I got back to Tucson and our rig at the Davis Monthan Air Force Base 10:30 p.m. last Wednesday -- and by 10:32 Jim had dug in to the chocolate chip cookies my Mom sent him. Thanks, Mom!
Thursday we went to see an exhibit about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo called “Frida Kahlo: Through the lens of Nickolas Muray.” Kahlo is known for her vividly painted self portraits, but on display were photographs of her taken by Hungarian-born photographer Muray (who was also an Olympic fencer) and who the museum described as Kahlo's "long-time lover and friend.” Kahlo twice married Mexican artist Diego Rivera, and besides Muray (and quite a few others), had an affair with Leon Trotsky. Besides having polio as a child, Kahlo was in a brutal bus accident when she was 18 that caused her to seek help for the pain the rest of her life.
The next day we visited Tucson’s Mission San Xavier, the oldest intact European structure in Arizona. The mission was founded as a Catholic mission by Father Eusebio Kino in 1692 and the church was built beginning in 1783. Tours are offered (we took one) and mass is still held there.
After two days of education, we decided to visit the Tucson Mall where I wandered the largest mall I have ever been in. I bought a $12 tube of lipstick (my default purchase when I feel the need to buy something, even though I rarely wear lipstick) and my mall fix was met for at least six months. Jim also did a bit of looking around, but found a nearby pub called “Sir Vezas” which fit perfectly.
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| An art lover in front of the Frida Kahlo exhibit. |
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| The Tucson Museum of Art. |
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| The Museum entrance, where there is also a very nice cafe. |
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| Bev in front of the Mission San Xavier. The inside of the building has been renovated, but an exterior renovation ran out of money before the left side of the building was restored. |
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| Close up of the beautiful stone work around the door to the church. |
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| The inside of the church behind the altar. |
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| One of the 171 angels found in the church. |
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| An interior restoration was begun in 1992. Before that --- and for years -- people took refuge inside the building and often built fires. The smoke had blackened the interior walls so completely that none of the detail in the photos above was even visible. In this photo you can see a restored mural; a small rectangle at the upper left was left as is, so visitors could see how blacked the church interior had become. |
I knew a little about Frida because Sandy has made me look at some of her work. She also made me watch a movie about her, “Frida”. In fact, as we are sitting here reading your blog, she has dragged out her book on Frida and is trying to make me look at it again. I think she is thinking that I have potential to show interest in her love of art, and a desire to expand my own cultural horizons. That is where she has always gotten it perfectly wrong, I really am this shallow.
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