Scorching Hot in Sizzling Scottsdale, AZ

September 5-6, 2017

We left CA to travel to Scottsdale, so I could finally see Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio campus at Talisen West. The last time we tried to see it,  they were closed. This time I ordered tickets months ahead and our tour guide, Loa didn't disappoint us. She was so humorous, well informed and interesting that the 90 minutes flew by...We even joined the Wright Foundation, so we can see more of his design sites across the country including FL. I've tried to give you a briefer overview than the amount of photos we actually took. The views of nature and the grounds were stunning. His architecture, artwork and furnishings were the icing on the cake. 

But first I had to start our photos with our thoroughly modern hotel room at 3 Palms...It was really nice, but a bit over the top for my taste especially with this Flintstone style mirror

Maybe the decorator thought all the grays would make us feel cooler?

We had to laugh at this sign...

Loa, our tour guide

Thanks to a well 500' down, they have fountains

One view of his campus. Each building was built by his apprentices one at a time...in the meantime, he, his wife and they all lived in tents. UGH!

We really enjoyed the campus landscaping

Petroglyphs from the mountain behind Talisen West

He found these Chinese Theater scenes in San Francisco

Every winter the packrats steal some of the broken features

One of the pools that could function as a water source in case of fire

The far right side is the living room, he designed much of his spaces out here to have canvas roofs for the muted daylight but they leaked so badly, acrylic and Sunbrella fabric replace most of the canvas.

The high mesa country surrounding Talisen on three sides

The main building stretches out so far we had to take two photos

Left side is studio, cafeteria, on the right is the living room, bedrooms and baths

At night the living room was entertainment central

Whether sitting or standing the views are wonderful

Frank was an accomplished pianist too and would play for guests

His wife's bedroom 

More of his bedroom, they were only here during the summers, but nights can be very cool, so he included fireplaces.

One of the bathrooms

He intended for this to be a camp, so things were minimal

Another fountain and shallow pool where the kids played

Frank and his wife eating with guests outside before the cafeteria dining room was built. Notice they were always dressed up since potential clients or guests might show up at any time...

The studio which uses all natural light until nightime

The Performing Arts Pavilion

He really used flora and fauna as sculpture when he could

One of his women apprentices who took up sculpture after her dancing career ended...

In the Cabaret

The acoustics in his cabaret were such that no mics were needed

We saw many more buildings and rooms than I've included. It's worth a visit if you are out in AZ. While driving to and from Talisen West we were on Cactus Rd with one spectacular western style house after another...

A more modest one

Then, the McMansion

A Pueblo style mansion

It was obvious from driving around Scottsdale, this town had lots of money. They invested in public art even on their highways.

Artist Carolyn Braaksma created and designed The Path Most Traveled as a carefully choreographed narrative of abstract and representational desert inspired motifs along six miles of the Pima Freeway/ Loop 101. Artwork saturates both the freeway sides and the neighborhood sides of the retention and noise abatement walls. The artistic elements along the Pima Freeway reduce the visual impact of walls that reach up to 50 feet in height at various points along the corridor. The art features on both the neighborhood and freeway sides of the walls also speak to the character of Scottsdale as a unique arts community. 

http://scottsdalepublicart.org/permanent-art/the-path-most-traveled 

There were so many variations of this theme along these walls

Thanks to Greg Matviak reminding me, we stopped to see Paulo Soleri's Studio as well. An interesting contrast and far more unfinished than Talisen West since here there were lots of works in progress!!!

The gift shop

The work here was more organic in feel

He is known for his famous bells which are still produced

Part extension of the gift shop and pottery studio

The bells came in bronze and ceramic

More of the displays and studios

One studio flowed into another one

Looking back to the gift shop

We were told to visit this new museum and found it excellent too

The sculpture garden leading into the museum

The green tree on the left is their state tree, Palo Verde it's really beautiful in it's different versions

Dave Mc Gary, Bear Tracks

This museum had lots of Hollywood items including this silver saddle created by Edward H Bohlin

Another interesting American story

Thought this story and it's accompanying sculpture really well done

Yep, yours truly hamming it up!

One of the more whimsical sculptures

the interior courtyard sculpture garden

Notice the stenciled concrete design on the ground, that motif kept being repeated in different variations...very cool!

One of the view times an artwork made me somewhat motion sick

I put the video of this artwork on my Facebook page...it's crazy cool!

Dave McGary's work that reminded me of Roman sculpture in it's attention to detail

We are still greatly enjoying ourselves, but we are constantly checking with our FL friends about Hurricane Irma's status. Currently, it looks like it might only graze us, but it's a Category 5 now and very big, so time will tell...