Stone Cairn Characters

Peeping Tom Stone Cairn

Not much to say here, except that I haven't taken photos of stone cairns in a while, and I love these contrived rock formations.  These two, in particular, are just characters.  Thanks to an obliging rock garden at ASU.

Flathead Stone Cairn

Abundance in Tempe, AZ

Another opportunity to savor the beauty of the everyday.  Here is a detailed photograph of oranges ripening on a tree in Tempe, something I would never have found when living in Chicago, obviously.  I love the beauty of these ripening oranges, and I love the scent of the tree's blossoms during the blooming season. If you look into the tree, at the top left, you will see one orange slowly rotting.  It reminds me of those 17th century still-life paintings with beautiful flowers or ripe fruit accompanied by a bug, or some other intimation of eventual decay.  Nothing is more beautiful, and contains more wisdom, than the real.  Seize the day.

Mountaintop Menorah, Tempe, AZ

A menorah graces the top of A-Mountain, not far from the Tempe campus of ASU. May the coming year offer you many summits to climb and reach.

HAPPY HANUKKAH!

Mythical Masterpiece

This architectural detail graces the base of ASU's Spanish-style Mercado Center.  Ancient Aztec or Mayan in appearance, this dragon conjures up images from fantasy literature.  And for some reason, my head buzzes with the theme song from the 1980s movie, The Neverending Story, every time I see it.  But St. George can relax, since this dragon poses no threat.  In fact, the only thing this dragon brings with him is beauty and a respite from the busy workday.  Take time to enjoy the details of the day.

Stoned (Again)

Couldn't resist using the pun for the title. Here is another stone cairn, compliments of a cactus garden at ASU's Tempe campus. I always marvel at how these stones can balance so well, one on top of the other. Here, I am fascinated by the large red stone balanced upon a much smaller, round, and smoothed stone below, as well as the three small stones balanced on a slant on top. Just beautiful.

Sitting on a Stump

Another stone cairn, to be found in a cactus garden at the Tempe campus of ASU. I love this one because it seems almost comical, sitting on a tree stump and waiting for the day to pass by. The patience and persistence of a stone cairn. (Not really. It is an inanimate object, after all.)

Aloe Vera in Bloom

I love this. Growing up in a household where houseplants were plenty, I never knew that aloe vera can actually bloom, but it does once it matures. I also didn't know that there are different types of aloe vera, including a variety that bears foliage with tiger-like stripes. The domestic variety we most often see typically bears yellow blooms, but my particular favorite is here, bearing stalks of reddish orange flowers. Hummingbirds tend to visit these, as they favor tubular flowers, like aloe vera, trumpet vine, and penstemon. Aloe vera in bloom is always a happy sight.

Stacked

I have admired these stone pilings for a long while, but I confess that for the longest time I did not know what they were or what they represented. Last fall, while I was walking along the Boulder Creek Trail in Boulder, Colorado, I noticed that people had stacked these stones in the middle of the creek. I loved the combination of smooth, hard stones licked repeatedly by the rush of cold, rapid water. I tried multiple times during my trip to capture a couple of photos of these rock pilings, but they were placed far in the middle of the creek, the weather was too chilly for me to venture in, and the camera I had at the time didn't have a strong enough zoom to magnify the images as needed. Luckily for me, a rock and cactus garden in the middle of the ASU Tempe campus provided me with this up-and-close photo opportunity today.

So, today, I decided to remedy both my ignorance and my laziness by taking the time to research the meaning behind these stacked stone formations. These are stone cairns, rock formations of ancient Scottish origin, and the sources I found (Wikipedia, for one) stated that these rock pilings might have served a variety of purposes, including memorial and ceremonial functions. Today, their primary purpose seems to be either for decoration, to provide a meditative accent to a garden, or to serve as landmarks on a path, helping to mark a path so that hikers don't stray away from it or to mark a potentially dangerous development in the road ahead.

All paths are fraught with risk. Change, in particular, poses a lot of risk for many, for it leads people to move towards the unfamiliar, to walk in a wholly new direction than where they were headed before, and one never knows where such forks in the road can lead. I think about my past year and realize just how much change I initiated in my life. Just a year ago, I was living back in my hometown of Chicago, considering a move back to Arizona to finally make the West my home, but I kept debating, unsure if I wanted to make the effort of another cross-country move, and feeling disconcerted by the unknown that lay waiting in a direction completely other than the one I had already established. A year later, the change made, and I am making myself at home, the dark shadows of the unfamiliar softening to become the everyday. To be sure, as I try to realize the hopes I had for myself when anticipating my move back, I always have concerns about losing sight of the path, but then I guess this is the value of building a stone cairn: Something visible to mark the path, something to guide you as you continue to move forward.

Art Imitating Life

I mentioned this previously, but I really enjoy some of the creative bus stops that can be found along various Valley Metro bus lines. Here, art imitates life, as we find two artificial palms standing with their source of inspiration towering above behind them. I would have attempted to capture these statues in full, but, given that this is a bus stop, that would have required me to step out into the street, and I confess that even my dedication to capturing beauty has its limits. Keep it safe!

Two Snapshots of the Day

An uneventful Monday. Above is ASU's Old Main, but, really, I took this photo because I thought the palm tree was beautiful, a great profusion of fronds at the head of the trunk. Below is a photo I snapped of Camelback Mountain in the waning late afternoon light, during the way home. Just a couple of weeks ago, I could have snapped a photo of the sunset glowing blush upon this mountain, but the days are stretching longer, and sunset is coming later than before. Oh well, one day I am going to get a great, unobstructed portrait of Camelback Mountain during a spectacular sunset. Right now, this is it, complete with a puddle of water leftover from a previous rain.

Study in Black

Okay, another feat in modern sculpture, again leaving me stumped as to what this is supposed to represent. But who cares? I love the circular design, which gives a sense of perpetual motion. Again, a little bit of artistic fun, and so enjoy.

Colorful on Campus

I love the enigmatic quality of so much modern art, its openendedness that allows for multiplicity of interpretation. This particular sculpture suggests to me a colorful interpretation of the Picasso at Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago. (I posted a photo of the Chicago Picasso last summer on this blog.) Like with the Picasso in Chicago, I have no idea what this sculpture is supposed to represent, if anything at all, but you have to admit that it is a lot of fun. Enjoy!

Aesthetics

This building, reminiscent of a wedding cake, is ASU's Gammage Auditorium, considered to be the last public commission of architect Frank Lloyd Wright (or so Wikipedia tells me). It is used for featuring plays and other live performance theater. Coming from Chicago, I am more familiar with Wright's earlier work, like the Robie House on the campus of University of Chicago, which makes use of dark, heavy wood in its geometrically inspired architectural designs. I am a great fan of many of Wright's architectural accomplishments. This building lies comfortably outside of my architectural sensibilities.

Break in the Clouds

"A" Mountain, Tempe, AZ

Today started out dark and stormy. I was enjoying more Pacific Northwestern flashbacks. But later in the day, the clouds broke apart to expose blue sky and sun. The sky was a deep, vivid blue sea in which puffy white clouds sailed across. To add to this sense of motion was a slight chilly breeze. But it didn't last for long, as gray gloom gathered once more in the late afternoon to extinguish the sunlight. Still, it was a nice change of view from a weekend of solid gray and rain. During the bright midday, I took this photo of "A" Mountain on the edge of ASU's Tempe campus. I know people who climb this mountain and it must be great exercise. I might have to take up the challenge someday.

Two Morning Images

East on University Drive, Tempe, AZ

These are just two photos I took in Tempe this morning, as evening dark gave way to morning light. Above, this is a photo I took looking east on University Drive, while standing on the pedestrian overpass near the Tempe campus of ASU. Those mountains in the background of the remarkable Superstitions. Another day was dawning in the Valley.

Old Main, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

Here is Old Main, one of the original buildings of ASU's Tempe Campus. So many of the campus' buildings are some form of modern architecture; this building provides a nice traditional counterpoint to so much modernity.

Can I tell you that it was freezing today? In the morning, the chill bit through my clothes, and the rest of the day was not much better. Who moves here to escape the frigid winters? Believe it or not, it can get cold here too, in the desert. But then, I love to enjoy a little bit of winter.

A Study in Architecture

ASU Art Museum, Tempe, AZ

I have always loved the modernism expressed in the architecture of the ASU Art Museum, its excellent sense of geometry. They have a great art collection, as well as an excellent museum gift shop, and nearby is the university's extensive, and very cool, ceramic collection. Today, I had an incredible opportunity to take this photograph. At that moment, the museum looked futuristic, almost space age, in its apparent desolation. I love the angularity of the staircases and the arch on top. It's just a fun structure that inspires the imagination.