Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena

Norton Simon - sculpture garden

Before Norton Simon the art museum, there was Norton Simon the entrepreneur and art collector.

Norton Simon museum

He started with works from European Old Masters, Impressionists, and Post-Impressionists and then began collecting works from Asia after a trip to India. He eventually added his collections to what was then the Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, which he was director of until his passing in 1993.

Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California

Museum

Now known as Norton Simon, the museum in Pasadena houses collections of 14th century to contemporary European art, Asian art spanning two millennia, and a sculpture garden.

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Even the walkway to the entrance is surrounded with works of Auguste Rodin – the anguished faces of The Burghers of Calais, The Walking Man mid-stride, Saint John the Baptist with sinewy arm outstretched, The Thinker pondering Colorado Boulevard.

Norton Simon museum

European Art

Inside, the 19th century European art gallery just off the foyer immediately drew me in, and I found myself face-to-face with some of Degas’s bronze ballerinas, frozen in their moments of stretching, posing, preparing to dance.

Norton Simon art - degas

The collection actually includes over 100 of his paintings, drawings, and sculptures, as well as work by Cézanne, Gauguin, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, and Goya.

Norton Simon Museum art

Norton Simon paintings

The 17th and 18th century galleries hold still lifes, Rembrandt portraits, scenes from history and mythology.

Norton Simon painting

Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California

Sculpture Garden and Cafe

I took a break in the outdoor Garden Cafe. On the menu are sandwiches, salads, tea, and bottled cold brew (inexplicably imported from Austin, Texas).

Norton Simon Cafe

It’s a lovely place to take in the view of the Sculpture Garden and to people watch. That particular sunny day, museum-goers were spilling out into the Garden in regular bursts, bounding, striding, or strolling the path around the pond. A group of giggling teens hunted for Pokémon. A man pulled his elderly mother’s wheelchair up to a table by the water, and she shakily stood up to stretch while he got them lunch.

Norton Simon Sculpture

Norton Simon Museum

Duchamp Downstairs

The lower level is primarily devoted to the museum’s Asian collection with a gallery for rotating exhibits, such as Duchamp to Pop. So I stepped from amongst statues of gods into the bright, irreverent world of pop art. It was a bit jarring. But, then, pop art was meant to be jarring, wasn’t it?

Norton Simon museum

Norton Simon museum

Duchamp to Pop showed how the work of Marcel Duchamp influenced pop artists, such as Andy Warhol, whose Campbell’s soup cans and Brillo boxes are part of the museum’s permanent collection (but not always on display).

Norton Simon museum

Norton Simon Asian Art

Asian Art

Much of the museum’s Asian art collection comes from the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. There are also Japanese woodblock prints that belonged to Frank Lloyd Wright.

Norton Simon museum

Starting at the foot of the stairs, you walk by stone, bronze, and terra cotta pillars, altarpieces, and statues depicting heroes and gods from Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions, especially the Buddha. It was fascinating to see the how portrayals change in different eras and geographic locations. (More in the museum’s video on their Asian Art collection.)

Norton Simon art - Buddhas

Looking at these ancient figures with heads, torsos, arms, and legs posed in a moment of sitting in quiet reflection, embracing, or dancing, I was struck by their humanness, by how much we had in common.

Norton Simon Museum art

Those ancient subjects really weren’t so different from the ballerinas that inspired Degas or the woman stretching by the pond or the teens playing Pokemon Go or me or you. We’re pretty much all the same.

Norton Simon art

We still sit and reflect, we embrace, and we dance.

Norton Simon Museum art

Norton Simon Art

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The Pasadena Convention & Visitors Bureau provided us with complimentary press passes to Norton Simon Museum.

Downtown Mesa Community Garden

There’s a community garden in Downtown Mesa that I’d heard about but hadn’t been to until my sister-in-law Liz was in town.

Mesa community garden

Isn’t it funny how you tend to see more of your city when someone is visiting?

Mural in urban garden, Mesa

Anyway, after lunch at Republica Empanada (at Hibbert and 1st Ave.), she asked about the gate next to the restaurant that leads into the Mesa Urban Garden, and we went to check it out.

I wasn’t expecting to see much, because August in Phoenix is rough on plants and only the most hardy survive. But there were still a fair number of things growing – veggies and vinca and this gorgeous trumpet vine with orange flowers and long green pods.

Community garden, Mesa

The garden is surrounded by walls with colorful murals, and there’s a Little Free Library made from an old phone booth.

I’ll definitely have to return later this fall!

Mesa garden

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Pomegranate in Progress

Patio

We’ve had this dwarf pomegranate tree for about 5 years (6? more?) without any sign of fruit – until this past spring.

I was so excited when I spotted a couple tiny red buds one day that I texted photos to Phillip. And my parents. And posted one on Instagram.

Pomegranate bud

Those buds blew off on an unusually gusty day, and I thought it was all over for this year. Then new ones grew.

Yesterday, on the eve of the summer solstice, when I was on the patio worrying about my plants in the 119F-degree heat, I spotted a little pomegranate fruit.

Pomegranate

Phillip thinks the tree is in a better spot at our new place. I think it’s because I’ve been watering it with water from Frida’s tank.

Either way, I’m glad to see it flourishing.

Microblog Mondays: Write in your own space