Tag Archives: Tucson

J Gurl

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Nolagirl and I were at spark! Mesa’s Festival of Creativity in the spring of 2018. We were looking at the art cars and came across one that turned out to be one of my favorites of the whole day, J Gurl by Diane Bombshelter from Tucson, AZ.

According to her website, Diane Bombshelter is primarily a painter who creates on black velvet. Apparently she’s really good at painting on cars too.

This is the big picture of what her art car looks like.

An art car is brightly painted with images of bugs and flowers. The Blessed Virgin Mary is painted on the hood.
Can you see the Blessed Virgin Mary on the hood of this art car?

When I got up close and starting looking at the details, I liked the car more and more.

Here’s the sacred heart painted on the back passenger door. I like the way pieces of broken mirror were used to accentuate the painting and add sparkle to the area. Also, the rough edges of the glass could cut the viewer, which I think brings to mind the pain caused by those thorns wrapped around the heart.

Sacred heart painted on the side of art car JGIRL.

Much of the imagery on the car is specifically female and really celebrates feminine power and energy. For example, here’s a uterus complete with egg tubes, ovaries, developing eggs, cervix, and endometrial lining painted on the rear passenger side of the car. Again, mirrors (this time round ones to echo the roundness of the eggs) catch the light and add sparkle and shimmer. Of course the pink background evokes stereotypical femininity but perhaps also a reclaiming of female strength.

Painting of uterus on the art car JGIRL. Ovaries, egg tubes, and endometrial lining also featured.

Here’s a vulva, right over the gas tank! Do you think that placement was random or a conscious choice?

Painting of a red and pink vulva on the art car JGURL.

The details that went into this representation of the vulva make me really happy. The yellow represents flames, perhaps, or bolts of energy. The red jewels outlining the border are also very sweet–more sparkle, more pizzazz. You may not be able to tell from my photo, but the clitoris is entirely composed of shiny little jewels. This vulva is a celebration of womanly parts. This vulva shines!

Art car JGURL has painting of Kwan Yin on the side. Sunlight is lighting her face and head. Glass beads radiate out from her head.

Ah, there’s Quan Yin, one of my favorite manifestations of Goddess energy. According to a Crystallinks webpage,

Quan Yin is one of the most universally beloved of deities in the Buddhist tradition. Also known as Kuan Yin, Quan’Am (Vietnam), Kannon (Japan), and Kanin (Bali), She is the embodiment of compassionate loving kindness. As the Bodhisattva of Compassion, She hears the cries of all beings…

Contemplating the Goddess of Mercy involves little dogma or ritual. The simplicity of this gentle being and Her standards tends to lead Her devotees towards becoming more compassionate and loving themselves…

Don’t you like the way I took the photo so the sunlight makes the area at the top of Goddess’ head glow? I’m pleased with that aspect of the photo, although I can’t remember if it was a conscious composition or a happy accident.

Art car JGURL has a mosaic of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the hood.
This photo courtesy of Nolagirl.

If the Blessed Virgin Mary is more your style when it comes to Goddess representation, Bombshelter has that covered for you on the hood of the car. The image of the BVM is made from flat glass marbles and is surrounded by small BVM statues. The blue flowers are artificial and permanently adhered to the hood as far as I could tell.

It’s obvious that so many loving details went into the design of this car. Even the dashboard is carefully decorated.

Dashboard of art car JGURL. Toys decorate the dashboard and the word "Goddess" is spelled out in Scrabble letters.

My favorite part of this interior decoration is the word “Goddess” spelled out in Scrabble letters. Clever!

In a 2015 article about the Art Car World museum in Douglas, AZ, Diane Bombshelter discussed pushing the boundaries of what cars are supposed to look like and represent in our society.

“Breaking that taboo opens people’s minds. It doesn’t have to be a certain way; it can be this way, too,” she said

“… I wanted to bring art to the public, instead of the public having to go to an art gallery.”

Arizona license plate on an art car. The plate number reads J-G-U-R-L.

I greatly enjoyed seeing and appreciate this art car. Hopefully I’ll see it again someday and take photos of the art on the driver side.

See Diane Bomshelter’s paintings on black velvet on her website.

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to read about another art car called California Fantasy Van  that was also at the spark! Festival.

I took the photos in this post, except for the one attributed to Nolagirl.


More Love Locks

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These love locks hang on a heart sculpture on North Fourth Avenue in Tucson, AZ.

These love locks hang on a heart sculpture on North Fourth Avenue in Tucson, AZ.

In a previous post (http://www.rubbertrampartist.com/2016/03/07/love-locks/), I wrote about love locks I’ve seen in a couple of locations in California; at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in Taos County, NM; and on North Fourth Avenue in Tucson, AZ. In this post I want to share more of the photos I took of love locks in various locations.

This lock was at South Creek Falls in California.

This love lock was at South Creek Falls in California.

Most of the locks I saw at South Creek Falls were rather plain and didn’t excited me enough to take a photo. (It was also a cloudy day, so the light was uninspiring.) The only lock that caught my eye was one with an allover coat of pink paint and bright blue the writing.

Helping Hand

This love lock was on the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in the fall of 2015.

When I walked across the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge–for the first time in over a year–in the fall of 2015 , I saw more love locks than I had ever seen before. I guess love locks are a thing now. I wonder if the NMDOT (New Mexico Department of Transportation, the government organization which maintains the Gorge Bridge) comes along periodically and removes the locks.

Possibilities

This love lock, seen on the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in the fall of 2015, is unusual because it has no names on it.

Anita Loves Nolan Nolan Loves AnitaThis lock (seen at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in the fall of 2015 ) is so sweet. I hope Nolan and Anita love each other forever.

These love locks were attached to a heart sculpture on North Fourth Avenue in Tucson, AZ. The old-school locks made me really happy.

These love locks were attached to a heart sculpture on North Fourth Avenue in Tucson, AZ. The old-school locks made me really happy.

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A twenty year anniversary love lock seen in Tucson, AZ.

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More love locks seen on North Fourth Avenue in Tucson, AZ.

I saw so many love locks on the heart sculptures in Tucson! I took a lot of photos of love locks there. It’s difficult to pick out just a few photos to share.

Where have you seen love locks? Please leave a comment telling about your love locks sightings. Have you and your sweetie ever left a love lock somewhere? When? Where? Why? Please share those stories too.

I think it's a little weird to use a "Master" lock for anything other than a BDSM relationship where there really is a master involved, but I do like the sentiment of "a love that will last for always." This love lock was also seen in Tucson.

I think it’s a little weird to use a “Master” lock for anything other than a BDSM relationship where there really is a master involved, but I do like the sentiment of “a love that will last for always.” Heck, for all I know, this love lock represents a loving master/slave relationship which will last for always. It’s none of my business what consenting adults do behind closed doors. In any case, this love lock was seen on North Fourth Avenue in Tucson.

All photos in this post were taken by me.

Love Locks

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Double Heart Lock

I saw this love lock on the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in the fall of 2015.

I think I must have first become aware of love locks when walking across the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in Taos, County, NM some time between 2012 and 2014. I saw a padlock affixed to the bridge’s railing, but I can’t remember if someone explained the lock was there to symbolize everlasting love, or if I figured it out on my own. Later, I heard all about love locks on the 81st episode of the Betty in the Sky with a Suitcase podcast (http://betty.libsyn.com/81st-show-lovelocks); that episode is called “Lovelocks.”

I Love You

This love lock was also on the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in the fall of 2015. I love the detail on this lock, which was obviously not picked up at a hardware store on a whim.

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_lock,

A love lock or love padlock is a padlock which sweethearts lock to a bridge, fence, gate, or similar public fixture to symbolize their love.[1] Typically the sweethearts’ names or initials are inscribed on the padlock, and its key is thrown away to symbolize unbreakable love. Since the 2000s, love locks have proliferated at an increasing number of locations worldwide. They are now mostly treated by municipal authorities as litter or vandalism, and there is some cost to their removal. However, there are authorities who embrace them, and who use them as fundraising projects or tourism attractions.

The history of love padlocks dates back at least 100 years to a melancholic Serbian tale of World War I, with an attribution for the bridge Most Ljubavi (lit. the Bridge of Love) in spa town of Vrnjačka Banja.[2] A local schoolmistress named Nada, who was from Vrnjačka Banja, fell in love with a Serbian officer named Relja. After they committed to each other Relja went to war in Greece where he fell in love with a local woman from Corfu. As a consequence, Relja and Nada broke off their engagement. Nada never recovered from that devastating blow, and after some time she died due to heartbreak from her unfortunate love. As young women from Vrnjačka Banja wanted to protect their own loves, they started writing down their names, with the names of their loved ones, on padlocks and affixing them to the railings of the bridge where Nada and Relja used to meet.[3][4]

Lock Trio

I think this is the only trio of locks I’ve ever seen. These were also on the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in the fall of 2015.

In the rest of Europe, love padlocks started appearing in the early 2000s.[5] The reasons love padlocks started to appear vary between locations and in many instances are unclear. However, in Rome, the ritual of affixing love padlocks to the bridge Ponte Milvio can be attributed to the 2006 book I Want You by Italian author Federico Moccia, who made a film adaptation in 2007.[6][7]

Tule River 2The next times I saw love locks was during my adventure on the Tule River in California. (You can read about that adventure here: http://www.rubbertrampartist.com/2015/05/22/steps-to-the-kern/.) As I walked down the steps to the river, I saw a lock left by Ash & Kate.

South Creek Falls Fence

Many love locks were left on the barrier fence at South Creek Falls.

A few weeks after that, I saw more love locks at South Creek Falls. (Read more about South Creek Falls here: http://www.rubbertrampartist.com/?s=south+creek+falls.) Quite a few people had left locks on the barrier fence.

Yellow Lock

This yellow combination lock was one of the love locks I saw fastened to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in the fall of 2015.

When I returned to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in the fall, I found many people had affixed love locks to the bridge’s railing.

During a brief visit to Tucson, AZ in late 2015, I spent an hour or so one afternoon wandering around the hip little North Fourth Avenue shopping area. I was excited to see several metal heart sculptures made for people to fasten on their love locks.

A brief announcement from February 2015 on the Arizona Daily Star’s tucson.com (http://tucson.com/put-a-lock-on-it/article_b40d5fb6-b244-11e4-9f1c-5724f278e6a8.html) says,

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This is one of the heart sculptures made for love locks on Tucson’s North Fourth Avenue.

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Here’s another heart sculpture made for love locks on Tucson’s North Fourth Avenue. There are four or five of these hears on North Fourth Avenue.

North Fourth Avenue is going all out for Valentine’s Day — big sales, live music, and all sorts of hustle and bustle. And get this: there will a number of heart sculptures along the avenue. Bring a padlock inscribed with your names, attach it to a sculpture, and lock in your love by throwing away the key…When a sculpture becomes full it will become a display in Haggerty Plaza.

Tomorrow I will share more photos of love locks that I took in California, New Mexico, and Arizona.

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I took all photos in this post.

Gallery in the Sun (Part 2)

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I visited the DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun in Tucson in December 2015. To read about my visit to the Mission in the Sun, the grounds, and DeGrazia’s original home, go here: http://www.rubbertrampartist.com/2016/01/17/gallery-in-the-sun-part-1/.

This is the Gallery in the Sun with the Santa Catalina Mountains behind it.

This is the Gallery in the Sun with the Santa Catalina Mountains behind it.

According to the informational brochure I picked up in there, the gallery

was designed and built from the ground up by Arizona artist Ettore “Ted” DeGrazia, who achieved worldwide acclaim for his colorful paintings of native cultures of the Sonoran desert. Using traditional adobe bricks crafted on-site, DeGrazia built the gallery so his paintings “would feel good inside.”

Ted DeGrazia said,

The gallery was designed by me, I wanted to have the feeling of the southwest. I wanted to build it so that my paintings would feel good inside.

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This is the entrance to the Gallery in the Sun.

The gallery opened in 1965 and houses over

15,00 DeGrazia originals including oil paintings, watercolors, ceramics, and sculptures. There are six permanent collections on display and several rotating exhibitions each year.

As I visited the many rooms in the gallery, I was impressed by the huge amount of art DeGrazia produced during his life. Rooms with walls hung with art opened onto more rooms with walls hung with art. How did GeGrazia find the time to build a gallery made from adobe bricks and build a chapel and create over 15,000 works of art? I think he must have slept very little and had a wife willing do to all the cooking and cleaning. Of course, he must have also been absolutely driven to create.

Flash photography is not allowed in the gallery, but I was able to get some shots using just the light in the room.

One subject DeGrazia revisited many times during his life was the Virgin Mary, particularly Our Lady of Guadalupe. Here are four examples of images of the Virgin DeGrazia painted: IMG_4317IMG_4290

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DeGrazia was friends with Native Americans and often painted scenes from the ceremonies and every day life of these people. Here are some paintings he did of the things he saw when he visited his Native American friends:

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When I saw the next two paintings, I thought, that man was seriously on some LSD. But maybe DeGrazia had the vision that some folks hope to gain when they take hallucinogens.

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The gallery opens into a courtyard where there are many cacti, several sculptures  and lots of cool found-object art pieces.

This mask is big enough to fit a giant, but I don't know who made it or why or how.

This mask is big enough to fit a giant, but I don’t know who made it or why or how.

I loved looking at all the different kinds of cactus in the courtyard.IMG_4283

 

 

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IMG_4297  In the center of the courtyard is a fountain. In the middle of it is a sculpture of a Native American man wearing a deer headdress. DeGrazia created the sculpture.

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This self-portrait is one of my favorites from Gallery in the Sun. IMG_4327

I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent (at least a couple of hours) at the Gallery in the Sun. I recommend it to anyone who likes art, Arizona, cacti, Native Americans and/or the Southwest.

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This is what the door to the outside world looked like.

I took all of the photos in this post.

Gallery in the Sun (Part 1)

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I first heard of Ettore “Ted” DeGrazia in Phoenix in early 2015. Nolagirl took me to see murals DeGrazia had painted decades before. The building the murals were in was soon to be demolished and the paintings were not going to be preserved. The building was open for a limited time only so folks could see the murals before they were gone forever. (Read about my experience viewing the murals here: http://www.rubbertrampartist.com/2015/10/22/little-known-painting-by-ted-degrazia/.)

At the end of 2015, I spent a few days in Tucson after I got too cold in New Mexico. When I asked Nolagirl what I might want to do in Tucson, she told me there was a DeGrazia gallery in the city. The gallery is located at 6300 North Swan and is open every day (with the exceptions of New Year’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas) from 10am to 4pm. There is no admission charge.

According to the informational brochure I picked up at the gallery,

DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun is a 10-acre historic district in the foothills of Tucson’s Santa Catalina Mountains.

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The Mission in the Sun against the Arizona Sky.

IMG_4281I started my visit at the adjoining Mission in the Sun.

According to the brochure,

it was built in 1952 in honor of Father Kino and dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico.

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This door is the entrance to the Mission in the Sun.

 

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This message is painted on the back wall in the main part of the chapel.

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DeGrazia’s painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Mission.

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Unlike in most Catholic churches I’ve visited, Jesus on the Cross is not at the front of the Mission in the Sun. Here, DeGrazia’s Lady of Guadalupe is front and center. Visitors have left tokens of their loved ones on the alter.

The chapel has an open-air ceiling. DeGrazia said

The roof is open to the sky, as it should be. You can’t close up God in a stuffy room!

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This photo of the Mission was taken while I was standing in front of the alter. It shows the entrance door at the back of the room and the open-air ceiling. Some of DeGrazia’s murals are also visible in this photo.

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When one looks up through the open-air ceiling, one sees this cross made from cholla cactus rising above the Mission.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DeGrazia painted several murals in the Mission of the Sun.

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This mural by Ted DeGrazia is on one side of the door leading into the main part of the chapel.

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This mural by Ted DeGrazia is on the other side of the door leading into the main part of the chapel.

Angels

Jehovah's favorite choir?

Jehovah’s favorite choir?

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The brochure says

Next to the mission are the artist’s orginal home, his grave-site, and the Little Gallery that hosts visiting artists during the winter months.

I visited the Little Gallery and met the visiting artist Silvia Hogue, who works in watercolor, pen and acrylic.

Next I visited DeGrazia’s original home. IMG_4258

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Horseshoe art outside the house’s front entrance.

I was immediately struck by how small the house is. The front door opens into a main room. To the right is a smaller room (a bedroom?). To the right of that room is an even smaller, darker room. Straight ahead from the main room is another large-ish room divided by a counter into a cooking area (wood stove still in place) and what was probably a dining area. When I visited the house again later in the day, I realized there is no furniture in the house! That house must have seemed really small when there was furniture in it.

 

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Unfortunately, I did not realize DeGrazia’s grave was on-site, so I did not visit it. Next time I’m there I’ll know to look for it.

On the grounds is a large mosaic mural DeGrazia created.

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From a distance, the casual observer might think this is a painting, but up close, the small tiles are visible.

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Many desert plants grow on the grounds. I don’t even know the name of all the plants I saw there. IMG_4341

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IMG_4336According to the brochure,

In October 2006, the 10-acre foothills site was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Tomorrow I will share my experiences in the actual art gallery.

To learn more about Gallery in the Sun, visit the website: http://degrazia.org/.

I took all the photos in this post.