Downtown Mesa’s Día de los Muertos

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.

When Quijote got restless, we moved on to check out the arts and crafts vendors. There were handcrafted decorations, jewelry, papel picado banners, and small ceramics that looked like ones we had seen in Peru.

Now it was 4:30 – half an hour before it was all scheduled to be over – and the party showed no signs of stopping.

In fact, it was still so crowded that our stilt-walking friend had trouble getting through. The bands played on, vendors continued to serve up churros and hot dogs and tamales and paletas, and there was still a line to get into the craft-making area.

As we walked away, the celebration continued behind us – everyone enjoying the moment, like time was irrelevant.

October 22, 2018May 23, 2023

Rest Stop Sunset

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.

October 18, 2018May 23, 2023

George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center in Phoenix

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!

More Info on the Carver Museum

The George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center is located at 415 E. Grant Street in the Phoenix Warehouse District.
Hours: Fridays and Saturdays, 11am to 5pm.
Donations accepted.
History of Carver school and museum (archived).

October 15, 2018October 15, 2018

Desert Autumn Colors

When we visited Boyce Thompson Arboretum last November, I spotted lots of patches of fall color – and not just in the trees!

Here are some shades of an Arizona autumn for you!

October 11, 2018October 12, 2018

Vintage Travel Posters

I stumbled across all these 1930s Swiss and Italian travel posters online that are up for sale at an auction house in Dresden, Germany.

I had intended to quickly share some of my favorites, but then I got curious about some of the places pictured and ended up doing some research/getting sidetracked. So I have a little extra backstory for some of them.

Pilatus Bahn, Luzern – Pilatus Railway, Railway Chemin de Fer, Lucerne, Switzerland poster by Otto Ernst, c. 1930.

At first glance, I thought this was the same mountain railway (funicular) I’d posted about previously, Gelmerbahn, but it’s actually Pilatusbahn, which is on a different Swiss peak about 40 minutes away. Different sources claim each one to be the steepest cogwheel railway in Europe, so that may be where my confusion came from.

Anyway, I found a 2009 photo of Mt. Pilatus that was taken from almost the same angle as the poster – you can even see the little red funicular making its way down the hill (on possibly-the-steepest-grade track in Europe).

Genua und die Italienische Riviera – “Genoa and the Italian Riviera,” lithograph, 1931.

Are there palm trees in Genoa? I wouldn’t have guessed that, but I’m not going to verify that right now. This post has sent me down enough rabbit trails already! (Yeah, more are on the way, I just rearranged the post to spread them out a bit.) For now, I’m going to refrain from even doing an image search.

Leuchtender Sommer – Beschwingte Fahrt. Die schöne Schweiz – Zürich poster “Bright summer – Lively ride. The beautiful Switzerland.” by Augusto Giacometti, c. 1930.

This design is such a departure from your typical travel poster. Instead of focusing on a scene from a city or landscape, it’s just a close-up of a slightly abstracted, watercolor-y butterfly.

I also love that you can see slight creases in the paper. Someone must’ve folded it up at one point. I wonder what they did with it after that-? Did they put it in their pocket and take it home? I’m sure they’d be shocked to know it would eventually be unfolded and put up for auction.

Verona – Verona, Italy lithograph, c. 1930.

I found out that the structures depicted here are the Arche Scaligere, tombs of the Scaliger family, erected while they were still in power.

The coral-ish colored wall reminded me a bit of something from Venice. And, it turns out that Verona was, in fact, conquered by the Venetian Republic in 1405, just a few decades after the Arche Scaligere were completed.

Brescia – Brescia, Italy lithograph by Vincenzo Alicandri, c. 1930.

Speaking of Verona, Brescia was actually part of the same kingdom for 50 years or so, until it fell under Venetian control, shortly before Verona itself did.

See what I mean about rabbit trails? I didn’t know any of this before I started wondering about these posters.

Schweizerische Bundesbahnen – Swiss Railways poster by Emil Cardinaux, c. 1930.

I’m starting to think that all the trains in Switzerland are red, which isn’t a bad choice. Bright red looks fantastic against those alpine greens and blues!

Roma – Rome poster by Virgilio Retrosi, c. 1930.

The building with the horses on top is Il Vittoriano, a monument to the first king after Italy’s unification. The monument was completed in 1925, so it would’ve been new when this poster was made.

It seems like you can see Il Vittoriano from all over Rome. Even though it’s far in the background, look how large it still looms in this photo we took from the Palatine Hill overlooking the Roman Forum!

Davos für Sport und Gesundheit – “Davos [Switzerland] for Sport and Health” by Otto Bamberger, c. 1930.

This one might be my favorite. I just love the illustration style, and I can almost feel the cool mountain breeze. It looks like a nice spot for a picnic.

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Which of these posters do you most wish you could just step right into? Leave me a comment, while I go google palm trees in the Italian Rivieria.

Images:

Posters via Art Auction House Günther in Dresden, Germany.
Pilatus photo by albinfo, public domain.
Verona photo via Verona.net
Rome photos by me.