Waking up! Bright and early. Taliesin tour at 8:30 a.m. Kelly, Shawna, Jimmy and I were all going together. My outfit for the day? Nice shirt, knee-length skirt, tights, and black flats. Seems okay to just walk around Taliesin West right?
WRONG.
We get there, have a tour around Taliesin West, and then we walk through the desert to see the students' shelters. Had I known, I wouldn't have worn a skirt or flat, thin soled shoes.
Taliesin West itself was alright. I've seen plenty of FLW's work, so most of the time I thought "yeah, this is typical of FLW." I did however, pay more attention to daylighting than I ever have (thanks to last semester's studio). I wish we saw more of it though, I think we only saw 4 or 5 rooms.
This one room had at least 5 different types of lighting strategies. For having no windows in this room, the lighting was lovely.
Even the doors were cut at different angles. What I love about FLW is how he deals with every detail, even the door handles of his doors.
The students at Taliesin West design their own shelters to live in. They pick a spot in the desert. Some of them are completely open, others are closed off. One student woke up with two lizards on his face, another woke up to a wild hog running around his room. All the girls on the tour were freaked out by that (myself included) and most of the guys thought it was purely awesome!
Here are some examples of the shelters students design, build, and eventually live in.
^This one is pretty neat. He makes a fire beneath his bed, and then the smoke from the fire warms his bed.
The bed actually was hung, mid-air. Pretty nifty.
As we walked, we were told to stay on the trail (climbing, stepping over rocks) and watch out for the cacti! I stepped on a piece, OUCH! Shawna, Kelly, and I had to stop and pick the cacti out of our shoe. I couldn't design a shelter, build it, and live in it as a student. I give props to those students!
At one o'clock Jimmy and I headed out to Scottsdale.
As we wait on the bus to leave, the tour guide is telling us Phoenix trivia. Phoenix is the 6th largest city and Arizona is the 6th largest state. She said something that caused Jimmy and I to give each other quizzical looks, "I could go downtown at 5:15 pm and shoot right in front of me, and I wouldn't hit anyone. That's how deserted downtown is." Yikes! (The sad thing is, what she said is true. We walked around a lot and hardly saw anyone.)
Our tour guide asked us where we were from. Jimmy says "Raleigh" and some other kid says "North Carolina." Who's that?! I turn around and ask who's from NC. A guy named Trevor from App answered. How cool!
First thing, we went to the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (aka SMOCA). The art inside sure was interesting..... Ask me to explain some of the art in person when you see me next.
I have to admit, seeing art that makes you laugh, or makes you go "huh?" is the best way to meet people.
I'm standing in front of a piece of art that break dancers (what's the proper term?) dance on. They put paint on their shoes, hands, and dance on a canvas. A guy is standing next to me and I say "We need one of these in our studios, as a stress reliever." We had a whole discussion on that. The guy's name is Eric, from Auburn. I walked around with Trevor as well and discussed the art together. The building itself was not that impressive, at all.
We had a tour of Historic Scottsdale. It wasn't the most exciting thing ever...
This was the ceiling of one of the buildings.....pretty neat!
Lots of laughter. Good conversations. Back to the Sheraton we go.
General Session time. Roll-call (I'll explain that another time).
During the keynote speaker's presentation, I began to write notes with Jimmy in my sketchbook. I tell Jimmy "I wonder what everyone's really thinking." He tells me to sketch it out. So, here's my sketch.
Thought bubbles from left to right:
"I want some tacos"
"I wonder if the keynote speaker has abs"
"Why is her shoulder touching me?"
"Why is his shoulder touching me?"
"I look sexy in this shirt."
Bottom caption "(non-NCSU students) what students really think during keynote speaker lecture"
What a great first day, filled with fun and laughter!
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