Sky Bloom - Downtown art piece by Janet Echelman (Phoenix: rent, quality of life)

[fcorrales80]

Originally Posted by HX_Guy

That article says is beautifully. The point is to evoke emotion...to make you wonder...to spark conversation. Quoted from the article..."the worse artistic offense of all, says Pincus, is blandness".

Blandness is exactly what I think when I think of an art sculpture or even a building shaped like a rising Phoenix or bird. It's too bland...it's too expected.
Some gave examples of the Arch in St. Louis or the Space Needle in Seattle or maybe even the Eiffel Tower in Paris...but really, what do those have to do with the cities? Now they are icons...but how do they relate to the history of the city? If we were to go by that...then Seattle should of had something to do with clouds/rain right? Some sort of floating thundercloud?

OR! Since it's the Emerald City, a sculpture of a gigantic emerald..booo! Or in Paris, a tower of arrogance (LMAO) in which each time an American tourist is treated rudely, a digital "clock" lets the city know the exact number. St. Louis, being among the cities with the highest number of homicides could have a huge chalk outline of a body.

[wit-nit]

Originally Posted by HX_Guy

That article says is beautifully. The point is to evoke emotion...to make you wonder...to spark conversation. Quoted from the article..."the worse artistic offense of all, says Pincus, is blandness".

...then Seattle should of had something to do with clouds/rain right? Some sort of floating thundercloud?

Right, this Sky Bloom thingy should be in Seattle, a perfect fit for them.

The nice thing about this country is we all have the right to agree to disagree. Otherwise we would all be driving the same vehicle, wearing the same clothes, eating the same food, voting the same way, kinda boring, like clones or cloneheads. And yes on SNL it's coneheads.

[simax105]

It is a fantastic thing to see, day or night!
Places | Civic Space Park - a set on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/simax/sets/72157617069671540/ - broken link)

[observer53]

Originally Posted by nitram

Thanks for reminding me what the name of the shopping center was. We used to shop there quite a bit when we first moved to a place near there. Went to the movies hous at the rear of the center many times. Shopped at Sears too across the street. Man has that area changed over the years.
I believe, might be wrong, when the shopping center was sold and renovated the new owners didn't like the statue and the bird came down.
Wasn't there a Bob's Big Boy near there too. Can't remember. Do remember Bob's having problems with people stealing the ol Big Bob statue ocassionally. And up the street there was a 50's diner too. Haven't been over in that area in years. Well nice to reminisce.

The huge Phoenix bird statue was taken down. A very sad occasion for me. Back when Town and Country was one of the few shopping areas in Phoenix, and not all that far from my house, we would go to the Food Bazaar there (one of the first "food courts", I imagine)-- the biggest treat of all for me was to see that bird.

There is still one there, but it is not out by Camelback, and it is much smaller.

There was never a Bob's there at T and C, as far as I remember.

[shiphead]

There was a Phoenix bird statue? Why wasn't it taken down?

[roosevelt]

Originally Posted by w1ngzer0

There was a Phoenix bird statue? Why wasn't it taken down?

It was in front of Town and Country and made of colorful stained glass.

Attachment 40368

[Valley Native]

Speaking of the Phoenix Bird, that's what Phoenix really needs for a national/global identity: a tall structure downtown appoximately 1,000 feet in height that resembles the Phoenix Bird. Seattle has the Space Needle, San Francisco has the Trans America Pyramid, Las Vegas has the Stratosphere Tower, and St. Louis has the Gateway Arch ... all of which provide symbols or an identity type of structure for each city. Phoenix needs a more cosmopolitan symbol than just Chase Tower, Westward Ho, South Mountain, or Camelback Mountain for crying out loud!

[observer53]

Originally Posted by roosevelt

It was in front of Town and Country and made of colorful stained glass.

Attachment 40368

Had to edit my original post. I wish someone had a pic of the original installation, with the bird looking as the artist himself conceived it. I did some googling, and came up with this link:

www.phoenixmag.com/lifestyle/history/200889/phoenix-s-renoir/2/

Painted it WHITE????? NO WONDER I don't recognize it. Never mind the lousy installation, which the artist hated. They waited to paint it white until after he died.


In the old location, you didn't even have to enter the parking lot to see it. It was mounted on a tall platform, and the bird itself was tall, and there were flames around the bird at night. Spectacular.

All that said, I don't want a 1000 foot Phoenix bird or something that tall "resembling" a Phoenix bird built. They'd mess it up, and our natural landmarks (Camelback, Piestewa Peak, South Mountain, and the ever changing artwork of the SUNSETS) work just fine for me.

EDIT:
One other thing... if you click to the next pages on that link, you learn (if I ever knew this, I'd forgotten) that the same artist designed the mural in Terminal 2 at the airport. Another piece of public art that I've loved forever. And, he also did the Indian mural on the front of the old Blue Cross Blue Shield Building on Indian School, which was torn down years ag, and the murals in Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

(You also learn another tidbit about that crook and tyrant, Charles Keating, but that's another story)

[roosevelt]

Originally Posted by observer53

Had to edit my original post. I wish someone had a pic of the original installation, with the bird looking as the artist himself conceived it. I did some googling, and came up with this link:

www.phoenixmag.com/lifestyle/history/200889/phoenix-s-renoir/2/

Painted it WHITE????? NO WONDER I don't recognize it. Never mind the lousy installation, which the artist hated. They waited to paint it white until after he died.


In the old location, you didn't even have to enter the parking lot to see it. It was mounted on a tall platform, and the bird itself was tall, and there were flames around the bird at night. Spectacular.

All that said, I don't want a 1000 foot Phoenix bird or something that tall "resembling" a Phoenix bird built. They'd mess it up, and our natural landmarks (Camelback, Piestewa Peak, South Mountain, and the ever changing artwork of the SUNSETS) work just fine for me.

EDIT:
One other thing... if you click to the next pages on that link, you learn (if I ever knew this, I'd forgotten) that the same artist designed the mural in Terminal 2 at the airport. Another piece of public art that I've loved forever. And, he also did the Indian mural on the front of the old Blue Cross Blue Shield Building on Indian School, which was torn down years ag, and the murals in Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

(You also learn another tidbit about that crook and tyrant, Charles Keating, but that's another story)

Here it is, sorry for the size and watermark but this is the only known photo and people keep using my images without credit.
Attachment 40397

[observer53]

Thank you so much for even that little glimpse.

It is enough to remember by, and to illustrate the contrast between how it looked then and how it looks now, for those of us who remember that original display.