Jaguar Jungle

Our friend Pam has a special place in her heart (and her art) for kitty cats. Her latest watercolor is this jungle beauty that she completed for the Sonoran Arts League's Hidden in the Hills studio tour this fall. The colors are intense and obviously she put many hours into this work before we photographed it for her archives.

The studio tour is still many months off, Pam's work can be seen on her website, pamelamangelsdorf.com. The jaguar is for sale as an original study on paper, this large format work on board and as a giclee reproduction. While you're there, check our her other cats and critters!

Red

Artists can self-impose homework assignments to stretch their creative muscles or can latch onto a group or gallery project's focus to see where their abilities may take them. One such experiment by our friend, Corinne, led her to this abstract piece. A gallery in Tucson was curating a show simply entitled, "Red," and thus the inspiration for this piece was born.

Agent McAuley is a bead tapestry artist and her work can be viewed at corinnemcauleyfineart.com. Check her site out to see where you can see her and her work in person and for her to describe her process. The number of beads in any given project is in the tens of thousands and just astounds us! If there's something important that she has finished, she entrusts us to photograph it for her website, promotion and posterity. Thanks, Corinne!

Art and Vino!

We have installed our 'really BIG art' at the Tasting Room in Vistancia this past Sunday. Our favorite combination: art and wine! Nancy, the owner, invited us to hang our work for the month of June and to get things really rocking, we'll be on tap for a wine tasting event on Wednesday, May 30 starting at 6:30. SO...come join the party! For details on location and hours, visit tastingroomaz.com

Comb Ridge Hikes

We had a couple days after Gil finished a major project for The Sculpture Studio and chose to decompress in Bluff, Utah, one of our favorite destinations. On the recommendation of our new friends Gus and Sandra, we ventured along Comb Ridge and did some hiking into the canyons. The driving was simpler than expected--no four-wheel drive necessary, but the hiking at a mile-high for us flat-landers was more strenuous than anticipated. But our efforts were greatly rewarded.

The Procession Panel is so named as there is a line-up of 179 hunters and their quarry. No, we didn't count them, but someone had. The Wolfman Panel has some anthropomorphs and bird figures and two abstracts that remind us of toilet seats. Not thinking they had such things 900+ years ago, but it's just our interpretation.

We found some habitations in various states and there have been people making museum collections of pottery and such. Selections from our photographing this area, four or five times over, will be presented at the Desert Foothills Chapter of the Arizona Archeological Society's May 2012 meeting.  For information on the chapter, visit: azarchsoc.org/DesertFoothills

BILLBOARD!

I know it's not polite to SHOUT, but we have reason to be excited!

Our good friends, Brent and Teresa, at AquaTots Swim School in North Phoenix

asked us to photograph some of their emerging swimmers at their school last month.

The objective was for the swimmers to show off their new moves for their new

advertising campaign.

We went past the ClearChannel electronic billboard on I17 southbound at Pinnacle

Peak today and there it was in bright lights, GIl's underwater portrait of Jaime!

We'll be taking a photograph of the big billboard, but here's a sneak peek at the

image they chose for the advertisement. In the mean time, let us know if you see it!

The fabulous family of instructors can be reached at 623.879.7408. You can check

them out at aqua-tots.com/az-pinnaclepeak19th.php

Discovery Days

One of our favorite events of the year is next weekend--the V-V Discovery Days, March 24 and 25 at the Vee Bar Vee Rock Art Site. Besides being able to see the awesome rock art on the boulders at the site, there are interpretive displays and activities for all ages, like throwing an atl-atl or tasting roasted (not distilled) agave. It should be from 10 to 2 or so at their location south on Rt 179 off I-17 (the Sedona exit, but in the opposite direction of town).
We're considering to head up and offer some time autographing the posters that we published for the Forestry Service. [NB: brazen product plug! For $10 you can support the efforts of the Friends of the Red Rocks and the Arizona Natural History Association to help maintain the site and provide educational programs there AND get a spiffy poster. What's not to like?]. See you there?

Vegas, Baby!

Last week was the West Coast Art and Frame Show in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Mirage. There was everything conceivable going on in the world of art--particularly framed two-dimensional artwork. There were new ways to present giclee gallery wraps, without frames and a multitude of new mat and frame options.

As it's the biggest organization of its kind, certain trends present themselves. This year, there is a lot of color--tangerine tango (A) is the Pantone color of the year and it is HOT! There is a lot still going on with the combination of chartreuse and turquoise (B) and anything that speaks of natural (D), particularly bamboo, stone and beige. In frames the word was mirror-finish (C) and a lot of silver-colored metal and wood. These concepts are sure to seep into design trends all around and influence color choices for palettes and interiors for most of this year.