Phoenix Area Art

The Heard has an exhibit about stars right now, which is magical

It's unusual for me to get back from a New York Trip, hang my exhibit, and fly to Arizona all in the same week, but it did make for a very Art-focused and family-focused spring break. (I'm so lucky to have a family who loves art!)

The Day I got off the plane, my brother took me to downtown Mesa for tacos and visit to the Mesa Museum of Contemporary Art, which is free and fun! They had an exhibit that focused on sound and included this sculpture with armholes you can hug while listening to the resonance of your voice and breathing.

The Heard Museum was an extra special treat because I had never heard of it before (no pun intended ) much less been there. This museum is a treasure, with lots of history. It is a place for artists with Native American ancestry to show their work. There's a wonderful sculpture garden, and some lovely courtyards in this Spanish style building.

Sandra Day O'Conner, the first woman to sit on the bench of the U.S. Supreme court used to be a docent at this museum, and a life long supporter, so it's only fitting that they name one of their galleries after her.

There is a permanent exhibition on the Indian Boarding Schools, which took children away from their parents and took the identity away from the children in order to get them to integrate with white American culture. It's an important history lesson. But whether your there for history, traditional crafts, or contemporary masterpieces, you'll find it at the Heard.

It's not far from the Heard (in Pheonix) to the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA). We walked around the historic Scottsdale touristy places (that look like an old western town to buy boots and hats) and a Mission church which was a lovely place to sit, before walking into the SMoCA.

Kevin knows that I'm a huge James Turrell fan, and although it's not as big and fancy as the Turell piece they have on ASU campus for free, it was still worth the trip to sit in this installation. James Turrell is an artist who is more interested in what's happening behind your eyes than what's in front of them. A hole is a ceiling can look like a 3D disc. It's an elipse form one angle, a circle from another. I was impressed at how few clouds there are in Arizona. Even the jetstream from a plane evaporates almost as quickly as it is formed in the desert sky.

I also loved the room with floating lights that changed colors, I wish I hadn't been carefully avoiding them while I walked around. Seeing them swing and move by people who bump into them is part of the experience.

Other than the art of the area, I enjoyed the Desert Botanical Garden very much, the Mesa Easter Pageant, all the wonderful Mexican food, and of course, Organ Stop Pizza, for the whimsical show. As hard as it is to have my siblings flung across the country, it is nice to get to visit and see the sites with an experienced and loving tour guide.