Some cool mesa arts center images:
Filling Debi’s shoes
Image by gwilmore
Angel and Debi have consistently mesmerized me whenever I have watched them perform, and in my mind they have come to be inseparable, in much the way one always thinks of Roy Rogers and Trigger, Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Batman and Robin, or perhaps Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh — that is, as teams or duos rather than as separate individuals. This was taken at the semiannual Fred Astaire showcase event at the Mesa Arts Center. I was a little disappointed a couple of days previously to learn from Debi herself that she would not be performing at this event, but as it turned out, Angel did. I do not know the young lady shown here, but I believe she is one of his students. Very few people can match Debi for dancing skill, but this student managed to come pretty close, and my hat is off to her. She did very well indeed!
(Explore #418, 8/11/09)
Wendy
Image by gwilmore
I have a friend named Heidi, who, like so many of the new friends I have made over the past three years, was a student at the Fred Astaire studio. Several weeks ago she informed me that her sister Wendy was visiting her from out of town, and that she wanted me to do a photoshoot with the two of them while Wendy was here for her extended visit. One thing or another constantly came up, and we kept postponing the shoot; in fact, I told my son Colin only a couple of nights ago that the constant postponements were starting to remind me of what astronaut John Glenn must have experienced in 1962, when his Mercury space flight was scrubbed nine times before he was finally able to ride Friendship 7 into history on February 20 of that year.
While our long-postponed event hardly matches Glenn’s space flight in terms of significance, we finally had our own successful launch today. We had tentatively decided to do the shoot at the Mesa Arts Center, which in fact was where we ended up having it, since neither of us could think of a better or more convenient location. But I did add one significant change to our game-plan. Playing a sudden hunch, I called Heidi in midafternoon and suggested that the women bring some soap bubbles with them to serve as props. This turned out to be the best idea I could have come up with for our photoshoot, and both women became little kids again as they started blowing the bubbles and I began shooting away with the camera. Among other things, the bubbles helped them both to relax.
Heidi will appear in my stream a bit later, but perhaps not before tomorrow, since I will be going to Borders for the rest of the evening as soon as I finish uploading this wonderfully informal portrait of her younger sister. Both women loved this picture when they saw it in my camera, and I hope they enjoy it even more here on Flickr. As I’m sure some of my viewers have noticed, I haven’t been taking or uploading many new photos lately, but this turned out to be a great way to end the drought! I think I might make a print of this one just for myself, and perhaps add it to the existing decor of my office in downtown Phoenix. But on second thought, perhaps I should put it somewhere else. I have so many framed photos in that office already that any more of them might make the place start to bulge at the seams, kind of like Scrooge McDuck’s money bin. 
An Exceedingly Hard Row to Hoe
Image by cobalt123
Full image of most of the sculpture outside the Mesa Art Center, depicting the work of the pioneers to this valley. I cannot imagine that a man could actually plow into the the soil here, for the rocky and harsh geology here in the desert environment is not at all condusive to plowing and planting. But the artist must have thought it an apt way to give reference to the very hard work that our preceding communities had to do in order to make this place a home.
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