At the park...

We went to a running event at Reid Park in Tucson early yesterday morning.  These snapshots are from the Richard & Annette Bloch Cancer Survivors Plaza on 22nd Street.  The yellow caution tape around the structure was due to landscaping work.  My pictures don't begin to capture the beauty of this plaza, just one of several R.A. Bloch Cancer Survivors Parks in North America. 

Blue Sky over Snake Bridge

Greetings from sunny Tucson, Arizona! This post is for Skywatch Friday.

Diamondback Bridge is a pedestrian bridge which crosses over Broadway Boulevard in downtown Tucson. The outside of the steel bridge is painted to look like rattlesnake scales.

Pedestrians and cyclists can enter through the mouth between the fangs...



or through the other end. The tail has a motion sensor which triggers a rattle sound.
Rattlesnake Bridge was part of a fun one-mile race on December 19Th which also went through Basket Bridge. The sky was clear and blue which is typical for Tucson. To see other skies from around the world click the Skywatch Friday icon below.

Shadow Shots - Basket Bridge

Basket Bridge in Tucson is for pedestrians and cyclists to safely cross over Euclid Avenue south of Broadway Blvd. The steel bridge represents coiled Tohono O'odham basketry and is adorned with stylized lizards and coyote tracks.



Basket Bridge is a great place to find shadows! If you enjoy light and shadow like I do, visit Shadow Shot Sunday at Hey Harriet and see all kinds of shadows.

The Griffin of Scott Avenue

By definition, a griffin is a fabled monster, usually having the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. So what is this 12-foot glittery orange half-lion, half-eagle doing in downtown Tucson?






Rumor has it that this creature is a reincarnation of one of four griffins that once guarded the nearby 1901 Carnegie Library on 6th Avenue.

As the story goes, in 1941 when the library was burning down, one griffin fled by foot. The old library building is now the Tucson Children's Museum. Today, one can follow griffin footprints embedded in the pavement from the children's museum to the new griffin sculpture.

Part of the Scott Avenue revitalization project unveiled in May, the steel griffin sculpture by local artist Joe O'Connell can be found on Scott Avenue at Corral Street. If you're anywhere in the vicinity, you can't miss it. It's big...it's orange...and it sparkles in the sunlight!

And after dark, red lights on the griffin's ribcage light up its raised wings.

Serendipity

Strolling around The University of Arizona campus in the merry month of May:

Front Row Center

Arch

Border Dynamics

Great Baobab

Glyph

Jacaranda

Wildcat Family

Tortuga

Lesson of a Disaster

Lesson of a Disaster (detail)

A Trilogy

Standing Woman

Lunchtime

Rufus pecanosaurus

When I first saw these tall red things at Reid Park in Tucson, Arizona,

I didn't know what they were.

Alien figures...exposed roots...giant blood vessels?

Later, I learned the full title of this playful life-sized 1988 piece:
Inverted Pecans in Ceremonial Red (Rufus pecanosaurus)

Stripped of their bark, five pecan trees
are painted red and installed upside down.

More information from Smithsonian Art Museum Research Information System (SIRIS).

Craycroft Road Art

Here is some of the public art on Craycroft Road between River Road and Sunrise Drive. The wall treatments tie in with the agave themed art along Sunrise Drive featured on my Sabino Canyon blog.
After Craycroft Road was widened, mosaics were created to adorn the retaining walls. The artwork is colorful, yet subtle.

The material looks like ceramic tile or stone.

Green metal agaves decorate fences at regular intervals.

Beside wall treatments, I found that two free-standing sculptures had sprung up. This one is by the River Road Library. I think it resembles an agave and the base echos the shapes on the wall mosaics.
And up the road, this rusted metal sculpture blends in surprisingly well. It doesn't have pointy shapes like the piece above. Rather than agave leaves, perhaps cactus blossoms or prickly pear pads come to mind.

To complete the road improvements, the unsightly cell tower was camouflaged. Yes, the tall cactus pictured below is fake. It's a saguaro cell tower like the ones on Sunrise Drive.
I'm pleased that Pima County and the City of Tucson support public art. The installations I've shown along Sunrise Drive and Craycroft Road are site-specific. In future posts I hope to share some of the rich diversity of artwork to be found around Tucson.