glass in the garden

Tags

Arizona, art, chihuly, desert botanical garden, memoir, papago park, park, sculpture

In 2009, my sister visited me in Arizona, and we went to the Dale Chihuly exhibit at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. I used to have a lot more photos at higher resolution, but many of my photos from the early 2000s were victims of a transitional period where I made some mistakes with photo storage. So, here are the seven survivors from that amazing exhibit of glassworks in a desert environment that was in full bloom for spring. The glasswork was gorgeous during the day but also impressive when it was lit up after sunset.

mystery of the metal sculpture

Tags

4450 n 12th st, art, metal, phoenix, planets, sculpture

Much less mystery would surround this sculpture if anyone felt like working in its corporate office building this time of year. Google searches yielded nothing. Calling random offices at that location yielded nothing. Maybe in 2014 we can find out more about it.

If you want to take a crack at it, the address is 4450 N. 12th St. in Phoenix, AZ. And if you want to visit it in person, look how close the bus stop is!

We dig the concentric rings that seem like a nod to both atomic science and astronomy, and the way it makes the landscaping much more interesting. We built a little model of it in our 3-D software, and put it in the queue of subjects we’d like to draw or paint.

Nevada, 2003

Tags

bottle house, Las Vegas, memoir, Nevada, Rhyolite, sculpture

We only spent a year in Las Vegas, but we got to see some interesting things in and around the city. Sometimes we even remembered to bring a camera! We have some shots from the Las Vegas Art Museum, where we volunteered for the summer. Plus: Hoover Dam, Red Rocks, the Luxor, Paris Casino, the Valley of Fire, and the Bottle House of Rhyolite. Interesting place!

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta GA

Tags

Atlanta airport, memoir, sculpture

We can never remember the full name of this damn airport otherwise known as “The Atlanta Airport”. But it has some cool artwork in it, and a pretty big dinosaur skeleton. Last time we went through there, it also had a fascinating pictorial exhibit about the cosmos. It started from Earth and moved out over dozens of photos down a long hallway to an image of the entire conceivable universe. We say “conceivable” loosely, because who can really conceive of that scale of things?

We found these photos in our personal archives. They include the dinosaur skeleton and some really beautiful African-inspired artwork. If you ever go through this airport, skip the little train and go for the walk. You will see many more interesting art objects that way — just plan a little extra time in your trip. Note: We threw in a couple random shots from our sightseeing in and around Atlanta. No, the Big Chicken is not at the airport!