The Lost Barrio

Some early morning shots taken while wandering around The Lost Barrio in Tucson, and waiting for Tooley's Cafe to open (they open at 9am on Saturdays - and by the way, the Huevos Rancheros AND Almond Milk Latte were totally worth the wait!). I definitely want to go back later in the day and spend some time exploring all of the shops that are located in this historic warehouse / shopping district.

Sunrise

 

It's a little late to say happy New Year, so I'll say Happy February! The end of 2012 and beginning of 2013 has breezed by swiftly, and I am just now really looking through photos taken on my new DSLR that I've been enjoying since December. There are more photos to post and travels to mention, but I thought I'd start with these sunrise shots from last weekend. We awoke before dawn to get an early start toward Tucson (and then south to Patagonia for a short, one-night fix in what is becoming my favorite part of Arizona). I shot these photos as the sun came up, while we were driving between Phoenix and Tucson (we did stop a few times, which I am trying to take the time to do more, since I'm rarely happy with the haphazard shoot-through-the-window-of-the-moving-car images). The last photo shows the first-quarter moon above Picacho Peak, a landmark just past the half-way point that you can see for miles, that always signifies to me that we are getting close to Tucson.

Joshua Tree & Morongo Canyon

We spent the weekend in the Mojave Desert, and I spent all day Saturday shooting photographs as part of a workshop put on by the Desert Institute at Joshua Tree National Park. We started the day at 7:30 am with beautiful early morning light on the trails at Morongo Canyon Preserve, and then went on to shoot at a few locations throughout the park, exploring various landscapes and light, through to sunset. It was a long day, with a lot of visual stimulus and information to take in, but totally exhilarating to actively engage with nature using my camera as the medium. On Sunday, S. and I drove back through the park, making for a late drive home, but it was great to have a second day to revisit the park through my camera lens (especially after looking at my photos from Saturday) and implement some of the new techniques I learned.

Patagonia

A visual journey of a Thanksgiving holiday weekend in Patagonia, AZ.

Mike Cone

How does the saying go? Just when you're not looking, some of the best things appear? Today, for me, it was the work of Phoenix-based ceramic artist Mike Cone that captured my eye.

It's a beautiful day here - the kind with a certain 'holy trinity' of blue sky, crisp air and golden sun that almost physically propels a garden lover straight to the nursery. Gardening is tricky in the desert. We have two growing seasons - spring, which is usually cut short by the searing hot temps of summer; and fall, which is challenging in itself because you can't start too early for fear of that much-loved-elsewhere Indian Summer, and you can't start too late, because cold nights and winter (albeit mild) are on the horizon. So when the weather is like this, gardeners across the valley come out of summer hiding and deliriously start digging in the dirt.

But I digress. I was out and about this morning and I decided to swing by Baker's Nursery to simply take in the green-ness and of course look at their herb starts to see if there is anything that I "needed," when I rounded a corner and found the most striking array of hand-built pottery that made my heart sing. I asked the first garden-guy I saw - who is making these incredible pots? He said Mike Cone - and I thought, easy to remember, like Cone 10 clay.

Cone's high-fire stoneware vessels range in size and shape, some are footed and others sit low and horizontal. The unifying repetition of shapes, the 3-dimensionality and undulating forms is what I immediately found appealing. And the cactus green, sunshine yellow and apple red glaze colors set against the natural clay sealed the deal. I selected a small, undoubtedly-Saguaro-inspired pot, and brought it home. I'm not sure what I'm going to put in it  - it's almost too interesting in itself to muddy the lines with greenery - but I'm sure the right plant will make itself known (just when I'm not looking for it).

You can see more of Mike Cone's functional pots and sculptural work on his website, and read more in Horticulture magazine and the LA Times.

Landscape Dreaming

The wide, expansive, sweeping landscapes, endless skies and dramatic clouds of southern Arizona, captured via my iPhone while wandering wistfully this weekend on back roads between Patagonia & Bisbee, in search of land that could one day be our own personal escape from city living. A girl can dream...

Booths & Bags

As promised, some photos from the shows I participated in earlier this month: Horseshoe Market and Sunnyslope Art Walk.