April 7, 2009


Mesa Artwalk

The good weather, mid 70’s to mid 80’s, was consistent enough that I wanted to go out and visit some of the varied art displays around the area. I had read of a statue on loan to the city of Mesa to enhance their already popular downtown collection of bronze sculptures. “God Bless America”, a 25 foot tall wooden statue, was fashioned after the 1930 Grant Wood painting “American Gothic”, which depicts a farmer, with pitchfork in hand, and his wife, standing in front of cottage of the Gothic Revival style.

I drove down to Mesa and parked in the lot one of the local eateries. Mesa is a college town, complete with college town culture; book stores, antique stores, specialty shops, art galleries, museums, well supplied music stores, like Milano’s Music, with different styles of music blaring out from them at all times of the day.

There was a really cool T-Shirt shop which would make a photo-transfer t-shirt for you using your own photo, or for a more specialized work they could set you up with a professionally designed silk screen rendition of anything you desire.

Not a chance of going hungry in this town, they have everything from Dairy Queen to specialty shops like “de la Cruz Bistro” for Mexican, or Pier de Orleans for Cajun style eating, with everything in between.

For easy access, the Phoenix Light Rail system goes right thru the middle of town. With a $3.50 all day pass you can visit most all the hot spots in Phoenix, Tempe or Mesa, and then be dropped off right at the Phoenix International Airport.

As I was walking down the street, enjoying the works of art, the eateries and the funky little shops, a young man in a backpack approached me, and, with a definite New York accent he asked if there were a subway near here. I paused for a moment, and then told him I was new here also, but I didn’t think there were any subways. There was a light rail train which had just passed by and there must be a station nearby. He looked at me with that “You poor old man” look, and said “No, I mean a Subway Sandwich Shop”. Whoa! We both got a good chuckle out of that one. Me, I was chuckling out loud, mixed with bursts of outright laughter for the next block. It didn’t matter; I just fit in with the rest of the crowd.

One of my favorite art works, aside from the whimsical lounging “Fish” of course was “They are Waiting”; a sculpture of three people patiently waiting for some totally uninteresting event. Ironically enough this sculpture was by Nnamdi Okonkwo of Orem, Utah. He says “It seemed like everyone was waiting for something to happen. People were waiting to graduate, waiting to get a job, or waiting to get married. In the sculpture, I use the three women to interpret this in a more universal way, showing that in life, people wait. We’ve all gone through periods of intense waiting." Yep, that’s Orem.

It wasn’t long before I spotted it, the Holy Grail of every artwalk city in America. “God Bless America”. I was approaching from the back, which gave me an outstanding perspective of the enormous size of this work. I went around to the front side to get frontal picture, but had to cross the street to get the full statue in my view finder.

There are over 35 works of art on display along either side of the road in the six block stretch of the town center, with “guest appearances” of other art and other mediums showing up all the time. I have posted just a few of them here. I don’t want to ruin it for you when you are able to come down and see them for yourself.

Remember the light is always on at the New Hyde Manor Casita.

Tomorrow we leave for Kailua-Kona, Hawaii; fourteen fun filled days on the beach, on the trails and in the shops.