A TRIP TO SUBTLE BEAUTY

Do you have a place that you think of as your "home"?

What draws you to that particular place? 

Memories?  The right colors? 

Wet or dry? Cold or warm?

by Bill Slavin

I grew up near Los Angeles, one step away from the desert. Until I went to Minnesota with its lush green prairie, farms, and lakes, I didn't have a place whose landscape I called home.

The Sonoran Desert near Scottsdale

Last weekend in Scottsdale, Arizona, I found reminders of LA everywhere with the desert's similar dry, fragile landscape surrounded by imposing granite mountains. From the Phoenix airport, we drove for mile after mile through housing encroaching into the desert. Because the desert is so spare, what we build seems even more of a disturbance to me than usual. 

The temperature hovered in the seventies, which I am sure attracts people who live in colder winter climates, but I was not swayed by the weather. When I don't like a place too much, I try to list what it is that I do like.

Here is my list for the Sonoran Desert:

Taliesin West, the home and architectural school designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

The number of saguaros dotting the land around Scottsdale

The red rock cliffs of Sedona (though a visit during Presidents Day weekend is similar to Easter Week at the beach)

The changes from a saguaro and prickly pear vegetation in Scottsdale to grassland on the plateaux before Sedona and the national forest of scrub trees as we approached Sedona

The friendly people

The Musical Instrument Museum

Taliesin West

 Until we visited Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West, with its low-slung buildings, use of native materials, and colors that fit with the desert, I didn't see many attempts to live within the landscape. Mostly, I noticed ugly concrete walls rising from the sand, blocking the natural beauty of the desert.

The Taliesin West living room with its canvas room

Chinese figures brought by Wright
 to Taliesin West and placed at each new vista

We toured Taliesin West and came away with a deeper appreciation of Wright's influence on modern architecture. He used geometric shapes repeatedly in his work and viewed the outside and inside of a building as one piece with movement flowing from one to the other. His work reflects the motifs of the indigenous people of the area as well as Mayan influences. The architect who designed the hotel where we were staying used many of Wright's ideas to create a comfortable inside/outside space.

Doubletree Hotel in Scottsdale

On our last day, we visited the Musical Instrument Museum, founded by Robert Ulrich of Target Stores. The museum contains over 15,000 instruments from all over the world. We became immersed in each display because of the audio and video recordings at each station. We tapped, beat, and banged some of the instruments in the Experience Room. We watched instrument restorers at work in the Conservation Lab.

The Musical Instrument Museum, which reflects the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright

 A special exhibit about Congolese music and dance showed full-body costumes worn by the dancers. The costumes reminded me of other cultures such as the samurai in Japan who use costumes to create
larger than life beings behind the clothing and masks.

Congolese masks and costumes

Intricate decoration of shells and beads on Congolese dancer's costume

The colors of the desert -- dusty greys, olive green, burnt sienna, yellow ochre -- are colors that are subtle, but with the possibility of changes in texture and hue. They are some of my favorite colors to use while I am painting.

My list helped me to see the desert with new interest. I will never call the desert my "home," but I have developed more appreciation of its subtle beauty.

All photos by Bill Slavin

Check out these websites for more information about Frank Lloyd Wright and the Musical Instruments Museum:

https://franklloydwright.org/frank-lloyd-wright/

https://mim.org/our-story/