Today I received word my Tempe Daily Photo is officially a member of the CDPB Community. I am really excited about this, so to celebrate I went out to
Arizona Art Supply to buy new colored pencils. While there I got my photo for the day - a drawing of a therapy "bulldog in progress" in the showroom. The bulldog drawing has been gridded off so patrons can artistically fill in a square for $1 to benefit
GABRIEL'S ANGELS, Pets Helping Kids. That made me even more excited because I am in the process of preparing my dog, baloo, to be a therapy dog for
Gabriel's Angels.
The bulldog portrait is part of
Arizona Art Supply's summer project to benefit a local charitable organization.
Gabriel's Angels' mission is to deliver healing and pet therapy to abused, neglected, and at-risk children, nurturing their ability to love and trust, thereby freeing them from the cycle of violence (
http://www.gabrielsangels.org/). Starting June 1 at Valley locations and Tucson, Arizona Art Supply patrons will have the opportunity to use their artistic talents to help Gabriels Angels. Each of the stores will have a gridded portrait of actual therapy dogs. For a minimum donation of only $1, customers can "paint a grid, and help a kid"!! At the end of the summer, the completed dog portraits will be given to Gabriel's Angels for their future fund raising efforts along with the monetary donations. Stop in to Arizona Art Supply's 4 valley locations and make a difference in the life of a child.
A concrete path circles Tempe lake - a great place to rollerblade, bike, walk, jog, or meander. All along the path are fossil-like impressions of native and endangered fish, plants, mammals and reptiles, by artist Laurie Lundquist. This looks like a Colorado pikeminnow, the largest minnow in North America, endangered - as are most native fish in Arizona.
The tiles in this section of the art project at north Tempe Lake include a saguaro cactus in bloom, the Salt River (with people in float tubes), a peace sign, a car, an upside down cat, a man with a tie, a woman with somewhat bulging eyes, and a handful of tiles etched with student names.
A small section of the 545-foot-long mural located along the Red Mountain Freeway, on the north side of Tempe lake. Approximately 50,000 handmade and photo-screened tiles representing the past, present and future of the Salt River area were used to create the mural. The project took four years and was completed by school children and community members.
Squid-like mobile hanging in the new Night Gallery at Tempe Marketplace. I couldn't decide if this looked more like eggs with scrawny seaweed legs or some rudimentary alien squid. If the artist had a biological bent, perhaps she was demonstrating camouflage - a strategy utilized by squid and other cephalopods. Squid will change color to blend with their environment and circumstance, with all members of the group taking on the same color (or risk being eaten for being the odd color stand out!). Suddenly this exhibit is looking more like an off white wall in an art gallery. What do you think?
Just west of Arizona State University and south of downtown, the Maple Ash Neighborhood is the oldest extant neighborhood in the city of Tempe. It is a neighborhood of front porches, sense of community and wonderful, lush vegetation. Flood irrigation is largely responsible for the oasis of greenery and is delivered through a series of irrigation standpipes prominently perched on street corners throughout the neighborhood.
