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Last Saturday at the Farmers Market was a delightful experience. The rainclouds were building by early morning when we arrived and refrained from bursting open until we left. Because of the weather the attendance was low, which made for easy grocery shopping and a larger choice of veggies. We usually get there when it opens so we have a better choice of produce. My bag was so heavy in no time and I was so delighted to pour out the beautiful array of this week’s meals when I got home.

Before returning to my house, my friend and I had a long visit at my sister’s. We had breakfast and sat on the patio while it was raining. It was a chilly rain with the wonderful aroma of breakfast wafting from the kitchen. LOVED IT!

It is supposed to continue to drizzle and dump throughout the first part of the week. Absolutely my favorite kind of weather. It is perfect for cooking, painting, and most anything that relates to ‘home’.

AH….. another Saturday morning at the Farmers Market. The best place to buy locally grown, organic food and other healthy products as well as arts and music from local artists. I think that they have everything that a person could possibly need. Heirloom tomatoes, canned fruits and veggies, artisan breads, herbs, free trade organic coffee, transplants to place in your garden, unique clothing and yummy jams and jellies. Oh…. the list goes on and on. The people are friendly and delightful ~ vendors and visitors, alike ~ From the Hummus and Pita chip lady to the handmade incense guy and everyone in between, it is the perfect Saturday morning event. I now have the funky pumpkin, that is pictured above, sitting on our table. It came from Arizona Homegrown Solutions,  the most wonderful organization that serves the community in a big way. Check them out and see what great things that they facilitate.     Fruits and vegetables are so sensual and enticing. There is something about a table full of fresh, organic vegetables that makes my heart melt. Farmers Markets are not only a healthier solution they also support local growers~big and small~ as well as local artists. Where else can you do your grocery shopping with live music and take your dog?!

My goddess sister, Alicia Bay Laurel, had a booth there where she sold her CD’s and her best selling, vintage, 70’s book, “Living on the Earth”. Phoenix Body Mind & Soul magazine sponsored Alicia’s booksigning. It was so joyful to spend time with her~and all of my PBMS friends.

HIPPIE FOOD PEACE & LOVE!

Goodbye 2009, it’s been swell. Starting out the new year right by attending the Phoenix First Fridays Art Walk. I had my camera on some strange setting and so the photos that I took are closer to how I really see things since I developed “dancing eyes” due to the brain surgeries. I usually take photos so that I can upload them onto my computer, where the screen and scene is stationary. That way I can see what I missed or couldn’t see while I was there. When things or I am in motion, it is next to impossible for me to focus on anything. It is very trippy and inconsistent so sometimes are better than others. I guess it is like that damn box of chocolates, “I never know what I’m going to get”!

The art scene was rockin’ tonight. LOTS of music and, of course, art. I have noticed an increase of beautiful, young, hippie, free spirited people and VW buses and VW bugs. Lots and Lots of dreads and cool wool hats. This makes my heart sing.It is always so great to see people bringing their dogs out, too. It just keeps getting better all the time.

There is a large police presence now and they are cruising through the crowds on their big, brown horses. Actually, the horses are very cool to watch. I think that would be a great job for a horse, you know, if you were a horse who had to have a job. They get to walk around and see art and hear music and check out all of the groovy people!

So, it is 2010 and what a wonderful way to welcome a new year. Embraced by the downtown Phoenix art love. I did get 2 free hugs, by the way (I LOVE the Free Hug people)!  So….2010….. bring on the sights and sounds and magic of the arts! I hope to ride this wave all the way into the shore and beyond.

Enjoy!

Saturday was spent with my sister who lives in central, downtown Phoenix. She has created quite the urban farm and although she is in the heart of the city, I feel miles away from everything in her gardens. These photos are only a faint view of what she has going on in her desert paradise. She has planted many gardens that surround her adorable, old, hippie home. The chickens are the latest addition to her small family farm. Most everything has been built using recycled materials. Things that were left on the property when she bought it several years ago, building supplies that were given to her as well as the many findings that she drags home after hippie tripping around town in her VW bus, “Free Spirit”.

She has also built a place to gather in the small orchard, in the back, around a one of a kind, metal, art firepit. Using split tree trunks from a fallen tree, she created a sacred circle for drumming and gathering. So, head’s up to any of you rainbow children in Phoenix that want to gather for a drum circle!!! Just let me know. We have lots of drums and didgeridoos, if you don’t.

My sister also is an artist, currently creating beautiful pieces of art ~ some are functional pieces ~ using “found objects”. I cannot tell you the places she has tricked me into going with her ~ looking in fields and by railroad tracks and obscure industrial areas, etc. searching for “treasures” like anything rusted and metal and anything odd or unusual. I honestly could have died when my 93 year old father gave her his metal detector, knowing that, for me, this meant future bizarre “walks along the beach” with my sister (ie; alleys, empty fields , demolished building lots….). Eye yi yi! She paints the most GORGEOUS watercolor paintings I have ever seen, but she loves building things and making folk art. I have tried to encourage her to paint watercolors more, if for no other reason than,  because it requires no freaky trips to lonely places! HA!

Saturday was the absolute PERFECT weather. We went to the Downtown Phoenix Farmers Market , to find it fragrant with freshness and shining with so many beautiful people. I LOVE how people bring their dogs along, there were many and it was so cool. I ran into some friends, old and new, and had such a FABULOUS morning there. They now have a new market that is open throughout the week, carrying the same things as the open market, on Saturdays, plus much more. It is called the Phoenix Public Market and includes a wine bar. They hold permaculture classes on site as well as other day seminars and such. It is SO REFRESHING to spend the morning at the farmers market taking in the whole, raw adventure. Open air markets and health food stores soothe every part of my spirit. Those are the two most sensational comforts to me, for some reason.I will post more about the market in the near future, maybe the VERY near future.

“I’m going up the country, babe don’t you wanna go
I’m going up the country, babe don’t you wanna go
I’m going to some place where I’ve never been before
I’m going, I’m going where the water tastes like wine
Well I’m going where the water tastes like wine
We can jump in the water

, stay drunk all the time
I’m gonna leave this city, got to get away
I’m gonna leave this city, got to get away”

PEACE, LOVE, DOVE

The art show (EAT ART) has moved from Green, in Tempe, and will be showing at That’s A Wrap in downtown Phoenix for the month of December until mid January. Stop in and FEED YOUR HEAD with GREAT food and art!

2022 North 7th Street
Phoenix, AZ 85006-2101
(602) 252-5051

We are finally getting some cool mural art in downtown Phoenix, thanks to Joe Pagac! He changes the mural every month at First Fridays on Roosevelt Row. He says that he does it for fun. He is a muralist and artist by trade. It is such a pleasure to see the ever changing art on this building. You can catch him “live” and watch him paint on the First Fridays Downtown Phoenix Art Walk, every month. What a great guy to talk with and watch him create.

The streets are hopping these daze on Roosevelt Row (and all of the First Friday’s areas). ~ I didn’t make it down to the Grand Avenue scene this month, but it is always great fun over there, too. The IceHouse was another location that I meant to visit, unfortunately, that did not happen. They have shut down Roosevelt from 7th street to Central and expanded the vending areas. 5th Avenue is ROCKIN’, great music, fire spinners and breathers, high energy from Made Boutique to Conspire on 5th and Garfield. The galleries are open and there is so much to see and experience. I am still high on the adventure. The most fun you can have for no money. And even MORE fun if you have money!

Jason Davis

Conspire

Phoenix Ghost Busters ~ for reals~

LOVE the dreads, this dude plays a killer blues guitar. I didn’t catch his name.

a book nailed to a palm tree ~ hmmm~

Bus Love

“Gallery trash” ~ These were in the alley behind a gallery

The Eye Lounge

Yours truly with a little help from my nephew.

Release the Fear is a sculpture made by artist, Robert J. Miley (and made possible by many contributors). It sits in the middle of Central Avenue and Roosevelt. It is made out of melted weapons that were used in violent crimes in Arizona. The details can be found on the website Release the Fear.org. Basically, it promotes non violence through creativity and art. It also appears to be rising from ashes like the Phoenix. It is a powerful piece with a powerful message.

On the sidewalk surrounding the sculpture are quotes that are stamped into the concrete. Since my camera could not capture an entire quote, I pieced together some of the words into a collage. So, they are not exact quotes.

I was not able to fit in the “we need men who” part.

We need men who can dream of things that never were.
~Author : John F Kennedy speech in Dublin Ireland June 28 1963

I have passed by this art for years and years and never took the time to actually stop and check it out up close. I am so glad that I finally did, there are so many surprises and pieces of the whole sculpture that you cannot see from a car, bus or train.

***********

as it says on the base…

“REALITY IS A PROJECTED THOUGHT”

Yesterday afternoon I went on a soul journey. And, as usual, I am telling the story from the end first. I’ll get to the soul journey, past life regression, cranial sacral therapy session in the next post!  This is about the Labyrinth that is in the middle of downtown Phoenix at the Trinity Cathedral (north west corner of Central Ave. and Roosevelt Rd.). Who knew? I sure didn’t and I have been there before. I really need to pay closer attention! So…. my massage therapist/soul coach put the top down in her convertible Mustang and we drove into the most BEAUTIFUL night to walk the labyrinth. It was actually still light out when we arrived, but the night fell long before we left. The moon was nearly full, which added a little more magic and drama to the evening. It hung eerily, over downtown Phoenix, with storm clouds building and the wind blowing.

I LOVE it when everything lines up into a fanciful, real life movie.

If you haven’t walked a labyrinth yet, get out there and do it! It is a wonderful, peaceful, gentle form of meditation. I gained some clarity on some of my “ponderings” and left feeling much lighter.

As if the labyrinth isn’t enough, the  Trinity Cathedral has some really cool sculptures in the garden that surround the courtyard and the architecture is FABULOUS.