A Whirlwind Weekend

Seeded Earth Studio - Tempe Festival of the Arts

https://geneticsandfertility.com/services/ Sherpa in the “Midwest Gallery” © 2011 Bo Mackison

Tramadol Online Purchase Sherpa and I spent the last three days at Tempe’s Art Festival exhibiting my photography. What a weekend! I am so, so grateful that Sherpa was willing to fly to Arizona for a long weekend so he could be my assistant.

Order Tramadol Online The show was open from 10 a.m. til 6 p.m. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. A total of twenty four hours. But when Sherpa and I added the hours we spent unpacking and carting the tent, display walls, art and other necessities to our 10 foot by 10 foot site, setting up until one a.m. for the first day of the show, opening and closing the booth each day, and then the packing everything back into the trailer for the drive back to Tucson — wow! We easily worked another 15 hours “behind the scenes.” And we didn’t count any travel time nor the time it takes to actually create the art.

enter site I love the art festivals. I love talking art to the many thousands — yes, thousands! — of people who stop at my booth and look at my photography, talking about a specific photograph that catches their fancy, or asking questions about techniques or camera gear or locations. And of course, I love to talk art with the wonderful people who like what they see enough to purchase my art for their homes.

https://www.52editions.com/complaints/ But doing art shows is lots of work, too.

That is why I want to send a special thank you — decorated with big hugs and kisses — to my best assistant ever. He is my biggest fan and my strongest supporter, and without his encouragement and help, I could never manage the travel required for 16+ shows a year — Spring in the Southwest, Summer in the Midwest, Holidays in Wisconsin. I couldn’t physically manage the strenuous load-ins and load-outs. And while I can work in the booth alone, it is surely more enjoyable having my life-long companion there beside me, working together.

It always gives me a thrill when a customer asks him about “his” photography, and he smiles broadly, nods towards me, and says, “My wife is the photographer. I’m just the roadie.”

Well, this photographer loves her roadie, and she thanks her Sherpa for helping keep this creative dream alive.

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Bo Mackison is the photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is living in Tucson for two months – exhibiting her photography in art shows, taking photographs, and blogging about photography, art festivals and often about living life solo. But she didn’t have to live life “solo” this past weekend as her soul-mate and show-assistant flew to Arizona for a long week-end. She said good bye to him this afternoon as he boarded a plane back to Wisconsin. But it won’t be long, this adventure is winding down. Only two and a half more weeks and I, too, will be saying “Good bye, Arizona. Hello Again, Wisconsin.”

Desert Botanicals at Tempe Festival of the Arts

Agave Abstract

Agave Abstract © 2011 Bo Mackison

This abstract photograph of several agave leaves focuses more on the pattern of the plant and the colors. Since it was photographed using a shallow depth of field (not all of the plant was in focus when I composed the photo) the tiny spines transformed into luminescent circles. If you look closely, only a part of three different leaves are in focus. The rest is left to your imagination to fill in what YOU see.

This will be one of the new photographs in a series of desert botanicals that I will be introducing at this weekend’s Art Festival in Tempe, Arizona. In addition to the botanicals, there will also be two other new series — an Arizona National Park series and an Arizona Mission series. I’ll post a few photographs from these in the next posts.

Seeded Earth Photography and I will be exhibiting at the Tempe Festival of the Arts held in downtown Tempe, the Mill Avenue district. The show begins tomorrow, Friday March 25 and runs though Sunday March 27. The festival is open from 10 a.m. to dusk each day.

I’ll be on Mill Avenue in a corner booth, Booth #1422, Easy to find — I’m located near the Jack in the Box. If you’re in the Phoenix area, stop in and say hello.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is living in Tucson for two months – exhibiting her photography in art shows, taking photographs, and blogging about photography, art fairs, and living life “solo”.  She will be at the Tempe Festival of the Arts this weekend, showing several of her new desert series.

Empire Ranch

Grasslands

Sacaton Grasslands © 2011 Bo Mackison

I went on an “explore” yesterday. I headed east, and ended up on a narrow and dusty road, wiggled my car through a mountain pass near Madera Canyon, and crossed the Santa Rita Mountains. After an hour of driving, I ended up on the eastern side of the “Ritas”, near the town of Sonoita.

Then I saw a sign. It read “Historic Empire Ranch”. That was good enough for me. I turned and followed the road for a mile or so, eventually coming to another sign which informed me I was traveling in the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area. I don’t think too many people explore this part of Arizona, but I found it rather fascinating. Even more so when I started researching the ranch on the internet. I came across all kinds of interesting tidbits.

Mesquite Bosque

Mesquite Bosque © 2011 Bo Mackison

Las Cienegas NCA includes five of the rarest habitat types in the American Southwest: cienegas (marshlands), cottonwood-willow riparian forests, sacaton grasslands, mesquite bosques, and semi-desert grasslands. These habitats are home to a great diversity of plant and animal life, including several threatened or endangered species.

Bosque, the Spanish word for woodland, is used in the Desert Southwest to describe a woodland that develops near desert streams and rivers. It is a riparian habitat — the desert gives way to a ribbon of green where water flows and provides enough water to sustain trees and plants not commonly found in desert habitats. The most common trees are mesquites, usually Velvet Mesquite,  slow-growing trees that rarely exceed 25 feet height. The mesquite bosque is great habitat for mammals, birds, insects and reptiles.

There are a few cottonwoods and willows growing nearer the water source–the pale green trees which grow taller than the mesquite. And the Whetstone Mountains are in the distance.

Dry Creek Bed

Dry Creek Bed © 2011 Bo Mackison

Not sure if this is the Las Ciengas creek bed or not. The Las Ciengas was described in my research as a perennial water source, but this has been an extremely dry year, so perhaps the water table is below the surface. This is one of the few areas that had something beside grasses and mesquite growing, so there was certainly water near the surface.

Empire Ranch

Empire Ranch Historic Buildings © 2011 Bo Mackison

After driving across miles and miles of grasslands, I came across this spread. The Empire Ranch is both a historic place  and a working cattle ranch. Located 45 miles southeast of Tucson near Sonoita, Arizona,  the Ranch began as a modest 160-acre spread in the 1870s. It was purchased by Walter Vail and his partners, and after many land purchases, the ranch ended up being almost one million acres in size. The 22 room Empire Ranch House is listed on National Register of Historic Places.

But the most interesting information I found was the extensive (and impressive) list of movies and television shows that had been filmed at the ranch or in the nearby area.

A partial list includes:

  • follow Oklahoma!, Gordon McRae, Shirley Jones (1955, Fred Zinneman)
  • Order Valium Online The Big Country, Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Charlton Heston (1958, William Wyler)
  • click Gunsmoke, James Arness, Dennis Weaver, Amanda Blake, several shows (1955-75 TV series, various directors)
  • follow site The Furies, Barbara Stanwyck, Walter Huston (1950, Anthony Mann)
  • go Desperado, Alex McArthur, Yaphet Kotto (1987 TV, Virgil W. Vogel)

So…now does this region look more familiar? So this is where the wild, wild west was…I’ve probably seen this wild country in quite a few old cowboy movies and television shows. Maybe you have too.

Amazing what can be discovered when you turn off the main road to see what there is to see.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is living in Tucson for two months, exhibiting her photography in art shows, taking photographs, and blogging about photography, art fairs, and living life “solo.” She crossed the mountain to see what she could see, and discovered a “bonanza” of history.

Opening to the Sky – Studying Light and Shadow

Opening to the Sky

Opening to the Sky © 2011 Bo Mackison

I love Arizona.

I can almost always count on blue skies and sunshine. I just did some research and discovered that Tucson has 350 days of sunshine per year. In comparison, Madison, Wisconsin has 89 really sunny days and 96 partly sunny days (approximately half the sky or less is cloudy) for a total of 185 sunny days.  I knew there was a difference, just didn’t know there was THAT much difference.

With this in mind–all these sunny day opportunities–I have been doing a lot of light/shadow studies with my camera. Lots of exploration, comparing light sources at different times of the day. I’m having more fun than anything, not really keeping too many of the photographs. And it provides a great reason to be outside in the sun instead of working inside.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is living in Tucson for two months – exhibiting her photography in art shows, taking photographs, and blogging about photography, art fairs, and living life “solo”. Oh, she is also having lots of fun in the sun.

Saints at San Xavier del Bac – Folk Art in a Mission Church

Carving,  Mission San Xavier del Bac

Katerina Tekawitha Carving

There are many statues of saints in the church, San Xavier del Bac, on the Tohono O’Odham Indian Reservation. All are wood carvings, and many are painted in bright colors.

Interior Statue,  Mission San Xavier del Bac

Mary at Mission San Xavier del Bac

The walls are also painted, lots of reds, blues, yellows. Many of the statues are in alcoves with carved and painted drapes and curtains.

Offerings,  Mission San Xavier del Bac

Candles and Offerings

Rows and rows of candles illuminate the intentions of the faithful. Again, this statue is in an alcove decorated with carved draperies, and flanked by winged angels. The entire church is unbelievably rich in art considering it was created in the 18th century by New Spain, Mexican, and Native American artisans.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is living in Tucson for two months, exhibiting her photography in art shows, taking photographs, and blogging about photography, art fairs, and living life “solo.”  Exploring new places, new ideas, new art every day. I love going on my “explores”.