A Sunday at Play

After three days of rain, it was nice to see the sun rise above the mountains of the Tucson valley. November was the warmest on record for Tucson, and maybe the most arid. This was the first rain I'd seen since being here.

However, today the sun was out and it was a beautiful day to play. Slightly cool, but not cold by any stretch, I had my day planned out precisely. First, I had my morning coffee at a Starbucks on Skyline Road in the Foothills of northern Tucson. The views are breathtaking there, and I wonder if I will ever get used to them. With coffee mug in hand, I went across the street to the La Encantada shopping center. The La Encantada is the premier upscale outdoor shopping center in Tucson, and I wanted to drink my coffee there on the patio among the beautiful plants and Christmas decorations. I took my art-pack with me and spent a couple of hours drawing the shadows and hues reflecting on the adobe walls adorning the courtyard. (I took these photos while there.)

My second stop of the day was the DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun located a couple of miles from the La Encantada. I spent two hours at the grave of Ted DeGrazia, who is buried near his beloved "Mission in the Sun." It's very peaceful and quiet there, and I spent the time drawing an altar built of stones located near his grave. My drawing tablet is becoming a "journal" of the places I visit, and I'm teaching myself the fundamentals of drawing by reading used books I purchased at the bookstore. At the first of the year, I'll be taking art classes at night offered by a local artist.

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An art and crafts show sponsored by the Tucson Arts and Crafts Association was my third stop for the day. I drove east from the DeGrazia Gallery along Skyline Drive until I reached Kolb Ave. The Ventana Plaza shopping center is located just south of the intersection, and the parking lot was full of booths from local artists and crafts persons. I spent an hour walking around and taking photos, as usual. (See photos below.) I met as many of the local artists as I could. Some were from the Phoenix area, and other parts of Arizona.

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I had an lengthy discussion with a fine arts photographer from Phoenix. His photographs were of flowers and other plant life, enlarged to enormous scale, then presented on canvas using the Giclee printing process. I asked him what format he used (35 mm), and if any fine arts photographers had made the switch to digital photography (not yet...digitals limit the size of enlargements you are able to produce).

The fine arts photographer pictured above displayed photos from around the world, including scenes from Paris, Venice, and London.

After the art show I dropped by a Laundromat and washed clothes. Local Laundromats have their own kind of art on display: dirty tile floors, broken down washing machines, and cash machines that are supposed to provide you with quarters but almost never work.

I finished my day back at Starbucks, as usual, to do some reading and writing. Today was a great way to begin the month of December in a very beautiful city in the desert.

Cowboys vs. Packers, Round 1

The Cowboys outlasted the Packers last night and continue on their history-making season with a 11-1 record. What a great game. Unfortunately, the game was not available for 70% of the viewing audience and commited fans had to find a sports bar offering the game via the NFL Network.

I watched the game at the Touchdown Sports Bar on Broadway Blvd. on the east side of Tucson near the Parks Place Mall. Touchdowns is a typical sports bar-slash-restaurant with big screen TVs and pool tables.

I arrived two minutes before kick-off and the place was already standing room only. Every seat, stool, and bench was taken. Some fans were even sitting on the floor. I found the edge of a cushioned bench and watched the game "sitting" on my knees, turned backward on the bench, viewing the TV screen on the opposite side of the room. A ledge above the bench served as my table.

I met two men working for Raytheon in Dallas who were in town for a meeting (Raytheon is the largest employer in Tucson). We were not the only Cowboy fans. The place was split almost evenly between Cowboys and Packers fans. The atmosphere was much like a Super Bowl game's, each play bringing boos and cheers. It was no doubt one of the most entertaining games so far this year.

I'm beginning to settle in for the Winter. I can't think of a better place than Tucson. Now that I've been here for a couple of weeks, it's starting to feel like home. Unless something changes, I'll be here until Spring.

I've taken a job at another UPS store. I applied at seven different stores before one hired me on the spot. Most of the stores have managers who are taking a lot of applications, wanting to take a week or two before hiring someone. The store that eventually hired me has a manager who acts quickly, decisively, and doesn't look back.

"Hi. I'm Mitch. I worked at a UPS store in Albuquerque and was wondering if you needed some help," I said.

"So you've worked at a UPS store?" she asked. "When can you start?" She glanced at the application for maybe five seconds before offering me a job. The whole meeting took less than ten minutes. At the end of our brief conversation I said, "Well, I'm glad to finally find a manager at a UPS store that can make a quick decision."

What's the difference between this manager and the other six? Business sense and a willingness to frame a decision by the circumstances. I can't think of one legitimate reason that it should take the manager of a retail store to take two weeks to make a decision on hiring someone. After all, they aren't hiring brain surgeons. Managing a retail store isn't that complicated, unless you make it that way.

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I've been playing cards at the Casino del Sol, run by the Pascua Yaqui Indians. Their reservation is located southwest of downtown Tucson. One night I went to the other card room in town at the Desert Diamond Casino, but was turned off by the lack of adequate parking and the construction taking place. The Desert Diamond is building a hotel next to the casino, and until it's finished, it's just not worth the trouble to go there.
I was leaving the Casino del Sol one day last week and saw this beautiful moon rising above the horizon. I tried to quickly take a photo. Of course, this photo doesn't do any justice to the view I had.

The last time I was at the card room the "Bad Beat" jackpot was over $52,000. At that amount, the jackpot will be shared by all the players in the room at the time it hits. The split is 50/30/20, meaning the winner of the jackpot gets 50% of the prize money, 30% is shared by the other players at the winning table, and the remaining 20% is shared by all the other players in the room. My poker blog is at http://www.7seat.com/.

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I met an interesting guy today at work. He was returning a box of CD's to Canada, so I asked him if he was a musician. "Well, I'm actually what you might call a performing artist."

It turns out his name is Vincent Redhouse, and he's a grammy nominated Navajo recording artist who plays a flute. Check his out his web site. A very cool guy. He told me he played at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. last week. According to his web site, he was there to perform in the "Native Classics Recital on Traditional Native flute with Classical guitarist Gabriel Ayala."

Ted DeGrazia's Gallery in the Sun

I've been wanting to visit Ettore "Ted" DeGrazia's "Gallery in the Sun" ever since I first read about him when coming to Tucson. The internationally known artist of Southwestern culture, especially Indian children and family life, chose a 10-acre site to build his home, studio, and gallery in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains.

An American impressionist painter, sculptor, and lithographer. Self-described as "the world's most reproduced artist", DeGrazia is known for his pastel images of Native American children of the American Southwest and other Western scenes. In 1951, with the help of local Indian friends, he built the Mission in the Sun using water and construction materials he hauled to the site with his old car. Other buildings which came later included his home, a studio, and gallery to showcase his artwork. The gallery was built in 1965.

In 2006, the ten-acre property, now a museum of DeGrazia's work, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He died in 1982, and is buried by the Mission.

DeGrazia's work first appeared in "Arizona Highways" magazine in 1941. In 1960, DeGrazia received a commission to produce cover art for UNICEF greeting cards. His designs have appeared on lithographs, collector plates, greeting cards, and in a series of Hummel figurines.

Photos from my visit to the Gallery in the Sun

The ten-acre site has walking trails and a wonderful collection of local plant life. The property is open each day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Local artists can usually be found sitting on benches along the trail, as well as locals and tourists just wanting a peaceful moment in the beautiful setting.

The Gallery contains many photographs of DeGrazia at work on the Mission and construction of the other buildings. I took a couple of snapshots showing the artist at work (below).

In the picture above, he is working on the murals which he painted throughout the complex, especially on the interior walls of the Mission in the Sun

This picture is of DeGrazia and his wife Marion at their original studio location on Campbell Road in 1946. The Gallery in the Sun was begun in 1951 on a different site, on Swan Drive just north its intersection with Skyline Drive.

The following photos were taken inside the Gallery. Describing the inspiration for building the structure, DeGrazia says:

"The gallery was designed by me and I wanted to get the feeling of the Southwest. I wanted to build it so that my paintings would feel good inside of it. As you come to it, the Entrance, there's the Yuma Prison gate. And it's built like a tunnel. I like tunnels. Then I tried to have the feeling around the gallery, no windows, because my business is pictures, and if you have windows you can't have pictures, so all the lighting in the Gallery's from the roof. And then I try to control that by achieving, through color, different effects."

The photos below were taken from a display of DeGrazia's personal belongings, representing his work as an artist. You'll notice his boots, a cigar, his easel, paint and brushes, a bottle of whiskey, and Redman tobacco.

Inside the Gallery, one room has seating for groups where they can watch a video documentary of DeGrazia's life and work. The walls of the room are covered with huge photographs of the artist (see below).

A couple of scenic shots from my walk along the trails winding their way throughout the property:

Photographs of the "Mission in the Sun" (Below)

The Mission or "Chapel" was the first structure DeGrazia built on the ten-acre site in 1951. The interior walls have murals painted by the artist. The Mission was built to honor Father Kino and dedicated to our Lady of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico.

Annual Tucson Museum of Art's "Arts and Crafts Fair"

This morning I spent two hours walking through over 100 booths of local artists and craftspersons at the annual Arts and Crafts Fair at the Tucson Museum of Art.

University of Arizona Tour, Photography and Art

Yesterday, Friday, I spent a few hours walking the University of Arizona campus. My reason for going there was to attend a exhibit at the Center for Creative Photography.



My first problem was finding a place to park. Like most large univerisities, the UA public parking situation is a nightmare. Take my advice and bring a bike, or ride the bus, if you visit the campus. I finally found the parking gargage across from the Marriott Hotel that sits near the campus. It took me a while, but I finally found a spot. Signs were posted everywhere: "Take your parking ticket with you. Pay at the cashier BEFORE you return to your car." When I left, I went to the cashier and had to wait in line behind twenty other people. What a pain in the neck.





The campus itself is beautiful, of course. I walked from the garage in search of the Center for Creative Photography (CCP). I saw the Arizona Historical Society Museum building first, so I visited them.

My next stop was the UA Museum of Art. On the first floor, there were two exhibitions: from El Anatsui and Jacques Lipchitz. El Anatsui is from Ghana. His work "Versatility" was a massive quilt-like material made from whiskey and other alcoholic bottle labels that he collected. His other exhibit was a room full of "anthills" created from the tops of milk cans. Jacques Lipchitz's exhibit included numerous sculptures and some of the tools he used while creating the pieces.

The UA permanent collection is exhibited on the second floor. While I was there, students were performing musical works on classical guitars in one of the galleries. It provided a nice soundtrack for my visit. I viewed masterworks from artist like Diebenkorn, Thomas Hart Benton, Jackson Pollock, Picasso, Matisse, O'keeffe, Jacob Lawrence, Reginald Marsh, and Jusepe de Ribera. I especially liked Ribera's "A Greek Sage" from 1630.


I found the Center for Creative Photography across the street from the Art Museum. The photography exhibit was on the first floor and easy to find. The purpose of the exhibit was to show the creative process behind famous photographs, with particular emphasis on how the photographer works. The exhibition include contact sheets, letters, notes, personal journals, diaries, calendars and other original material from a number of photographers.

One photographer featured was Wynn Bullock. The exhibit revealed his philosophical approach to photography by emphasizing space and time. "The space of the room becomes a property of the room just as real as the room itself. . .space being an independent property of all containers," I noted while reading from his journal.

The exhibit also displayed actual contact sheets from Gary Winogrand (1928-1984), showing how he marked on each sheet his choices for printing and publishing. One of his favorite collections contained photos of women in public places. He wrote a letter to the University of Texas art department (1975), which was on display at the exhibit, and I noted his comments:
"Whenever I've seen an attractive woman, I've done my best to photograph her. . . I don't know if all of the women in the photographs are beautiful, but I do know that the women are beautiful in the photographs."

The exhibit from W. Eugene Smith was my favorite. For Life Magazine, he suggested shooting an essay of Albert Schweitzer. The Nobel Peace Prize winner founded the the Lambaréné Hospital in Gabon, west central Africa. Smith traveled to Africa and photographed Schweitzer in his office and elsewhere over a few days. The exhibit contained some of Smith's contact sheets, his journal, and his personal calendar from the trip that noted the photos he wanted to take.

Another great exhibit was the "pepper" display from Edward Weston. Weston began to take photos of "assorted peppers" in 1930. In a handwritten letter they had on display, he said he delighted in shooting ". . . a pepper, but more than a pepper: abstract, in that it is completely outside subject matter. . . (and it) takes one into an inner reality." It was also amusing to see that he was finacially struggling as well, when he states, "We have been living on deposits from sittings, more than I ever had in a given period of time."

Other photographers featured included Frederick Sommer and Ansel Adams.

The Catalina Mountain Foothills and La Encantada Shopping Center

One of the most beautiful areas in Tucson is the foothills of the Catalina Mountains. Driving east from I-10 along Ina Road, then staying the course on Skyline Drive and Sunrise Drive, you get a beautiful view of the area. To the south of the Catalinas is the valley with the city of Tucson bedded in the midst of various mountain ranges. Tucson must be one the most beautiful cities in the Southwest.

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While making the drive last week I came upon the La Encantada Shopping Center. I'm not sure I can describe the place with words. The La Encantada is an outdoor shopping mall with multible levels and beautiful landscaping located just within the foothills of the mountains. From the upper levels as you look south you get a panoramic view of the Tucson valley area miles in the distance. The La Encantada has retail shopping for those in the upscale market, plus a sushi bar with an outdoor patio and various restaurants. At the center of this garden-and-flower-laden shopping center is a courtyard suitable for outdoor concerts and activities.

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I've been back numerous times just to walk among the well-groomed trees and plants indigenous to the Tucson area. It is an architectural masterpiece as well. Although a shopping center, it's pretty close to being a work of art.

Check out these photos I took recently at the La Encantada.