FROM SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

New Art Puzzle: A Harp, Bird/Cobra Trio or Three-headed Hydra?

SCOTTSDALE, Nov 3, 2007 - Whew!  I am done with New York travels for this year, anyway.  I think... (you never know in business for sure, you know).  I won't even count how many trips it has been.  Feels like I've been  in there every other week.  An exaggeration, I know, but not too much of one.

Anyway, now that I have been home for a week, with blue  skies and lovely temperatures (mid-80s), it felt like being on vacation.  In fact, when one travels as much as I have in the last two years, coming home every time does seem like being on holidays.  But especially in the fall, one of the two most beautiful seasons in Arizona.

So I thought this weekend I would do what tourist do, drive somewhere up north to enjoy the changing colors.  But I got as far as North Scottsdale (which is where I live).  I ended up browsing through my favorite antique store ("My Sister's Attic"), only a couple of miles away from home, that I had not visited for months.  And guess what I found there...

My first impression of this center piece from a distance was that it was some sort of a musical instrument, like a stylized harp.  But when I looked closely, I saw that it was actually a bird trio, as if singing together.  So I added it to my artistic "aviary" on the ledge between my family and living rooms, between my wooden-brass ducks and a glass swan.

The new sculpture also seemed like a fitting addition to my "musical corner," as you can see in the left photo.  In the left middle shot, however, taken from another angle, it appears as if Nina the Ballerina is dancing to the bird trio's music.  And then again, when you look at the sculpture from a slightly different position (right middle), it seems to resemble three dancing cobras (again, a musical theme), or (God forbid) a three-headed hydra.  But a pretty one, unlike the Asian version you can see in the rightmost picture.

Guess, I'd better stop here before my imagination produces even scarier versions of a lovely piece of art.  Interesting, though, how its simple yet elegant lines can produce such quick metamorphosis of images depending on the angle and the light.  If you see anything else in it, besides the four images in conjured up in my mind, do let me know.

New Bushes

SCOTTSDALE, Nov 9, 2007 - Well, I finally gave up on the old bushes that gave up the ghost last spring and had Roger, my tree man, plant some new ones...

We'll see how fast they grow when I next update these photos, maybe a year or so from now?

Rings Around the Moon; Hiding Ugliness of Technology

SCOTTSDALE, Nov 26, 2007 - I came home early this morning after watching a late movie (an excellent film, by the way, "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead").  As I looked up into the sky around 1:15AM, there was an amazing full moon, with two big rings of light (haze) around it.  Take a look...

It was magnificent.  I took a couple of pictures of it, one with (left), another without the flash (right).  They don't do it justice, but they will give you an idea of how unusual the moon looked.  They say the rings around the moon sometimes portend rain.  Let's hope so.  Today is a mostly cloudy day around here.  So we might get some rain later on.  I don't recall any since August.  Which is why we, the "desert rats," like rain... :-)

Those of you who know my penchant for a refusion of arts and sciences also know how much I abhor the ugliness of modern technology.  High tech companies put out black and gray and silver boxes that look like coffins.  If auto manufacturers did that, they would only have morticians and limo drivers as customers.  :-)

So on this Sunday afternoon, while watching some of the NFL football games, I tried to hide the ugliness in the "techno corner" of my family room (two left photos), and a bit around my office, too.  Well, "hide" is probably an exaggeration.  An ugly box is an ugly box.  Let's say I tried to soften it so I can look at it without revulsion.

This past Halloween, I suggested to one of my big IT clients that they incorporate new artistic designs in their future "boxes."  I cited some above industrial and consumer examples (cars, HP laptops) as cases in point (two left images).  Also, there is an interesting example of creative "urban camouflage" from Japan (right photo).  Art can sometimes pick up where technology leaves off to help soften the drabness industrialization brings into our lives.

I then asked them if they would put an ugly box like the one on top (in above slides) in their beautiful "green" living rooms (like the one in the picture)?  I sure wouldn't in mine.  I then offered some alternative approaches to stimulate their imagination.  I am not holding my breath, but you never know...  who would have thought HP would come out with laptops that look like ladies' purses on coat hangers?

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