Etherton Gallery

The Sunday paper had a few pictures of the new bridge over the Colorado river at Hoover Dam. The complete set of pictures is on exhibit at the Etherton Gallery in downtown Tucson.

The first picture is from the Nevada side.

The second shows the two sections nearly complete, but the roadway only extends to the vertical supports at each side.






The third one shows the two parts nearly together. The objects on the ends are transporters that extend outward as each concrete section is poured and set.

The last picture show the roadway being competed. Notice the vertical supports between the arch and the roadway, that weren't in the prior shots.

The gallery has the full set of pictures and it's worth a trip to see them.

El Tour

Saturday was the annual El Tour de Tucson, a renowned bicycle race around the periphery of Tucson. There are actually 4 races, 109 mile, 76 mile, 64 mile and 30 mile. They start at various points around the racecourse and all end at the 109 mile start, downtown. It's a big event and cyclers come from all over to race. This year there were just short of 8,900 racers!

That makes for a crowded race course!
One racer interviewed the night before the race was from Muscle Shoals, AL!






The winner made the 109 miles in 4 hrs 23 min. He was followed closely by the female winner who was only 2 minutes behind!

The course includes two washes, which are dry this time of year. It requires carrying your bike across, because the wash is just dirt and stones. Another thing that makes this race difficult is the up and down nature of the town. We vary from 2,500 elevation to 3,000 ft, but in between these extremes, the streets are hilly all over.

The course goes near our house and it's fun to go see the racers go by. The 109 mile race starts at 7 AM and the leaders pass by our vantage point about 8:45. We missed the leaders, but there were plenty of bikes to see, nevertheless.

There are cheerleaders at many corners along the route. Police man each turn and emphasize the direction of turn by voice and traffic cones.

Phoenix trip 2

The next stop was the Phoenix Museum of Art for the Cowboy Artists of America exhibit. This is a group of very talented artists, working in various media. Probably the best known is Howard Terpning. See, for example, http://www.firstpeople.us/pictures/HowardTerpning/ls/Howard-Terpning-Council-Of-Chiefs.html

This group of 30 or so is based in southwest Texas, near the hill country. They exhibit some of their work from the past year in the spring at their base, then exhibit again in the fall in Phoenix. Most of the art is oil painting, but there are watercolors, pen and ink, bronze sculptures and carvings, among others.

The subject matter is western, which includes horses, nature, Native Americans, soldiers and more.See
http://www.phxart.org/exhibition/exhibitioncowboys45.php for more info and some examples. Pretty exciting stuff for those of us admiring southwestern art.

The final visit was the Heard Museum, to see the exhibit of Preston Singletary's glass art. He is a relatively young artist who has done some marvelous work. The Blue Rain gallery shows his work. We saw him doing glass blowing last summer in Santa Fe at Indian Market.
He makes very interesting forms and shapes and incorporates the northwest coast Tlingit (pronounced klinket) iconography. He works with other artists, as well, such as Tammy Garcia, another Blue Rain artist and a famous Santa Clara potter.
See http://www.blueraingallery.com/artists/_preston_singletary_and_marcus_amerman for some of his art.

And, lastly, a return to our beautiful Tucson!

Phoenix trip

Last weekend we drove to Phoenix for several purposes. The first was the Arizona State Capitol Museum. It is located in the original capitol building, where the legislative bodies, governor and other officeholders had their offices. The facility became outdated and a new, adjacent building was constructed in 1977, which is the current site of the governor's office and the legislative bodies.

The old building was built in 1901, before becoming a state in 1912. It is four stories. The top floor has access to the House chanber. The desks look like school desks! You can click on any picture to see a larger image.

The third floor has a series of displays showing the steps from territory to state, in particular the battle to get the Constitution approved for statehood. One of the first changes was to restore the judge recall provision which prevented approval initially.
This floor also has a very nice Edward Curtis room with many of his photographs.

  It also has several very nice Western Apache  and Tohono O'odham baskets.
The second floor has the various offices held at the time. The next  picture shows Governor Hunt at his desk.




A very interesting exhibit on the second floor is about the Harvey girls.

The next picture shows the Arizona Great Seal.

The first floor has a fascinating exhibit about the USS Arizona. This picture shows all 1100 and some men on board the boat! Be sure to look at a larger image of this one.