Yuma Favorites: Part 1

Since we arrived after dark, our first glimpse of the view out our window at Candlewood Suites Yuma was the sunrise lighting up puffy clouds and vibrant green farm fields. It was downright gorgeous.

Phillip needed to be at the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Yuma base at 0700, I got the coffeemaker going, and we got ready to head out.

On Base

Phillip, who is nearing the end of his seminary master’s program, had arranged to shadow a military chaplain in Yuma for a day. I’d meet back up with him, the chaplains, and a couple of their wives for lunch and a quick tour of the base.

The rest of the day, my mission would be to learn about this desert city in the southwesternmost corner of Arizona.

MCAS Yuma is typically closed to civilians, but they do hold an open house event once a year. It alternates between an air show and something called the Patriot Festival that features local bands, an obstacle course, singing competitions, and bouncy castles.

Art

Pottery

I found a couple pottery shops in the Brinley Avenue Historic District on the North End of town.

I visited Tomkins Pottery, which was filled with fabulous work by artist-owners Neely and George Tomkins. Their dog Joe helps them run the shop, and they also work out of the studio in back. A green honey/sugar bowl followed us home, but, really, I’d love one of everything there.

Across the street is Colorado River Pottery, the shop and studio of Jan Bentley.

Yuma Art Center

The Yuma Art Center has galleries to exhibit local art and is also an event space.

Historic Yuma Theatre

The Theatre next door has been a performance venue since 1912. It currently features plays, concerts, film screenings, workshops, and choir concerts – with two Art Deco mermaid murals always in the audience.

Artist Co-op

On the other side of the Theatre is the United Building, home of the North End Artist Co-op.

We met artists Larry Yanez, who was installing his art in one of the big storefront windows, and Judy Phillips, who graciously stopped what she was doing to answer questions and give us a full tour of the space, all the way back to the metal trash cans used for making raku pottery.

The co-op itself has 13 members, who are all local artists (many of them art educators) but they offer classes open to anyone. On Saturdays, members without their own studio space can come and work, share information and materials, and use the kilns and other tools.

Jazz

The Yuma Jazz Company quintet performs regularly around Yuma:

The Village Area at Yuma Palms Regional Center – free open-air concerts on a grassy area in the middle of the mall on winter/spring Thursday nights
Patio at Julieanna’s – Friday nights November to April (reservations recommended)
Lutes Summer Jazz Series (inside) – Friday nights in summer

Yuma Suite-y

I was super relieved when Phillip called to say one of the chaplains would give him a ride back to the hotel, because I was already there – kicked back in the recliner with a glass of wine – and not ready to move.

Candlewood Suites

The deal with Candlewood Suites is they’re an extended stay hotel designed for the type of do-it-yourselfers who probably clean up before housekeeping comes and would rather make breakfast exactly the way they want it than take their chances at a buffet.

So Candlewood Suites offers weekly housekeeping, a free laundromat, and full kitchens stocked with cooking/serving essentials. They have a bunch of stuff you can borrow if you’re looking for something beyond what’s in your room – crockpots, blenders, board games, wine glasses, movies, and barbecue tools for the grills on the patio. You can even purchase food onsite in the “Candlewood Cupboard.” It’s always open and operates on a self-pay/honor system.

Anyway, all that to say, we definitely could’ve just holed up in our room for the evening. But we had heard great things about a restaurant called Julieanna’s, so I pried myself out of the recliner, and we went to check it out.

It was worth it.

Julieanna’s

The locals we talked to raved about Julieanna’s Patio Cafe. It has a romantic yet relaxed atmosphere and a tropical motif. There are cozy booths inside and an expansive patio outside with mosaic tabletops, a macaw perch area, and a peacock strolling around.

The menu includes a selection of seafood entrees and appetizers, tasty-looking salads, as well as sandwiches and burgers. I ordered salmon served with sautéed spinach and heirloom tomatoes. In.sane.ly. good. Phillip opted for a classic French dip, which I can confirm was also delicious.

The servers were friendly, helpful, and accommodating without being overbearing.

Music

By the time we arrived, the macaws had already gone home for the day, and the Yuma Jazz Company was getting ready for their set on the patio. The peacock would randomly chime in while they played – so funny!

A video posted by stephanieliebold (@stephanieliebold) on May 6, 2016 at 1:45pm PDT

We enjoyed the quintet’s performance. They played several of their own compositions and gave a little background about what inspired each one, which made you feel more acquainted with new songs. It was all great except for a few too many reminders about the tip jar. After about the fifth one, I was rooting for more peacock cries.

Sunshine

Earlier in the day, I had made a wrong turn and ended up at a place called Catherine’s Cupcakery. So a chocolate strawberry cupcake was waiting for us in our room. Maybe it wasn’t really a wrong turn.

Back in the hotel lobby, we flipped through a couple of the fat binders of DVD selections and chose Little Miss Sunshine. (Why have I not seen that before?! So good.)

Settling in with our movie and cupcake was a great way to wind down from of our first day exploring Yuma.

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Part 2 is coming up in 2 weeks! In our next installment, we look for a museum gift shop without a museum, accidentally go to California, visit a date farm, and drive home through the Kofa wilderness. And, yes, there will be more Yuma puns! Yuma-ght as well get used to them!

Our stay was courtesy of IHG/Candlewood Suites Yuma. Opinions are my own and so are the puns. Pretty sure they don’t endorse those.

Edited: References to “Candlewood” changed to “Candlewood Suites” for clarity and per the request of IHG Corporate Communications.

April 7, 2016April 7, 2016

Hostile Border: A Cross-Genre Film about Crossing the Line

Did I ever tell you about the time Phillip and I walked into Mexico?

On the Border

Okay, before I start the movie review, here’s the short version: We took the trolley from San Diego south to the border, over this elaborate pedestrian bridge with tall metal turnstiles. On the other side was a Mexican soldier with a big gun just kind of hanging out there, not checking anyone’s papers or even making eye contact. We stepped off the bridge into a super sketchy part of Tijuana, rolling suitcases bumping along behind us, trying not to get robbed (or worse) while we looked for a bus where there wasn’t any.

I don’t recommend that particular way to see Mexico.

There are some lovely parts of Tijuana, but the border draws danger, making the city swell with the pressure of desperate outsiders.

Over the Line

The film Hostile Border begins, not on the border, but in Illinois, where it plunges you immediately into the world of the ambitious main character, Claudia. Minimal exposition. No flashbacks. It moves quickly and lets you fill in the gaps.

After Claudia’s history of credit card fraud and undocumented status catch up with her, she is deported – through another metal turnstile in a Tijuana port of entry – into Mexico, where she has little connection and even less knowledge of the language.

One thing the film does explain outright is the meaning of its working title, “pocha”, slang for “a Mexican American who can speak little or no Spanish”. It can also refer to something rotten. The first definition definitely applies to Claudia. Whether the second one does is a question posed throughout the film in various ways.

Does committing crime mean you are a criminal? What happens after you cross the line?

Veronica Sixtos’s performance as Claudia is so compelling you don’t miss words during her long stretches of silence, yet she conveys emotion and inner conflict subtly enough to be consistent with the character’s guarded nature.

Hostile Border is about the people who build fences to protect themselves, and the ones who believe crossing them is worth the risk. It pulses between the genres of thriller and western with moments of intensity balanced by scenes with room to reveal the complicated relationships between layered characters.

Inspired in part by conversations with actual deportees, this debut feature film for both director/cinematographer Michael Dwyer and writer/co-director Kaitlin McLaughlin won the 2015 the Audience Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival and a Special Jury Prize for Directing.

Hostile Border opens in select theaters (see list below) and on digital/video on demand platforms April 15. You can preorder it on iTunes now.

Theaters:

Arizona

Cinema Latino (Phoenix)
Harkins Theatres Spectrum 18 (Tucson)

California

Laemmle Noho 7 (LA)
Media Arts Center (San Diego)

Colorado

Sie Film Center (Denver)

Illinois

Gene Siskel Film Center (Chicago)

Texas

Cinema Latino (Pasadena)

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Images and preview courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films.

March 28, 2016March 24, 2016

Advice Art

I met artist Betsy Halford at the Hidden in the Hills Studio tour, and I really dig her work. She does really interesting mixed media pieces, work in wax, collaged cards, and jewelry from found items.

She is working on a new piece that will incorporate advice people would give their younger selves.

You can take part in this collaborative work (anonymously, if you wish) by emailing her at betsy [at] monkeygirlartwork.com and answering this question:

If you could go back in time and give yourself some advice, wisdom or support, what age would you go back to and what advice would you give yourself?

So, what advice do you have for a younger you?
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March 24, 2016March 23, 2016

Michelangelo in Draft

By the time he was 37, Michelangelo was finishing up painting the Sistine Chapel.

Um, reading that kinda made me wonder what I’ve done in my life.

I was at the Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane exhibition at Phoenix Art Museum with my mom and art-history-major aunt looking at a collection of his drawings. They were drafts, really, studies for later works, mostly in thin lines of red or black chalk – but still breathtaking.

These permanent works-in-progress normally reside in Casa Buonarroti in Florence, Italy, but 26 of them are on tour and have made a stop in Phoenix.

Usually, when you see artwork, you see the final product. It is a complete thing: a painting, a sculpture. It’s easy to forget it didn’t just leap fully formed from the artist’s head.

In these drawings, you see so much more of the process – an arm sketched in multiple positions, geometric lines that determined the position of a face, an architectural drawing on the back of a letter.

Maybe like the Renaissance equivalent of cocktail napkin sketches, or, as Cammy Brothers of the Wall Street Journal put it: “Masterpieces on a Shopping List.”

After circling through the exhibition, I felt a bit better. Even this great idealist had projects that had to be simplified due to budget constraints. And works that were never completed. And more ideas than he had time for.

Even Michelangelo started with rough drafts.

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The Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane exhibition will be at the Phoenix Art Museum through this Sunday, March 27.

March 7, 2016February 26, 2016

Watercolor Therapy

I started doing watercolor paintings with the Sakura Koi watercolor set after I saw it at Craft Camp.

Since it’s so portable, I’ve started painting in unusual places – on my patio, at coffee shops, in the car, at the Arboretum, in church.

I might paint what’s in front of me or I might do something abstract. Unless I’m doing a painting for someone else, I don’t really care if people like what I paint.

There is something magical about the strokes of color on the paper and therapeutic about playing with shading and palettes and accepting the outcome, even if it’s not what I’d envisioned.

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