Art out at Acker

The Mural Mice are at it again. This time the object of their attention is the lonely loo building out at Acker Park over at the foot of Virginia Street. The little structure is getting painted on all four sides, as a matter of fact.

Subject matter: local flora and fauna found in the 80-acre park. Including, of course, a mouse.

Here is one of the two key Mural Mice; the other was busy at the corner of the building (below).

Even though we were there on a week day, folks were gathering to see what was going on. We stopped for pictures after friend and I had recorded the nearby IOOF Cemetery.

As I noted earlier, all four sides of the building will be decorated.

As for the little bannerettes you may have noticed, here's what they look like close up.

Linkage: An interesting demo of text to speech here. And, millions of miles away, an avalanche -- on Mars, to be specific. Desert Cat takes a short hike near his Tucson area hideaway and discovers lots of desert wildflowers, Tombo hikes the Grand Canyon and Book Journey, a new Prescott area blog, discovers the alligator juniper.

Heroic figures

Or something like that. Anyhow, tada!

This huge eagle adorns the west side of Cortez Street, down near the old RR station. He's the emblem of the fraternal order of same (Eagles), so much a part of the scenery that usually I'm not aware that he's present in all his predatory glory.

As for Super-Tippy -- I found this picture in my email after I had posted my library pix. I quite like the idea of the library dinosaur as a masked super-heroine, complete with bright R.E.D. cape.

The library mural takes shape

I've visited the latest mural project twice now. First, back in July, when actual work out back of the downtown library was just beginning -- and, more recently, in October. The display is definitely shaping up.

I don't know her name; she appears to be the chief mural mouse (yes, that is a tail in the picture above). There she is, at work, both times that I have shown up.

For some reason, there was also a lady from the Victorian Society posing with the mural as a backdrop when I visited the last time. Actually, I'm more interested that the mountain lion who sits on the front wall of the library has also joined the other characters in the new mural.

Now here's another section of the mural project in an entirely different style; I'll have to drop by in a couple of weeks to find out more. Painting is supposed to be finished this month.

Mural on Goodwin Street

No, the tree is not in the art, but in front of it! Walking down Goodwin Street to the dog do at the Square Sunday provided an opportune moment to zoom in on the small mural. It's up the hill on the south side, between the Show Business video store and the little chiropractic office. I know nothing of the origin or authorship; not a word has been published though Tombo posted a photo back some months, probably because the art adorns the wall of a private dwelling. The spirals are handsome enough, though I don't understand just what they represent. However, the artist appears to really be into the helix; even his small cacti spin. He must agree with my prime cosmological principle, namely that the spiral is the basic geometry of the universe. Think galaxies, snails and DNA.

Linkage: Over in the UK, Judith set out to locate the sites where, 100 years earlier, her mother-in-law had painted a series of water colors; she describes her pilgrimage in a series of four lovely posts. If you're up to the excitement, view Willow Lake and the Dells from a video camera mounted on a remote control plane. And for owners of felines in particular, Boxelder recommends Simon's Cat; I heartily agree. Finally, here's a follow-up to my recent post about Alaska and its latte shacks.

Cruising South Prescott

The idea hadn't been to explore neighborhoods -- it was simply to locate the blue Victorian with a fine tower for my collection for a future post. However, friend Patty had time after our Thursday breakfast group to travel a bit. Thus, we took a hint from the RV mural above, on a very small (and local) scale. A few of our findings follow.

First, another muralesque sight, this on the north wall of the florist at Montezuma and Leroux. A real northern AZ subject, too: a mountain man up near Bill Williams Mountain (left) and the Peaks (right), even a bear in the lower right hand corner.

The old Adult Center has been thoroughly face lifted for its new role as the Boys & Girls Club. Looking at those stairs makes one wonder how our senior citizens managed all those years, though the location is certainly superior to the new center which is far from downtown or the little bus route (and an expensive taxi ride away).

This "boat" is a hard one to figure out (or to picture). We couldn't decide whether it is a trailer to be pulled in a parade of art cars or if the "bridge" actually holds a driver's compartment. In any event, it sits in a front yard, awaiting the right event.

On the other hand, the idea of a VW bug serving as a wrecker is certainly an idea whose time is ahead of us, what with soaring gasoline prices & automotive down-sizing. Another potential use is very, very Prescott: attach the hoist to a stout tree at the edge of a small canyon to lower your ride to a lower level. One way to explore the upper Verde, for example.

A surprise, really ready for gentrification, that we found at the south end of town. Somehow this property got overlooked in the midst of our recent housing boom.

This cute little playhouse matched the accompanying home in color scheme, if not in architectural style.

Quite different from most local houses was this house, shingled all over. Comfortable looking, in any event.

Perhaps the greatest experience from the hilly south end of town was the wonderful view! The Pioneers' Home above left, with Little Granite and Two Rock Mountains in the background to the right, and Granite Mountain looming over town below.

We finished our adventure near the Sal, where this willow caught the wind that presumably is bringing a storm and our snow level down to 6000 ft. tonight. In Prescott, we will always accept any moisture, with many thanks.

Linkages, Etc: Speaking of that storm, it chased the Artful RV folks out of the Nevada mountains over in the Basin & Range country. I've often wondered about what those hills were about and now I have an idea; they've got some wonderful pix, including small wildlife. If you've ever wondered about life in the G.O.D. (Good Old Days), take a look at Prescott Style's list of headlines about accidents from old Arizona newspapers. World Pictures & More captured a neat batch of bee photos the other day, while Warren down in Tucson features a picture of el hombre, a gent you wouldn't like to meet up with on any dark and stormy night.

Art in the McCormick alley

A few years ago, a local realtor acquired several old cottages along McCormick Street just north of Gurley. Instead of immediately razing them and erecting creekside condos, he had them painted pink and purple and orange and yellow and declared them to be the McCormick Street Art District, thereby earning a few good marks. At this point, most of the cottages are now antiqueries, there's one radical bookstore plus this gallery.

The art fun is out in back of the buildings. Above, a shed, painted on two sides. This object has been here a couple of years.

However, there's new material, here at the back of one of the houses.

Around the corner is a Buddha sort of character.

Across the way, that is, I believe, a garden planted in the former bed of a pickup truck. This is part of the sculpture garden advertised by the Eye of the Mountain Gallery. One of these days I'll take on a a proper tour of McCormick Street, which is also quite interesting at the south end of town down where the White Spar Road begins.

May I Grump? I had my first Travelocity experience. Not good. Prices jumped $200 after I had picked a set of flights; the on-line form refused to accept my ZIP code & so I had to do the 888 call to Bangalore -- at least I didn't get charged the extra $25! I was so aggravated and flustered by the entire procedure that I set things up for the wrong dates, yet. Grump.

Mural at Sky Harbor

Hooray -- my little bro is returning tomorrow evening. This, in turn, reminded me that the last time I was at Sky Harbor down in Phoenix I chanced upon an old mural. Obviously old because the interior of the lobby was being redesigned, with no attention paid to the wall work in, I believe, Terminal 3. The Alaska Airlines terminal, in any event.

Were I a six-footer, I might have seen more of the hidden painting; however, this is the best I could do.

The least interesting portion of the mural -- directly above the entrance to security -- remained unobstructed. I find the assortment of images here to be somewhat helter-skelter, with no focal point except for the hand cliche.

I much preferred the big, wild firebird, which I've blown up so you can enjoy it, too. Wonder if they're keeping the mural in this truncated view.

Scenic Library Wall

For some reason, the mural concept has become identified with paintings on exterior walls. But, by the dictionary, paint a picture on any wall, inside or out, you have committed a mural. Therefore, it follows that the large painted wall in the lower level of our library is definitely a mural; no idea of what the scene depicts, aside from an ancient rock building. (It occurred to me that the dictionary definitionwould allow much graffiti as a form of mural. Go figure.)

Our World on a Wall

OK, Prescott College, I give up! I know, the only fence on the campus suitable for a mural faces due south -- directly into the sun. I've taken several sets of pictures and I'm tired of waiting for a proper overcast day that might allow for better lighting! So here goes, starting at the alley, just across from the Crossroads Center. First, the authors and the Monarch butterflies (which I don't see that often around Prescott.)

On the other hand, PC is involved in environmental projects in Mexico, where the butterflies winter, so the selection is legitimate. A bathtub and a summer storm to fill it full.
Prescott's Official Bug -- the cicada about to fly into a sahuaro as clouds gather for that summer storm.

Sights from the Sea of Cortez, a couple of barrel cacti and further reminder of the importance of water.

Not sure whether the forest flowers are 1) mariposa lilies or 2) sacred datura; inclined to go with #1, though the actual blossoms look more like #2. The pottery lets us know that the Hopi mesas are not too far away.

The east end. Has to be the northern ocean: a whale, glaciers and snow flakes! Plus all-important power lines.

There you have it -- another Prescott mural; to see others, click on the link below. And I'm not done! The new revamped library features a small indoor mural; at the high school are a series of mural-type windows, and, of course, local artists are still working on the big production downtown on the wall facing the parking garage. Stay tuned.