Championing the makers, artists, and wanderers in all of us.
On our anniversary this year, we took Quijote for a picnic at The Farm at South Mountain.
We saw herbs in terra cotta pots on these stepped shelves that looked like little plant bleachers. Maybe they were cheering on the good weather!
I was skeptical about the palm tree on the Genoa travel poster and whether it could actually grow in a city that far north.
What I hadn’t realized is that Genoa is on the shores of Mediterranean — specifically, the Italian Riviera. This coastal region in Liguria also includes towns like Portofino and the Cinque Terre, and it has a climate warm enough to support palm trees, agaves, and sun-seeking tourists.
In fact, the Italian Riviera was already a tourist destination in 1884, when Claude Monet visited and painted scenes like the Palm Trees at Bordighera.
Now if the word “riviera” initially made you picture a river (same here), you weren’t completely wrong. The Italian word rivièra can actually refer to the shores of a river, lake, or, in this case, a sea.
Because there’s an Italian Riviera, English speakers called the Mediterranean coast on France’s side of the border the “French Riviera,” borrowing the Italian word again. Apparently, there’s also a (much) lesser-known English Riviera, which seems like a tourism-bureau invention.
And, yes, in Italy, you can just call the Italian Riviera the “Riviera.”
Photos via:
I’ll be linking up with Thursday Tree Love at Happiness and Food.
A 10-foot tall skeleton in a sombrero leaned over to ask if I knew what time it was.
Which is not that weird when you’re at a Día de los Muertos celebration with skeletons everywhere – on banners, as sculptures, painted on kids’ faces, and for sale on tote bags.
So, of course, there would be a skeleton with stilts, a full beard, and no watch.
When you think about it, the lack of a timepiece may be the least surprising part. Schedules are probably pretty irrelevant in the realm of the dead.
Phillip, Quijote, and I had showed up near the end of Mesa Arts Center’s festival. We started at the custom car show and worked our way toward an oversized Frida Kahlo skull made from tissue paper flowers, stopping to listen to a band on the way.
We visited the community altar, which was decorated with photos, candles, art, and flowers in memory of departed loved ones.
On a second stage, Mariachi Pasion, an all-woman mariachi band, began playing.
Continue reading “Downtown Mesa’s Día de los Muertos”
The sun was setting over a dusty rest stop off I-8 in southern Arizona.
We stood among the typical collection of bathroom buildings, empty picnic tables, and overflowing garbage cans, while the sky turned a brilliant gold. The color intensified, spreading upward from behind the silhouettes of jagged mountains before transforming into a fiery pink.
I think it’s easy to quickly dismiss a place or experience or a moment as being too ugly or just ordinary. But when you look past the obvious, you may be able to find what makes it special.
Because where you are is not as important as where you look.
During Phoenix Art Detour, my friend Anne and I wandered into the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center.
The building had been a high school for African American students from 1926 to 1953, which I didn’t even know about until we stumbled across it. I guess I had assumed that, since the Phoenix population didn’t really start booming until the ’60s, maybe we had just skipped the whole segregation thing. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
However, Arizona did desegregate its schools a year before Brown v. Board of Education mandated it nationally. The Carver High School closed, and the students were integrated into other high schools.
In 1986, four Carver alumnae formed Phoenix Monarchs Alumni Association, an organization to preserve the building and turn it into a museum and cultural center. They were eventually able to purchase it, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.
The George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center is now open with a mission to honor African and African American heritage, arts, and culture.
The Phoenix Monarchs Alumni Association continues to raise funds to upgrade the space and offer additional programs and exhibits.
In front of the museum is a statue of its namesake, scientist George Washington Carver, holding one of the peanut plants he was famous for studying.
We explored the first floor and saw artwork like paintings, sculptures, and a quilt made by students who had gone to school there.
There was a room with vintage typewriters and sewing machines.
Another one had what looked like African artifacts and traditional craft, like masks, drums, and beaded gourd instruments, as well as contemporary paintings, and a violin.
Outside of Art Detour week, I think a volunteer guide is usually there to provide context and answer questions, because a lot of the items weren’t labeled. The museum had a work-in-progress feel, as funds are still being raised to improve the building and exhibition space. It will be exciting to see it transform!
