Great Light

The sun popped out between the clouds and horizon about 5 minutes before it set for the night.  I was driving down La Canada from McGee.  As I started down the hill to the “Bridge” the sun came out from behind the clouds and cast amazing light on the Catalina’s.  I knew instantly where I wanted to go.  I also knew this light would last about 5 minutes total.

I pulled into the parking lot at the library and parked quickly grabbing tripod and camera bag.  Funny thing, my wife Barbara was there with her camera, while we were coming from the same place we had arrived from different parts of town.  Neither of us knew we would be stopping on the way home.

But when that sun popped, we both knew where to head.

Hope you are all having a wonderful 4th of July.

When I Turned Around

The wing itself made no sense till I had walked almost completely around the scupture when suddenly for one angle the wing lined up with the mountains and then I knew it was one of those artsy thing where the mountains came down and the skyline was attached to the sculpture itself.

This piece is located near the intersection of Lambert Lane and La Canada.

It is in the Chase Bank parking lot.

I will admit as soon as I read it was a Telescope the “Ah” factor kicked in and my sanctified imaginator began to see what it was.  Do you believe me?

Good, it is true : )

 The View From Inside

I knew you would want to see what it looked like from inside.  Here is exactly what the camera saw as I set it inside the telescope and snapped the image.

Like two pioneer children coming into town for supplies. This is the depiction of the events as they might have appeared in Oro Valley 100 years ago. That is if there had been an Oro Valley 100 years ago.

This new park and art are located at the back of the parking lot between Baggins and Chili’s on Oracle.  It might be a little hot during the day, but it is a great place to head over in the evening to see the mountains and walk in the grass.  If you are going to Baggins or Chili’s you should leave some extra time to take a walk in the park.

This past weekend I’ve continued my efforts to document and photograph Oro Valley Public Art.  One thing has come to my attention which in some cases can be rectified.  As I photograph the various pieces of art around town I often have to search very hard to find an angle to shot from which both enhances the artwork and limits the distracting elements surrounding the art itself.

It feels like being served a great gourmet meal on a paper plate.  The food is wonderful but the presentation leaves much to be desired.

Most of what I observed could be avoided and cleaned up to present the artwork without distraction.  Here are a couple of examples.

The Singing Coyote

There isn’t anything that can be done about the water spigot, the AC evap pipe or the light on the side of the building.  However, there is no need for the small sapling to be place where it is and the supports for the tree don’t have to be tall wooden sticks with wire going to the tree.  I was able to place one of the tree supports behind the coyote to almost make it invisible, but the other post and wire are the “paper plate” effect mentioned above.  For the photo I cropped the image and cloned out the tree and sapling.

The Lightening Bolt

This piece is new and right across Lambert from the Fry’s Shopping Center.  I really don’t know if it has a name or what it is.  It looks awesome and if a movie is ever made in Oro Valley I’m sure the bad guy will end up impaled upon the end of it.  It is hard to tell here but there are multi-colored cables coming off the main piece.

I know there is nothing that can be done (for now) about the utility poles running down Lambert.  But can you see the large ORANGE support for the tree or bush located to the left.

Back to the main point.  There is a lot of time, money and effort put into creating and displaying displaying each piece of public art.  How much harder is it to make sure the area around it as aesthetic as possible.  There are other ways to stake trees and plants beside big sticks of wood and orange poles.

I’m finding quite a few of the pieces would be greatly enhanced for display with a little forethought on what is located or placed near each piece of art.

The art is wonderful.  The more I find and photograph the more impressed I am with  what is presented and available to the public.  I can see a definite growth in the quality of pieces since the beginning of the 1% Public Art Program.

Now we need a policy of removing the “paper plate presentation” and presenting these wonderful pieces of art in a worthy manner.

Finding those four pieces of art at Tangerine and First Ave. got my curiosity stirred about the public art in Oro Valley.  Up until writing that post I was unaware of the “1% for Public Art” program.  I went online and have been disappointed with the amount of information I could find about where the public art in Oro Valley is located.

A trip to the library lead to finding a brochure that is a couple of years old with a map showing 35 locations around Oro Valley where public art is displayed.  The map is good, but out of date.  While driving around following a section of this map yesterday we discovered many more pieces of public art at new locations.  Most of what I’ll focus on are the outdoor pieces which are readily available to the public anytime.  Gradually I’ll add images of indoor pieces which can only be accessed during business hours for the particular establishment.

I also know the Oro Valley Marketplace will spend $650,000 on public art to be displayed within the marketplace.  The Oro Valley Marketplace and other new construction around town will continue to expand the public art in Oro Valley.

The Oro Valley Public Art Map

I intend to create an online map on this site which will show locations for Oro Valley Public Art.   As new art is added it will be added to the map.  If anyone becomes aware of new public art which isn’t on the map please let me know and I’ll be happy to add it.

The Oro Valley Public Art Category

I’ve just added a new category to this site in which I will be posting images and basic information about individual pieces of Public Art.  Each of these posts will have the comment section open for anyone to leave a comment or provide more in depth information about a particular piece of art.

 The Oro Valley Public Art Gallery

I will be adding a gallery on this site with a collection of images of Oro Valley Public Art.  I’ve already started a set of images on Flickr called: tada “Oro Valley Public Art“.  This link will take you to the slide show which will continue to grow as new images are added to the set.

If you have a photo of Oro Valley Public Art which shows a piece in a particular light or setting (amazing sunset, etc.)  submit it for the inclusion in the gallery of images here.  I’ll be very glad to provide full photo credits for any images added to the set and you maintain full copyrights to any image included in the gallery.

Some of the images I’ll include might not be “Official” pieces of public art.  If I see something that looks like art, is available for public viewing and has artistic value I’ll be adding it as well.  The entrance to Honeybee Park is one that comes to mind.  I don’t know if it is public art or not but when I walked up to it I knew I had to photograph the mountain through the arch.