Panorama by kenne
“No house should ever be on a hill or on anything. It should be of the hill. Belonging to it. Hill and house should live together with each the happier for the other.”
Cosanti — Paolo Soleri Studios in Paradise Valley (February 28th, 2020) — Image by kenne
In June of 2017, we went to Arcosanti — Architecture + Ecology 65 miles north of Phoenix. Arcosanti is an urban laboratory focused on innovative design, environmental accountability, and experiential learning developed by Italian born architect, urban theorist, craftsman artist, and philosopher, Paolo Soleri, in 1970. This was 15 years after establishing his Architectural Design and Craft Studios, Cosanti, in 1955 in Paradise Valley.
While we were at Arcosanti, we bought a bell. Then during the monsoon of 2019, a strong gust of wind blew down the bell on our patio. Since then, we have been looking for an opportunity to purchase another bell.
We had planned to be in Phoenix on February 28th to see Diunna Greenleaf at the Rhythm Room. So, we left Tuscon early enough to visit the Cosanti Studios and go to dinner in Scottsdale before an evening of live Blues music. We now have a replacement for our original bell.
Trail Next To The Tanque Verde Wash, Looking East.Tanque Verde Wash, Looking East.Tanque Verde Wash, Looking East.Tanque Verde Wash, Looking South.Tanque Verde Wash, Looking West — Images by kenne
Record rains have filled the normally dry Tanque Verde Wash. The rain gauge at our home located on one of the ridges above the wash measured 2.5 inches. The mountains north of us have received rain in ranges above 6 inches.
These photos were taken along the wash just east of where the it runs into the Rillito River. (January 31, 2015)
Currently, the rain has moved on leaving us a foggy damp morning. The forecast is sunny by mid-morning, making for great upper-sixties weather for the Super Bowl being played 90 miles north of us. Oh, and also for the Phoenix Open in Scottsdale.
Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, Scottsdale, Arizona (Rockies vs. Brewers) — Images by kenne
“I see great things in baseball.” – Walt Whitman
“. . ., spring training is not really baseball. It’s imitation baseball. It’s a bunch of people doing impressions of baseball. It’s that way in the stands, too. Hohokam Park in Mesa, Arizona, is a little Wrigley Field, with lots of blue caps, knots of people from Chicago’s near north side (there are Soba noodles available for them) and Arlington Heights and Des Moines (fried pork loin sandwiches are available for them), like members of some university club in a distant city, all reliving moments displaced not so much in time as in place. Even Ronnie Woo is there, the legendary and ageless Cubs fan dressed in blue pinstripes and warming up his “Cubs woo!” cry for the coming season.” — from “Letter from Spring Training (Mesa, Arizona)” by Peter Ferry
don’t have a “bucket list,” however, going to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona would be on the list if I did. As a child, I wanted to be an architect when I grew up, and one of my favorite architects was Frank Lloyd Wright. As a young adult and living in northern Illinois, it was easy to visit Wright’s home, Taliesin, near Green Spring, Wisconsin, which I did back in the ’60s. This past weekend, we visited Taliesin West, considered one of Wright’s greatest masterpieces, a showcase of his ability to integrate indoor and outdoor spaces.
Wright, recognized as the 20th century’s greatest architect, decided in the early 1930’s to build a winter home in the desert after suffering an illness during one of Wisconsin’s cold winters. After purchasing 550 acres 26 miles northwest of Phoenix, and with the help of his apprentice, Wright began work on Taliesin West, “. . . gathering rocks from the desert floor and sand from the washes to build his desert masterpiece.” From then on, he would spend winters at Taliesin West, summers at Taliesin.
Not long after building Taliesin West, which served as a living, working and educational facility, Wright became annoyed by power lines and the growth of Scottsdale near his desert masterpiece, so much so that he considered moving to Sabino Canyon, northeast of Tucson. However, his wife, Olga, was not willing to start living in a tent again, so the move never took place — too bad, since Sabino Canyon would have provided a much more beautiful setting for Taliesin West.
“Our new desert camp belonged to the Arizona desert as though it had stood there during creation.” — Frank Lloyd Wright
kenne
Click here to see complete (30 images)photo slideshow.
Cosanti — Paolo Soleri Studios in Paradise Valley (February 28th, 2020) — Image by kenne
Talking Stick
Trail Next To The Tanque Verde Wash, Looking East.
Tanque Verde Wash, Looking East.
Tanque Verde Wash, Looking East.
Tanque Verde Wash, Looking South.
Tanque Verde Wash, Looking West — Images by kenne
Becoming is Superior to Being 